Vulcanology
May. 29th, 2009 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eleanorjaneSo I went to see Star Trek again last night, and enjoyed it very much - probably more so than the first time, in fact.
One thing that particularly stood out this time around was the Vulcans, and the impact of the movie's events on Vulcan society.
I read a fic yesterday - and I can't remember which it was - where Sarek meets Spock Prime, and wonders if this old Vulcan has Bendii Syndrome because Spock Prime is showing so many emotions. (For the newcomers: Bendii Syndrome is a disease which afflicts elderly Vulcans, breaking down their ability to control their emotions.)
I remembered it as I watched the movie, and I was struck: Spock Prime does, indeed, display far more emotion on his face than most adult Vulcans. Now, I am not a TOS expert, so my musings may be old news, or contradicted by the novels, but, well. We know that the Vulcans developed their rigid control over their emotions because they felt too deeply; they were too volatile and emotional, and they were at risk of destroying themselves as a people as a result.
So, it seems to me that the oldest, wisest Vulcans generally should be more likely to express emotion - in subtle, muted ways, certainly, but they're the people who are going to be most at peace with themselves, most in control of their internal conflicts. And I think Spock Prime was a lovely example of that; no-one who met him would think him an emotionless robot. He's firmly in control of himself, even after watching Vulcan be destroyed, but he trusts himself enough to grieve, and to laugh and smile with Kirk.
Most Vulcans, however, don't display this. Look at Sarek; he's a respected elder, presumably old and wise enough to have integrated and dealt with his internal conflicts - and yet he's as repressed as they get, unable to admit to Spock that he loved Amanda until he has to, to console his son. Sarek is archetypical; it seems to me that Vulcans - who are presented as a very traditionalist, hidebound culture - have grown so wary of emotion that they can't come to terms with it even when they're old enough and mature enough to deal with it sensibly. Their denial of emotion has gone way further than it needs to, and it's deeply culturally entrenched.
But now! There are very few Vulcan elders left - there are going to be plenty of younger Vulcans who weren't on the planet when it went bang, those out travelling with Starfleet or Vulcan's own space force or simply off-planet for whatever reason, but most of the elders were likely to be located on Vulcan for spiritual and cultural reasons. (Heck, we see two die on screen as Spock is rescuing them.) And then you've got Ambassador Spock, a man who is likely older than almost all of the elders they have left, and likely to be a cultural and political leader for the Vulcans as they rebuild - and a man who, we have already seen, is far more in touch with his emotions than most Vulcan elders.
So we've got a Vulcan society that is much more heavily weighted towards young, adventurous types, and a leader who is far more open to emotion and emotional experiences than Vulcan elders of the past. What might Vulcan culture look like in a century's time, in this brave new world?
One thing that particularly stood out this time around was the Vulcans, and the impact of the movie's events on Vulcan society.
I read a fic yesterday - and I can't remember which it was - where Sarek meets Spock Prime, and wonders if this old Vulcan has Bendii Syndrome because Spock Prime is showing so many emotions. (For the newcomers: Bendii Syndrome is a disease which afflicts elderly Vulcans, breaking down their ability to control their emotions.)
I remembered it as I watched the movie, and I was struck: Spock Prime does, indeed, display far more emotion on his face than most adult Vulcans. Now, I am not a TOS expert, so my musings may be old news, or contradicted by the novels, but, well. We know that the Vulcans developed their rigid control over their emotions because they felt too deeply; they were too volatile and emotional, and they were at risk of destroying themselves as a people as a result.
So, it seems to me that the oldest, wisest Vulcans generally should be more likely to express emotion - in subtle, muted ways, certainly, but they're the people who are going to be most at peace with themselves, most in control of their internal conflicts. And I think Spock Prime was a lovely example of that; no-one who met him would think him an emotionless robot. He's firmly in control of himself, even after watching Vulcan be destroyed, but he trusts himself enough to grieve, and to laugh and smile with Kirk.
Most Vulcans, however, don't display this. Look at Sarek; he's a respected elder, presumably old and wise enough to have integrated and dealt with his internal conflicts - and yet he's as repressed as they get, unable to admit to Spock that he loved Amanda until he has to, to console his son. Sarek is archetypical; it seems to me that Vulcans - who are presented as a very traditionalist, hidebound culture - have grown so wary of emotion that they can't come to terms with it even when they're old enough and mature enough to deal with it sensibly. Their denial of emotion has gone way further than it needs to, and it's deeply culturally entrenched.
But now! There are very few Vulcan elders left - there are going to be plenty of younger Vulcans who weren't on the planet when it went bang, those out travelling with Starfleet or Vulcan's own space force or simply off-planet for whatever reason, but most of the elders were likely to be located on Vulcan for spiritual and cultural reasons. (Heck, we see two die on screen as Spock is rescuing them.) And then you've got Ambassador Spock, a man who is likely older than almost all of the elders they have left, and likely to be a cultural and political leader for the Vulcans as they rebuild - and a man who, we have already seen, is far more in touch with his emotions than most Vulcan elders.
So we've got a Vulcan society that is much more heavily weighted towards young, adventurous types, and a leader who is far more open to emotion and emotional experiences than Vulcan elders of the past. What might Vulcan culture look like in a century's time, in this brave new world?