In The Valley Of The Shadow
I have just learned of the passing of Jeanita Danzik, who died in a car accident in Washington D.C. in June.
Jeanita's name alone takes me back to the mid 1990's, right just over the pinnacle of my hardcore Star Trek phase, and reading a lot of fanfiction from some amazingly talented writers from that time. Q being my favorite Trek character (and a fiery obsession of mine throughout much of the time Star Trek: The Next Generation was on) I focused on much of the Q-centric fiction over at the now spam-clogged alt.fan.q usenet, and Jeanita was one whose storytelling skills had the potential to possibly make a name for herself in the "legitimate" world of literature. I still have most of her stories printed out and locked into 3-ring binders on my bookshelves.
One of my favorites of her work, "The Q Who Fell To Earth", was a spinoff of Alara Rogers' amazing "Only Human" (a spin-off the episode "Deja Q"), a piece of work so influential that it has spawned a dozen or so spinoffs all over the fandom and the novel isn't even completed. Her original character of Riller Harris, an Orionian lawyer, is best explained by Alara's own words on the subject:
"Riller Harris and her problems with Starfleet and Federation society because her mother is an Orion slave was the first treatment I encountered in Trek fanfiction of the issues of minorities and racism, and the first encounter I'd *ever* had with the notion that racism doesn't have to be hatred, it can be amazed pleasure that one of "those people" is actually doing so well. Patronizing, well-meaning, liberal... the kind of attitudes people like me adopt reflexively because we think it's good to support minorities' achievements and don't realize how irritated we would be if people looked at *our* achievements as if we were dancing bears or something. It opened my eyes, seriously. It's also a realistic treatment of the issue for the Star Trek universe, where the more pernicious, obvious forms of racism have been mostly eliminated in the Federation."
For anyone who may be interested in reading any of Jeanita's Star Trek fiction, Alara has several in her archive.
R.I.P. Jeanita.
Jeanita's name alone takes me back to the mid 1990's, right just over the pinnacle of my hardcore Star Trek phase, and reading a lot of fanfiction from some amazingly talented writers from that time. Q being my favorite Trek character (and a fiery obsession of mine throughout much of the time Star Trek: The Next Generation was on) I focused on much of the Q-centric fiction over at the now spam-clogged alt.fan.q usenet, and Jeanita was one whose storytelling skills had the potential to possibly make a name for herself in the "legitimate" world of literature. I still have most of her stories printed out and locked into 3-ring binders on my bookshelves.
One of my favorites of her work, "The Q Who Fell To Earth", was a spinoff of Alara Rogers' amazing "Only Human" (a spin-off the episode "Deja Q"), a piece of work so influential that it has spawned a dozen or so spinoffs all over the fandom and the novel isn't even completed. Her original character of Riller Harris, an Orionian lawyer, is best explained by Alara's own words on the subject:
"Riller Harris and her problems with Starfleet and Federation society because her mother is an Orion slave was the first treatment I encountered in Trek fanfiction of the issues of minorities and racism, and the first encounter I'd *ever* had with the notion that racism doesn't have to be hatred, it can be amazed pleasure that one of "those people" is actually doing so well. Patronizing, well-meaning, liberal... the kind of attitudes people like me adopt reflexively because we think it's good to support minorities' achievements and don't realize how irritated we would be if people looked at *our* achievements as if we were dancing bears or something. It opened my eyes, seriously. It's also a realistic treatment of the issue for the Star Trek universe, where the more pernicious, obvious forms of racism have been mostly eliminated in the Federation."
For anyone who may be interested in reading any of Jeanita's Star Trek fiction, Alara has several in her archive.
R.I.P. Jeanita.
posted by Melissa at 8:32 AM
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