Date: 03 Oct 2014 20:29 Title: In the Weeds
Oh the birds and the need...not a discussion I'm looking forward to myself, so I can totally relate to the reactions here. Another nice little look into little Spock's life
Author's Response:
Yep, I hear ya. I didn't think it'd be an easy topic for any parent, even those who belong to the most logical race in the galaxy.
Date: 28 Sep 2014 17:51 Title: In the Weeds
I really love stories that center around the difficulties that hybrids face (in fact, my favorite things to write are stories that feature those struggles). I love that you targeted some really tough issues: sexuality, sexual functioning, reproduction... all difficult topics for an adult, made worse when you're merely 7 and still haven't found your place in the world.
Well done!
Author's Response:
Thanks, Erin! What makes a character tick, be they hybrid or otherwise, it what inspires me, and much of my work centers around trying to get inside the characters' heads. That and how to deal with moral dilemmas are what I like to write, and read.
Date: 27 Sep 2014 22:26 Title: In the Weeds
In TAS (in Yesteryear, of course), the child Spock seems like an automaton. He's kind of a short adult more than being a child, and that's even at the start of that episode. I feel that you capture that well, and it's frankly kind of disturbing (at least it is to me) that he's like this. I can certainly see why, though.
Plus the bullies aren't gone, which is realistic, as is the idea that the bond with T'Pring isn't really there yet. And, as we learn later, it never develops.
The idea that the discussion would be put off, though, that strikes me as illogical, and as squeamishness on Sarek's part. After all, if the precise time of Spock's first Pon Farr is unknown - and as a hybrid, it's got to be even harder to predict than for a purebred Vulcan - why the hesitation? Plus the bullies at school already know at least something. Even if Sarek doesn't recognize that it's the same bullies, Spock himself has clarified that it's "older boys at school". Keeping Spock in the dark is not going to help him in either the short or the long run. Like it or not, Spock is half-human, and human boys hit puberty at, what? Age 12, plus or minus? Sarek has no way of knowing when it will really happen, and the subject has been broached.
For me as a reader, I'm taking that as Sarek being uncomfortable, and that indicates to me that Sarek isn't as in control of his emotions as he might be claiming.
Thanks for the input. I saw it as a typical reaction any parent has when faced with 'that' question from a child who is too young to understand the full ramifications in terms of physicality. Human parents would put off a discussion of the details of sex with a seven-year-old, and as Pon Farr is a topic Vulcans don't even discuss in detail among themselves, to my mind Sarek thought it was logical to delay the discussion -- in terms of when he thought his son would be better equipped to handle it, and also when they might have more information as to how his human half would affect Vulcan puberty, which coincides with one's first Pon Farr to my mind, which I feel wouldn't happen until the early 20's. If this is the benchmark for when couples marry (as it was in Amok Time) I can't see Vulcans marrying off their children at 12 or 13, or anywhere in their teens. I felt that, in his own weird, Vulcan way, Sarek is trying to reassure his son, and encourage him not to stress about something over which he will have no control, and which he won't have to deal with for many years yet. I guess I saw it as a natural progression of events that as his bond with T'Pring would open up and begin to develop, Vulcans would see this as the proper time to have 'the talk' with their children, and as we all know, Vulcans are 'proper' and strive to do things 'by the book,' not to mention that to my mind, Sarek is often in denial that his son is half human. He wants - and expects - him to be wholly Vulcan. Not logical behavior either if you ask me. ;-)
Author's Response:
Date: 27 Sep 2014 14:17 Title: In the Weeds
This was an interesting take on a young Vulcan's experience with growing up. I especially liked Spock's inner dialogue at the end about T'Pring!
Author's Response:
Thank you so much. I'm thinking about a companion piece from T'Pring's POV.
Date: 23 Sep 2014 22:16 Title: In the Weeds
A great handling of Spock's crisis. Too bad he had to find out about the harsh realities of pon farr so young. Clearly his full-Vulcan schoolmates are not as controlled as they believe, or they wouldn't have tormented a seven-year-old with a matter that mature Vulcans keep strictly private.
Spock hopes that T'Pring will be grateful for the match, but alas, such will not be the case. His human genes delay his first Time for so long that she grows weary of waiting for the "legend" and chooses the shifty-eyed Stonn instead.
Author's Response:
Thank you so much, and thanks for the idea. :-) And yeah, seems to me those Vulcan boys need a lesson in control. Although I suspect the elders just look away - it's what they're thinking as well, but can't do or say. Youth can get away with lapses in control where adults cannot.