Star Trek question (and brief academic sigh)

[chelseagirl]

From an article in Inside Higher Ed: At the most celebrated institutions of higher education in the United States, the teaching quality of the adjuncts is many times better than that of those on the tenure tack. Nice to be acknowledged. But it would be nicer to have a living wage. *sigh*

So here's a Star Trek-based fandom question. From what I can see, the two main pairings that are coming out of ST-Reboot are Kirk/Spock and new-canon Spock/Uhura, and I have mostly been reading the latter these past several weeks. But K/S dates back decades, and from what I've read of it (mostly in ancient 'zines and via scholars writing about it), it seems as though Kirk becomes deeply committed to his relationship with Spock. What I wonder about that is that James "Tomcat" Kirk never gives canonical evidence of being good at a committed relationship with anything but the Enterprise, and this could be seen to fall into the "he'll change when he meets the right man/woman/Vulcan/me" trope that always strikes alarm bells for me because so often people use this to delude themselves about relationships in real life. (Been there.) Considering the depth of their friendship, I understand why people might see it as being different, as being the exception. But a shift towards monogamous bonding does substantially alter something major about canon Kirk.

So I'm curious to read K/S (either TOS or ST:XI) where Kirk doesn't transform by being involved with Spock. I assume with all the talk of Vulcan bonding that Spock would be monogamous, but are there any fics that explore the implications of Spock being bonded to Kirk, and Kirk loving Spock but still . . . you know, the equivalent of shagging the guest-starlet-of-the-week around the universe? How might they forge a romantic relationship around this fundamental difference in their characters and inclinations? Inquiring minds . . . [Or, you know, maybe people are just writing hot sex and aren't that concerned about the implications?]

Comments

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

[Or, you know, maybe people are just writing hot sex and aren't that concerned about the implications?]

I would put money on that.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Quite probably. ;-) The old 'zines stories used to get quite elaborate though.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

Shatner's comment about K/S is that Kirk would not in a million years, no matter how much he liked them, get into a monogamous relationship with someone who only gets it up once every seven years.

Spock/Uhura isn't purely reboot -- there are several spots in the original series that hint strongly at a deeper connection between the two than the olitics of the early '60s allowed them to explore. It's a bit of Trek Trivia that the famous first interracial kiss on TV was originally scripted as between Uhura and Spock instead of her and Kirk, but Shatner insisted on the change.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

That's hilarious! (When I had a huge crush on Spock back in third grade, the implications of pon farr didn't yet mean a whole lot to me. ;-) )

For whatever reason, I remember Chapel's unrequited crush on Spock primarily but that is really interesting about the kiss.

[studiesinlight.livejournal.com]

Spock and Uhura have canonical TOS connections over music and language. Nichelle Nichols reportedly once said that she interpreted Spock as a kind of mentor to Uhura.

[fshk.livejournal.com]

Never, ever thought I would say this, but reading your post makes me want to find some Kirk/Spock. I have nothing more insightful to add on that front. I mean, Old Spock gets a line in the new movie about the Kirk/Spock friendship essentially driving the whole series (which he doesn't say in so many words), and that relationship is key to Kirk's repeatedly saving the whole universe, as he does periodically in TOS. Make of that what you will.

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

I guess it's the old "can a friendship this intense be entirely platonic" question. Generations of fans have said "no," so . . . I've read a fair bit about zine-based TOS K/S, because scholars were keen to explore that, but I haven't explored new K/S much yet; I'll be interested in seeing whether it follows some of the same conventions or not.

OTOH, see holzman's Shatner quip above. ;-)

[studiesinlight.livejournal.com]

>"Generations of fans have said "no,""

And yet other people in those same generations have also said "yes." I don't mean to diminish everyone's favorite ship in any way, but it is also valid to interpret a life-defining non-romantic friendship. To get all cliched, it's only post-Freud that we no longer believe in even the possibility of such friendship under any circumstances. ~shrug~

[executrix.livejournal.com]

I don't know if fans say "No, intense friendship cannot be platonic" so much as "Sure, intense friendship can be platonic, but wouldn't it be hawt to see Kirk and Spock doing the horizontal mambo at five-minute intervals?"

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

I was honestly just making a flippant remark; but I've certainly heard the platonic debate coming up in slash contexts as well as with het maybe-couples like Mulder and Scully for as long as I've been reading/talking fandom meta . . . though I'm sure the "wouldn't it be hot" factor applies in both cases as well . . .

[amelia-eve.livejournal.com]

This is leading me to some other types of thoughts about what all Kirk may have picked up from Spock prime during the mind meld in the cave. Does Spock have enough self-control not to transmit any extraneous thoughts like "I never thought I'd see his firm little bubble-butt like that again"?

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

*g*