Well, in fairness, if remembering is thus defined, it isn’t done anywhere in the book. Not everyone digs Tolkien, and if people draw their inspiration from, say, the madness of the Nonmen in R. Scott Bakker instead, well…
Then all sorts of weird interpretations are possible.
Leaving aside the implicit definitions, there are many rules in Torchbearer that require this sort of negotiation. It’s important, I feel, not to shut things down just because, but to give players a chance to unpack things. Not everyone says the clever thing on the first try. We’ve worked our way to some pretty awesome interpretations of nature, wises and traits, just by giving it a minute for the group to collectively apply the Rule of Cool.
Test mongering and stretching the rules are both annoying, but in the end it is a game designed to crush the players. I have sympathy for that, and if they want to try an approach that seems even remotely reasonable, I’m inclined to let it.
A single stretch doesn’t bother me much, it’s repeating a stretch that gets the ban hammer.