(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

Sigh. Sometimes I hate my memory.

I can remember the quote I'm looking for, word for word. Can I find it? No. To make things worse, the text I'm looking in has no index and the chapter headings were put in by a mediaeval redactor who was only using a quarter of his or her brain, with the result that they are only vaguely correct (and sometimes dead wrong).

Bah. I can see it on the page! But unfortunately the mental picture isn't clear enough to read the page number, and 'half way down the left hand side at the end of a chapter is only of limited help...

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I've known occasions just like this. Sometimes the quotation is remarkably there, enjoying a sort of documentary immanence. There was one occasion where I saw something on the page (in a volume at the PRO) and then couldn't see it, and searched in vain. I had to conclude that I had hallucinated it, but hope that I will one day find that I was wrong.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Join the club! The delights of researching early texts and bizarre headings and marginalia, how well I know them. Just four words: Muirchu's Life of Patrick. At least from time to time we get to read the likes of Livy, Geoffrey of Monmouth, or Wolfram.

A suggestion...

[fpb.livejournal.com]

When that happened to me, it was usually because I had confused one text with another.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

That is _so_ annoying. Years ago (8, in fact) I read a fabulous quote in a book on Ren. Lit,m about concepts of "the great" - "the great have more blood than ordinary men, so it is easier to spill it". I wish so much that I had a clue of the damn title!

[tree_and_leaf]

Perhaps you slipped into a parallel universe temporarily?

[tree_and_leaf]

Bizarre headings and marginalia are fun (and sometimes even very revealing - do you know Duffy's book about books of hours?), but not when you're trying to find a reference in a hurry!

Who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him?

[tree_and_leaf]

That's a splendid quote, and I wish I could help.

Re: A suggestion...

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

In this case I had only one text in front of me!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

A physicist friend of mine would suggest exactly that!