(no subject)

Tomorrow I get to read a book for the pure simple joy of it. Actually, I was going to make that today, but then Rowena told me (for the BiblioBuffet interview) that The Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin were specifically written to curl up with on a Saturday after a hard week and, well, I have to test this, don't I?

I didn't get as far as sorting notes yesterday, but I read my six articles and my three books and took a multitude of illegible scribbles for later puzzlement. What I'm particularly pleased about is that I have some unexpected evidence on cabbages, leeks, sheets and shirts. For the latter, while I'm away I now have to check pictoral evidence from different regions to see if my suspicions are correct. If they are, I'll let you know. Perhaps. If you really want. Right now, I have borderline evidence for an unexpected style of clothing and borderline could just mean mistranslation. This is what a lot of my work is for, right now, to find out my limits and be able to push past them a little on my travels. To check what was actually happening in the stuff of daily life and to question my assumptions and, in fact, everyone's assumptions. If pears were 8 sestiers a tray, was that because they were overpriced, or new season's or a prized variety? How many pears were in that package? Was Wroe right in her inference (in reporting on the pears) that pears were a special treat? (in this instance, those particular pears were obviously a special treat - but we can't infer about pears in general from the information given)

All this will emerge in the novel as the fabric of daily life. This means that, very soon, I will be able to properly build up the local (not time traveller) end of the novel and bring it to life a lot more. I have no idea how a third party checks this for accuracy, though, given the level of research I'm putting in. If I meet someone who knows more than me about this place and time, I might ask them, but otherwise, it will have to stand from the Medieval end, I suspect, and I may have to trust my own research.

This is a bit of a worry. The reason I don't do many academic papers is that I have this feeling that research is transient and that judgement reflects cultural boundaries and limitations and that everything is prone to revision. I mostly teach my research, in fact, which is great for students but not so good for my career. I'm starting to write research down a bit more, but I still struggle with the notion of turning the impermanent into the long term statement. I would rather write novels containing the fruits of my research (and Illuminations contains my rather evil thoughts on historiography and how we make judgements about our pasts) than write a monograph.

This caution carries itself over into this particular novel, simply because of the nature of the novel and why I'm doing it. In fact, it's why I have written fantasy and invented history to date rather than writing anything that claims to represent an accurate past. I would take great care, and then add magic or put it a few hundred years in the future on a planet far, far away, just to ensure that everyone knew that it wasn't the past as their ancestors experienced it. This is where Illuminations came from, and New Ceres, for instance*.

I might have to get people to check for this new novel meeting their narrative needs (ie this is how the Middle Ages should read) - it won't, but it would be handy to know where it doesn't and why. Or I might just laugh at myself and put the work in elsewhere.




*I love Facebook right now. It's got me back in touch with Cary Lenehan, who did the technical specs for New Ceres. He and his wife are both super nice and uber-cool.

(no subject)

I get a day when I do lots and then I day when I fritter. The frittering was all useful, but meant I couldn't feel consciously virtuous. It takes up an unconscionable amount of time to do things like wash linen and sort stuff. It's also unexciting. I have therefore spent the last hour investigating food.

Investigating food is not frittering, it's adding to my knowledge and understanding of the universe. The food I was investigating was chains in the UK. It looks as if fast food has changed significantly in London since I lived there. I am going to exercise great restraint and not put on weight. I shall work very hard for the next few weeks at shoring up this determination. The trouble is, of course, that I now want to investigate the ways the British diet has changed and how it's different from ours. And food. I must taste and taste more and... I shall be restrained. Mostly. It may mean developing mantras or avoiding places that sell food. Or maybe the best thing to do is do the foodie side of things with friends who already know what has changed in the UK in the last twenty years, so that I can just get the highlights.

What I'm doing tonight is work. Not food-related work. Otherwise I will put on weight just thinking about the trip.

What I was looking for (seriously) was outlets for heritage fruit and vegies, so that I could follow up on some thoughts I've been having in Canberra about changing tastebuds. Also, I want to build my knowledge of 18th century varieties a bit - there's something amiss in how I'm interpreting some 18th century recipes. This was all a bit extra to what I'm actually doing this trip, and I got distracted so very quickly today (with no places that I could easily find out what I wanted, apart from specific research institutes like Brogdale, for which I simply don't have the time) that I may have to give up on this particular minor aim. (In my dream world I get to taste far earlier varieties of apples and pears, but it's all wrong, season-wise, I suspect. And besides, I am supposed to be working really hard on other things entirely. I need to remember this!)

In the interim, I shall not look at food guides to either Britain or France. I will take pot luck. And not overeat.

Remind me of this?