smw@tilt.UUCP (Stewart Wiener) (04/24/84)
From the responses to the survey, three views of Spock and his death, including my own. Of psychological interest, if nothing else. :-) Quoted, I should note, by permission. >From Roger Noe (ihlts!rjnoe): Sure, I was deeply hurt when Spock died. While pointing out that I have a very good grip on reality (whatever it may be), I felt I had lost a special friend. In many ways, Spock was AND IS real to me. The fact that he never has existed (or will exist) is irrelevant. I know he is primarily a work of art, not a substantial being, but to me he was and is real and "alive" in the sense that I have an understanding of his philosophy and his way of thinking. I know Spock better than I know anyone in this world with the important exceptions of myself and my spouse. Note that this includes the people I consider my close friends. That makes Spock an especially close friend. I cannot comment on the cause, but I can observe that Spock and I have many similarities when it comes to thinking and feeling, particularly so now that Spock has accepted his humanity. >From Jerryl Payne (inmet!jlp): DID I EVER CRY!????? You betcha! Every time I saw Kirk give the Eulogy for Spock, I felt those wet things well up in my eyes. Logical as I thought I was, it was impossible to suppress the feeling, even after the 12th time. I considered it a supreme job of acting on Shatner's part, embodying the right sense of loss and feeling for one whom we have come to respect, love and care about over the years. When I was young, I took refuge in the struggle of Spock to deal with emotions, while always maintaining the logical front. Spock in a sense became a personality model for me, one which I have since had to modify. Nevertheless, a significant impact indeed. >From Stewart Wiener (princeton!tilt!smw): I also took Spock as a role model, when I was eight years old or so... immediately after my father died, as I realized many years later. And I spent a few years afterwards straightening out the mistake I'd made in molding my personality after him, with incomplete success (never could break myself of hacking around on computers :-). And I came to the movie completely unprepared for it. (I'd bought the novel, and read exactly one-third of it; so I knew all about Saavik, and Genesis, and Peter Preston, but not about David Marcus and Spock's death.) Couldn't believe it was true till the credits started rolling up the screen. I was grouchy and irritable for the rest of the evening, then shut myself in my bedroom (with the soundtrack of ST:TMP playing) to finish the novel and cry for hours. It wasn't until last month that I saw it for the second [third, fourth... I rented the videotape for 2 days] time, and it no longer hit me so hard since I suspect now that his death isn't likely to be final. -- Most Trek types on the network don't take things so seriously. Many of those are Kirk or Scott fans, though, according to the survey; I wonder what that tells us? -- Stewart Wiener :-) "Read and weep as did Princeton Univ. EECS :-) Alexander when he beheld {allegra,ihnp4!mhuxi}!princeton!tilt!smw :-) the glories of Egypt."