The Footnote

So I'm writing a difficult paper currently, and in doing so I have to make a lot of footnotes in my own essay. Sometimes I try to make a reference to a book in my footnote and realize the part of the book I'm referencing is actually a footnote to another text. I wonder if that text is the original, or if it's footnoted something beyond itself, too. I wonder if you could trace all knowledge back in time as a series of footnotes, one author to the former, one statement from another, one idea from the previous--Bush Jr. to Bush Sr., America to England, Mexican to Mayan, the Renaissance to caveman art, Aristotle to Plato, Mary to Eve, Eve to Adam, Adam to...The Unfootnoted Footnoter? Creation is like a series of footnotes. That is all. (Sloan 41)