Discussion Questions
1. What purpose, if any, might fantastic/make believe/fairy tale stories play in research and academic work?
2. Can stories truly alter reality? If so, what responsibility does that impose on us if we use stories as research tools?
3. Big Fish illustrates nicely the way people tend to impose a narrative meaning to their experiences. How ought we to respond to this as researchers? Is this imposed narrative real or only fictional? Does that matter?
4. Can stories be used to save people? Can we make use of that narrative power in any way as we conduct and write research?
5. At the end of the film, Dr. Bennet poses Will a choice: You can have the elaborate story involving a fish and a wedding ring or the ordinary story involving a father away on business when his son is born. Dr. Bennet says he might choose the elaborate story, but Will says he likes the ordinary story. What choice should we make? How does making that choice impact us as researchers, as academics, and as people? What are our responsibilities once we’ve made that choice?