I enjoyed this: thank you. On the memory stuff I have the same experience: I call it a forgetery. Like a memory, we archive stuff we think we’ve done and don’t need again, and place it elsewhere.
Thanks Robert, good to hear you liked it - and have the same experience. I'm quite interested in how this forgetting takes place as a sort of social process. From being with other people not discussing or even caring about the thing, it passes from memory. You become just like everyone else, sharing the same concerns in the same way. But even when you are intimately involved with it, as with my encounter at the BoI, not all of it is available. On one level, I find it a bit frightening, hence this little project of retrieval.
It’s a challenge when, as an historian, you’re regarded as an expert in a subject. I’ve often described this to students as being ‘experts in the moment.’ The expertise comes from being able to analyse and explain, not remember.
That's nice. I'm thinking about this sort of thing quite a lot with the new book coming out soon. I've got that promotional whirl to come and need to prepare well, not just trust I can sum the thing up there and then. Realistically I think, you've got to have 'lines' like politicians have when they're giving interviews. But then you don't want to become dull and repetitive.
I enjoyed this: thank you. On the memory stuff I have the same experience: I call it a forgetery. Like a memory, we archive stuff we think we’ve done and don’t need again, and place it elsewhere.
Thanks Robert, good to hear you liked it - and have the same experience. I'm quite interested in how this forgetting takes place as a sort of social process. From being with other people not discussing or even caring about the thing, it passes from memory. You become just like everyone else, sharing the same concerns in the same way. But even when you are intimately involved with it, as with my encounter at the BoI, not all of it is available. On one level, I find it a bit frightening, hence this little project of retrieval.
It’s a challenge when, as an historian, you’re regarded as an expert in a subject. I’ve often described this to students as being ‘experts in the moment.’ The expertise comes from being able to analyse and explain, not remember.
That's nice. I'm thinking about this sort of thing quite a lot with the new book coming out soon. I've got that promotional whirl to come and need to prepare well, not just trust I can sum the thing up there and then. Realistically I think, you've got to have 'lines' like politicians have when they're giving interviews. But then you don't want to become dull and repetitive.