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Showing posts from August, 2014

Is a PhD like a HT bus?

Three weeks of being ill with some vague virus that has seen me hover between work and home trying to shake a rather persistent bug has seen some good. I have finally translated Til Kildrene! by Sebastian  Olden-Jørgensen  into English from Danish with the help of translating software, and when that doesn't seem to make sense a Danish dictionary.  I wanted to read what  Olden-Jørgensen  was presenting to his audience about source criticism and the use of artefacts. All I could find was wikipedia references from what looked like the same original source. In the Epilogue (page 84) I found this gem that I think relates not just to scientific research also to my PhD. I have taken a few stop-offs on the journey to explore other interesting research, and have at times been gripped by the feeling 'I may be on wrong bus' or worse, 'I shouldn't have got on!' Sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the journey. A scientifi

Pseudonyms and Apologia

While reviewers differentiated between the worth of the books based on gender expectations, women writers also approached their audiences differently to men modifying their approach to meet critical reception. These women suggest that they write to amuse and entertain, and as a genteel leisure time pursuit. Apologia in the Preface or Note to the Reader written, perhaps to pre-empt some of the criticism they believed may be levelled at them. Gumsucker (Sarah Roland) begins Rosalie’s Reward or The Fairy Treasure by saying demurely: Should this story be favourable (sic) received by the little folks for whom it is written, it is the Author’s intention to publish a series of Tales, so that the merry children of the fair South may revel in dreams of their own Fairy Lore. Wilcken (1891) also revealed that it was only that under pressure from friends that she printed her stories and that ‘it seemed ungracious to refuse such a request’. (Preface) Another way of avoiding criticism w