Pon farr

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A still from "Amok Time" showing Spock preparing for a battle with Kirk during his pon farr.
A still from "Amok Time" showing Spock preparing for a battle with Kirk during his pon farr.

Pon farr is an element of the fictional Star Trek universe, that occurs both in the canonical TV series and in fan fiction based upon the series. In Star Trek, Vulcan males go into heat every seven years, going into a blood fever, becoming violent, and finally dying if they do not mate with someone with whom they are empathically bonded. Pon Farr has occurred as a female Vulcan cycle in the character of T'Pol from the final Star Trek series, Enterprise.

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[edit] In canon

It was introduced in the original series episode "Amok Time", written by Theodore Sturgeon, which depicts Mr. Spock going into pon farr and being returned to Vulcan by Captain Kirk and Doctor McCoy in order that he can undergo the mating ritual and save his life.[1].

[edit] In fan fiction

Pon farr also occurs, and has been extensively elaborated from what is canon, in fan fiction. One such fan fiction story is "The Ring of Soshern", which was probably written before 1976, and circulated as samizdat until 1987, when it was formally published in the anthology Alien Brothers. The story is denoted as a "K/S" story — the designation for fan fiction stories that feature an explicitly sexual relationship between Kirk and Spock. (See slash story.) In the story, Kirk and Spock beam down to an unexplored planet, and are marooned there when the Enterprise is forced away by an ion storm. Spock goes into pon farr whilst they are marooned, and Kirk, realizing that he is in love with Spock, saves his life by mating with him. The two then form a homosexual relationship that continues back aboard ship.[1]

One element of pon farr in fan fiction that is typified by "The Ring of Soshern" is that Spock is unwilling to engage in sexual intercourse even when in the full throes of pon farr. This plot device allows stories to include many more occasions for erotic couplings. Other such elements include "plak tow" as the name for the blood fever; the fact that Kirk, because of his empathic bond with Spock, can sense when Spock is about to go into pon farr, and even suffers some of its symptoms himself; and "lingering death" as the name for the death of a Vulcan male in pon farr who is unable to claim a mate.[1][2][3]

[edit] Interpretation

Pon farr stories are so popular with slash story fans that at least one fanzine, Fever, is devoted to containing only pon farr stories. Penley believes that part of the stories' popularity rests in the idea of men being subject to a hormonal cycle, observing that in slash fiction the symptoms of pon farr are "wickedly and humorously made to parallel those of PMS and menstruation, in a playful and transgressive levelling of the biological playing field".[2]

Pon farr is perceived by many female fans of Star Trek fan fiction as a symbol of human sexuality in American males, who, like Vulcans, are trained not to express their feelings. The fan fiction stories are guides for readers in how to handle sexual encounters with human men, who are just as "alien" as Vulcans to women, being equally as unpredictable and uncontrolled.[4]

[edit] Contrast

Pon farr in canon and pon farr in fan fiction are presented very differently. In the TV series, sex is an intrusion into the world of work and male companionship. Vulcan males find pon farr to be embarrassing. It is uncontrollable, physical, and frightening. In fan fiction, in contrast, pon farr reveals male emotions in a controlled manner, making them available to the female partner, who controls the male's less controllable physical urges via the telepathic contact that married Vulcans share. Fan fiction stories embodying this are the "Night of the Twin Moons" series by Jean Lorrah, in which Amanda teaches Sarek and then other Vulcan couples to enjoy pon farr and to accept their physical and emotional natures.[4]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c Norman Bryson, Michael Ann Holly, and Keith P. F. Moxey (1994). "Feminism, Psychoanalysis, and Popular Culture", Visual Culture: Images and Interpretations. Wesleyan University Press, 311–312. ISBN 081956267X. 
  2. ^ a b Constance Penley (1997). NASA/Trek: Popular Science and Sex in America. Verso, 130. ISBN 0860916170. 
  3. ^ Joan Marie Verba (2003). Boldly Writing: A Trekker Fan & Zine History, 1967–1987. FTL Publications, 29. ISBN 0965357546. 
  4. ^ a b Camille Bacon-Smith (1992). Enterprising Women: Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth. University of Pennsylvania Press, 103–104. ISBN 0812213793. 

[edit] Further reading

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