o puer o puer o puer
Mar. 5th, 2010 06:49 pmI've been reading a lot of Star Trek fic recently, inspired by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
seperis wonderful War Games. There's a lot of really bad fic in this fandom, but also much good stuff, and not just in terms of characterisation and romance-building. Seperis' fic is prime example of this - there is a complicated world of inter-planetary politics, racial histories and ideologies, educational philosophies and practices, as well as Jim Kirk being hilarious and adorable. I love the fact that in our community we take incomplete worlds and complete them in our own way, that people think about things like what would a Starfleet Academy curriculum actually consist of, how would they train people from different cultural and educational backgrounds, and what kind of practical training would be given and needed for space exploration? It makes me want to learn science and I can assure you that I've never had such urges before. Which is why I particularly love the function of linguistics in these stories, the depth that goes into Nyota Uhura's education and research projects and how that is made relevant for her post in the Enterprise. I kind of want to learn Pre-Reformation Vulcan and study its poetry too. (And here's the fic about that, although it's Kirk, not Uhura, who does that. All the more hilarious for it, I say.)
All this has made me think more about the presence of learning in my life. I have a PhD and I teach at university, and most of my life revolves around a) making others learn and b) utilising my intellectual skills in the production of academic texts. I do not learn anymore, as such, but rather have graduated into using my learning in practice. This, I've decided, is kind of sad.
I bumped into a friend during my commute last week, and we had the usual moan about job prospects and poverty and the hardships of academic life. He shared a nugget of wisdom with me from Twin Peaks. Apparently, Agent Dale Cooper (whom I still remember with trepidation and the potential for nightmares, cause that shit was fucking scary) advises someone to give themselves a treat every day. Despite its very very disturbing origins, I have taken this advice to heart. I have a treat every day, a glass of wine (um, this is a treat I seem to have most days :D), an episode of Criminal Minds, a fancy coffee. And a couple of times per week, that treat is a new chapter of my Teach Yourself Latin book. Seven years ago I attended some Latin classes at my university, enjoyed it a lot but didn't ultimately have time for it. Latin is something that would actually be useful in my research, and I find it really interesting to learn. I have refrained from restarting it because I have too much work to do as it is, but then I thought - what if it is not a chore, not one more thing in the endless pile of things to do, but a treat instead? What if this was my pleasurable incursion into Things Not Work? And I've discovered that this way I will actually pick up the book and learn, but also think about it and learn, and think about using it (one day, Horace, one day you and your boy-loving odes will be mine!). And it is wonderful.
How about you? Has fanfiction ever made you want to learn something?
seperis wonderful War Games. There's a lot of really bad fic in this fandom, but also much good stuff, and not just in terms of characterisation and romance-building. Seperis' fic is prime example of this - there is a complicated world of inter-planetary politics, racial histories and ideologies, educational philosophies and practices, as well as Jim Kirk being hilarious and adorable. I love the fact that in our community we take incomplete worlds and complete them in our own way, that people think about things like what would a Starfleet Academy curriculum actually consist of, how would they train people from different cultural and educational backgrounds, and what kind of practical training would be given and needed for space exploration? It makes me want to learn science and I can assure you that I've never had such urges before. Which is why I particularly love the function of linguistics in these stories, the depth that goes into Nyota Uhura's education and research projects and how that is made relevant for her post in the Enterprise. I kind of want to learn Pre-Reformation Vulcan and study its poetry too. (And here's the fic about that, although it's Kirk, not Uhura, who does that. All the more hilarious for it, I say.)All this has made me think more about the presence of learning in my life. I have a PhD and I teach at university, and most of my life revolves around a) making others learn and b) utilising my intellectual skills in the production of academic texts. I do not learn anymore, as such, but rather have graduated into using my learning in practice. This, I've decided, is kind of sad.
I bumped into a friend during my commute last week, and we had the usual moan about job prospects and poverty and the hardships of academic life. He shared a nugget of wisdom with me from Twin Peaks. Apparently, Agent Dale Cooper (whom I still remember with trepidation and the potential for nightmares, cause that shit was fucking scary) advises someone to give themselves a treat every day. Despite its very very disturbing origins, I have taken this advice to heart. I have a treat every day, a glass of wine (um, this is a treat I seem to have most days :D), an episode of Criminal Minds, a fancy coffee. And a couple of times per week, that treat is a new chapter of my Teach Yourself Latin book. Seven years ago I attended some Latin classes at my university, enjoyed it a lot but didn't ultimately have time for it. Latin is something that would actually be useful in my research, and I find it really interesting to learn. I have refrained from restarting it because I have too much work to do as it is, but then I thought - what if it is not a chore, not one more thing in the endless pile of things to do, but a treat instead? What if this was my pleasurable incursion into Things Not Work? And I've discovered that this way I will actually pick up the book and learn, but also think about it and learn, and think about using it (one day, Horace, one day you and your boy-loving odes will be mine!). And it is wonderful.
How about you? Has fanfiction ever made you want to learn something?
