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K/S, then and now: nature or nurture?

  • May. 13th, 2009 at 9:03 PM
crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
I'd been idly speculating about how long I could keep my journal a Star Trek XI-free zone, sort of like when you see how long you can hold your breath. And then I saw [personal profile] laurashapiro 's post linking to an SF Chronicle piece celebrating not the slashiness but rather the bromance of Kirk and Spock, and it got me thinking.

Here's my question:

Did the new movie's Kirk and Spock simply inherit the original series' slashiness as part of Star Trek's DNA, so that they don't even need to generate their own subtext or UST and can just live off of the legacy of the original characters' aura, like the slash pairing version of a trust fund kid?

Or did Chris Pine's Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock go out and earn their slashiness the old-fashioned way, refusing to ride on the slashy coattails of Shatner & Nimoy?

Maybe a little of each? Or do you see the slashiness of Pine!Kirk and Quinto!Spock as different than that of Shatner!Kirk and Nimoy!Spock -- a K/S 2.0, maybe?

I'm asking because I can't tell -- I don't actually remember whether there was any dialogue, any moments, any lingering glances or "weird about each other"-ness between Kirk and Spock that an ST:TOS-naive baby slasher or proto-slasher would pick up on if they were discovering slash for the first time.

Though hey, who knows what goes on with kids these days! Maybe slashiness itself is just different now than it was 40 years ago?

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Comments

giandujakiss: (Default)
[personal profile] giandujakiss wrote:
May. 14th, 2009 02:14 am (UTC)
That's pretty much how it was described in the NYT review:
n the tradition of many great romances, the two men take almost an instant dislike to each other, an antagonism that literalizes the Western divide between the mind (Spock) and body (Kirk) that gives the story emotional and dramatic force as well as some generous laughs.
crypto: Amy Pond (Default)
[personal profile] crypto wrote:
May. 14th, 2009 02:22 am (UTC)
How did I instantly know that it was Manohla Dargis who wrote that review and not A.O. Scott?
musesfool: eucalyptus by stephen meyers (we'll go where eagles dare)
[personal profile] musesfool wrote:
May. 14th, 2009 02:27 am (UTC)
Exactly. I don't even ship them (in either incarnation), but it's definitely a launching point if people want to.