Hunger Pains
| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Hunger Pains |
| Publisher: | Orion Press |
| Editor: | |
| Author(s): | Denise Tanaka |
| Cover Artist(s): | Joey Rodrigues |
| Illustrator(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1997 |
| Medium: | print zine |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TNG |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | Orion Press |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Hunger Pains is het Star Trek: TNG 120-page novel by Denise Tanaka.
From an ad in The New Monthly: "Deanna Troi finds herself the victim of a telepathic Typhoid Mary, and it's up to her friends to find a cure for her condition. An excellent excursion into the hurt/comfort realm."
Author's Notes
First want to express gratitude to my writers critique group Some of them are not science fiction readers and had never watched the show yet their respectful and conscientious comments helped me to make this a betterstory. I couldn't have done it without you guys! I wrote this story over two years ago. It began as a dialogue between Data and the guest artist, which is now a brief exchange in chapter seven. I felt it wasn't compelling and challenged myself to tell a tale about a character I disliked the most. Before writing the book, it was Deanna Troi. When I finished, my opinion had changed. Through the process of exploring her character, I discovered that I almost could have been a Troi fan. Why wasn't I?
Superficially, I could blame the producers, who diluted her ESP after the pilot episode from straight telepath to empathy, and have continued to whittle over the years; the writers, who never understand what a female-centered matriarchy really meas; the costume designers; and the directors who angled their cameras down her cleavage. But it's mor than that.
The issues I raise in this story, of taking pleasure in someone else's pain, and the thrill of inflicting suffering, are timely because of the popularity of "First Contact." At the risk of sounding like a fuddy-duddy mom, it saddens me that I cannot take my six-year-old to this movie. She is as much of a Star Trek fan as I am (almost). She begged to go, and I had to refuse. It's too violent and scary. I'm not just worried about her having nightmares. I don't want her de-sensitized to the kinds of images in that film. I don't want a child to applaud when Data breaks a Borg's neck with his bare hands. It's not a happy ending when something dies while writhing in pain.
Power Rangers, Star Wars, Terminator, Robo-cop, ALien, ID4... All these scenarios get played out in sandboxes. Trying to appease me, my child says, "I'll only shoot bad guys." This raises the question, who are the bad guys? Every war or atrocity in human history was justified by US labeling some group as THEM. Enemies go in and out of fashion, but the basic instinct to "kick butt" remains. Humans will only survive into the 24th Century if we cease to subscribe to the mores of the Klingon Empire. Like the artist in my story, we need to stop feeding vicariously off of pain (real or imaginary.) We can be creative without hurting others.
Instead of being a silly, superfluous character, Counselor Troi embodies the ideals of the Federation. She chooses not to carry a phaser, and not because she is too much of a bimbo to use one. She is a non-aggressive explorer. Isn't that what Star Trek was supposed to be about, originally? What happened to Kirk's run-in with the Organians, or the Gorn captain, or several Vietnam War allegory episodes?
For the next movie, I would like to see something light-hearted with a positive message for the future. I don't want to see any more spaceships explode, or alien creatures being horribly annihilated. Leave that to Sigourney Weaver, Rick, Ron, and Brannon? Please, let the Enterprise be a ship of peace again. Give me a movie I can take my kid to.