Why Spock is really British

As we are still talking about the revival of Star Trek, it occurred to me that Spock is not from that strange orange planet, Vulcan, after all. Neither is he from the future, as he is portrayed in the film Into Darkness.

No, he is British and from the past.

 

I make this judgement because of the qualities and values he has. Spock is famous for being logical and for not displaying emotions. As was explained in the film, Spock (and all those from the planet Vulcan) does have emotions but the ideal is to control, thus conceal, them. These are British qualities from the Victorian period. The concept of making decisions based on logic, as opposed to emotion or spirituality, was at its height in Europe during the eighteenth century. This was during an intellectual period known as the Enlightenment, where the emphasis on principle and discovery was based on empirical study, not religious belief, which had preceded this time.

 

Spock was a 'mixed-species' child as his father was Vulcan and his mother was human. In the film we saw him being bullied because of his mixed heritage. So I guess that bullying and racism aren't just human traits, or perhaps the film makers tried to extend this into other worlds. It is definitely a human thing and has existed for as long as history has recorded. The invasion of the Anglo-Saxons saw battles between the migrant peoples and the indigenous Britons, which was to be expected. However, the Anglos clashed with the Saxons as well, with conflict based on racial lines as much as territorial ones. 

 

The original actor of Spock, Leonard Nimoy, also identified with his character in the television series. Nimoy was a Jew and often felt isolated because of his faith and for being born in America to immigrant parents (from Ukraine). Spock was the only Vulcan on board the star ship Enterprise, as well as being part of an endangered race of people following the destruction of his planet, Vulcan. Nimoy's personal experiences added to his portrayal of an alien.

 

Spock's legacy has been huge. NASA has adopted him as an unofficial mascot but more significantly, he has been inspirational to scientists and engineers. Despite the somewhat silly aspects of the character of Spock, such as the green blood and pointy ears, he has endured in popular culture and not just for the geeky Trekkies. He is a good role model. He is a peaceful, non-violent man: vegetarian so that he can avoid killing. Sounds a bit like compassion to me, but that's logic, not emotion, surely?

 

What I have learned from Spock is that nothing really changes: journeys of discovery are the only kind there are, whether in the future or the past.

Catch up on Chapter 2 of The Dark Garden

King Pybba of Mercia feels as if he is losing. 



He is losing control over his kingdom, his family and his life. His opponents overtake him at every turn. He needs to escape to a place where none of these things matter, where he can be unseen and feel better. A place where sanctuary transcends life.



That place is the Dark Garden.

Read it here

Why I like a Great and Terrible King

Tuesday 18 June 2013

He gave Jews yellow stars to wear hundreds of years before Hitler, and yet he is still my favourite monarch.

Yesterday was the birthday of Edward I, also known as 'Longshanks' and the 'Hammer of the Scots' and to some, 'The Leopard'; born in 1239.  To a lot of people he was the wimpy English king portrayed in the film Braveheart set against the brilliant William Wallace but as any historian will tell you, this was not how Edward really was. 

Edward was, as Marc Morris said in his biography, A Great and Terrible King. Great because he defined the English. The first English monarch to actually speak the English language since the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror, he decided that he would create an English identity. He re-discovered the myths of King Arthur and held him up as an English ideal. Edward's grandson, Edward III, continued with the theme and helped develop the perfect English chivalrous knight by utilising King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

A part of that English identity involved ruling all of the British Isles. There were many wars with the Welsh and Scottish and the ramifications are with us today. However, Wales has been left with the visual reminder of Edward's English dominion in the many castles he had built, from Conwy, Harlech and Aberystwyth. Personally I love these castles and they have surely boosted Wales's tourism. Not really sure how the Welsh view them today.

Edward established parliament and was involved in law-making as he restored royal power, which had been fading with previous monarchs. He also went on crusade, which further added to the English identity of Christian morality. It is reported that he was one of a very small number of monarchs who actually loved his wife and was devastated when she died. 

He was physically a big man, hence his nickname of ‘Longshanks’. He also had a temper so many people were afraid of him. Edward's military campaigns contributed to his fearful reputation as well as his expulsion of Jews when money became an issue. These are things that made Edward a terrible king.

It is not by chance that people reviewing the biography of Edward found it as exciting as a novel. He is my favourite monarch because he is so interesting. He had a full life, from birth to death, always intoxicating. 

My favourite - that doesn't mean that I like him. Except for the castles.

www.ajsefton.com

To boldly go...again

Space: the final frontier. Beam me up, Scotty. That is illogical, captain. Live long and prosper.

​

Familiar phrases that have now become clichés over the last fifty or so years. What is more, 'To boldly go' has been used to explain the concept of the split infinitive. Of course, these quotes are from the television series Star Trek: the nerdy American science fiction show that spawned a whole raft of next generation films. Lately the film makers have gone back to the beginning with the original characters of Captain James T. Kirk, Mr Spock, Lieutenant Uhura, Sulu, Bones and Scotty. Their names just tripped off my tongue. Which is strange as I never really liked the series nor liked the slightly odd Trekkie fans. 



A couple of weeks ago I was persuaded to go to the cinema to see the latest incarnation of Star Trek, Into Darkness. The quality of the film, like all modern films now, was excellent. 3D technology and  effects as well as intricate machinery made a visually stunning experience even to the non-believers like me. It put to shame the scrappy sets of the 1970s television series, the whooshing sliding doors of the future, the dreadfully short trousers and the very patronising depiction of a female lieutenant, who was nothing more that a receptionist in a short dress. So now there is the twenty-first century version of Star Trek available in accessible format for the modern teenager, complete with thinking baddie instead of the slobbering blobs of evil that I witnessed in my youth. The 'little woman' receptionist in space (the earpiece made me laugh in the original series) is no more. She is seriously technical, opinionated and argumentative. She is even having an affair with the guy with the pointy ears, the one who has no emotions. Only, now he does. He just controls them.



On the day that the British government, in its wisdom, has decided to return to a pre-1980s examination format for our school children, I am reminded that everything is cyclical. Change and going forward is all about progress. Boldly going into the unknown is a great motto. Discovery and exploration lead to greater knowledge and learning and I'm all for that. But part of that discovery is knowing when things are good and keeping hold of them. Like the original Mr Spock or Captain Kirk and the 'superheroes' of the comic book world who are being rebooted. All they needed was a bit of polish to update them.



http://www.ajsefton.com​

​

​

​

​

​

Why words matter - and why they don't

They tried to do it in the United States. They tried to do it with British school children in the 1960s. In 1897 an Association was set up just to do this: simplify English spelling. Now, according to linguist Professor David Crystal, it will happen in the next fifty years without any intervention.

​

The problem is, as we all know, that the rules for spelling in English English (as opposed to American English or Australian English, for example) are complex. The reason for this is that the language, along with spelling, has evolved from many sources. The Roman alphabet we use now only became the writing system in the seventh century when the missionaries brought the Latin scriptures over. The peoples before then were mostly illiterate although some religious leaders or nobles could interpret a  strange, linear system known as futhorc, or runes. The Celtic and Gaelic peoples on the periphery of the British Isles developed their own languages. Then came the Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavian Vikings, Normans, each with their own culture, words and spellings, and in some cases extra letters too. Add to that dialects that grew from a lack of contact and uniformity and no standardised spelling - there you are - confused.



Like everything else, spelling evolves. Just look at the works of Chaucer and Shakespeare. The first time I read Chaucer I wondered what language it was as it was so alien to me. But it was English and after a while I could decipher the words by considering the stems and origins until I believed that yes, it was my mother tongue.



However, according to the linguist Professor David Crystal, speaking at this year's Hay Literary Festival, it is not a natural evolution that will ease the spellings, but the internet. Search engines now recognise misspelled words therefore rendering them acceptable. Words such as receipt with the p missing and necessary spelled with an s instead of a cdemonstrate that silent letters are on their way out. ​



He said: “The internet will influence spelling. It will get rid some letters that irritate us, the letters that instinctively we feel shouldn't be there. But it will take time.” He suggests that it will take around fifty years.



Twitter came under fire for the most misspelled words and many people joined the debate on how dreadful spelling and grammar standards are. People write in text speak and children think that this is the normal thing to do because they are only exposed to this way of writing, some have argued. 



The interesting point here is that Facebook mainly does not comply with this trend of misspellings and abbreviation. Why is that? Of course people do not communicate on Facebook as they would with a solicitor or potential employer, but it is better than Twitter. The reason is that we simply alter our methods of writing, thus spelling, as we see fit. Twitter has a character limit, which I found infuriating when I first joined. I left after a week or so because I couldn't cope. Then I went back. Now I use abbreviations and leave off all punctuation so that my character limit is not reached. Likewise, when texting I use as few letters as possible to get my message across. I think I have fat fingers because I hardly ever get the message right first time. txt u l8r. Adequate.



Children, even if brought up texting and tweeting before they can speak, will come to know the appropriate occasions when writing needs to be formal or when 'text speak' is acceptable. Shopping lists, texts, essays, application letters are all different forms of writing and often spelling too. (Shop list - T; catfud; looroll...)



The question is whether it matters how words are spelled as long as the meaning is clear. The answer is that it depends on the context. On the whole, I think people know where the borders are. Nobody would expect to read an encyclopaedia in the style of a tweet. I'm not sure if Professor Crystal is right in his prediction of the death of the silent letter. It could go the same way as the comma in addresses, I suppose.



It seems to me that English will come full circle and we will be using runes again one day. As for the silent letters - will anybody notice?

http://www.ajsefton.com

​

Speaking Anglo-Saxon - Seven Ages of Britain - Series 1 Episode 1 Previe...

See more on the Anglo-Saxon language here http://www.ajsefton.com/#!pronunciation-guide-/c1zkb