(no subject)
I'm lying here reading in bed, lazy on a Sunday morning, when something struck me. I realized what bothers me about so much of the modern Trek that people are writing in the 2009 movie universe.
When I was a kid growing up, I watched a ton of movies because my dad is a huge, huge movie buff. I especially loved the big extravaganzas... Ben Hur, Cleopatra, all the big period pieces that were filmed in the 40s and 50s. But when I got a bit older, out of adolescence, their appeal started to dim a bit.
Why? Because...the obvious *40s* and *50s* cultural influence was distracting. The hairdos, the speech patterns...it was so obviously men and women of 1950 dressing up in costumes to look like Cleopatra and Marc Antony. Those costumes and the sets were the only thing that seemed at all a sop to being historical...everything else was pure modern times.
That is what a great deal of Star Trek 2009 seems like to me...there's very little feel that it's taking place in a completely different time period, with wildly different technology, different cultural issues/standards, a wholly different world/universal view.... no, it's like they've usurped the sets of Star Trek and filled them with young people from 2009--speech patterns, mind sets, problems/issues, full and complete and intact.
Well, yes, if you're thinking, wasn't that was original Trek was onscreen? People of the 1960s set in futuristic sets and with wildly different technology? Yes, in many ways...because Roddenberry used it as a venue for making statements on cultural and social problems of the day. Some of TOS's storylines are almost ridiculous in today's setting, because they have no relevance in our current social and political realities--our world has changed that much.
But the *fiction* that fans wrote went whole eons beyond that limitation...the fiction created wholly new, alien and truly futuristic storylines, making the characters true embodiments of their timeframe: 2266, not 1966, or 1976, or 86, or 96. The stories that were written in 1976 are today JUST as modern and relevant as they were 30 odd years ago.
I'd love to see more fiction that is written without modern *dated* speech patterns...it's like looking at a 70s or 80s movie or tv show--the hair! The clothes! Those speech patterns will not age well. And I'd love to see more writers making the effort to research (or at least READ some older fic) and learn about the technology they're setting their characters in... (PLEASE....no more bubble baths on Enterprise!)
Also...write some plot, people. Teenybopper sex fantasies get old after 3 minutes...(which means, immediately.) We wrote lots and lots of sex a generation ago, but we wrote it *classy*, with plot and characterization and some intelligent forethought. <---- THAT seems to be lacking in much modern 2009 Trek, sadly to say.
So I'm sitting here getting bored trying to read one of the current online novellas, recently completed. Everybody has gushed over it--or I should say a lot of people have--but it's just not engaging me. My mind is wandering...not a sign of great writing. Perhaps that is because I just finished reading a novel in the zine I recently received...OMG. Fantastic AU. Well-thought-out, great characterizations of our people in unusual situations, superb world-building and use of technology to create a truly *scifi* setting...etc. Not to mention some *damn*hawt*sex*.
So come on people, like Pike, I challenge you to do better. Research, take some time between writing and posting to attempt to *edit* and clean up the story at the very least. Have some damn pride in what you're shoving out into the world. You're entering a fandom rich in history and with a wealth of fanon already laid down long before you could walk, most likely. Honor that, and honor your creative urges...do a little better.
When I was a kid growing up, I watched a ton of movies because my dad is a huge, huge movie buff. I especially loved the big extravaganzas... Ben Hur, Cleopatra, all the big period pieces that were filmed in the 40s and 50s. But when I got a bit older, out of adolescence, their appeal started to dim a bit.
Why? Because...the obvious *40s* and *50s* cultural influence was distracting. The hairdos, the speech patterns...it was so obviously men and women of 1950 dressing up in costumes to look like Cleopatra and Marc Antony. Those costumes and the sets were the only thing that seemed at all a sop to being historical...everything else was pure modern times.
That is what a great deal of Star Trek 2009 seems like to me...there's very little feel that it's taking place in a completely different time period, with wildly different technology, different cultural issues/standards, a wholly different world/universal view.... no, it's like they've usurped the sets of Star Trek and filled them with young people from 2009--speech patterns, mind sets, problems/issues, full and complete and intact.
Well, yes, if you're thinking, wasn't that was original Trek was onscreen? People of the 1960s set in futuristic sets and with wildly different technology? Yes, in many ways...because Roddenberry used it as a venue for making statements on cultural and social problems of the day. Some of TOS's storylines are almost ridiculous in today's setting, because they have no relevance in our current social and political realities--our world has changed that much.
But the *fiction* that fans wrote went whole eons beyond that limitation...the fiction created wholly new, alien and truly futuristic storylines, making the characters true embodiments of their timeframe: 2266, not 1966, or 1976, or 86, or 96. The stories that were written in 1976 are today JUST as modern and relevant as they were 30 odd years ago.
I'd love to see more fiction that is written without modern *dated* speech patterns...it's like looking at a 70s or 80s movie or tv show--the hair! The clothes! Those speech patterns will not age well. And I'd love to see more writers making the effort to research (or at least READ some older fic) and learn about the technology they're setting their characters in... (PLEASE....no more bubble baths on Enterprise!)
Also...write some plot, people. Teenybopper sex fantasies get old after 3 minutes...(which means, immediately.) We wrote lots and lots of sex a generation ago, but we wrote it *classy*, with plot and characterization and some intelligent forethought. <---- THAT seems to be lacking in much modern 2009 Trek, sadly to say.
So I'm sitting here getting bored trying to read one of the current online novellas, recently completed. Everybody has gushed over it--or I should say a lot of people have--but it's just not engaging me. My mind is wandering...not a sign of great writing. Perhaps that is because I just finished reading a novel in the zine I recently received...OMG. Fantastic AU. Well-thought-out, great characterizations of our people in unusual situations, superb world-building and use of technology to create a truly *scifi* setting...etc. Not to mention some *damn*hawt*sex*.
So come on people, like Pike, I challenge you to do better. Research, take some time between writing and posting to attempt to *edit* and clean up the story at the very least. Have some damn pride in what you're shoving out into the world. You're entering a fandom rich in history and with a wealth of fanon already laid down long before you could walk, most likely. Honor that, and honor your creative urges...do a little better.