Violence in Trek lit: Opinions?
- Thread starter Deranged Nasat
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This topic has gotten me thinking about a number of things. Thanks for bringing up, Nasat.
The first Mission Gamma book by David R George was the first Star Trek book I read that seemed to have no violent acts whatsoever on the parts of the protagonists. Sure, some of that was because the Defiant was broken, rather than choices that the characters made, but I really enjoyed reading such a rip-roaring yarn with no violence whatsoever on the parts of the heroes.
Christopher, knowing your perspective on violence, reading your Shards and Shadows story was even more brutal for me than it would have been if I hadn't known you were the writer. I knew that you felt pain when you write violence... I found I wasn't just feeling the pain of the story itself, I was also feeling pain thinking of what I thought you'd gone through writing it. Do you have any thoughts you'd want to share about the experience of writing the violence of that story?
The first Mission Gamma book by David R George was the first Star Trek book I read that seemed to have no violent acts whatsoever on the parts of the protagonists. Sure, some of that was because the Defiant was broken, rather than choices that the characters made, but I really enjoyed reading such a rip-roaring yarn with no violence whatsoever on the parts of the heroes.
Christopher, knowing your perspective on violence, reading your Shards and Shadows story was even more brutal for me than it would have been if I hadn't known you were the writer. I knew that you felt pain when you write violence... I found I wasn't just feeling the pain of the story itself, I was also feeling pain thinking of what I thought you'd gone through writing it. Do you have any thoughts you'd want to share about the experience of writing the violence of that story?
Well, as I said, it depends on the emotions the viewpoint character is feeling toward it, because I have to try to imagine what it would feel like in order to describe the character's reactions effectively. So what's hardest for me is being in the mindset of the person who's actually inflicting the violence and yet has enough compassion to care about the harm being done. I don't think that happened at any point in "Empathy." Most of it was from the perspective of people who cared but were only witnessing the violence rather than inflicting it, or from the perspective of people who didn't care about the people they hurt or killed. And a lot of it was from Tuvok's perspective, so not a lot of strong feelings to channel there.
Eh? But he's practically a psycho by Vulcan standards!
Just out of interest, what of Ree, whose attitude towards killing others is different in many significant ways due to his being Pahkwa-thanh, as you have outlined in some detail in other novels?
Which was? The only 'consequences' seen onscreen was when Spock started beating the crap out of Kirk (and then, unfortunately, stopped), then was indecisive about whether to continue in Starfleet or help rebuild Vulcan culture. Yeah, poignant stuff. Partly, blowing up Vulcan is the easy way out, because by their very nature Vulcans will have a muted reaction to even these cataclysmic events, and the filmmakers don't have to sour their breezy illuson of victory with the visible trauma this would inflict on anybody else. And why should Vulcans alone be suffering, I wonder? Regardless of who you are in the Federation, billions of your fellow citizens were just wiped out. While I'm not expecting anyone to be, as Spock put it, wandering the corridors weeping--these are professionals in a time of crisis--the cheeriness of that tacked-on happy ending is just ghastly.
Based on the movie series of the same name? Do tell!
If it helps any, there are no actual depiction as such in the book--the scene cuts off with threat of what's going to happen, and thereon treats such abuse factually but not descriptively. And while years pass in-universe, on the page she's a victim for about ten pages before she is able to take her fate back into her own hands.
Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
The mainline Tuvok is, but this is the MU Tuvok (seen in DS9's "Through the Looking Glass," as well as my own The Mirror-Scaled Serpent and two stories in Shards and Shadows).
I actually enjoy the experience of horror movies quite a bit, and have been boxing for seven months now, so "controlled violence" is something I partake in.
As a writer, I've written some very strong and violent action scenes: two of the standouts are the murder at the end of DS9 Mission Gamma: Cathedral (which Marco edited down), and the fight between Archer and a Klingon opponent in Kobayashi Maru. In fact, I wrote most of the fight scenes in our books, and felt I did a reasonable job portraying both the energy and intensity and kineticness of violence, and the consequences.
That last word is an important one, as morality dictates that there should be consequences for violence towards others. What those consequences are for the antagonist -- legal, vengeance, religious -- is a strong thread in the tapestry of adventure storytelling. It is also a strong thread for the victim, as acts of violence often shape us as people (and characters in fiction) significantly.
And interestingly enough, I would bet that the sum total of the violence in any book in Trek lit is significantly less than the sum total of the violence in The Holy Bible. Between plagues-of-wrath and baby-killing and son-sacrificing and smitten-ness, that book is about as violent as any ever written.
As a writer, I've written some very strong and violent action scenes: two of the standouts are the murder at the end of DS9 Mission Gamma: Cathedral (which Marco edited down), and the fight between Archer and a Klingon opponent in Kobayashi Maru. In fact, I wrote most of the fight scenes in our books, and felt I did a reasonable job portraying both the energy and intensity and kineticness of violence, and the consequences.
That last word is an important one, as morality dictates that there should be consequences for violence towards others. What those consequences are for the antagonist -- legal, vengeance, religious -- is a strong thread in the tapestry of adventure storytelling. It is also a strong thread for the victim, as acts of violence often shape us as people (and characters in fiction) significantly.
And interestingly enough, I would bet that the sum total of the violence in any book in Trek lit is significantly less than the sum total of the violence in The Holy Bible. Between plagues-of-wrath and baby-killing and son-sacrificing and smitten-ness, that book is about as violent as any ever written.
Well, I've never had to write a scene from Ree's POV in which he kills. I know how he thinks about it in the abstract, but I've never been in the position of having to "live through" a moment where he actually does such a thing.
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