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Jan. 20th, 2010 12:48 pmI have just recently decided to do some reading up on pre-Columbian America, for reasons that are not important at this time. The important thing is that I suck at research. (No, really; there are reasons I decided to write my undergrad thesis on little-known YA novels, and one of those reasons is "look, no one else has ever written any academic analysis on them before anyway! SO NYAH.")
Susan Gillespie's The Aztec Kings: The Construction of Rulership in Mexican History was the first book to come in at the library for me. I brought it as my airplane reading for Denver in the theory that if I spent hours with it on a plane and no other entertainment I would have to pay close attention to it! In practice what ended up happening is that I slept the whole trip in both directions. But anyway, I have finished the book. Research-wise it was not that helpful; it is trying to deconstruct some assumptions about the cycle of Aztec kings and the generally accepted story of the Conquest by pointing out that most of the 'history' we know was certainly affected and mythologized post-Cortez, which I definitely believe! However, I am not sure that "well, I think it actually worked THIS way because . . . THAT'S HOW IT WORKED IN POLYNESIA!" actually convinced me of her alternate hypothesis either. Or all the very complex patterns that were based off of one reference in one source matched up with a different reference in a different source, out of the ten or twelve primary sources extant.
Anyway. That is one method of research: read all the way through a book very fast and see what sticks with you. Other methods involve: reading through books one by one and taking five million notes on every little detail; reading through books bits and pieces at a time, keeping separate note files, and forgetting to ever actually finish said books; doing frantic last-minute research by looking in the index for important keyword and stuffing down quotes that seem like they might be relevant. I have tried all of these research methods and none of them are ideal for me, but this is probably because I suck at research! I live in hope that one day I will actually get better at it, though.
So my question for you guys today is: how do you research? What works best for you?
(And also, do you have any good nonfiction recs for books about pre-Columbian America?)
Susan Gillespie's The Aztec Kings: The Construction of Rulership in Mexican History was the first book to come in at the library for me. I brought it as my airplane reading for Denver in the theory that if I spent hours with it on a plane and no other entertainment I would have to pay close attention to it! In practice what ended up happening is that I slept the whole trip in both directions. But anyway, I have finished the book. Research-wise it was not that helpful; it is trying to deconstruct some assumptions about the cycle of Aztec kings and the generally accepted story of the Conquest by pointing out that most of the 'history' we know was certainly affected and mythologized post-Cortez, which I definitely believe! However, I am not sure that "well, I think it actually worked THIS way because . . . THAT'S HOW IT WORKED IN POLYNESIA!" actually convinced me of her alternate hypothesis either. Or all the very complex patterns that were based off of one reference in one source matched up with a different reference in a different source, out of the ten or twelve primary sources extant.
Anyway. That is one method of research: read all the way through a book very fast and see what sticks with you. Other methods involve: reading through books one by one and taking five million notes on every little detail; reading through books bits and pieces at a time, keeping separate note files, and forgetting to ever actually finish said books; doing frantic last-minute research by looking in the index for important keyword and stuffing down quotes that seem like they might be relevant. I have tried all of these research methods and none of them are ideal for me, but this is probably because I suck at research! I live in hope that one day I will actually get better at it, though.
So my question for you guys today is: how do you research? What works best for you?
(And also, do you have any good nonfiction recs for books about pre-Columbian America?)
