I loved everything about this meta ♥ I have to admit, the other night I saw your post warning us about this meta, and ever since then I was suuuuper excited! so yes.
This has left me with a blinding need to read the novelisation. Hopefully, I'll find the time to do so!
God, I don't even know what to say. In my head canon, the word t'hy'la is super steeped in Vulcan culture. Surak says a lot on the way things are more than just "the sum of their parts," and I think this has to do a lot with the way we interpret the word itself. You mentioned that Roddenberry didn't define it as friend-OR-brother-OR-lover, which makes me feel like if we just pick one or two, we're really not doing our jobs correctly as translators. This word is something bigger than any one friend, any one lover; this word is something that is greater than the sum of its parts. I was writing almost-fic once ("almost-fic" because it's called "The Teachings of Surak and Kir'Shara Translated by James Kirk, with forward by Spock of Vulcan," but sort of fic-y because Kirk has fun footnotes, which Spock apparently appends with his own comments when he's asked to write the forward) where Kirk translates it into "brother-of-his-soul," but he himself adds a footnote commenting on the nature of Vulcan etymology and how one word is meant to convey a thought that is greater than the product of its separate definitions.
*ahem* now that I'm done with my bit on translations and word-origins, I'll just run off and read some awesome SPACE HUSBANDRY fic, because. Just. This is TRUTH and I need some k/s sexin' to prepare me for the TMP novel :D
I definitely need to look up TMP-era links. And I totally like that fic idea, you should complete that because it sounds interesting and I do remember the more than sum of their parts thing. I mean, even if someone were to say there was no sex (which is crazy since according to the footnote, Kirk implies that Spock can't have sex more than once every seven years when it's plain that Spock CAN as he's done so and told Droxine that the cycle can be interrupted) you can still totally call them soulmates because they're meant to be together. For fuck's sake, they even say that in the series via Edith.
This has left me with a blinding need to read the novelisation. Hopefully, I'll find the time to do so!
God, I don't even know what to say. In my head canon, the word t'hy'la is super steeped in Vulcan culture. Surak says a lot on the way things are more than just "the sum of their parts," and I think this has to do a lot with the way we interpret the word itself. You mentioned that Roddenberry didn't define it as friend-OR-brother-OR-lover, which makes me feel like if we just pick one or two, we're really not doing our jobs correctly as translators. This word is something bigger than any one friend, any one lover; this word is something that is greater than the sum of its parts. I was writing almost-fic once ("almost-fic" because it's called "The Teachings of Surak and Kir'Shara Translated by James Kirk, with forward by Spock of Vulcan," but sort of fic-y because Kirk has fun footnotes, which Spock apparently appends with his own comments when he's asked to write the forward) where Kirk translates it into "brother-of-his-soul," but he himself adds a footnote commenting on the nature of Vulcan etymology and how one word is meant to convey a thought that is greater than the product of its separate definitions.
*ahem* now that I'm done with my bit on translations and word-origins, I'll just run off and read some awesome SPACE HUSBANDRY fic, because. Just. This is TRUTH and I need some k/s sexin' to prepare me for the TMP novel :D
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