Pointy Hats Redux
It's funny, in re-reading my pointy hat entry from yesterday, I realize it sounds like, at the end, I'm overwhelmed by the work and displeased I have to change all the dresses, but that's not true! It's just a thing on a list.
I tend to wonder if I get bogged down in writing long journal entries about problems in my writing, and the entry itself is taxing, and it deflates my mood about the work. Well. Duly noted! I should probably walk away from such entries for a few moments, and finish them up properly, with a bang. The whole thing was meant to be a lighthearted exploration of how one is occasionally thwarted by bad research materials.
On the other hand, I DID finally stumble across a few references to "transitional" gowns, as well as "widely-laced gowns," WITH hennins, which more fits with the drawings in The Evolution of Fashion: http://cadieux.mediumaevum.com/burgundian-hennin.html (the transitional gowns are at the bottom of the page) However, the references are few, and not worth throwing my medievalist readers out of the story for. :)
I still have the problem that I'm putting Romanian women in basically French dresses, figuring on fashion dissemination, because there just aren't English-language reference materials on much of Romanian history, at least, not the nitpicky details thereof. (Plenty on Dracula. Boy howdy.) I still find it a wonder that I got a book on fortified Transylvanian churches. And learning Romanian is all well and good, but mostly, I can get to a bathroom, and buy a drink in a bar, at this stage, and am not ready to do heavy duty research.
Actually, with my Romance language background and a dictionary, I can puzzle through a page of Romanian text without nuance; but to do SEARCHES in Romanian is a different story altogether. Romanian Wikipedia worked for some of the folklore and such, but Wikipedia isn't so great on things like "medieval noble women's dress." Also, Wikipedia in general, not so great, akshully, but we know that.
I'm just saying.
This was part of why I wanted to go to Romania. But seriously, I'd need to sell and get the money for a double handful of foreign rights like, tomorrow, to make that happen in a timely enough fashion. *sigh* (Now there's a REAL sigh.)
Now, the problem is, I've perhaps been approaching my research rather straightforwardly. Literature searches, mainly, have been how I do things. And it's good, as far as it goes, but maybe not in a little-translated language that was behind the Iron Curtain for so long. It's time to poke at other resources, other possibilities. Make contacts. Oh, look! A page of resources I should have already known about! http://www.icrny.org/d30-2-Romanian_Studies_Resources_in_USA.html#libraries%20and%20other%20resources And look, there's a huge collection of Romanian materials in Urbana, where no less than 2 of my friends live and would probably let me crash!
I could actually speak with a reference librarian!
Ahem. I hate when I'm obtuse.
*grin*
I tend to wonder if I get bogged down in writing long journal entries about problems in my writing, and the entry itself is taxing, and it deflates my mood about the work. Well. Duly noted! I should probably walk away from such entries for a few moments, and finish them up properly, with a bang. The whole thing was meant to be a lighthearted exploration of how one is occasionally thwarted by bad research materials.
On the other hand, I DID finally stumble across a few references to "transitional" gowns, as well as "widely-laced gowns," WITH hennins, which more fits with the drawings in The Evolution of Fashion: http://cadieux.mediumaevum.com/burgundian-hennin.html (the transitional gowns are at the bottom of the page) However, the references are few, and not worth throwing my medievalist readers out of the story for. :)
I still have the problem that I'm putting Romanian women in basically French dresses, figuring on fashion dissemination, because there just aren't English-language reference materials on much of Romanian history, at least, not the nitpicky details thereof. (Plenty on Dracula. Boy howdy.) I still find it a wonder that I got a book on fortified Transylvanian churches. And learning Romanian is all well and good, but mostly, I can get to a bathroom, and buy a drink in a bar, at this stage, and am not ready to do heavy duty research.
Actually, with my Romance language background and a dictionary, I can puzzle through a page of Romanian text without nuance; but to do SEARCHES in Romanian is a different story altogether. Romanian Wikipedia worked for some of the folklore and such, but Wikipedia isn't so great on things like "medieval noble women's dress." Also, Wikipedia in general, not so great, akshully, but we know that.
I'm just saying.
This was part of why I wanted to go to Romania. But seriously, I'd need to sell and get the money for a double handful of foreign rights like, tomorrow, to make that happen in a timely enough fashion. *sigh* (Now there's a REAL sigh.)
Now, the problem is, I've perhaps been approaching my research rather straightforwardly. Literature searches, mainly, have been how I do things. And it's good, as far as it goes, but maybe not in a little-translated language that was behind the Iron Curtain for so long. It's time to poke at other resources, other possibilities. Make contacts. Oh, look! A page of resources I should have already known about! http://www.icrny.org/d30-2-Romanian_Studies_Resources_in_USA.html#libraries%20and%20other%20resources And look, there's a huge collection of Romanian materials in Urbana, where no less than 2 of my friends live and would probably let me crash!
I could actually speak with a reference librarian!
Ahem. I hate when I'm obtuse.
*grin*