Kirk/Spock, the original slash Or --Why Kirk and Spock?
I came to be an sf fan back in the fifties, when my brother Stephen Fahnestalk, a prominant fan nowadays living in Canada, and I were just kids. He'd joined the science fiction book club and I devoured happily the books he got as soon as he'd let me read them. I read Heinlein. I read Poul Anderson. I read Sturgeon, and Blish and, ironically, Hubbard. I read Campbell and I read Asimov.
If it said sf/fantasy, I read it. I was thrilled when I found out Andre
Norton was a woman.
Oh, I read other genres. History, Classics, Biography, Natural History.
Anything that amused me, including some preadolescent junk popular by
the time I was a teenager. But nothing captured my heart and soul like
science fiction. I watched Twilight Zone when I could, as a younger
teen. (It was on past my bedtime on school nights--which hardly stopped
me. I used to sneak down the stairs and watch through the french glass
doors. When I got caught, and grounded, I got more sneaky. Goes to
show.)
And when Star Trek debuted, I was there. The first episodic sf with
continuing characters. I was enthralled. When one of my friends had a
Halloween party, I bullied her into letting me watch the one and only
Halloween episode (Cat's Paw) on her parents' color tv set. I was NOT
going to miss my addiction. (Oddly enough, we are still friends after
forty years. I dunno why she puts up with me. She does not share my
love for sf at all, though she tolerates my addiction. I guess that's
love, too.)
And shortly after TOS went off the air, at that time, there was no
other Star Trek. But there were fans (fen, we called the plural) and
there was slash. Badly written, most of it. Cliched. There were bright
spots of whom Leslie Fish, still a delight with her filk, was one whose
name I can remember, but most of it was pretty awful soft core coy porn
written by wide eyed adolescents who could neither spell nor parse a
sentence. So I let my addiction be soothed by paperbacks (most of them
awful, too) and the eventual animation, not the greatest but way above
most animated drek on at the time. And I got on with Real Life.
I raised my family. I Came Out, in heady times. (Twenty years later,
not a lot of progress on the GLBT rights scene, but inroads.) I found
the love of my life, and got online. When the Internet became
available, I got on it. And I kept making friends all over the world. I
met a number of pro writers over the years and some became close
friends. I got told by lots of people I could write, so I unearthed
poetry I'd written about this fascinating friendship between
these two men, and I started looking closer at it. I have become
convinced that Roddenberry put a lot of homo-eroticism in the original
and in the films deliberately. (For the record, one of my pro writer
friends, who I won't name without permission, disagrees with me. He is
gay, and he knew Roddenberry and thinks we who are fond of this theory
are misreading Gene's intent here, though he does agree that Gene
eventually wanted to have gay characters when society was enough ready
for them.. There. I've put in the obligatory disclaimer.)
Anyway. Having stumbled across slash again, I was amazed at the
quality. I've made the online acquaintance of a number of wonderful
folks. Farfalla the Butterfly-Kitten, whose short stories are a
delight. Hypatia, likewise. Many others too numerous to name. In spite
of Sturgeon's Law (Ted Sturgeon, one of my favorite friends, another
lost to the Undiscovered Country, bless his soul, said "Ninety percent
of everything is crap", and many say he was optimistic), there are some
wonders out there. (If Greywolf the Wanderer is still online somewhere,
I hope he contacts fandom and starts writing again. I am greedy and
want more.)
Through all of this, the thread of easy friendship and love runs
through my life, as it runs through the lives of these archetypal
characters, played so well by the actors who are not they, but who must
have put a lot of themselves into these heroes. And what are GLBT
people fighting for, if not the right to be with the ones they love?
The original stories were written in a time before it was safe for any
gay or lesbian person to even hold hands--when even two straight people
of the same gender holding hands was cause for gossip and innuendo.
When being gay or lesbian was illegal, and transgender people were held
up as freaks. Bisexuality? Forget it. Didn't exist to those who denied
any of us the right to live, to love, to work, to pursue our own
happiness.
When you see the Three, Kirk, Spock and McCoy, you see the Trinity as
it runs through the archetypes of humanity. Kirk, adventurous, the
quintessential Hero of myth, the Golden Boy. Spock, the scientist, the
voice of reason and logic, and McCoy, love and unbridled affection. The
ego, the id, and the heart and soul, all wrapped up in one. You see the
love between the three. Does it have to be sexual? Well, they are all
metaphors, which is why they work as archetypes. Humans ARE sexual
animals, even those who would like to deny their sexuality. But we're
also complicated. Sex is a primal force, a primal need, but it can be
subliminated. People don't die of not having it.
But if you see the two main characters together, Kirk and Spock, you
see that these two men love each other unconditionally. They have each
others' backs. Spock is so ubiquitously behind and next to Kirk that
it's hard to see them any other way, even though through the series and
movies which have now descended into canon, we now know they did
eventually seperate, as all loves seperate one way or another. I cannot
imagine James Kirk not enjoying and having lots of sex. If he didn't
love Spock as much, he'd lay anything--male, female, or alien
other--who'd have him. But if he loved Spock enough to take it to that
other level, he'd commit to Spock totally because it's the Vulcan way.
Many see Spock as sexless and passionless, but if one understands the
Vulcan culture, as expressed in canon, one knows that Vulcans simply do
not talk about things which they'd rather not admit to. This is deeply
ingrained. Spock won't discuss his sexuality in public, but he's far
from sexless. I like to think his preference is probably for men, but
like all 23rd century people, he's got no real ingrained preferences
against any sexuality if it would fulfill his needs or attractions. And
he is attracted to some women, certainly. Droxine, the Romulan
commander.Leila. But if he's not already in love, why
discourage
Chapel, why no interest in the lovely T'Pring, who while she obviously
has no taste in men (in my opinion), is quite attractive? I think he
was already in love with Kirk before, but didn't know if it would be
reciprocated, and was unwilling to risk the friendship he already had.
I think after Amok Time, in sickbay, when he discovered Jim was alive,
the naked joy on his face spoke to me of love and romance. The two went
off arm in arm. If at the time they'd been male and female, it would
have been nothing less than romance--and I think that's exactly what
that story was.
Throughout the best fanfic on the web or elsewhere, one sees these two
as I like to think of them, true partners, who love each other
regardless of which gender body they have or what species they belong
to. It's unconditional love at its best. And McCoy, their friend, I see
him as the approving friend to both. The three are complete, one with
another. And though the sex is passionate between Jim Kirk and Spock,
the love is the most important quality. Each goes through hell and back
to rescue the other. Each opens up parts of himself that no one else
sees (except we, the "fly on the wall" audience). And each gives
unconditionally.
Heinlein once said that "Love is that condition in which the happiness
of the beloved is essential to one's own." We see that over and over in
the friendships between all the people of this crew, but most
importantly in Spock and Jim. It's very telling that after the
Fal-Tor-Pan, the ONLY person Spock's newly rejoined mind
remembers is Jim's. And the first person he goes to, after retraining,
is Jim. It's a love match, and they are bonded. Until death do us part?
That's for sissies. (with apologies to Farfalla, who said this first. But I liked it and stole it.)
That's my rationale, anyway. Yours may differ.