Research is not a four letter word.

Apparently Ian Banks hates research. I quite like it, as it happens. It's when you have that germ of an idea and the story is all wonderfully fluid and full of potential, and almost as if you are a fisherman tickling your trout, you can ease up to it and play in the shallows without frightening it away, lulling your narrative into a false sense of security.

Without boundaries it could go anywhere, people you have yet to meet but will one day know as well as your friends are still nothing more than abstract swirls of metaphor and device.
The odd thing is, or maybe it's not odd at all, but this thing is sometimes scenes come through to me so sharp and clear that I can see, taste and feel them before the research bit. These are both appealing and dangerous - the more I see them, the stronger the desire to find out more, but the danger is that I become too hung up on retro fitting the research to the ideas at the risk of creating a false picture.
But let's not get too hung up on this yet, let's just collect the scenes  - the terrible date with the Dentist from Munich with 'eyes like grey marbles rolling round a cream-wear plate', and the first meeting with Jenny ' so feline one had the impulse to scratch her behind her ear, so beautifully deformed that even her missing hand made one feel burdened to have been born with two' - and see what back ground the research paints for those thoughts.
And now a plea, if anyone had history book about with Weimar republic, then I would be most grateful for the loan of them, and will treat all with the utmost respect.