I'm sorry I brought it up. She's a good teacher.
Just curious what was your first Trek novel to read?
- Thread starter samalex
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You have no need to be sorry one bit, although I admit it was strange of a teacher to do, I also found it interesting.
Even good teachers can have blind spots.
Yes. I just didn't want people thinking she was an obnoxious elitist. She's far from it.
She's also the teacher who asked, one morning in September 1987, "So who watched the new Star Trek last night? What did you think?" (Meaning Encounter at Farpoint). Which also gets her cool marks in my book.
She's also the teacher who asked, one morning in September 1987, "So who watched the new Star Trek last night? What did you think?" (Meaning Encounter at Farpoint). Which also gets her cool marks in my book.
I think the first Star Trek novel I ever read was the Data YA story, The Mystery of the Missing Crew. I was confused because the blurb said Data's ship had a skeleton crew, but the aliens were clearly the skeleton ones!
I did a book report in the sixth grade on John Vornholt's YA novelization of Generations. (It had to be on an Ohio author.)
I did a book report in the sixth grade on John Vornholt's YA novelization of Generations. (It had to be on an Ohio author.)
Federation by Reeves-Stevens
As I said, I'm pretty sure the first ST novel I read was Spock Must Die! (although it's possible that I read a borrowed copy of Mission to Horatius first).
I'm pretty sure the first Star Trek book I read was Blish's Star Trek 9. But the OP specified novels, and that's a single-author anthology of short story adaptations of episodes.
I will also note that the second published ST novel that wasn't a children's book, Spock: Messiah, was the very first ST novel that had sex scenes. Of course, Cogswell and Spano left everything to the imagination; it wasn't like the sex scenes in When HARLIE Was One. It was more like (Ensign George, speaking of an encounter with Spock, while they were both under the influence of implants linking them telepathically to locals, Ensign George to a nymphomanic prostitute and Spock to a crazy cult leader) "We took off our clothes and made love."
I'm pretty sure the first Star Trek book I read was Blish's Star Trek 9. But the OP specified novels, and that's a single-author anthology of short story adaptations of episodes.
I will also note that the second published ST novel that wasn't a children's book, Spock: Messiah, was the very first ST novel that had sex scenes. Of course, Cogswell and Spano left everything to the imagination; it wasn't like the sex scenes in When HARLIE Was One. It was more like (Ensign George, speaking of an encounter with Spock, while they were both under the influence of implants linking them telepathically to locals, Ensign George to a nymphomanic prostitute and Spock to a crazy cult leader) "We took off our clothes and made love."
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I guess it depends on how you define "novel". If we're talking strictly original novels, I believe it was likely Vonda N. McIntyre's Enterprise: The First Adventure when I was in college. If we're including novelizations, it would be James Blish's Star Trek 9 in the third grade. Either way was a long time ago!
Same here. I read that and Time for Yesterday back to back as my first Trek novels, loved them. I'm fairly certain I re-read both twice over the years.
First Trek related books I read that weren't novels were the Tech Manual and Mr. Scott's Guide.
The teacher I mentioned was also a good teacher. I think she derived her definition of what constitutes literature based on what she thought the AP board considered literature for testing purposes. Sometimes being a good teacher means not mixing your personal opinions with what you teach and doing what is best for your students.
I read the Blish and Foster novelizations of the episodes. I didn't know Bantam was publishing novels so I thought that was the end of Star Trek books.
Years later I saw a ton of Star Trek novels at a used book store and decided to try one. I picked up Timetrap by David Dvorkin which I liked. I've been reading them off and on, mostly on the last few years, ever since.
Years later I saw a ton of Star Trek novels at a used book store and decided to try one. I picked up Timetrap by David Dvorkin which I liked. I've been reading them off and on, mostly on the last few years, ever since.
I agree. But it was one unusual incident over the course of a year of excellent teaching, and she did think she was doing what was best for me by steering me toward "a better book." She did let me read Stranger in a Strange Land and Fahrenheit 451 that same year, as well as let me research the history of Arthurian legend, so, you know, it all came out in the wash, and wasn't as though she was constantly nay-saying or imposing her will over ours.
One of the very first novels I ever read was Yesterday's son by by A..C Crispin, Also Corona By Greg Bear and The Final reflection and the movie Novelization for the Wrath of Khan by Vonds McIntyre. I've been reading the books since I got hooked reading these early novels.
Harrumph. "What the AP board considered literature for testing purposes."
Sounds like "teaching to the test" to me.
Sounds like "teaching to the test" to me.
Yeah... If there's anything worse than an elitist bias in education, it's that. When the form of the tests becomes more important than the substance of the ideas or the ability to imagine and innovate, then the educational system is broken.
I won't deny that there was an element of "teaching to the test" in the books she allowed us to read for the class, but teaching is a balancing act. She spent several class periods discussing what constitutes literature and what makes a book "classic". She encouraged us to develop our own definitions apart from those imposed on us by the AP board. Good teachers prepare their students for the test and sometimes that means making concessions. But good teachers also encourage students to think for themselves.
I agree the system is broken, but I've had plenty of teachers who can work in the system. They often perform the unenviable task of balancing the demands of a test based system and actually educating students.
Nowhere is that worse than it is in higher education. Students at a university are surrounded by fountains of knowledge, and yet if a particular fountain is not of practical use in their chosen career, most of the students won't even take so much as a tiny sip, unless they're held down while it's forced down their throats.
It makes me rather sympathize with a line Asimov ascribes to Plato: when a student asked about practical applications for the theorems he was being taught, Plato is said to have directed a slave to "Give this young man a penny that he might feel he has gained something from my teachings and then expel him." (Asimov, Treasury of Humor, page 114.)
I saw it all the time during my five years at CSU Long Beach. I fully understand why, for the freshman class just behind me, a more rigorous General Education requirement was imposed, along with a required zero-unit course called "University 100" (which covered absolutely nothing that a student wouldn't pick up either from Freshman Orientation, or from taking [heaven forbid] both semesters of Freshman English Comp).
At the same time, I was grateful that I was grandfathered into the old Gen Ed: it left me enough not-spoken-for units to take plastics shop, exploratory metals, graphic arts, and photography, as well as natural sciences far beyond anything my major or the Gen Ed required, and taking BOTH courses where I was given a "choice of two options," while leaving me free of such nonsense as University 100, and able to avoid taking philosophy (about which my attitude mirrors that of Bea Arthur's character in History of the World Part I ["Oh, a BULLSHIT ARTIST!"]).
It makes me rather sympathize with a line Asimov ascribes to Plato: when a student asked about practical applications for the theorems he was being taught, Plato is said to have directed a slave to "Give this young man a penny that he might feel he has gained something from my teachings and then expel him." (Asimov, Treasury of Humor, page 114.)
I saw it all the time during my five years at CSU Long Beach. I fully understand why, for the freshman class just behind me, a more rigorous General Education requirement was imposed, along with a required zero-unit course called "University 100" (which covered absolutely nothing that a student wouldn't pick up either from Freshman Orientation, or from taking [heaven forbid] both semesters of Freshman English Comp).
At the same time, I was grateful that I was grandfathered into the old Gen Ed: it left me enough not-spoken-for units to take plastics shop, exploratory metals, graphic arts, and photography, as well as natural sciences far beyond anything my major or the Gen Ed required, and taking BOTH courses where I was given a "choice of two options," while leaving me free of such nonsense as University 100, and able to avoid taking philosophy (about which my attitude mirrors that of Bea Arthur's character in History of the World Part I ["Oh, a BULLSHIT ARTIST!"]).
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