Spock and McCoy
Sep. 4th, 2009 11:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petroniaI dumped all this tangential stuff in arboretum's comments but what I'd wanted to make a post about was how much I liked Bones, and how that makes me assume Spock likes Bones too, because obviously I gauge his responses according to mine, why wouldn't I. XD;; If I construct the rationale behind the intuition, though, it's that Spock likes insane people. Insane by his standards, that is, and also of course he doesn't actually think this, although idk he may recognize that there is that sort of twitchy moth-to-flame response that happens when a formidable intellect meets an irreducible problem... but that's not what I mean, although it's probably also happening (and probably happening more vis Kirk). It's more like, well, a hardcore warrior would respect someone who had a knife in their arm and a spear through their guts and stayed on their feet and fought anyway, right? And by the standards of how Spock is a warrior, arming and shielding himself against the universe, McCoy is operating like that all the time.
This does make Spock different from most Vulcans, I think. Like, it's not what got him to Starfleet, but it's a pretty big component of why he stays in Starfleet: he also likes Kirk, and Pike, who are both certifiably nutters, and so on. I don't think most Vulcans (heck, most Homo sapiens) would be repressing troo feelingz when they decide life is too short to fuck with that. I'm not sure this is entirely because Spock is half-human, although I'm sure everyone in ST-verse would attribute it to that. If genetics were all, my money is that if you went up Spock's family tree on Sarek's side you'd eventually encounter as much "interesting" shiz as you would for Miles Vorkosigan. Furthermore Vulcan strikes me as the kind of society that would make sure certain traits bred true via arranged marriages while refusing to, yanno, ADMIT ANYTHING IS GOING ON. Seeing as we're talking about Before The Logic Happened and all.
Back to previous paragraph: I think most ficcers don't write McCoy all that well, although they often write him as well as the story requires. Like, it's okay for him to just sorta Do His Thing because that's how Kirk feels about it, Bones Is Doing His Thing. When he does think about it he locates the specific personal thing they have in McCoy, too, if that makes sense: as in, Bones is a great person under the grumpiness, he's unswervingly loyal, puts up with my shit, gives a shit. But it's probably an actual miracle feat to work on McCoy such that he would follow you to hell and back. I say "probably" because no one else tries, let alone succeeds or fails, for comparison. McCoy thinks Kirk is a genius-something-or-other but I wonder if the deeper thing happening isn't that their respective manifestations of will to life cancel out each other's death wishes. There are points where Kirk is metaphorically doing to McCoy what McCoy does when he keeps a man's heart going on the surgery table. Ponders it just as little, too.
When people write "in this universe Kirk is a girl!!" sort of nonsense I always think "gawd, poor Bones" while it just seems like it would make no difference to the Kirk vs Spock relationship whatsoever. The rationale for that intuition would take a whole other post.
arboretum's comments but what I'd wanted to make a post about was how much I liked Bones, and how that makes me assume Spock likes Bones too, because obviously I gauge his responses according to mine, why wouldn't I. XD;; If I construct the rationale behind the intuition, though, it's that Spock likes insane people. Insane by his standards, that is, and also of course he doesn't actually think this, although idk he may recognize that there is that sort of twitchy moth-to-flame response that happens when a formidable intellect meets an irreducible problem... but that's not what I mean, although it's probably also happening (and probably happening more vis Kirk). It's more like, well, a hardcore warrior would respect someone who had a knife in their arm and a spear through their guts and stayed on their feet and fought anyway, right? And by the standards of how Spock is a warrior, arming and shielding himself against the universe, McCoy is operating like that all the time.This does make Spock different from most Vulcans, I think. Like, it's not what got him to Starfleet, but it's a pretty big component of why he stays in Starfleet: he also likes Kirk, and Pike, who are both certifiably nutters, and so on. I don't think most Vulcans (heck, most Homo sapiens) would be repressing troo feelingz when they decide life is too short to fuck with that. I'm not sure this is entirely because Spock is half-human, although I'm sure everyone in ST-verse would attribute it to that. If genetics were all, my money is that if you went up Spock's family tree on Sarek's side you'd eventually encounter as much "interesting" shiz as you would for Miles Vorkosigan. Furthermore Vulcan strikes me as the kind of society that would make sure certain traits bred true via arranged marriages while refusing to, yanno, ADMIT ANYTHING IS GOING ON. Seeing as we're talking about Before The Logic Happened and all.
Back to previous paragraph: I think most ficcers don't write McCoy all that well, although they often write him as well as the story requires. Like, it's okay for him to just sorta Do His Thing because that's how Kirk feels about it, Bones Is Doing His Thing. When he does think about it he locates the specific personal thing they have in McCoy, too, if that makes sense: as in, Bones is a great person under the grumpiness, he's unswervingly loyal, puts up with my shit, gives a shit. But it's probably an actual miracle feat to work on McCoy such that he would follow you to hell and back. I say "probably" because no one else tries, let alone succeeds or fails, for comparison. McCoy thinks Kirk is a genius-something-or-other but I wonder if the deeper thing happening isn't that their respective manifestations of will to life cancel out each other's death wishes. There are points where Kirk is metaphorically doing to McCoy what McCoy does when he keeps a man's heart going on the surgery table. Ponders it just as little, too.
When people write "in this universe Kirk is a girl!!" sort of nonsense I always think "gawd, poor Bones" while it just seems like it would make no difference to the Kirk vs Spock relationship whatsoever. The rationale for that intuition would take a whole other post.
