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Rebloggable-d by request: Ship naming conventions: slash versus smoosh / Spirk vs K/S?

dduane:

evalilith asked:

Here is a question that has plagued me for some time and that you might be able to answer: I know that Spock/Kirk was the original pairing name and the origin of “slash” as a term, but is “Spirk” still relatively old as a name for the ship? And if it is from the old guard, do you happen to know why (oh why) they didn’t go with “Spork”? If it is in fact my contemporaries who created the term, I apologize for the bother.

Others might want to chime in on this, but if my memory doesn’t deceive me, the smash-fragments-of-two-names-together-forcibly convention for indicating celebrity couples and (eventually) putatively-shipped couples is no more than about ten years old. So the “Spirk” convention wouldn’t be any older than that, max. Up until then, the preference — insofar as I noticed — was always to use slashes between full names.(Which I kind of prefer, as some of the smashed-together ship names are pretty ugly.)

And (again, if my own observation’s to be trusted) I don’t recall anyone using “Spirk” until the first rebooted Star Trek film came out in ‘09. And even then, not immediately. But I think I would have noticed, because the word “Spirk” immediately reminds me of an old joke mentioned in Whitfield’s The Making of Star Trek, where Roddenberry & Co. are discussing the convention of all male Vulcans having names that start with the letter S, end with the letter k, and have five letters. A long chain of silly memos go back and forth among Trek staffers on this subject: “Spirk” is one of the names that comes up. And someone says in one of these memos that this naming style could be problematic when constructing the names of Vulcan legal firms, which would all sound like “Speek, Spirk, Spack, Spunk and Roddenberry.” (The last name — the memo says — inserted to make it plain that this is science fiction.)  :)

…Anyway, I don’t think “Spirk” can be blamed on the older wing of the fandom. And as for not wanting to use Spork, well, after all, that’s a utensil. ;)

(ETA: notes here also from the ask box on the original message:)

From kiranwearsscienceblues:

From what I’ve heard about Spirk vs. K/S, “spirk” originated on Tumblr (wasn’t even a thing with the 2009 film fans on LJ) primarily because of the tagging system, which can’t handle slashes. “Spirk” was probably chosen over “spork” for the same reason - that when searching for the tag, we don’t get images of sporks with our fic and art.

From intheafterlight:

I have seen name-smushing predating that ‘about a decade’ timeline, but that was exclusively in Japanese media fandoms (anime and manga both). I couldn’t tell you if the practice arose independently in celeb/Western shipping, or if it came about with anime and manga’s increased mainstream acceptance -> people using it for Western fandom shipping -> reporters picking up on it for celebs. Or if Western shipping is linked to anime/manga practices and the celeb culture came up with it independently.

In my humble (ha) opinion, creating a portmanteau of the character’s names seems to degrade the characters (or people, as the case may be) to only what they are within the relationship, removing their individual identity and replacing it with a construct that is neither participant but is supposed to, somehow, describe both of them.  I prefer to just name the characters in the ‘ship with a slash or a dash or maybe a few commas, depending on how many I want to play with at a time.  Since I was ‘taught’ (in so much as fandom teaches [which, depending on the fandom, can really be quite a lot]) that with the slash, the first character is the ‘active’ or ‘dominant’ character and I tend to play with positioning as well as numbers, commas are my most common tool of delineation.

Try to seduce me in 7 words or less.

cyanine:

Aww snap, it’s on

(via sonata-de-morte)

My plans for the weekend:

• Do the grocerying I need to on Friday afternoon (maybe indulge in a cinnamon hot fudge sundae before hand)
• Write 5k words on Saturday. This is a stretch, but I think doable.
• Recover from writing 5k words on Sunday (perhaps involving naps and other indulgences, such as rotisserie chicken)
• Not work on Monday. Yay for long weekends.

Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy is a rather irritating trait, but it surrounds us constantly.  I intend to make the argument that racism, sexism, and classism are all forms of hypocrisy.

Judeochristian philosophy speaks against hypocrisy in several places, equating it with the sins of lying and murder, yet how many times have the words ‘do as I say, not as I do’ or their equivalent been used by parents who claim to follow this philosophy (I will not speak to specific sects nor to other philosophies since I don’t know them well enough to). So, from the earliest education, children are taught that hypocrisy is wrong, except when their parents do it.

It is also from parents that children learn their first attitudes toward other people and how to interact with other people.  If things are labeled ‘girl’ or ‘boy’ and then value judgement words attached to them, children will learn these and this attitude will spread from things to people.

The expansion from labeling toys as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ continues to people.  Comments of  ‘they’re not like us’ or ‘they got what they deserved’ serve to further strengthen  the us/them dichotomy, deepening the hypocrisy.  Anything ‘I’ gain is earned, anything ‘I’ lose is bad luck and ‘unfair,’ but anything ‘you’ gain is stolen/luck and anything ‘you’ lose is earned.

However power is gained from labeling and degrading one side of an equation, so it continues. Power is addictive, but if you ask those who have it to consider their actions from the other side, that is to degrade their ‘toys,’ they will cry out in pain at the unfairness of it.  Cries of ‘misandry’ and ‘reverse racism’ stem from this hypocrisy being pointed out and action to correct it being requested/demanded/taken. As stated above, hypocrisy is taught to be wrong, except when practiced by the individual doing it. Pointing this out is ‘hypocritical’ only because it causes the hypocrite pain and, with the deeply held belief that only good things are ‘earned,’ the hypocrite will feel ‘unfairly’ prosecuted, or they will protest the loss of their ‘rightful’ power.

Am I trying to belittle or downplay the struggles of those seeking equality? Not in the least.  What I’m suggesting is that all law makers participate in Jane Elliott’s Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes before they are permitted to take office, then expand that requirement so that anyone in a position of authority must take it, then continue until it is required for every single child to take the class.  Empathy is a powerful tool against hypocrisy.  Would this end all of it? Probably not, but it would make a serious dent, I believe.

Am I possibly over simplifying this? That is possible, yes, but I think all the rights that people are fighting for, the equality that should exist but doesn’t stem from hypocrisy.  If those in power could be made to feel the result of their hypocrisy, truly suffer the ‘inconveniences’ (this should be a much stronger word) they force on others for a day or, better, a week., I think change could happen.

osa-p asked: B A C O N

B - Who the last person I talked to on the phone was
A customer, but if we’re not talking work, BlueUtopiah

A - If I’m in love.
Yes, with someone disconveniently far away.

C - How long it’s been since I’ve kissed.
Last May T_T

O - If I like my school.
When I went there…this hard knocks school kinda sucks, though, I’m sort of going to Khan Academy and that’s pretty cool…

N - If you want to know how I treat my friends.
I’ll do what I can for my friends, if it’s in my power to do.  I’ve been known to buy plane tickets, offer couches, spot meals, be an ear, wave pom poms, help with homework, cook, teach people to make change.  Friends are very important to me.