Thinking back to some of our discussions of Kirk-in-the-show and Kirk-in-the-popular-consciousness.
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/columns/freshly-rememberd-kirk-drift/
http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/columns/freshly-rememberd-kirk-drift/
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Ho lee shit what an article!!!
I need to book some time on my calendar next week to read this–shew! I feel cathartically pleased, and more-or-less agree with this line from part one: “There is no other way to put this: essentially everything about Popular Consciousness Kirk is bullshit.” My caveat would be that the characterization of Kirk drifted a bit over time, and was not quite the same under the executive-producing tutelage of Roddenberry, Coon, and Freiberger.
Okay, I’m also excited about this passage: “I’m going to walk through this because it’s important for ST:TOS’s reception, but more importantly because I believe people often rewatch the text or even watch it afresh and cannot see what they are watching through the haze of bullshit that is the received idea of what they’re seeing. You “know” Star Trek before you ever see Star Trek: a ‘naive’ encounter with such a culturally cathected text is almost impossible, and even if you manage it you probably also have strong ideas about that period of history, era of SF, style of television, etc to contend with.”
The author (Erin Horáková)’s piece in this tribute is also worthwhile: strangehorizons.com – Nimoy and Spock: Reflections and Farewells
“Seriously, board games I’m selling because I don’t like them enough see more play than Kirk. He’s just too into his work.”
While a great read, I feel like the author glosses over the fact that Kirk uses his masculine wiles at every opportunity to gain a tactical advantage — yes, it’s mentioned, but in an almost positive way. I would rather this tactic be an approach that is a last resort, rather than seemingly the first tool in his bag o’ tricks.
I think it’s also worth pointing out that this tactic, along with the few women he “really cared about”, is something shared between Kirk and James Bond-as-written (at least as I read him). Which is ironic, because the “But the James Bond ‘60s were the most sexist time of alll!!” header does the same disservice to Bond-as-written as society has done to Kirk.
I also find that problematic as we discussed–especially in “The Conscience of the King” and “The Gamesters of Triskelion.” That’s not the same thing, though, as the grotesque parody, e.g., that is nuKirk in nuTrek. Kirk can be problematic even while popular conception gets him wrong, sometimes 180 degrees wrong.
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