Aliens and You: the Intimate Story.

[Deranged Nasat]

Well, this is a long post, so please excuse me and bear with me, everyone.

I was thinking about how we relate to the alien cultures of Star Trek. I bring this up because I mentioned in another thread tonight how in some ways I seem to think like the Borg. This isn't a spur-of-the-moment comparison; I quite often compare myself to our souless perfectionist friends. It got me wondering: We enjoy the books, or some of them at least, and so presumably we tend to find the characters relatable, at least to some degree. To what extent, though, are the aliens people we "know" and to what extent do we see ourselves in them? It's no secret that Trek aliens are usually- when we get right down to it- just humans with funny skin colours, slightly different but essentially still recognisably human cultures and a few non-human biological traits to spice it up (we've had long threads on this very topic before) but do we actually see ourselves in terms of the traits these aliens demonstrate? I know some of us do; I've had conversations here with people who say "sometimes I feel like I'm a Whathaveyouian among humans". How common is this?

If I may babble some more (I swear I'll get to the point soon! ): One of the essential tests of a sci-fi setting in determining whether I'll "fall in love" with it is the degree to which I can form a sense of who the aliens involved are. They have to walk the line between familiar and distant, between demonstrating enough variety to make them individualistic while still convincing as a "whole" with a shared quality setting them, united, apart from others. I cannot actually explain objectively the criteria by which I judge this, but as I'm exposed to a universe I'll come to either "know" a race and culture or I won't- and usually something about that setting as a whole is involved, because its usually either most of the alien races presented or almost none. Of course, that isn't to say that once I "know" a race writers can't throw out new twists and surprises, but if they're worthy they'll still "fit" even if my sense of who these aliens are has to adapt and possibly expand. In all, I'll be able to relate to these cultures and races as though they were, to some extent "real". Again, ask me how it works and I couldn't answer. I couldn't tell you why the aliens of "Babylon Five" passed the test and the aliens I've encountered in "Star Wars" haven't, but it's a big reason I love the former and am indifferent to the latter.

Trek on TV doesn't always succeed here, although it has some success stories (Bajorans and Cardassians come to mind, and possibly Bolians, surprisingly, for all their being underdeveloped...). On the other hand, being the age I am I've had the 21st century line of novels for as long as I've had the TV reruns and DVDs, so when I think of "Star Trek", I'm thinking of an equal mix of literature and screen. Therefore, even where TV Trek fails in this regard, Star Trek as a whole fictional universe succeeds. Thanks to the books, I find a great many races and cultures I can relate to and "understand". I know who the Cardassians, Romulans, Andorians, Trill, Nasats, Thallonians, Efrosians and Tholians "are". Not fully be any means- there is still much to learn and discover, many new twists and interpretations. But they "exist" for me in that difficult-to-articulate way.

So, this is just a fun question, one I hope interests people; which aliens in Trek lit do you identify with? Which cultures and races do you see as reflecting particularly on the way you view your society, your people or you as an individual? Do you identify with the whole culture or with certain characters and their own, possibly troubled relationships with their peoples? Not to get bogged down in personal baggage (well, okay, not too much ) but these are some of the alien cultures I graviate too as recognising myself in them:

(post two will arrive shortly!)

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Okay, I hope none of this makes anyone think "too personal, Nasat", but here we go:

Andorians: I relate to the Andorians a lot, particularly how they've been developed in the DS9 post-finale novels and the multiple series that have in turn based their Andorians on this material. The intensity of their emotions is familiar (very strong emotions are one of my most notable traits), and their attempt to control these and hide behind a stoic and responsible mask in a manner completely unlike the Vulcans but equally fascinating is interesting. Interesting because while I don't knowingly hide my emotions and instead strive towards transparency at all times, and so am very unlike an Andorian in that regard, I equally see the almost instinctive defensive barriers I erect between my feelings and the outside world. I share the Andorian's sense of pain, which motivates their occasional berserker tendencies (although I don't share Andorian aggression- I'm usually very timid and non-aggressive- on those rare occassions I get angry, I get angry (though still non-violent)). I identify with the sense of sad wisdom they seek through their "missing all the pieces, not yet Whole" philosophies. I identify too- strongly-with the deep family ties that are at the heart of their identities (and the complication of the value placed on family bonds conflicting with the "problem" (possibly) of not actually freely choosing who you form those bonds with). In a sense, the Andorians always make me feel, "in a sense I'm almost a pacifistic Andorian".

Borg: I identify with the Borg, too, at least when the Borg are considered more philosophically like in "Greater Than the Sum" or "Destiny". I particularly identified with the "Destiny" Borg, and the nature of their need, their desire. It's come up in discussion with others many times how I feel an emptiness, a need to expand and fill myself, and how I'm never satisfied. I feel the need to tie everything together, to construct a stable, yet ever-expanding "collective" (hence my self-parody with the axe-wielding Nasat frothing over continuity errors), yet I'll never be satisfied.

Cardassians: It may be known by those who frequent the DS9 forum that I'm one of the "Cardassian crew", the little unofficial club of posters who relate to the Cardassians very strongly. I've said before my absolute favourite Trek novel is "A Stitch in Time", which like all great novels, told me nothing I didn't already know about myself and my world, but told me it in a way I never could articulate myself. I often say to people, if they want to know me better, they should read that book. Every Cardassian story has a deep impact on me (four of my top six Star Trek novels have Cardassian plots or major subplots). The complexity of these beings, the masks and barriers they create for themselves, which either work far too well or fail to work at all (or at least work how they've decided they should- as we know, often the "mask" is really working fine, they simply fail to understand it )- is very engaging. The tragedy of an intelligent, sophisticated people with so many noble qualities, trapped in their fear and bitterness and moving inescapably towards their destruction- and then having to find what they lost somewhere in the ruins, knowing they threw it away- really moves me. The willing blindness in such an otherwise astute people. As with the Andorians, the devotion to family, which in the case of the Cardassians they also fear, because it's the one thing that gets in the way of the serve-the-state, follow-orders, black-and-white mentality they've embraced in order to cope with deeper fears. Overall, the denial of their own identity even as they justify everything they do as protecting, saving or expressing that identity.

Efrosians: One of my favourite "beta aliens". Ra-Havreii as an individual of course is at the forefront here, but what we learn about the race through him- and occasionally others- is deeply interesting. I identify strongly with their thoughtful manner, but thoughtful not in a "peaceful" way, instead with an underlying constant activity in their minds, almost fierce if it weren't so integrated into their calm worldview. Efrosians have always seemed to me...intense. Yet intense in the sense of continuously having to deal with a never-ceasing back-and-forth of intellect and feeling, which they've categorized and compartmentalized carefully ("Sword of Damocles" describes it very well) and held in place, rather than radiated as passion. Intensity that is...easy, transparent, not stressful as such, but always there and always demanding they treat it warily. Also, I identify with the unusual balance of privacy (they come across as very...reserved... in many ways) and desire for companionship (in their case in every sense of the word). Their relationships are complex, ever shifting- but something is held back at all times. Their social lives are like their internal lives.

Nasats: Okay, here's one of a different kind- I don't identify with Nasats as such so much as I identify with P8 Blue, particularly in her role in the wonderful "Balance of Nature". The feeling of being an outcast- how much of that is others simply not understanding that you see and experience things differently? How much is their ill-will or malice? How much your own choices and your glee in subverting and "shaking up" the ideological status quo almost for the hell of it? How much is you being different and how much is your choosing to be different deliberately? In that case, how much can you feel angry or upset at others, how much do you shrug it off entirely, how much do you acknowledge your own willing choice to distance yourself? If you do experience things or think differently, why? Is it that you're wired differently? Are you different in a physiological sense or simply in a "spiritual" sense? Is there no home for you or are you actually yourself turning your back on your home? Is there a reason or "purpose" in a quantifiable sense for your distinctiveness or difference? To what extent then is your "purpose" nature-dictated and to what extent is it something you choose and make yourself? Can you distance yourself from your people to ultimately help keep them together, to come in "the back way" and actually show yourself at the heart of your people's society even as you're on the edge? All these questions are encapsulated so wonderfully in P8 Blue and her status in Nasat society.

So there you are. I don't have antennae, nanoprobes, scales, flowing white or copper hair, or a carapace, but I identify with these aliens very much.

Okay, if you're still awake after all that, your turn!

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

For me, when it comes to Treklit, there are three races that come to mind--and "human" is not one of them. In fact, I believe I would feel extremely uncomfortable in human (Federation) society, and that unless I was part of an exile colony, I would not ever fit in. To me, the Federation is a false utopia--there is no way it could not have come at a terrible price. No way at all. In a lot of ways, the Federation in my mind compares to the next example I'm about to cite--except they don't recognize it in themselves.

Sorry for the rantlike quality of this. But this is how I feel about it.

The first one, by far, is the Cardassians. Specifically, if I "incarnated" into the Trek universe and a human dissident was not a choice, I would want to be a Cardassian follower of the Oralian Way. The Oralians seem to embody the true soul of Cardassia, and have tremendous potential to be a force of hope in a society that has been stripped down to its very core, forced to look itself starkly in the eye and see itself for what it is. Cardassians have seen the ugliness that manifested itself in the state, and they are unable to deny it. They have had to look at their past atrocities and admit what they did: not only to their neighbors, but to those of their own people that they persecuted. Of all the stories I've seen in Treklit, none spoke to my heart like those of Bennek and Miras Vara.

Cardassians are beings of uncompromising values. Whether they're right--and whether they're dead wrong, they have no hesitation about calling right and wrong what they are. They don't play relativistic games like the Federation. They respect family and tradition--they won't throw these away in search of the latest new thing. Make no mistake...when they're wrong, they do it in truly abhorrent fashion and I believe that they absolutely made their bed and had to lay in it. But if those traits they possess were turned towards the GOOD...I strongly believe they could offer REAL competition to the Federation philosophy--the kind that, unlike the Romulans, the Klingons, and so many of the other Trek baddies who have typically been portrayed as just plain old black-hat eeeeeevil, would actually have to be taken seriously and might actually be able to challenge the assumptions of Federation society. If they could actually MAKE THINGS WORK according to entirely different solutions than the Federation/humanity, and if those are GOOD solutions...that would really call a lot into question. And if you ask me, now that the Federation has taken enough blows to its strength and supremacy, it needs a serious kick in the social complacency, too.

Now, I've heard the Typhon Pact is an attempt to set up opposition to the Federation, but until I get a chance to actually scan over the Typhon Pact books, I remain skeptical about just how much their opposition will actually be acknowledged as legitimate and how strong they'll get as more than just a simple foil to the Federation the way the Dominion was.


The next society I identify with is that of the Bajorans: never is religion depicted in a more realistic manner in the Trekiverse than here. The grab-bag of characters, all who state belief, are so true to life--saints, sinners, those who merely do lip service, and even violent jihadists. Now, they seem to be rebuilding in such a way that they, too, prove that a society can work on different lines than that of the Federation or Earth. The only problem as far as Treklit is concerned...and a decision I severely disagree with...is the induction of Bajor into the Federation, as the gradual assimilation of their culture is the LAST thing I want to see. I also think the Federation system--and specifically Earth philosophy--is fundamentally opposed to that of Bajor and should be generating far more conflict than it is.


Of the species specifically created for Treklit, none resonates more strongly than the Hamalki: but let me make it clear...I am no man-eater! The Hamalki see the world so much like I do that it's almost scary. Truth is revealed "in nature and miracles" in their eyes, and there is no conflict whatsoever between them. They are reverent of Creation and the Creator (they call the Creator "Architectrix") and that drives them on in their search to learn more about it, rather than frightening them. To their mind, the search for knowledge may occur in the empirical, ethical, or spiritual modes, but these are all parts of the SAME quest, not warring entities. And overall, they come across as more ALIVE than any other Trek species, except for the Cardassians.

 

[Cybersnark]

I was kinda sorry to see the Borg go in Destiny. I've long felt that the Borg had many positive qualities that the Federation could greatly have benefitted from. The Borg were never really given a fair shake in Trek (aside from the novels, and even then they had to pick up the mess Voyager's writers made of them), and I kinda sympathize --most people don't really "get" me either. (I'm also a bit OCD, so I can understand the appeal of giving people/races/things numerical designations. )

"I will adapt" has become something of a mantra for me as life continues to throw grenades into all my carefully-laid plans.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I was kinda sorry to see the Borg go in Destiny. I've long felt that the Borg had many positive qualities that the Federation could greatly have benefitted from. The Borg were never really given a fair shake in Trek (aside from the novels, and even then they had to pick up the mess Voyager's writers made of them), and I kinda sympathize --most people don't really "get" me either. (I'm also a bit OCD, so I can understand the appeal of giving people/races/things numerical designations. )

"I will adapt" has become something of a mantra for me as life continues to throw grenades into all my carefully-laid plans.

Well, in a sense the Borg got a happy ending. They achieved "perfection", or at least had that emptiness filled so they were finally free and satisfied. They were lost and the Caeliar brought them home.

I'm still looking for my Caeliar.