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Like Wagon Train in space!
May. 19th, 2009 02:39 amSo I was IMing with a slightly younger friend of mine -- she's around 20 and I'm still a few years away from the big 3-0 -- about the new Star Trek movie and she asked me if Vulcans ever had sex. At first I thought she was joking, but then I realized that she was not. This girl, a convention regular, a seasoned RHPS performer, a stalwart in the Boston-area fandom scene (and for those of you that don't know, the nerd is strong in Beantown) did not know about Pon Farr.
Those... two or three of you reading this that may not be huge goddamn nerds may not be familiar with the Vulcan's seven-year-itch, but I guarantee you you that even ten years ago you could not walk into a science fiction convention and make a Pon Farr joke and have everyone in that room, male or female, black or white, seventeen to seventy get it. Oh sure, some would laugh, some would roll their eyes, and some might pretend not to understand to make themselves seem "cool" (Harlan Ellison would claim he invented it and then sue you for violating his copyright by mentioning it), but I guarantee that every last person in that room would know what you meant.
Star Trek was an unshakeable cultural commonality. Not everyone in that room knew who Krychek or Flukeman were, or how many episodes of Kolchak ever aired, or who the first person to play Wonder Woman on TV was (Cathy Lee Crosby, btw. that's right, the tennis player. And the villain was Ricardo Montalban), but you could be damn sure they knew a Tribble from a Horta from a Gorn.
Trek, you see, was our touchstone. It was our shibboleth. For many of us it was the wellspring from which our fandom flowed, and for most of us its idealistic, technological and socially progressive future was our utopia, our shining city on the hill, our Mecca and our Star of Bethlehem. Oh, there are those in the community that sneer at it today, but there was not one of us -- not a single goddamn lonely, pimply one -- that did not once identify with Kirk or Spock or Uhura (or, eventually, Data or Wesley or... well, not so much Tasha Yar. She was a bit crap, honestly). It was cross-generational. As a pimply youth I could, and did, debate the merits of the Prime Directive with the hoariest greybeards, and we could both smile and share that thing, despite our otherwise differences in life experience.
But is it possible that Trek has passed so far out of the public view (recent film reboot excepted) that it no longer holds the power to bind us as a community? The current crop of nerdlings don't seem to know the difference between Finnegan and Harry Mudd (though they do know all the words to Doctor Horrible). My generation is the last to know about things like card catalogs and manual car windows (seriously, do you realize that the vast majority of westerners under the age of twenty have no fucking clue why it's called "rolling" down a car window?), and it could be that it's time for Trek to join them on the dusty shelf of obsolete memories.
I guess that's the way of things. I mean, I'm already one of about... three people under 40 that know why the Boskone newsletter is called "Helmuth, Speaking for Boskone" and why that's funny, but I suppose I always thought that Trek would be different, that it would be eternal.
Ah well. Maybe I'm wrong. Even if I'm not, I am, and always will be,your friend a Trek fan.
Damn kids! Get off my lawn!
Those... two or three of you reading this that may not be huge goddamn nerds may not be familiar with the Vulcan's seven-year-itch, but I guarantee you you that even ten years ago you could not walk into a science fiction convention and make a Pon Farr joke and have everyone in that room, male or female, black or white, seventeen to seventy get it. Oh sure, some would laugh, some would roll their eyes, and some might pretend not to understand to make themselves seem "cool" (Harlan Ellison would claim he invented it and then sue you for violating his copyright by mentioning it), but I guarantee that every last person in that room would know what you meant.
Star Trek was an unshakeable cultural commonality. Not everyone in that room knew who Krychek or Flukeman were, or how many episodes of Kolchak ever aired, or who the first person to play Wonder Woman on TV was (Cathy Lee Crosby, btw. that's right, the tennis player. And the villain was Ricardo Montalban), but you could be damn sure they knew a Tribble from a Horta from a Gorn.
Trek, you see, was our touchstone. It was our shibboleth. For many of us it was the wellspring from which our fandom flowed, and for most of us its idealistic, technological and socially progressive future was our utopia, our shining city on the hill, our Mecca and our Star of Bethlehem. Oh, there are those in the community that sneer at it today, but there was not one of us -- not a single goddamn lonely, pimply one -- that did not once identify with Kirk or Spock or Uhura (or, eventually, Data or Wesley or... well, not so much Tasha Yar. She was a bit crap, honestly). It was cross-generational. As a pimply youth I could, and did, debate the merits of the Prime Directive with the hoariest greybeards, and we could both smile and share that thing, despite our otherwise differences in life experience.
But is it possible that Trek has passed so far out of the public view (recent film reboot excepted) that it no longer holds the power to bind us as a community? The current crop of nerdlings don't seem to know the difference between Finnegan and Harry Mudd (though they do know all the words to Doctor Horrible). My generation is the last to know about things like card catalogs and manual car windows (seriously, do you realize that the vast majority of westerners under the age of twenty have no fucking clue why it's called "rolling" down a car window?), and it could be that it's time for Trek to join them on the dusty shelf of obsolete memories.
I guess that's the way of things. I mean, I'm already one of about... three people under 40 that know why the Boskone newsletter is called "Helmuth, Speaking for Boskone" and why that's funny, but I suppose I always thought that Trek would be different, that it would be eternal.
Ah well. Maybe I'm wrong. Even if I'm not, I am, and always will be,
Damn kids! Get off my lawn!
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