NASA/Trek
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You may be looking for the article Star Trek Fandom and NASA.
| Commentary | ||
|---|---|---|
| Title: | NASA/Trek: Popular Science and sex in America | |
| Commentator: | Constance Penley | |
| Date(s): | 1997 | |
| Medium: | book | |
| Fandom: | slash | |
| External Links: | link on Googlebooks | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | ||
| ||
Overview
The book has been described as a "dual portrait of the NASA space program and Star Trek fandom from a feminist perspective" showing how each has co-opted each others themes and symbols--in fact, the book's own title slashes NASA and Trek. The second half of the book, "Trek" is predominantly about slash and slash fandom, and features the chapters "/", "Appropriate Technology," "Slash Tactics: Technologies of Writing," "Future Men," and "Unperceived Utopias."
Fan Reaction
- "For about the first two-thirds of the book. Penley explores NASA's place in popular culture. In the last third of the book, she focuses on the world of K/S, in which an "underground group of pseudonymous amateur writers have ingeniously subverted and rewritten Star Trek to make it answerable to their own sexual and social desires." There are even a few reprints of K/S artwork! Some of Penley's information on the K/S world seems rather dated, considering that the book was published in 1997, and, in my opinion, she sometimes gets more than a little carried away with her analysis. But she does make some valid and interesting points. A word of warning: this book isn't for the faint of heart (if there is such a thing among K/Sers). Imagine having a sociologist walk into your house one day and announce she's going to follow you around for a couple of weeks with a tape recorder and a notebook and you'll get the general idea. In other words, if you'd like to enjoy K/S without worrying a lot about why you're enjoying it (or having someone else tell you why she thinks you're enjoying it), then this book (or at least the K/S part of this book) isn't for you. If you can shrug off or laugh your way through the parts you don't agree with, then the book makes interesting reading." [1]
Reviews
- NASA/TREK by Michelle Erica Green
- Christa McAuliffe meets Captain Kirk by Daniel Bernardi
References
- ↑ from The K/S Press #22
