Trek Lit: Adult only?
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Plecostomus
Commodore
*lol*
Now I'm wondering if I should post my Janeway/Seven fic. Sadly, it's pretty tame.
Now I'm wondering if I should post my Janeway/Seven fic. Sadly, it's pretty tame.
Plecostomus
Commodore
Just trying to see how many "OH GOD THE HORROR" I can get, that's all.
So far as expanding Trek's horizon's with regard to language, violence, sex, etc...hey, if it serves the story, I'm for it. The trailers for the new movie show that we're going to get a few scenes which would have dissolved to another scene or to commercial back in the old days (Kirk with the Orion woman, etc.). Obviously they're not going to push the boundaries too far, at least on this first go, but it's still a "contemporary take" on classic characters. Bring it on.
My opinion is, there is no Star Trek book I wouldn`t allow my daughter to read - and she is six.
I am not one of the parents who think children have to be shielded from all violence and sex - what matters is how these topics are dealt with. Star Trek books have stories about violence and about relationships (including sex) that are thoughtful and often ideal to discuss such topics also with children.
I am not one of the parents who think children have to be shielded from all violence and sex - what matters is how these topics are dealt with. Star Trek books have stories about violence and about relationships (including sex) that are thoughtful and often ideal to discuss such topics also with children.
TMP was a "G" movie, with a novelization written by ST's creator, Gene Roddenberry. The book had references to Sulu's erection, crew responses to Ilia's nakedness, and Kirk joking about rumours of his sexual relationship with Spock.
I know several kids who read that novelization in the early 80s. I was 21 when TMP came out, but lots of much younger fans were devouring anything with ST on its cover.
Kids are always going to be their own censor. They aren't going to plough through a novel aimed at adults for the hope of reading a bit of random sex and violence unless they're already such a fan of ST that they can't live without the book.
I used to skim through my mom's books looking for sex scenes. Then again, she didn't read Trek.
That's a good way of putting it. If they're old enough to understand what's happening, then they're old enough to deal with it. If not, it just goes over their head.
Particularly not children today, with the Internet offering so many ways to outwit adult censoriousness; if they're truly interested, then won't need to do as my preteen self did, lurking in the adult section of the library hoping to across some 'disclosure'. (I think what started me reading Dean Koontz was stumbling on a cunnilingus scene in one of his books, actually.)
Precociously yours, Trent Roman
Fearful Symmetry seems like something out of an erotic Star Trek fan fiction
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Iliana_Ghemor
http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Iliana_Ghemor
Skrain Dukat kept Ghemor completely isolated in a secret sublevel of the prison of Letau that was known only to himself and the warden of the prison, Dal Rokai. Dukat used her as a sexual plaything, raping and beating her to satiate his sadistic cravings, for the next fifteen years.
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I'm a teacher and a school librarian.
I think I was a little more concerned that some of the young kids I taught in the 80s were also reading "Jaws" - during "Drop Everything And Read" (DEAR) - which had some racy stuff, much racier than TMP's novelization.
In my local library, all the Trek books are in the Young Adult section. Oddly, some of the Star Wars franchise is in YA, with a minority in the Adult fiction section. Even stranger, all the Babylon 5 novels are in Adult fiction.
Although, if I'm honest, a lot of the really original SFF coming out over the past few years is aimed at YA (His Dark Materials, anyone?) so that's not the downer it appears.
Although, if I'm honest, a lot of the really original SFF coming out over the past few years is aimed at YA (His Dark Materials, anyone?) so that's not the downer it appears.
I've been reading the Trek novels since third grade - I distinctly remember, back when my collection was just a handful, packing them all into my bookbag and taking them up to school. This was back around the release of the Invasion! miniseries, since I remember picking up the TNG segment as well as the next book in the number order at the same time. And like Trent Roman said, if there was something questionable about the content in them, I never realized it, and now when I go back and read, some memory dislodges and I remember something I might have thought about it and realize 'Oh, THAT'S what that meant...'
I would make sure that the kids who read them understand that some words you don't repeat back, but other than that, they seem fairly rated 'E' for Everyone to me.
I would make sure that the kids who read them understand that some words you don't repeat back, but other than that, they seem fairly rated 'E' for Everyone to me.
Well, with that kind of name, it isn't surprising to find a few people who think 'everything' will extend to trousers.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
I realise you're probably talking about swearing, but there's another form of language that you don't much see in kid/YA/Trek lit. Usually (unless you're talking about rhyme schemes in picture books, which I'm not) the language style the story is told in is pretty straightforward. There aren't many kid/YA/Trek novels out there using, say Salman Rushdie's "chutnification" of the English language, or multiple first person viewpoints, or the kind of style usually found in, say, cyberpunk... the list could go on.
Trek has technobabble, but that's never really been seen as a good thing. Is there any chance getting some novels geared more towards less homogenous use of language? I don't know about the rest of you, but the primary reason I read is for the words. Once you've read a novel one or more times, you know the plot, you know how the characters react. Then, the only thing that brings me back is how the story is told - look at what George Orwell did with language in Nineteen Eighty-Four, for instance, or that gorgeous dense prose of Mervyn Peake in Gormenghast, or Molly's soliloquy in Ulysses. Yeah, kids don't always read this kind of stuff (I did), but adults do. Even if you don't think much of the plot or characters, you can still read for enjoyment of language - for instance, Gravity's Rainbow didn't grab me for anything other than the way it told the story.
Any chance of cracking Trek's language mould in this direction?
There is no way that's erotic. Hopefully to anyone.
And in any event, it was all offscreen, as well.
And pretty darn creepy. Tho not surprising for Dukat.....
Well, with that kind of name, it isn't surprising to find a few people who think 'everything' will extend to trousers.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Explains why it later became Sustained Silent Reading, though.
I believe Jacqueline Carey's novels have something similar....(I haven't read them, but I've heard descriptions of the series...)
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