Shockscream
Administrator

On my last visit to Norwich and my meeting with my supervisors, we agreed that my writing should begin. So gone are the days of attempting to narrow my focus while researching on the side. I now begin researching with all the zeal with which a supervillain pursues his hated heroic foe. I am The Joker in pursuit of Batman. I am Loki baiting Thor. I am The Mandarin taking on Iron Man. I am Sinestro battling Green Lantern.

I am Shockscream researching Transformers!

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"Decepticons, I have returned!"

Apologies, I felt the need for a suitably and impressively grandiose opening to this latest entry in the ongoing drama that is Shockscream Does Research. You see, I have completed my task of narrowing and refining, outlining and defining. I have put together another document which explains why I have selected the texts I have and gives a brief description of the three chapters (which might end up being four) that will form the core of my research.

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As is always the case with research projects, one is required to refine the scope and focus it down on to something that is simultaneously interesting and manageable. I'm sure you can imagine that the interesting is not always simple and the simple is not always interesting. There is a balance as delicate and refined as the one described by the Princess Irulan's quote about beginnings in "Dune". The things which I find interesting, furthermore, may also prove to be an undoing for me.

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This is the finished outline document for my research project.

The discussion of politics in popular culture and science fiction has a long and august history. It has been pointed out that “the connections between popular culture, and SF specifically, and world politics are intimate, complex, and diverse” (Weldes, 2003: 6). The interrelationship has ranged from Frank Herbert’s descriptions of the tenuous nature of balance of power structures in Dune – and its sequels and adaptations

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It's been a long time, but I am returning to this blogging business. Unfortunately, gone are the days when I can regale you with tales of amusing stupidity on the part of corporate entities and the customers they set out to serve. You see, good people, I have gone from being a recently-graduated student with a pretty damn good degree in International Relations working ten hours a week in a Waterstone's (we still use the apostrophe in this house!) to being a postgraduate student doing an MA by Research

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