2021 books announced

[Christopher]

We saw Burnham go through several hairstyles already. I was expecting another style change.

For me, it's a matter of degree. If it had been a realistic length for a year's natural growth -- about 12-15 centimeters, say shoulder-length, about as long as mine -- then it would be self-explanatory. She's been busy searching for Discovery and for answers about the Burn, so she hasn't bothered to cut her hair. As a ponytail-wearer myself out of expediency, I understand that perfectly. But typically for DSC, they took it way, way overboard and had it clear down to her waist. Which has to be an artificial indulgence, an extravagance that seems inconsistent with what she's been going through in the past year, in very much the same way as Daisy Johnson's sexed-up blonde-and-purple look in AoS season 6 (also after a year-long time jump spent wandering deep space in a relatively small craft). It just doesn't make sense to me, unless there's some story behind it that we haven't been told.

 

[Stevil2001]

For me, it's a matter of degree. If it had been a realistic length for a year's natural growth -- about 12-15 centimeters, say shoulder-length, about as long as mine -- then it would be self-explanatory. She's been busy searching for Discovery and for answers about the Burn, so she hasn't bothered to cut her hair. As a ponytail-wearer myself out of expediency, I understand that perfectly. But typically for DSC, they took it way, way overboard and had it clear down to her waist. Which has to be an artificial indulgence, an extravagance that seems inconsistent with what she's been going through in the past year, in very much the same way as Daisy Johnson's sexed-up blonde-and-purple look in AoS season 6 (also after a year-long time jump spent wandering deep space in a relatively small craft). It just doesn't make sense to me, unless there's some story behind it that we haven't been told.

Didn't Michael regularly go back to the planet Book was based on during that year? I just didn't get the impression she was lost in the wilderness without hair care accessories.

 

[Christopher]

Didn't Michael regularly go back to the planet Book was based on during that year? I just didn't get the impression she was lost in the wilderness without hair care accessories.

Once again, my question is about the motivation, not the mechanism. When plotting a story, the question is not whether a character can pick up the gun on the table, the question is whether they would, and why.

 

[Stevil2001]

Once again, my question is about the motivation, not the mechanism. When plotting a story, the question is not whether a character can pick up the gun on the table, the question is whether they would, and why.

But people-- and Burnham in particular-- can change their hairstyles all the time. It just doesn't strike me as "extravagant" to change one's hair if the tech exists. Which, plainly it does, or she wouldn't have done it.

 

[Christopher]

But people-- and Burnham in particular-- can change their hairstyles all the time.

It's not about "all the time," it's about this time, this specific context where it's incongruous. I've explained that over and over.

 

[Damian]

Gee, and people were on me when I complained about the spore drive being incongruous with the time period

I haven't seen season 3 of Discovery yet, but now I know Burnham has gone all Rapunzel on us. Talk about giving a major plot point away

Ok, I kid. But next time people get on me about complaining about the spore drive I'll just remind them about the hairy conversation going on here.

For me, it's the same mystery as "Why doesn't Khan remove one of his gloves?" Nick Meyer just said to Ricardo, "No, leave that one on." And the audience, if they notice, fills in the details

That's because he burned his hand on a phaser on Ceti Alpha V, at least according to Greg Cox

 

[casey]

For me, it's a matter of degree. If it had been a realistic length for a year's natural growth -- about 12-15 centimeters, say shoulder-length, about as long as mine -- then it would be self-explanatory. She's been busy searching for Discovery and for answers about the Burn, so she hasn't bothered to cut her hair. As a ponytail-wearer myself out of expediency, I understand that perfectly. But typically for DSC, they took it way, way overboard and had it clear down to her waist. Which has to be an artificial indulgence, an extravagance that seems inconsistent with what she's been going through in the past year, in very much the same way as Daisy Johnson's sexed-up blonde-and-purple look in AoS season 6 (also after a year-long time jump spent wandering deep space in a relatively small craft). It just doesn't make sense to me, unless there's some story behind it that we haven't been told.

To me her hair makes sense. I also have shoulder length hair, but because it is naturally curly (about like Tilly's) I can't just put it a ponytail and call it a day. Unless I want to go through a whole routine my only option is a man bun. Curly hair is difficult to maintain, and without proper care gets tangled, messy, and damaged very quickly. I'm white and have this problem, but for black people, who tend to have significantly tighter curls than I do, it is even more difficult. Braided hairstyles were common during slavery, for example, because women didn't have the time or luxury to spend on a daily haircare routine. If Burham were busy searching for the burn and didn't have time for a lot of styling, then it makes sense that she would have it braided. If she chose to add in extensions when she had it braided to make herself feel more beautiful, more power to her.

The policing of black people's hair is actually a pretty sensitive issue right now, and so having her justify it in story may not be be the best idea.

 

[Tosk]

The way I see it, if Jadzia didn't have to explain her "The Search Part I & II" hair, then Burnham doesn't have to explain shit.

And that's the final word on the matter.

 

[Christopher]

To me her hair makes sense. I also have shoulder length hair, but because it is naturally curly (about like Tilly's) I can't just put it a ponytail and call it a day.

As I said already, if it were shoulder-length, that would make perfect sense. But it's waist-length. It's six years' growth in one year. I can't help wondering about that. When I was writing Arachne's Crime, I opened with the human characters with their heads shaved as a result of their cryogenic stasis, and as time passed in the novel, I wanted to accurately portray the rate at which their hair grew back, so I researched growth rates carefully, and now it's something I pay attention to.

If she chose to add in extensions when she had it braided to make herself feel more beautiful, more power to her.

And as I said, if that's so, that makes it a character beat worth acknowledging in the novel. I never said this was wrong. I said I hoped the novel addressed it.

The way I see it, if Jadzia didn't have to explain her "The Search Part I & II" hair, then Burnham doesn't have to explain shit.

I am bewildered by the attitude that explaining things is bad, that it's some undesirable burden. This is what tie-in novels are good at -- delving more deeply into the details of character and worldbuilding than the shows are able to do.

 

[Tosk]

No one cares if the book does delve into it.

Again, the question is not how, but why. It's not about technology, it's about believable character motivation.

You pretending you were only ever interested in character motivation is a teensy bit of malarkey...

I hope Wonderlands explains how Burnham managed to achieve 5-6 years' worth of hair growth in just one year.

 

[Stevil2001]

It's not about "all the time," it's about this time, this specific context where it's incongruous. I've explained that over and over.

I just don't see it as incongruous. I gave up on Agents of SHIELD after four episodes so I don't know about that example you keep trotting out, but there's nothing about Disco season 3 that gives me the impression Michael has been living a subsistence level existence. She has a spaceship, she has a home planet, she has access to the commercial network of the galaxy. Others have pointed out that Voyager established hair regrowth as a pretty simple matter. Yes, the post-Burn galaxy isn't a utopia, but I feel like it's a place where Burnham can get a haircut with ease.

I am bewildered by the attitude that explaining things is bad, that it's some undesirable burden. This is what tie-in novels are good at -- delving more deeply into the details of character and worldbuilding than the shows are able to do.

Don't strawman people who disagree with you. I wouldn't be surprised if Burnham's hair is mentioned, but it doesn't strike me as the kind of thing that requires explanation. Yes, tie-in novels can explain these things... but there are also time they overexplain things I never wanted an explanation for.

 

[Christopher]

I gave up on Agents of SHIELD after four episodes so I don't know about that example you keep trotting out

https://i.redd.it/xjkmr2mppsy11.jpg

but there's nothing about Disco season 3 that gives me the impression Michael has been living a subsistence level existence.

I've already explained repeatedly that it's not about whether she physically could do it, but about what her character motivation is for doing it. It was a minor point of characterization that I said I hoped the book would touch on at some point, and I never intended it to be this huge controversy that other people want to blow it up into. Let's just drop it.

 

[GaryH]

I hadn’t checked the board in two days, but a discussion on why someone with access to technology that can change hair in minutes might have a whim and change her look during a stressful year was not what I was expecting. Lol. Particularly if there is no warp drive and she probably had time to kill on journeys....

 

[Gov Kodos]

Once again, my question is about the motivation, not the mechanism. When plotting a story, the question is not whether a character can pick up the gun on the table, the question is whether they would, and why.

Everything doesn't need an explanation. It's not interesting or creative to do so. Trek lit is plagued by too much of such pedantic drivel.

 

[Christopher]

Everything doesn't need an explanation. It's not interesting or creative to do so.

I disagree. Asking why something is the way it is has generated countless stories for me. What was the history of Yonada? How did the space jellyfish in "Encounter at Farpoint" evolve with those attributes? What did Picard do in those missing 9 years? How does time travel in the Trek universe really work? What was the First Federation really like? What was Kirk's first command before the Enterprise? All those stories came from my desire to explain things that had been overlooked as incidental.

They say God or the Devil is in the details. Focusing on details and spinning ideas out of them is how my mind works, how my creative process works. My first published story, and the basis for my new Arachne duology, began with what seemed like a small detail -- the fact that a starship would need some kind of deflector system for interstellar debris, such as a laser to vaporize oncoming meteoroids. I took that detail for granted for many years, and then one day it occurred to me to take a closer look at that incidental detail and wonder: What would happen if it weren't a meteoroid in the ship's path, but an alien spaceship, or even a space habitat? And that led to a whole saga about a tragic accident and the consequences that grew out of it. And it led to my first professional sale and everything that's come since. My whole career is based on asking about the details.

 

[Mudd]

I hope Wonderlands explains how Burnham managed to achieve 5-6 years' worth of hair growth in just one year.

What a foolish thing to fuss over. You can make this for yourself in about twenty seconds, a great deal less time than you and others devote to trying to justify the massive and endlessly multiplying continuity and scientific inconsistencies of the franchise.

If trying to get a story out of what a female character does with her hair is where Trek narrative is headed, the writers' wells of imagination truly have run dry.

 

[casey]

As I said already, if it were shoulder-length, that would make perfect sense. But it's waist-length. It's six years' growth in one year. I can't help wondering about that. When I was writing Arachne's Crime, I opened with the human characters with their heads shaved as a result of their cryogenic stasis, and as time passed in the novel, I wanted to accurately portray the rate at which their hair grew back, so I researched growth rates carefully, and now it's something I pay attention to.




And as I said, if that's so, that makes it a character beat worth acknowledging in the novel. I never said this was wrong. I said I hoped the novel addressed it.




I am bewildered by the attitude that explaining things is bad, that it's some undesirable burden. This is what tie-in novels are good at -- delving more deeply into the details of character and worldbuilding than the shows are able to do.

Your focusing on details and asking questions leads to some of my favorite books.

In the case of why a black woman got extensions, wigs and extensions are a huge part of the African American experience so to a lot of viewers it wasn't as surprising that her hair suddenly looked liked that, and it didn't occur to them that there was even a question to ask. But of course it can be addressed in story if they like, and that could be interesting. But it needs to be approached carefully given how hair is part of the racism black people currently experience.

 

[ryan123450]

This is the most quintessentially Trek BBS Literature Forum conversation ever. And we all know why.

 

[Christopher]

Your focusing on details and asking questions leads to some of my favorite books.

Thank you.

In the case of why a black woman got extensions, wigs and extensions are a huge part of the African American experience so to a lot of viewers it wasn't as surprising that her hair suddenly looked liked that, and it didn't occur to them that there was even a question to ask.

Ahh, okay. Now that's a useful insight, and the most informative response I've gotten here. I hadn't known that, and I appreciate the context.

Really, I don't know much about hairstyling in general. It wasn't too many years ago that I didn't even know there was such a thing as a hair extension. I'm still not entirely sure how they work. Fashion in general has always been an obscure subject to me.

Still, I stand by my point that it's an element that could be worth talking about in the book. Burnham has changed her hairstyles a lot over the course of the show, and as you say, there's personal and cultural significance to hairstyles, particularly black hairstyles. So it would be nice to see a book talk about that, about what her hairstyling choices mean to her, how they reflect her state of mind and self-image at these different times of her life. It could be a nice bit of character insight.

 

[BillJ]

I hope Wonderlands explains how Burnham managed to achieve 5-6 years' worth of hair growth in just one year.

Maybe she just bought a damned wig.