I believe indexing requires a certain tenacity, a determination to leave no stone unturned as it were, to discover all the connections between topics, themes, and ideas that exist within each tiny book-shaped universe and organize them accordingly. As I was thinking along these lines one day, it amused me to imagine Douglas Adams’s holistic detective Dirk Gently as an indexer, applying his approach for solving mysteries to creating indexes. Initially I thought he’d be great at it, but after some consideration I concluded that he’d actually be really terrible at it.
If you’re not familiar with Dirk Gently, all you really need to know is that he believes in “the fundamental interconnectedness of all things”, and primarily operates by running up enormous expenses to be charged to his clients. The first point hints at his capability to spot connections between ideas or come up with multiple access points for finding one specific concept – vital skills indexers frequently employ that would certainly add value to any publication. However, his propensity for running up large expense accounts combined with a somewhat dubious work ethic leads me to believe he would be more hindrance than help to the publishing world. Based on this casual analysis, I suspect Dirk would either
- include loads of irrelevant terms and see also’s that only he would be able to explain, or
- not bother creating an index at all – if everything is interconnected, you’ll find what you need eventually without one.
These are both terrible approaches, and any publication containing either of these options would be instantly devalued, not to mention the ridiculously priced invoice the author or publisher would receive from Dirk once he decided he was finished. They may also be unfortunate enough to be caught up in some inevitable unexplainable paranormal consequences…but that’s just par for the course when it comes to Dirk Gently.
Thankfully, I am not nearly as extreme as Dirk in either his beliefs or work ethic, nor am I prone to wandering off to the Bahamas in search of the perfect environment to compile an index. While I do believe in thinking outside the box, searching for every possible approach someone would take to evaluate a publication’s usefulness for their own needs, I also know that sometimes too much information is as bad as not enough. Though the principles remain the same, every project requires different levels of detail, and it’s incredibly interesting to figure out what’s most important without overlooking anything. So, while Dirk is certainly an inspiration for seeking out multiple approaches to finding a specific theme or idea in a publication, he’s not the best role model when it comes to practical indexing methods.
What do you think? Would you trust Dirk Gently with indexing your project? Let me know in the comments! And of course, if you have a project you’d like me to work on, feel free to get in touch using this contact form.
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