Monthly Archives: April 2013
X is for… X doesn’t mark the spot #AtoZChallenge
X is for… X doesn’t mark the spot
Completing qualitative research isn’t a search for a universal truth but a contextual one.
It also isn’t a simple case of turning the page and finding the answer staring back at you.
Image courtesy of Winnond/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
It’s more like an x-ray – which needs reading and interpreting.
Image courtesy of arztsamui/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Or even exploring a treasure map with a number of ‘x’s to mark many spots.
Truth is:
Multiple
Subjective
Created
It is the qualitative researcher’s responsibility to document full, rich description to allow the consumer of research to analyse similarities to and differences from their own context and make appropriate judgements based on clinical reasoning.
So, to link up with my other X post for today my catchphrase won’t be the X-Files ‘The Truth is Out There’ but rather ‘The Truth is in You’.
What do you think about the exploration for truth?
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X is for… X Files #AtoZChallenge
X is for… X-Files
Now for my x post in the 2011 challenge I wrote about The X-Files and my full on geekdom surrounding it – you can see my full post here – but rather than write something new I’m just going to plagiarise myself and pull out the relevant part for this year’s challenge.
The X-Files stars David Duchovny as Fox Mulder, a believer in extra-terrestrial life and Gillian Anderson as Dana Scully a skeptic. They work for the FBI to solve/investigate X-Files, unexplained or spooky cases and they are dab hands at holding torches and guns at the same time! Other notable characters were Alex Krycek (who I thought, along with Mulder, was somewhat dishy), Skinner, The Cigarette Smoking Man and The Lone Gunmen (men!!).
I am ashamed to admit that despite owning the DVDs I have never actually watched all of the X-Files [This still hold true two years later – hangs head in shame]. To be honest I know I watched up to S6 but after that just looking at the episode titles on imdb.com I’m not sure. I haven’t watched S9 or the second film for sure. The thing is it’s now too late down the line to just watch the last few series, I’m going to have to start from the beginning to get back into it.
The series spawned two major catchphrases, ‘The Truth is Out There’ and ‘I Want to Believe’. The first in the show refers mainly to Mulder’s search for the truth about what happened to his sister who he believes was abducted by aliens, and obviously more generally for the process of discovery or solving the spooky cases (which Dana likes to attribute to a neat scientific cause). The catchphrase has been used by conspiracy theorists to refer to government ‘cover-ups’ such as Area 51 and the Roswell alien crash landing and alien autopsy video. The second ‘I Want to Believe’ is on a poster along with a picture of a flying saucer in the agents’ office. Now I’m not entirely sure that personally I want to believe. For all of my ‘love’ of this genre when people start talking to me about real life ghosts or if I stop too long to consider the existence of any extra-terrestrials that are not ET or the kids from Escape to/Return From Witch Mountain (love these films) then I get a bit freaked out (though I still sit and watch things to fuel these fears like Independence Day, V, War of the Worlds etc etc -idiot!).
Despite the show being about aliens and the paranormal the episode that most clearly sticks out in my mind as being the most creepy and scary was Home (S4, E2). This concerns an icky case of serious in-breeding and is more akin to a horror film, deformed monsters in the woods type, not my favourite type of horror at all. I like my horror all self-referential and comic and jumpy like the Scream franchise. The episodes Squeeze (S1, E3) and Tooms (S1, E20) were also creepy, especially his ‘nest’.
The other thing that The X-Files did was to make me notice that some series creators give actual titles to episodes, this is something I enjoy (with Buffy, Angel, Charmed, Gilmore Girls etc) in seeing what meaning they may place on an episode and what pop-culture references they make with them.
But the element of The X-Files that I enjoyed the most was the will they, won’t they relationship tension between Mulder and Scully. Their relationship made this otherwise otherworldly show seem real and their characters got me invested in their search.
What TV shows have you loved but never finished?
Do you believe/want to believe? Remember I might get scared if you share too many freaky stories
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W is for… Why I Write (Orwell) (Book) #AtoZChallenge
W is for… Why I Write (Orwell) (Book)
This is a short little book containing four essays written by George Orwell. The one I was most interested in, is the 10 page title essay – Why I Write.
As a side note I didn’t realise he was so young when he died, only 47. A quick Google told me that he had tuberculosis. Even more surprising was that he wrote 1984 when he was ill publishing it just a year before his death.
Some choice snippets from this essay:
He talks about making up his own story – writing his life descriptively in his head (p.3)
Subject matter is determined by age the writer lives in (p.4)
Before starting writing one acquires an emotional attitude from which you can’t escape (p.4)
To escape early influences might kill the ‘impulse to write’ (p.4)
Other than for money, four main reasons to write – shifts in balance or focus on these over time:
1. Sheer egoism e.g. to be remembered
2. Aesthetic enthusiasms e.g. Perception of beauty ‘in words and their right arrangement’
3. Historical impulse e.g. Record for posterity
4. Political purpose e.g. ‘Desire to push the world in a certain direction’ (p.4-5)
‘every book is a failure’ (p.10)
‘Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand’ (p.10)
He concludes by saying that his political purpose is his driving force.
Do you recognise elements of the four main reasons to write in you? Which do you think is most important at this time?
What do you think he meant by ‘every book is a failure’ – this isn’t expanded on – is it self confidence or something else?
Do you voice-over your life, e.g. ‘Kirsty walks into the pub, spies the pool tables and fishes the 50p out of purse at the request of a friend.’? (I don’t think I do normally)
Thanks to Colin Smith for awarding me the Wonderful Team Member Readership Award.
This award comes with some rules and I will obey some and break others. Below is the award logo and also my completion of the sentence ‘A great reader is…’
The bit I’m going to break is listing 14 other people to give this award to – Sorry Colin hope you don’t mind. I’m not one for chain mails etc either. If I like what the mail says I forward it but where possible take out the send this to x no of people bit. I will however say a huge thank you to Colin in particular who has commented lots on my blog during this challenge and thank you too to each and everyone of you who have commented this month and before, especially if you’ve come back more than once – that has been very appreciated. In short I would give this to everyone who has taken time to read what I’ve written whether you’ve commented or not.
A great reader is one who reads their own story as well as the one that is written.
kirstyes 