[09/08/2024] Ok wow they really aren't kidding, Price of the Phoenix is one of the gayest Star Trek novels out there. I don't even know where the start, the level of Spirk going on is absolutely off the charts. I do have to mention the book also talks heavily about themes of dominance and control, there are these extended dialogues that are worth investigating. Sometimes I think the main antagonist goes on a bit long- the back and forth gets a bit repetitive. But I'd love to take a second read to get everything, those parts are rather dense but very interesting.
I also NEED to mention there is a portion that confirms Romulans have matriarchal colonies, "where men are properly treated as delicate creatures and not permitted to fight." The Romulan commander called them princelings multiple times, and that they could achieve high positions of status in noncombatant positions. It's even gay sometimes. It's great.
[08/24/2024]I thought I'd make a section for other thoughts I have about Star Trek, somewhere to ramble on a bit longer about stuff that isn't general updates like on the front page. I tried making a tumblr blog, but two of my posts completely escaped containment and it scared me off :P Anyway, I hope I can share more thoughts here, Star Trek has so much to dig into.
For now I'll talk a bit about Maljek and my personal experience with autism. Star Trek has a somewhat shaky relationship with disability, especially if we focus on just TNG. I had written my first fic Configuration before I watched the augments episode of DS9, so I didn't have those themes informing me just yet. TNG, for better or for worse, often focuses on use- what disabled people can contribute to society. Geordi and Bochra working together, Geordi saving that one planet of genetically modified people, etc. It's a thought that works to a certain point, since it doesn't exactly say what happens when someone can't contribute. In other ways it's rather ahead, for example Geordi having chronic pain not being something that has to be "fixed".
Following this I also found it interesting to think about disability in other alien cultures, and of course it was the Romulans I looked to first. Bochra made his opinion pretty clear, with his comment that a blind child would have been killed in his society. So we know that physical disability is quickly dealt with- what about the "invisible" things?
Many autistic people have found "severity" labels to be rather clumsy; autism is a spectrum with several different points. For me, personally, many allistic people might label me as low severity, or low support needs. But the reality is that I have had to learn to mask, and even then I feel I am never good enough at it, like I could be "caught" at any time. I also had my diagnoses hidden from me until I was 22, so I had no idea why I found social things so difficult. I was too strange for the ADHD kids and somewhat purposely steered away from true autistic support. As I watched TNG I had already taken a liking to the Romulans, and I started to relate the feeling of masking to their constant paranioa, having a society of surveillance and uniformity. I wanted to work that into Maljek's character; the idea of someone unable to keep up an image in a society that constantly demanded it. So he starts out standoffish, odd in certain ways, simultaneously considering himself part of the stranger crowd while also distancing himself from it. Of course, Maljek slowly gets used to the Enterprise, the same way I made friends with other autistic people who don't care about me unmasking.