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Long and Prosperous Life
Feb. 28th, 2015 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lolmacI started watching Star Trek when it first aired. I was in second grade at the time, and I completely and totally fell into fannish squee for the first of many times in my life (although I didn't have a word for it until decades later). We had a black-and-white set then; I didn't see it in colour until years later.
For the rest . . . Wil Wheaton said it better, so I'm going to quote him.
"I was too young to fully understand why, but as I got older and looked back on those years, it became clear: I identified with Spock because he was weird, and cerebral, and he was different from everyone else. He was just like me, but the things that made me a target of ridicule on the playground made him a valuable and vital member of his ship’s crew. In ways that I couldn’t articulate at the time, I wanted to be Mister Spock because if I was, I could be myself – quiet, bookish, alien to the people around me – and it wouldn’t be weird. It would be awesome."
I didn't have a word for what I was, but Mr. Spock gave me one. Leonard Nimoy created a character that gave me a way to think about myself that wasn't an automatic self-denigration. He may have done more than any other person to save my sanity as I struggled my way through childhood and adolescence. Ultimately, I had to get beyond the Vulcan model -- Luke Skywalker turned up just at the right time -- but it was Spock who got me ready for the Jedi.
Excuse me now -- I'm going to be watching a Trek marathon for a while . . .
For the rest . . . Wil Wheaton said it better, so I'm going to quote him.
"I was too young to fully understand why, but as I got older and looked back on those years, it became clear: I identified with Spock because he was weird, and cerebral, and he was different from everyone else. He was just like me, but the things that made me a target of ridicule on the playground made him a valuable and vital member of his ship’s crew. In ways that I couldn’t articulate at the time, I wanted to be Mister Spock because if I was, I could be myself – quiet, bookish, alien to the people around me – and it wouldn’t be weird. It would be awesome."
I didn't have a word for what I was, but Mr. Spock gave me one. Leonard Nimoy created a character that gave me a way to think about myself that wasn't an automatic self-denigration. He may have done more than any other person to save my sanity as I struggled my way through childhood and adolescence. Ultimately, I had to get beyond the Vulcan model -- Luke Skywalker turned up just at the right time -- but it was Spock who got me ready for the Jedi.
Excuse me now -- I'm going to be watching a Trek marathon for a while . . .
