Whether in the classroom, symposium, or casual conversation, the key is documentation.
Not for the last--at least, it tends to become a focus for tiresome "prove yourself to me" games. There is a difference between a doctoral dissertation and a conversation.
If I can't cite the source at the time, and I can't find it, then I have to accept that the information will not back up my opinion. It doesn't matter if my memory is seeing the item in a museum, with accurate provenance, or if it's a movie that's 95% fantasy.
OK, but there is a difference between research (finding data) and intepretation (of the data). One of the first things I learned in upper-division history seminars is there are often serveral, equally believable ways of interpreting the same data. After a certain point, all you can give there is your logical argument.
In other words, you're not always following someone else's ideas. Fran Lavolta Press http://www.lavoltapress.com _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume