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petroniaSo before I forget:
1) First of all can I say the plot is dumb. XD; It's like one of those big-budget theatre-release anime movies, yanno? The ones where they have to come up with an entirely original story that follows upon the ending of the TV series which diverged from the manga plotline because that hasn't finished serializing and the big reveals haven't happened, so they do a time warp, fire up the Random Baddie generator and pile on the inclusive fanservice. It's Star Trek: Conqueror of Shamballa.
2) That being said, I find in a delayed reaction I am q. cut up about Vulcan going explodey. I mean they are going to make sequels in this 'verse surely? Vulcan had the best weather, the best aesthetics, and the best research institutes, and really, was making Spock more Jewish the way to go. Speaking of which, Old Spock was uncannily reminiscent of The Other Leonard i.e. Cohen. NO RLY. The way he talks! I've never tried to picture what it would be like to be trapped in a snowstorm with Leonard Cohen, but this movie's take is probably not far off.
3) Spock/Uhura: this felt really natural, tbh. If there had been no romance, and if this movie had arrived with no preexisting canon, fans would probably have come up with it themselves. Personally I don't see why one wouldn't, but I am also a multilingual INTP girl, wtf do I know rite. (Doesn't that actually describe Spock's mom, too?)
4) I'm surprised by how much I liked Kirk in this movie. Probably for his sheer energy? I'm struggling to explain this a bit, because it's not that I didn't like the original character (more from the novels than from film/TV), but there is something totally 1960s about coming up with a setting like the Federation/Starfleet/USS Enterprise then putting a heroic straight white Midwestern dude in charge cos that's obviously how it works, yanno? It's hard to divorce Kirk from that because he was created to be that,** whereas Spock can be torn between emotion and logic in 2009 just as well as he was in 1969 or whatever. They played it as well as they could, though. You've got the nepotism (a better explanation is political expediency), but really one's feeling is that this version of Kirk makes it because he's A MAJOR FREAK OF NATURE. I mean, I don't really buy that he has an inferiority complex vis a vis his dad (let alone that he was abused); people are explicitly kind of dicks to him about it, and he takes it up and all, but if that stuff was internalized he'd've been proving himself in Starfleet a lot sooner. What the kid reads to me like is emotionally neglected. Mom couldn't face him properly, maybe, stepfather or other relatives treated him like he was just there. So then there's the real dad, who's dead, but follow in his footsteps and maybe he'll be a bit closer. Which is why the closure on that is when Spock Prime tells him yes, in the other universe your dad did know you and love you and was proud of you. Not that you were a better spaceship captain or any such.
** Subdee and I talked about whether Kirk was a good leader, and I said he was, or has the clear potential to be: he's decisive, a great tactician, reads people well / recognizes talent / delegates easily, doesn't hold grudges in the face of fact, can command a room's attention, and has LOADS of physical energy. (The communication aspect will come, and anyway there was nothing in 1960s management theory that said transparent communication was the sign of a good leader.) The precise question to ask is not whether Kirk is a good leader, but whether he's a good follower, and the answer to that is easy. XD Basically you have a sort of reverse Peter Principle: if you have person A who is a good leader and a good follower, and person B who is a good leader but a terrible follower, the most efficient configuration for the organization (which does not necessarily automatically arise***) penalizes person A for having more skillz. Sorry, Spock! [/mba]
*** But you would be unsurprised at how often it arises when person A is a visible minority who doesn't want to rock the boat. Sorry again, Spock! I would almost write this, but make it really funny, Riz Khan jokes style. OSHI I TOTALLY NEVER BLOGGED RIZ KHAN'S JOKES.
Non-spoilers:
5) The fic for the reboot is also a reboot of the fic, so to speak. It was nagging at me, and then I realized: seme/uke. Which is just like class stratification (boy is this entry sociological), in that 1) Americans don't like to cede the concept recognition, 2) but that doesn't mean they don't have it, 3) it's arguably better not to talk about it too much, 4) but to talk about it usefully, you have to run the numbers. Do you know, I've never seen anyone do this kind of simple analysis on slashfic, by pairing or by fandom. XD; I will say that when I hit a KxS story the other day I noticed it, because I'd previously read ~25 that were SxK. Bias is always possible, but I'm going down the undifferentiated public del.icio.us tag stream, so there is some crowdsourced consensus there. This would not be nearly as funny if it were any pairing other than, well, K/S.
6) "Teardrops On My Phaser":
1) First of all can I say the plot is dumb. XD; It's like one of those big-budget theatre-release anime movies, yanno? The ones where they have to come up with an entirely original story that follows upon the ending of the TV series which diverged from the manga plotline because that hasn't finished serializing and the big reveals haven't happened, so they do a time warp, fire up the Random Baddie generator and pile on the inclusive fanservice. It's Star Trek: Conqueror of Shamballa.
2) That being said, I find in a delayed reaction I am q. cut up about Vulcan going explodey. I mean they are going to make sequels in this 'verse surely? Vulcan had the best weather, the best aesthetics, and the best research institutes, and really, was making Spock more Jewish the way to go. Speaking of which, Old Spock was uncannily reminiscent of The Other Leonard i.e. Cohen. NO RLY. The way he talks! I've never tried to picture what it would be like to be trapped in a snowstorm with Leonard Cohen, but this movie's take is probably not far off.
3) Spock/Uhura: this felt really natural, tbh. If there had been no romance, and if this movie had arrived with no preexisting canon, fans would probably have come up with it themselves. Personally I don't see why one wouldn't, but I am also a multilingual INTP girl, wtf do I know rite. (Doesn't that actually describe Spock's mom, too?)
4) I'm surprised by how much I liked Kirk in this movie. Probably for his sheer energy? I'm struggling to explain this a bit, because it's not that I didn't like the original character (more from the novels than from film/TV), but there is something totally 1960s about coming up with a setting like the Federation/Starfleet/USS Enterprise then putting a heroic straight white Midwestern dude in charge cos that's obviously how it works, yanno? It's hard to divorce Kirk from that because he was created to be that,** whereas Spock can be torn between emotion and logic in 2009 just as well as he was in 1969 or whatever. They played it as well as they could, though. You've got the nepotism (a better explanation is political expediency), but really one's feeling is that this version of Kirk makes it because he's A MAJOR FREAK OF NATURE. I mean, I don't really buy that he has an inferiority complex vis a vis his dad (let alone that he was abused); people are explicitly kind of dicks to him about it, and he takes it up and all, but if that stuff was internalized he'd've been proving himself in Starfleet a lot sooner. What the kid reads to me like is emotionally neglected. Mom couldn't face him properly, maybe, stepfather or other relatives treated him like he was just there. So then there's the real dad, who's dead, but follow in his footsteps and maybe he'll be a bit closer. Which is why the closure on that is when Spock Prime tells him yes, in the other universe your dad did know you and love you and was proud of you. Not that you were a better spaceship captain or any such.
** Subdee and I talked about whether Kirk was a good leader, and I said he was, or has the clear potential to be: he's decisive, a great tactician, reads people well / recognizes talent / delegates easily, doesn't hold grudges in the face of fact, can command a room's attention, and has LOADS of physical energy. (The communication aspect will come, and anyway there was nothing in 1960s management theory that said transparent communication was the sign of a good leader.) The precise question to ask is not whether Kirk is a good leader, but whether he's a good follower, and the answer to that is easy. XD Basically you have a sort of reverse Peter Principle: if you have person A who is a good leader and a good follower, and person B who is a good leader but a terrible follower, the most efficient configuration for the organization (which does not necessarily automatically arise***) penalizes person A for having more skillz. Sorry, Spock! [/mba]
*** But you would be unsurprised at how often it arises when person A is a visible minority who doesn't want to rock the boat. Sorry again, Spock! I would almost write this, but make it really funny, Riz Khan jokes style. OSHI I TOTALLY NEVER BLOGGED RIZ KHAN'S JOKES.
Non-spoilers:
5) The fic for the reboot is also a reboot of the fic, so to speak. It was nagging at me, and then I realized: seme/uke. Which is just like class stratification (boy is this entry sociological), in that 1) Americans don't like to cede the concept recognition, 2) but that doesn't mean they don't have it, 3) it's arguably better not to talk about it too much, 4) but to talk about it usefully, you have to run the numbers. Do you know, I've never seen anyone do this kind of simple analysis on slashfic, by pairing or by fandom. XD; I will say that when I hit a KxS story the other day I noticed it, because I'd previously read ~25 that were SxK. Bias is always possible, but I'm going down the undifferentiated public del.icio.us tag stream, so there is some crowdsourced consensus there. This would not be nearly as funny if it were any pairing other than, well, K/S.
6) "Teardrops On My Phaser":
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no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 05:49 pm (UTC)I really think she's awesome, tbh. XD
That is sort of my reading of kid!Kirk: starts acting out for attention, gets hooked on the adrenalin. XD
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 06:34 am (UTC)THIS IS A VERY SUBJECTIVE OPINION.
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Date: 2009-06-18 06:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 08:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 05:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 06:13 pm (UTC)(I wish Diane Duane's Spock's World was still in print, because it was an excellent exploration of the Vulcan history and society.)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 07:05 am (UTC)In fact, I'm surprised no one's written that fic yet.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 01:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 07:56 am (UTC)While the aim of the study, ah, somewhat broader, the raw numbers in question are included in this study (http://web.archive.org/web/20071110134347/http://www.research.piratequeen.ca/) of a random sampling of H/D fic, sample size = 100, circa 2006. XD The original site is down so the link is to archive.org. Alas, the associated LJ post on their sampling methodology is now locked, but from what I remember it was pretty impressive.
(H/D fandom was/is a strange hybrid of slash and - for lack of a better word - yaoi conventions, I know, but it's better than nothing!)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 06:03 pm (UTC)(Actually, it reminded me of
H/D as hybrid is sort of what I am talking about, actually: HP cut across so many demographics that the tropes and conventions got mixed up. LIKE ALEXANDER'S CONQUESTS. As a whole, Wmedia slash pre-HP reads differently from Wmedia slash post-HP, and I would argue it and Wyaoi fic (which has also changed) have shifted closer. Heck, actual Japanese BL manga has gotten closer to slash, or at least has broadened to the same effect. I can't think of a way to analyze this that wouldn't muddle causality, though.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 09:02 am (UTC)Because that is just crazy)Actual Japanese BL manga: yes, definitely, I was just reading Yoshinaga Fumi's Kinou nani wo tabeta? and going "...is this really BL?" It was like... an entirely volume of what they call curtainfic. With recipes. XD; Actually it may have been too realistic for slash, ahaha.
It seems like Jfandom for Western shows and the like have spread, too, or maybe there's just more overlap now between those fans and BL/yaoi fans. By way of a Japanese BL manga review blog I happened to stumble across the Jfandom for Supernatural ahahaha that was amazing. (Yet despite my best efforts I can't find anything for Torchwood, or even Doctor Who in general. Why is that??)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-19 05:28 pm (UTC)(To be fair, I did grok it after a while: it's because Damon is a remarkably un-sexy person, given his role in society. Alex is sexy [sexual?], but Damon isn't. He - and as a direct result Blur's music - are only sexy when drugged into submission (cf. "Beetlebum"). XD;; I mean, stack that up against Pulp. Jarvo is the uber-seme of Britpop as far as I can figure.)
Yeah, I think there was always Jfandom for Western shows (plus oddities like Eroica fandom), there was just no overlap due to language and culture issues. I am surprised you can't find Doctor Who, though! What about gen or het?
no subject
Date: 2009-06-20 07:03 am (UTC)Doctor Who: not a sign! I literally found one fanartist, with a Japanese site and a Chinese blog, and no helpful links to favorite sites or anything. As with other Jfandoms I have had trouble finding, I get the feeling it must be out there somewhere, it's just that everyone's very good at hiding.
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Date: 2009-06-22 02:14 am (UTC)Hmm... well, keep me updated if you make a breakthrough. XD;
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Date: 2009-06-20 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-20 06:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 10:54 am (UTC)I disagree with the Kirk as a leader thing a little - I totally think he would eventually make a good leader, but then so do a lot of people, they just have to work at it/want it real bad/had good people to teach you. I guess though if I didn't know that he was smart, I would not follow this dude into the wilds of deep space. (Also I saw no evidence that he reads people well/understands talent in the movie. Spock' had to tell him to kick Spock around a little - but Vulcans are different, I dunno.) Oh well, stuff for them to work with for the next movie, something that made that much money has got to have two sequels I bet.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 05:39 pm (UTC)Well, to be fair it was less than 24 hours between him meeting Spock for the first time and Spock marooning him on an ice planet, I thought he was doing okay. XD; I was actually more thinking of Kirk vs McCoy, Uhura et al. Part of this is passive characterisation due to Plot i.e. what else would you have him do but recognize and trust Uhura's or Scotty's skillz but in real life that doesn't necessarily happen when you get someone with a freakish lack of self-doubt like that. You'd be lucky enough that the outward act isn't a cover for an inner lack of confidence that builds on belittling others.
All this is assuming he's smart and competent, too. And yeah, the narrative arc is such that I would expect him to fall spectacularly on his face next movie. XD
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 01:01 pm (UTC)And yeah, I kind of figure passively dysfunctional home rather than actively dysfunctional; one of my oldest fannish pet peeves is the invention of abuse and trauma in character backgrounds. (It is a wonder I love Kurosaki Hisoka as much as I do because his background reads exactly like the kind of thing I would hate with the fire of a thousand suns if anyone but the mangaka had come up with it.) So I do not care to extrapolate anything more than what is actually shown, nor do I think it fits the character (since you kind of have to take TOS into account because otherwise there's just not enough material, and that Kirk? Um no.).
no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-18 09:23 pm (UTC)Of course, nowadays half the newspaper reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are like, "Whoa, bridge crew hankypanky... and it's not Kirk/Spock!"
Crazy little woman in a one-man show
Date: 2009-06-18 06:20 pm (UTC)YouTube was forced to kill the Taylor vid, but this version is better anyway:
Re: Crazy little woman in a one-man show
Date: 2009-06-18 09:17 pm (UTC)(Sorry about the seme/uke and all that. XD; I can explain at some point if you like, the concept is rather broader/more subtle/more contradictory than all those quizzes will have it.)
Re: Crazy little woman in a one-man show
Date: 2009-06-18 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 10:36 am (UTC)Also if neuKirk was Damon Albarn, he and Spock would have been childhood friends. XD (I can't believe Blur slash makes Damon the uke, isn't Graham like the ultimate queen uke? What do the j-fanartists think?)
no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 10:39 am (UTC)...and better-looking. Can't forget that part, it's very important.
no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 06:52 pm (UTC)/more later gotta run
no subject
Date: 2009-06-24 09:23 pm (UTC)/late to the party.
Sorry if I misread you, that just really seemed like what you were arguing. XD
Question: if the reverse Peter principle is the bad follower has to be the leader, what is the regular Peter principle? Being such a good follower that you BECOME the leader?
no subject
Date: 2009-06-25 04:19 am (UTC)More on: there is at least one Kirk-and-Spock-were-childhood-friends AU out there, I read it a few days ago. XD; Good looks are definitely key. J-fanartists are split, although I'm never sure if they think they're doing Kyouya/Tamaki or something. Chinese fandom seems to think Graham is uke in theory and seme in practice. Prolly this is cos Damon was the visibly pining one? Waters muddled by the fact that the main Graham-uke proponent is an Oasis fan, idek. I am trying to decide whether the neuST skew is for the same reason or opposite reasons.
The regular Peter Principle is the Dilbertian "everyone is promoted to their level of incompetence". That assumes employees all come with better/more lower level skills/experience than higher level/managerial, is the thing, whereas someone like Kirk works better if parachuted in. It probably doesn't happen too often in reality.