In which I am less articulate than I would like about Star Trek
Every day I think "I've been away from the flist forever! I should post!" and then I don't. Basically, a combination of a particularly bad bout of underemployment and a nostalgic trip back to some old computer games has left me doing that weird hours/sleeping way too much/can't quite manage to do anything/not quite depressed thing.
So. You know a meme I saw going around a few days ago? It was that ten things I assume you know about me meme.
1. I'm living in Dallas and I hate it. It turns out I'm firmly bi-coastal, so I'm heading back to Seattle post-haste.
2. I am fundamentally introverted.
3. My whole family is Mormon. I was raised that way, declared myself an atheist at 12, and fought with my parents nonstop for the next seven years. We've reached an uneasy truce on the subject of my godlessness. The separation of church and state is a hot-button emotional issue for me. Tell me this is a Christian nation. Go on. I dare you.
4. I am bisexual. And WAY too oversexed for celibacy. And far too introverted for casual sex. And way too baggage-ridden for a relationship. It's fun being me. There does seem to be something going on at a great physical distance with bdblack, though, and it's a very happy thing indeed.
5. I'm doing law school applications, because I really really really miss being in school. I'm told that just being in school shouldn't be a goal- one should be passionate about what one actually wants to do with the degree. This logic was why I didn't go to grad school way back when. But you know what? Screw that. If being in school is the thing I want most in the entire world to do with my life, I'm damn well going to go back to school.
6. I graduated with my BA at the age of nineteen. It's a little weird, to realize that nobody on lj actually knows this about me- there was a point in my life when it was the first thing anybody knew about me and I had to struggle to get people to see past it. Now I doubt anybody cares. When I start school again, I'll be even a tidge over the "normal" age for an incoming law student... which, considering I've been at least a year younger than everybody since I skipped third grade, is pretty astonishing to me.
7. That degree was in history, specifically ancient (which was as specialized as it got, in that program), but with extensive dabbling in the modern era and in classics, linguistics, and archaeology, and more minor dabbling in... everything. I geek out hard on ancient military history and on the late Roman Republic.
8. I still wish I'd taken more econ and poli sci. And more literature/rhetoric/composition. And more philosophy. And more anthropology and sociology. And a little more... It's truly astonishing that I ever graduated at all.
9. I tutor, mostly test-prep for entrance exams (AP tests, SAT, ACT, LSAT, GRE, GMAT, placement tests for local colleges...) It's livable money for eight months out of the year, but the other four'll kill ya.
10. I really really really dislike babies. I really really really like dogs. (Yup. Okay. Reaching on this last one)
You guys, my glee over the new movie knows no bounds. I can't even see it until the 30th (I am waiting for BD), but I am all a-twitter about it just in theory. I am spoiled all to hell and running around all over the internet reading about it. This is the best thing ever. This series deserves it. You guys. I have loved Kirk and Spock and Bones and Scotty and Uhura since before I can remember. I honestly cannot remember the first time I watched. It's always been there. It's the Ur-fandom. It's what all subsequent SF obsession was based on. Sure, TNG was more my show, if only because it was on sequentially in my formative period while I only got TOS in scattered reruns, but still. These characters. They are back and they are being treated right and I want to dance and sing and twirl with happiness.
Have a linkspam:
seperis posts about how this handling of an AU is different from any other handling of an AU she can think of, and how that is awesome. (This is interesting if only because we in fandom are so comfy with AUs that don't "fix" their timelines or be destroyed by or sacrificed for the "real" timeline that it's odd to realize how very unusual it is for actual shows to allow that)
This post is answered by this post in a fascinating debate over a point of philosophy. Basically, any AU setup that posits a radically different life for at least one character but then ends up with all the characters back in essentially their original configuration of personal relationships is going to rely on a huge amount of coincidence... which the readers will tolerate because they want these characters back together in this configuration. The end result is to give the impression that these characters are somehow destined or fated to be together, a conclusion that I am used to (and, okay, really really love) from SGA fandom. But, according to In Medias Res, that sits badly with the humanist and decidedly secular orientation of the verse. That second post is worth reading, though I do eventually disagree. The sensation of fate (meaning inevitability, "rightness") doesn't have to imply gods or causative supernatural powers, and anyway just because Star Trek is humanist and anti-mythological doesn't preclude us from reading our crew as heroic figures; our group can both be ordinary humans (er, let's go with "ordinary mortals") and still be pushed to be heroes by outside circumstances and even a quasi-supernatural causative agent in the form of Spock Prime without violating the basic secular humanism of the verse. The mortals of Trek can and do solve their problems without supernatural help... in fact, Spock Prime does/did/will do so. There is some logic flaw in any argument that asserts that Young Spock is "just like us" but then treats Spock Prime as a God for the purposes of argument, and then objects to the disconnect.
I suspect I was not very clear there. Basically I got my hackles up at the assertion that a humanist viewpoint precludes a heroic story. (I don't suppose anybody wants to read that link and explain what I'm missing? I fear I may be making an idiot of myself here)
And, to lighten it back up, here, plus the comments, is where you want to go for super geeky plot-point nitpicking, including great and necessary fic ideas.
And this one will go outside the cut: There is already K/S porn. It is smoking. In fact, there's a whole huge kink meme but I don't have time to sort through the dross right now. Read this. Read it now. I'll be in my bunk.
So. You know a meme I saw going around a few days ago? It was that ten things I assume you know about me meme.
1. I'm living in Dallas and I hate it. It turns out I'm firmly bi-coastal, so I'm heading back to Seattle post-haste.
2. I am fundamentally introverted.
3. My whole family is Mormon. I was raised that way, declared myself an atheist at 12, and fought with my parents nonstop for the next seven years. We've reached an uneasy truce on the subject of my godlessness. The separation of church and state is a hot-button emotional issue for me. Tell me this is a Christian nation. Go on. I dare you.
4. I am bisexual. And WAY too oversexed for celibacy. And far too introverted for casual sex. And way too baggage-ridden for a relationship. It's fun being me. There does seem to be something going on at a great physical distance with bdblack, though, and it's a very happy thing indeed.
5. I'm doing law school applications, because I really really really miss being in school. I'm told that just being in school shouldn't be a goal- one should be passionate about what one actually wants to do with the degree. This logic was why I didn't go to grad school way back when. But you know what? Screw that. If being in school is the thing I want most in the entire world to do with my life, I'm damn well going to go back to school.
6. I graduated with my BA at the age of nineteen. It's a little weird, to realize that nobody on lj actually knows this about me- there was a point in my life when it was the first thing anybody knew about me and I had to struggle to get people to see past it. Now I doubt anybody cares. When I start school again, I'll be even a tidge over the "normal" age for an incoming law student... which, considering I've been at least a year younger than everybody since I skipped third grade, is pretty astonishing to me.
7. That degree was in history, specifically ancient (which was as specialized as it got, in that program), but with extensive dabbling in the modern era and in classics, linguistics, and archaeology, and more minor dabbling in... everything. I geek out hard on ancient military history and on the late Roman Republic.
8. I still wish I'd taken more econ and poli sci. And more literature/rhetoric/composition. And more philosophy. And more anthropology and sociology. And a little more... It's truly astonishing that I ever graduated at all.
9. I tutor, mostly test-prep for entrance exams (AP tests, SAT, ACT, LSAT, GRE, GMAT, placement tests for local colleges...) It's livable money for eight months out of the year, but the other four'll kill ya.
10. I really really really dislike babies. I really really really like dogs. (Yup. Okay. Reaching on this last one)
You guys, my glee over the new movie knows no bounds. I can't even see it until the 30th (I am waiting for BD), but I am all a-twitter about it just in theory. I am spoiled all to hell and running around all over the internet reading about it. This is the best thing ever. This series deserves it. You guys. I have loved Kirk and Spock and Bones and Scotty and Uhura since before I can remember. I honestly cannot remember the first time I watched. It's always been there. It's the Ur-fandom. It's what all subsequent SF obsession was based on. Sure, TNG was more my show, if only because it was on sequentially in my formative period while I only got TOS in scattered reruns, but still. These characters. They are back and they are being treated right and I want to dance and sing and twirl with happiness.
Have a linkspam:
seperis posts about how this handling of an AU is different from any other handling of an AU she can think of, and how that is awesome. (This is interesting if only because we in fandom are so comfy with AUs that don't "fix" their timelines or be destroyed by or sacrificed for the "real" timeline that it's odd to realize how very unusual it is for actual shows to allow that)
This post is answered by this post in a fascinating debate over a point of philosophy. Basically, any AU setup that posits a radically different life for at least one character but then ends up with all the characters back in essentially their original configuration of personal relationships is going to rely on a huge amount of coincidence... which the readers will tolerate because they want these characters back together in this configuration. The end result is to give the impression that these characters are somehow destined or fated to be together, a conclusion that I am used to (and, okay, really really love) from SGA fandom. But, according to In Medias Res, that sits badly with the humanist and decidedly secular orientation of the verse. That second post is worth reading, though I do eventually disagree. The sensation of fate (meaning inevitability, "rightness") doesn't have to imply gods or causative supernatural powers, and anyway just because Star Trek is humanist and anti-mythological doesn't preclude us from reading our crew as heroic figures; our group can both be ordinary humans (er, let's go with "ordinary mortals") and still be pushed to be heroes by outside circumstances and even a quasi-supernatural causative agent in the form of Spock Prime without violating the basic secular humanism of the verse. The mortals of Trek can and do solve their problems without supernatural help... in fact, Spock Prime does/did/will do so. There is some logic flaw in any argument that asserts that Young Spock is "just like us" but then treats Spock Prime as a God for the purposes of argument, and then objects to the disconnect.
I suspect I was not very clear there. Basically I got my hackles up at the assertion that a humanist viewpoint precludes a heroic story. (I don't suppose anybody wants to read that link and explain what I'm missing? I fear I may be making an idiot of myself here)
And, to lighten it back up, here, plus the comments, is where you want to go for super geeky plot-point nitpicking, including great and necessary fic ideas.
And this one will go outside the cut: There is already K/S porn. It is smoking. In fact, there's a whole huge kink meme but I don't have time to sort through the dross right now. Read this. Read it now. I'll be in my bunk.