1. Facts and Descriptions
My name is Randolph Statue, and I'm the PI for The Tasneem Project. My regular gig is guarding an empty vault, but I've been called in by TPS to investigate the facts. Facts are facts, right? You probably guessed they almost invariably aint. Not even supposedly scientific "facts" are quite as cosy and solid as scientists -- white coated egg-heads who act big coz they got "BSc" on their business cards -- like to make out. So how do facts get to look like facts in the first place? And what the hell are all these facts for? Just exactly what are they doing when they are going around, being facts?
Now some rednecks in fat ties get all uppity when you start talking about facts as if they weren't solid and neutral and generally wholesome. Take this syringe full of junk, for instance. If I stick myself with it, I'm gonna get high, providing it aint a dirty deal. No one is pretending that aint a fact. Now some folks would say denying that's a fact is like denying junkies are no-good low-down vermin. It's the old woods and trees argument, where the trees are facts and the woods description. Now a wood is something natural, but if you plant your trees smart enough, you can make a wood look real even though it aint. In the same way, you can build up a description from facts to make it look "factual", describing "reality". Under a master-forester, people can be fooled into believing all sorts of crazy notions, even to the point of forgetting their own life-histories.
Now figuring out this description-facts-and-reality palaver aint so very different from being a PI, if you want my opinion. There are two pieces of advice I want to share with you. One is know-how, which means you gotta know how. Being a PI, you gotta know how to shoot a pistol, roll a smoke and talk like you mean business. It also helps if you wise up to sweet talking dames looking for black falcons. Similarly, you need to be familiar with certain techniques if you want to interrogate how reality is constructed. My second piece of advice is all about the kind of person you are. A good PI is tough, moody and generally opposed to anti-smoking regulations. That's because we generally come from bad homes and even worse neighbourhoods, if you catch my drift. That's what I call the politics of your situation, that is, whether you're seeing things from the top of the hill or at the dirty end of a billy club. And from where I'm standing, that kinda politics is crucial to the slant you have on "reality".
Fortunately there is one word that bundles the techniques and politics all into one, nice and neat.
And that word is discourse.