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Alas - we bid farewell to another co-traveler on Starship Earth - yesterday Leonard Nimoy departed this sphere - he lives on in our memory.
Any adult with a pulse knows who I'm talking about; half human, half Vulcan - Nimoy was of course the enigmatic Mr. Spock of the '60's and '70's Star Trek TV series.
What an impact that series inadvertently had on a generation. Here's how it came out in me - I didn't grasp it till this morning:
I wrote a 'random' mention of Star Trek into my #skaNOVEL - and it bothered me quite a bit... Indeed, I vacillated quite a bit on whether to remove it from my most recent reprint as it felt like a non-sequitar.
Specifically, I had no way of putting into words why I had my one character, JJ; who represents an enlightened younger generation in collision with his father who represents the staunchly Calvinist older generation; watching "...re-runs of old 1960’s Star Trek episodes that he loved for their simplicity...." .
Yesterday we sadly lost Leonard Nimoy - Spock
My wayward paragraph so close to being expunged was saved this morning when I awoke to an inbox message from an old friend, John, (who hasn't yet read SKA@Carnarvon) unwittingly putting it all into perspective for me when he said: "I suppose watching Star Trek is where it all began. Much more interesting than this religion malarkey. "
What a revelation!
Yes.... that is precisely what Star Trek did for me as a little tike; it literally exploded my universe on 2 fronts:
1) It threw open my tiny horizons and the biblical ones that school tried to impose on me that were equally myopic in their Bronze Aged desert soap opera outlook.
2) And it taught me about real justice that comes through understanding cultures; juxtaposed against the hammer fist of my apartheid era school world and pre-Doctor Benjamin Spock - [different character] upbringing.
Unlike Star Wars (which did not impress me), it was not about domination, but about the genuine issues of a civilizations learning first to get on with itself to the point it can and build a space-faring civilization that is pacifist; and then using a policy of Aikido on the grandest scales to disarm aggressors.
Star Trek was just brilliant - its ethos, its message, its horizons and what I think it did for a generation of kids, injecting wonder and plotting non-aggression.
Here's an extract from the book that was nearly slashed... (Thanks John for letting me know why it's important it stays).
"For all the family tensions, the embrace of community had made his beach house a lonely place; his yammering TV now created some atmosphere – News, sport and re-runs of old 1960’s Star Trek episodes that he loved for their simplicity burbled away – old human dramas that dealt so innocently with the convolutions of integrity juxtaposed with the unfolding dramas of mid twentieth century perceptions of modernity out in space."
www.SKA-at-Carnarvon.com
Any adult with a pulse knows who I'm talking about; half human, half Vulcan - Nimoy was of course the enigmatic Mr. Spock of the '60's and '70's Star Trek TV series.
What an impact that series inadvertently had on a generation. Here's how it came out in me - I didn't grasp it till this morning:
I wrote a 'random' mention of Star Trek into my #skaNOVEL - and it bothered me quite a bit... Indeed, I vacillated quite a bit on whether to remove it from my most recent reprint as it felt like a non-sequitar.
Specifically, I had no way of putting into words why I had my one character, JJ; who represents an enlightened younger generation in collision with his father who represents the staunchly Calvinist older generation; watching "...re-runs of old 1960’s Star Trek episodes that he loved for their simplicity...." .
Yesterday we sadly lost Leonard Nimoy - Spock
My wayward paragraph so close to being expunged was saved this morning when I awoke to an inbox message from an old friend, John, (who hasn't yet read SKA@Carnarvon) unwittingly putting it all into perspective for me when he said: "I suppose watching Star Trek is where it all began. Much more interesting than this religion malarkey. "
What a revelation!
Yes.... that is precisely what Star Trek did for me as a little tike; it literally exploded my universe on 2 fronts:
1) It threw open my tiny horizons and the biblical ones that school tried to impose on me that were equally myopic in their Bronze Aged desert soap opera outlook.
2) And it taught me about real justice that comes through understanding cultures; juxtaposed against the hammer fist of my apartheid era school world and pre-Doctor Benjamin Spock - [different character] upbringing.
Unlike Star Wars (which did not impress me), it was not about domination, but about the genuine issues of a civilizations learning first to get on with itself to the point it can and build a space-faring civilization that is pacifist; and then using a policy of Aikido on the grandest scales to disarm aggressors.
Star Trek was just brilliant - its ethos, its message, its horizons and what I think it did for a generation of kids, injecting wonder and plotting non-aggression.
Here's an extract from the book that was nearly slashed... (Thanks John for letting me know why it's important it stays).
"For all the family tensions, the embrace of community had made his beach house a lonely place; his yammering TV now created some atmosphere – News, sport and re-runs of old 1960’s Star Trek episodes that he loved for their simplicity burbled away – old human dramas that dealt so innocently with the convolutions of integrity juxtaposed with the unfolding dramas of mid twentieth century perceptions of modernity out in space."
www.SKA-at-Carnarvon.com
