weirdly worrying or otherwise intriguing dedications in books

"My wife, for reasons I understand, has suggested I dedicate this book to the memory of J. N. Hummel. I have however chosen not to do so." Donald G. MacRae in the intro to his Fontana Modern Masters on Max Weber

wtf was goin on there?

waiting to see if this book belongs on this thread: http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?showall=true&boardid=40&threadid=42731&bookmarkedmessageid=1

http://www.ilxor.com/ILX/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?showall=true&boardid=40&threadid=42731&bookmarkedmessageid=1

That old "substitute the thread name" not working now?

weirdly worrying or otherwise intriguing dedications in books

hmm.

i think i was using a link to a specific post not the thread itself, i had to find it via "post search" not "thread search"

what a stinky mess i have made of my nice thread :(

I just stumbled across this one:

Dedication

My senior year in high school, my French class had a substitute teacher for one week. He told us he didn’t know any French, but that he was a linguist and could help us with whatever we were working on. We said we were struggling with irregular verbs. He had us read him the paradigms and then said, “Those aren’t irregular.” That day I learned about stress-based vowel alternations, and from then on my dream was to be a linguist. I will never know who he was. I’ve tried to find out, but I will never forget him. The principal told me that on his way home after his dissertation fieldwork on an Apache reservation, an automobile accident had killed his wife and his child and destroyed his notes. He was substitute teaching as he tried to get his life back together, but he gave up and committed suicide soon after. This book is dedicated to his memory, and to the life that he and his family never had.

Jesus christ

Also going to steal that plot line for a short story

The dedications at the front of TikTok bestsellers are a genre unto themselves. pic.twitter.com/SwIrzJTEGq

— Andy Miller (@i_am_mill_i_am) January 13, 2024

My wife, for reasons I understand, has suggested I dedicate this book to everyone looking for their happy. I have however chosen not to do so.

I took this one literally when I was a kid:

Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.