“Dagger of the Mind” — Allegory for 2004 America
Written byPosted on May 28, 2004
Filed Under Politics, Satire, Star Trek
[For the purposes of this experiment, replace DR. ADAMS with THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION, KIRK with VOTER IN AMERICAN HEARTLAND, HELEN with AMERICAN INTEGRITY, and "Enterprise" with DETERMINATION TO TAKE BACK WASHINGTON.]
DR. ADAMS: “Now Captain Kirk is going to have a complete demonstration. I want there to be no doubts whatever in his mind.”
KIRK: “Mmmmm.”
DR. ADAMS: “You’re madly in love with Helen, Captain. You’d lie, cheat, steal for her, sacrifice your career, your reputation.”
HELEN: “No, Doctor! No!”
DR. ADAMS: “The pain — do you feel it, Captain? You must have her, or the pain grows worse, the pain, the longing for her.”
KIRK: “Helen.”
DR. ADAMS: “For years, you’ve loved her, Captain, for years.”
KIRK: “For years, I’ve loved you.”
DR. ADAMS: “You must continue to remember that, Captain. And now…she’s gone.”
[The mind machine is turned up to a dizzying level.]
KIRK: “Helen! Helen, don’t go! I need you, Helen!”
DR. ADAMS: “Now, Captain…you must take your phaser weapon and drop it to the floor. Captain, the pain increases unless you obey me.”
KIRK: “I…must…drop it.”
[KIRK drops phaser.]
DR. ADAMS: “Very good, Captain. Very good indeed. And now your communicator. Drop it to the floor.”
[KIRK desperately flips open communicator.]
KIRK: “Kirk to Enterprise.”
[The mind machine is amped up further.]
KIRK: “Uhhhhhhhhhh! Kirk…to…Enterprise. Ahhhhhhhh!”
HELEN: [shrieking] “No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
[KIRK laughs maniacally in pain/torture/confusion, as camera fades out to commercial break.]
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5 Responses to ““Dagger of the Mind” — Allegory for 2004 America”
Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan. The famed writers behind Smart Bitches, Trashy Books have written a very funny and thoughtful volume about romances, both Old Skool and New Skool. Here is a book that any smug and humorless literary manboy beating his flabby passive chest over Banville or Bolano should probably read pronto, if only for the distant possibility that he might get over himself. While the Choose Your Own Adventure segment at the end caused me to have a very disturbing dream involving Shelley Long (don't ask), Sarah and Candy did have me rethinking many of my own misperceptions when I wasn't busy laughing. They're not afraid to take on the New York Times Bok Review or even the groupthink within certain sectors of the romance community.
Alice Fantastic by Maggie Estep. This wild and highly enjoyable narrative involves two sisters (presumably, the third one was still being rented out by Chekhov), a hippie ex-junkie mother who lives with seventeen dogs, a murder, gambling, and libidinous Hollywood actresses who live in Woodstock. But this is the wonderful Maggie Estep we're talking here. And what seems at first like a quirky yarn becomes something unexpectedly moving about connectivity. What I love about Estep's work is the way that she'll juxtapose an extremely astute observation (now that you mention it, why do cab drivers always have somebody to talk with on the phone past midnight?) with an often outrageous story development.
Generosity by Richard Powers. It doesn't come out until September 29th, but Richard Powers's latest will have anyone committed to books reconsidering their literary fervor. I foresee some animosity from the vanilla critics hostile to idea-driven novels, but book bloggers, YouTube chroniclers, and MFAs would do well to plunge into this chance-taking narrative, which introduces vital questions about what the reader's relationship is with media, scientific dissection, and "creative nonfiction." Are we rats fleeing to happy cities? Or can we find the humanism within the purported plague?
Pieces for the Left Hand by J. Robert Lennon. Lennon is one of the most underrated fiction writers working today. Much as On the Night Plain proved that Lennon had a lot more in the toolbox than heartfelt (and often very funny) suburban satire, this slim but fascinating volume juxtaposes 100 small-town anecdotes -- arranged by category -- in a manner that reads, at times, like Nicholson Baker's passions for minutiae and, at other times, Stewart O'Nan's concern for psychological detail. The result is fiction that makes us wonder about whether one person's subjective view of particulars can entirely be trusted. This book never found a publisher in 2005. But thankfully, Graywolf has released it in the United States, along with Lennon's latest novel, The Castle.
Wonderful World by Javier Calvo. This wonderfully raucous volume has been completely ignored by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. But it's probably one of the most delightful reading experiences I've had this year. Calvo cavalierly mashes up multiple genres and manages to mix up familial subtext with larger-than-life, almost cartoonish characters. (Indeed, one might argue that one mobster's penis is a character of its own in this sprawling novel.). This is not an easy thing to pull off, but Calvo makes it work. And it's helped immeasurably by Mara Faye Lethem's idiom-specific translation. (See longer post.)
The Means of Reproduction, Michelle Goldberg This thoughtful book tackles the complicated (and little discussed) subject of reproductive rights from numerous angles, which includes a number of unpleasant but necessary ones. The upshot is that there isn't a quick fix solution for declining birth rates and fundamentalist abuses. Just about every political faction has contributed to the friction. But you'll want to read this book anyway to refamiliarize yourself with the topic, but also to understand just what's occurred during the past several decades to get us where we are today. (See also podcast interview with Goldberg.)
Or send materials to:
315 Flatbush Avenue, #231
Brooklyn, NY 11217
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So true. Beam us the fuck out of there/here.
I can’t remember–does Kirk ever get inside Helen’s tunic in this episode? Certainly, we know “Shagner” banged every yeoman actress from here to Rigel 7.
Beck: Oh, it’s even better than that. This little exchange comes AFTER Helen had used the machine to implant a memory in Kirk’s head that she was swept off her feet by Kirk and taken to his cabin at a Christmas party! So in this case, it was the hot brainy officer who took the initiative, which keeps the allegory true to current standards.
Hey, if Trekkies can maintain the whole Klingons as Soviet Union allegory, we can keep up this allegory, no?
So timely, what with the release of Trekkies 2 coming up – watch for Mickie in this upcoming documentary. And brilliant. An utterly brilliant entry. We need more like this.
When are you going to review “Medicine Man” and “Road House”?
Fantastic.
That Dr. Adams was very hot.
There might be another swell allegory for Amer. in 2004 in the TOS. It’s been on my mind since I read yours. It’s the ep. where superpeople hijack the Enterprise. They need to go back to Kelvin. And the material that makes up the bars on the planet where the crew is imprisioned is “similar to diburnium.” Anyway, Kurt has a discussion with an amazing blonde he is only hitting on to make the leaders of the Kelvin’s jealous. She has been ‘reading through human lit.” and learning that humans put a lot of “emphasis on love” in their lit. She asks why we devote many pages to a “simple biological function!” And Kurt is all, “well, we enjoy it.”