What pet peeves do you have about trek books?

[Sci]

Ethnocentrism is a basic sociological concept, and there is nothing mature about ignoring the effects of ethnocentrism on our culture's thinking.

Don't ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to ignorance. There's no way of knowing what Frontier meant by that comment. It's entirely possible Frontier comes from a background where British Isle-originated surnames are the 90% norm and hasn't had any meaningful exposure to the larger world. Ignorant, but not necessarily malicious, and not deserving of hostility.

Which is why I used the term "ethnocentric" rather than "racist." "Racist" has malicious connotations that I doubt Frontier meant, whereas "ethnocentric" does not have the connotation of intentional malice or hatred. Indeed, the theoretical situation you describe fits in perfectly with the definition of "ethnocentric," which encompasses unintentional biases on the parts of an individual.

 

[Greg Cox]

Ok, what I guess I mean is that we shouldn't use the word to judge someone according to them talking about names of Star Trek characters in novels.

Oh,yeah, we shouldn't rush to judgment regarding that one poster on the basis of one odd comment. I just wanted to defend people's thesaurus-given right to use their full vocabularies as needed!

Had to ghost-write a children's book a few years back. Trying to keep the vocabulary at a grade-school level felt like writing with one hand tied behind my back . . . .

Obviously it scarred me for life!

 

[Dayton Ward]

But "ethnocentrism" is still the correct word for that. It doesn't mean malice, it just means thinking in a way that's centered around one's own cultural experience and assumptions. If anything, ethnocentrism is usually based more in ignorance of the broader world than in deliberate malice toward it.

Well, calling someone "ignorant" isn't usually a good way to go about talking with them, either.

What's say we cut the guy some slack, and move on?

 

[JarodRussell]

Isn't Star Trek as a whole pretty ethnocentric? Starfleet is more or less a humans only club, English is the first language of the Federation, stardates are based on Earth years, they measure time and distances in the metric system, and so forth. I dislike those things pretty much, it's not thought through so well, in my opinion.

Trek lit hasn't changed that, although it seems there are much more aliens (and more non-humanoid aliens). An alien as the hero starship Captain would be refreshing, too.

 

[Christopher]

Isn't Star Trek as a whole pretty ethnocentric?

Unquestionably, but that doesn't mean novelists are forbidden to try to balance that out a little. Tie-in novels traditionally do things that the shows can't do, like depicting grander events and vistas, larger casts of characters, parts of the ships not seen onscreen, more exotic aliens, more scenes in microgravity -- anything the shows don't do because of budgetary or practical limitations. So what's wrong with going beyond the shows in this respect as well?

 

[JarodRussell]

Isn't Star Trek as a whole pretty ethnocentric?

Unquestionably, but that doesn't mean novelists are forbidden to try to balance that out a little. Tie-in novels traditionally do things that the shows can't do, like depicting grander events and vistas, larger casts of characters, parts of the ships not seen onscreen, more exotic aliens, more scenes in microgravity -- anything the shows don't do because of budgetary or practical limitations. So what's wrong with going beyond the shows in this respect as well?

If you ask me, tie in literature could go even further with that. It makes absolutely no sense for the Federation to be so Earth-centric, or all aliens looking like humans with make up, etc...

 

[Greg Cox]

On the other hand, the other day I realized that I was working so hard at filling my new book with exotic alien crew members ("Lieutenant Vr3ll-X oozed on to the bridge . . . .") that I probably needed to throw in a "Pyle" and a "Hernandez" just to balance things out . . .

 

[Paris]

Isn't Star Trek as a whole pretty ethnocentric? Starfleet is more or less a humans only club...

Of the regular characters in the various treklit series that are members of Starfleet, several of them are not human:
TNG- Worf, Chen (half-Vulcan)
DS9- Kira, Ro, Dax, Nog
VOY- B'Elanna, Eden, Vorik, Bal Itak (and his mostly Vulcan crew), Kaz (deceased), Tuvok (on Titan now)
Titan- almost everyone other than Riker and Vale...
NF- Calhoun, Burgoyne, Selar (deceased), Soleta (former), Xyon II, Kebron, Arex, M'Ress, McHenry, plus several others...

Trek lit hasn't changed that, although it seems there are much more aliens (and more non-humanoid aliens). An alien as the hero starship Captain would be refreshing, too.

Just check out New Frontier. The "heroic captain" is a quasi-Kirk/Alexander The Great analogue named M'K'N'zy of Calhoun (Mackenzie Calhoun is the anglosized version). He's Xenexian

 

[tmclough]

My pet peeve about ST books? That I own a lot more unread books, that I plan on reading some day, than I do read books. I also have too many ST books on my Amazon WishList. Basically, I'm a slow reader who is easily distracted. (And the internet does not help.)

And to think, I just bought 32 more books today at the local used books store 50% sale. Fortunately, 21 of them are short story novelizations (all of James Blish's, including Star Trek 12, and all of Alan Dean Foster's, except Log 6).

Now, how am I going to find the time to read them all?

 

[Corran Horn]

My pet peeve is that there aren't two wholly-new titles every month like there used to be.

 

[Thestral]

Ethnocentrism is a basic sociological concept, and there is nothing mature about ignoring the effects of ethnocentrism on our culture's thinking.

Don't ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to ignorance. There's no way of knowing what Frontier meant by that comment. It's entirely possible Frontier comes from a background where British Isle-originated surnames are the 90% norm and hasn't had any meaningful exposure to the larger world. Ignorant, but not necessarily malicious, and not deserving of hostility.

Which is why I used the term "ethnocentric" rather than "racist." "Racist" has malicious connotations that I doubt Frontier meant, whereas "ethnocentric" does not have the connotation of intentional malice or hatred. Indeed, the theoretical situation you describe fits in perfectly with the definition of "ethnocentric," which encompasses unintentional biases on the parts of an individual.

It wasn't what I was objecting to. The term is right, the excoriating attitude ("he was being profoundly ethnocentric, ...someone from another culture might be deeply insulted ...") suggests malicious intent and comes across as needlessly inflammatory.

 

[Sci]

Don't ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to ignorance. There's no way of knowing what Frontier meant by that comment. It's entirely possible Frontier comes from a background where British Isle-originated surnames are the 90% norm and hasn't had any meaningful exposure to the larger world. Ignorant, but not necessarily malicious, and not deserving of hostility.

Which is why I used the term "ethnocentric" rather than "racist." "Racist" has malicious connotations that I doubt Frontier meant, whereas "ethnocentric" does not have the connotation of intentional malice or hatred. Indeed, the theoretical situation you describe fits in perfectly with the definition of "ethnocentric," which encompasses unintentional biases on the parts of an individual.

It wasn't what I was objecting to. The term is right, the excoriating attitude ("he was being profoundly ethnocentric, ...someone from another culture might be deeply insulted ...") suggests malicious intent and comes across as needlessly inflammatory.

My intent was not to suggest malicious intent on Frontier's part, but I stand by what I said.
I'm sure Frontier didn't mean to be, and I'm sure he's not racist, and I'm sure he's not malicious, but his claim that there is anything more "common" or "simple" about Anglo-Saxon names was profoundly ethnocentric, and someone from another culture could easily be deeply insulted by it.

 

[Myasishchev]

Maybe he just meant what he said--simple. There's a world of difference in the complexity of "Chen" and "Rokossovosky," or "Hu" and "Petlyakov," even though the two complex names ordinarily denote white people, and the two simple ones don't. Hell, I just realized I've been pronouncing "Rokossovosky" wrong in my head for about five years.

 

[seigezunt]

My pet peeve is that there aren't two wholly-new titles every month like there used to be.

I'm actually glad of that.

Gives me a chance to catch up.

 

[JD]

Me too, it gives me a chance to read more different books.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I still wish all the books were numbered. I know I've said it before, but I'm Army....and somewhat anal in that regard. Can't help it, I like numbers.

They do still have numbers. Put 'em in ISBN order.

Gives me a chance to catch up.

Didn't help me. The average word counts per volume have almost doubled since the books dropped back from two-per-month.

 

[Therin of Andor]

If you ask me, tie in literature could go even further with that. It makes absolutely no sense for the Federation to be so Earth-centric, or all aliens looking like humans with make up, etc...

And yet, many have complained bitterly that they can't keep track of the more alien crew of "Titan".

An alien as the hero starship Captain would be refreshing, too.

There was an all-horta Starfleet crew in "Dyson Sphere".

 

[Thestral]

Trek lit hasn't changed that, although it seems there are much more aliens (and more non-humanoid aliens). An alien as the hero starship Captain would be refreshing, too.

Just check out New Frontier. The "heroic captain" is a quasi-Kirk/Alexander The Great analogue named M'K'N'zy of Calhoun (Mackenzie Calhoun is the anglosized version). He's Xenexian

Also DS9:R with Kira and Aventine with Dax.

 

[JarodRussell]

Trek lit hasn't changed that, although it seems there are much more aliens (and more non-humanoid aliens). An alien as the hero starship Captain would be refreshing, too.

Just check out New Frontier. The "heroic captain" is a quasi-Kirk/Alexander The Great analogue named M'K'N'zy of Calhoun (Mackenzie Calhoun is the anglosized version). He's Xenexian

Also DS9:R with Kira and Aventine with Dax.

Kira, Dax and Calhoun are not really aliens. They are humanoids, and their characters are very close to humans, to us (and even Calhoun was anglosized. Why not keep his original name, why would he need to change it?). I mean aliens that are really alien to us viewers/readers, both in appearance and behavior.

An all-Horta crew sounds interesting. Were they the hero characters in that novel?

 

[Therin of Andor]

An all-Horta crew sounds interesting. Were they the hero characters in that novel?

Kind of. The action is split across several ships. Starfleet has developed a starship without corridors and the all-horta crew create new tunnels as they go. Fun!

But the novel itself has many detractors.