Teal'c and Worf: redemptive, heroic...
Dec. 17th, 2007 03:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skywardprodigalAnd useful.
So the idea is, in sci-fi, particularly in sci-fi that involves aliens, is that people – well, heroes-- walk tightropes between worlds. They learn about themselves and they learn about one another. They learn about what they can do in the context of what they can’t change and vice versa. They confront the strange and in doing so re-recognize the familiar while learning about mysteries contingent on the mundane. All sci-fi protagonists do this during the course of whatever narrative road they travel. Teal’c of Stargate SG-1 and Worf of Star Trek are two such tightrope walkers.
Teal’c and Worf visually represent the dangerous, alien, reflective-of-the-shadow-side other. Functionally, they are two great, if terse, warriors who--as members of tight-knit, multicultural, multi-intelligent, interplanetary teams of self-described "peaceful explorers"--save their galaxies a lot. Teal'c and Worf accomplish this while embodying physical strength, mental fortitude, terrifying passion, and slightly archaic honor. They display familiarity and facility with weapons that code as primitive and foreign (Worf’s bat’leth and Teal’c’s staff weapon). Their family histories are violent, complicated, and fractured. In their home societies they’ve gone from outcast, to revered leader, to outcast, several times over having managed to both betray and embody the highest ideals of those societies. They’re also played by two ginormous black men. And they don’t use contractions.
What do Teal’c and Worf have in common besides the obvious? Not only do they navigate space in terms of planet-hopping and star-traversing but they also voyage through time. In doing so they embody the principle of sankofa. Figuratively and literally they travel to their pasts. Once there, they reconcile themselves to it and redeem from their pasts what they can. They take what they get from that knowledge into the present, and using that knowledge meet what challenges await them there. Not only do they participate in saving themselves, but their personal triumphs benefit their loved ones and respectiveworlds galaxies. They're not quite magical negroes in that they aren't negroes. They're aliens. Or at least unreal beyond the terms of collective imagination (or a subset of our collective imagination, because Tai Chi showing up as an alien martial rite? That's taking a living human tradition and labeling it non-human).
Among humans (in Stargate and Star Trek), often played by white actors and actresses, Worf and Teal’c serve as a means of comparing and contrasting the tension between ideals of the intellect and reason with the drives of revenge and violence. To borrow from Freud, they embody the fluid tension of ego, id, and superego; society, destructive biological imperatives, and personal survival. In doing so Teal'c and Worf impress their companions with their sameness to them as well as their alien-ness. Worf and Teal'c help their human companions master their environments while Worf and Teal'c pursue mastery themselves.
Worf spends much on his efforts to learn what it means to be a Klingon. Even when that may go against the interest of the Federation, his friends and allies within the Federation, such as Jean-Luc Picard, help him toward that end. Teal’c struggles with the costs of the learning curve of freedom. Teal’c’s allegiance to his family sometimes makes him a security risk for his human allies, and yet high-ranking human military officers that have allegiance with Teal’c (like Jack O’Neill) sometimes put themselves at Teal’c’s disposal. It’s interesting that in some respects, the friends and beloveds of Teal’c and Worf understand that these men, while men, are not human men but even as Others—-in their passions, loyalties, and values-- are to be respected, supported, honored, and deferred to (on occasion) and even at cost.
The journeys Teal’c and Worf make through time are aided, abetted, and facilitated by their alien (usually human) allies. Their human allies, while often seeing themselves as the norm and Teal’c and Worf as aliens nonetheless are truly supportive of Teal’c’s and Worf’s agendas. In their tight-rope walking, directed by them if never completely solo, Teal’c and Worf’s journies manifest the truth that redeeming what is good from the past and making that good available to the present enables positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge. Additionally, for benevolent use of knowledge to occur, deference, challenge, and respect in the context of mutually beneficial relationship is utterly necessary, but also comes at a price. Where there is true friendship, however, the price is willingly and knowingly paid. And, yet, Worf and Teal'c are cut off from their people even while their closeness to humans and other aliens benefit their people.
Sometimes, it's not all about the humans, their needs, and their agendas. Sometimes, the humans are in the Klingons' and the Jaffa's lives because they're useful to the Klingons and Jaffa. Teal'c and Worf's undertakings are to better themselves as individuals and to bring about positive change in their socities. They're not great family men in that they're emotionally distant, aren't particularly nurturing, need other people to handle the day-to-day, moment-to-moment details, and only seem 100% present in life-and-death (crisis) situations. But their reasons, and their aims, are their own. And it's mutually beneficial friendships and alliances with humans that enable Teal'c and Worf to achieve their goals where their own efforts might not suffice. The aliens (meaning non-Jaffa and non-Klingons) with whom they interact are useful people. They are real friends.
For the 6 People Of Color Carnival: Sankofa in Space as hosted at![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
deadbrowalking
So the idea is, in sci-fi, particularly in sci-fi that involves aliens, is that people – well, heroes-- walk tightropes between worlds. They learn about themselves and they learn about one another. They learn about what they can do in the context of what they can’t change and vice versa. They confront the strange and in doing so re-recognize the familiar while learning about mysteries contingent on the mundane. All sci-fi protagonists do this during the course of whatever narrative road they travel. Teal’c of Stargate SG-1 and Worf of Star Trek are two such tightrope walkers.
Teal’c and Worf visually represent the dangerous, alien, reflective-of-the-shadow-side other. Functionally, they are two great, if terse, warriors who--as members of tight-knit, multicultural, multi-intelligent, interplanetary teams of self-described "peaceful explorers"--save their galaxies a lot. Teal'c and Worf accomplish this while embodying physical strength, mental fortitude, terrifying passion, and slightly archaic honor. They display familiarity and facility with weapons that code as primitive and foreign (Worf’s bat’leth and Teal’c’s staff weapon). Their family histories are violent, complicated, and fractured. In their home societies they’ve gone from outcast, to revered leader, to outcast, several times over having managed to both betray and embody the highest ideals of those societies. They’re also played by two ginormous black men. And they don’t use contractions.
What do Teal’c and Worf have in common besides the obvious? Not only do they navigate space in terms of planet-hopping and star-traversing but they also voyage through time. In doing so they embody the principle of sankofa. Figuratively and literally they travel to their pasts. Once there, they reconcile themselves to it and redeem from their pasts what they can. They take what they get from that knowledge into the present, and using that knowledge meet what challenges await them there. Not only do they participate in saving themselves, but their personal triumphs benefit their loved ones and respective
Among humans (in Stargate and Star Trek), often played by white actors and actresses, Worf and Teal’c serve as a means of comparing and contrasting the tension between ideals of the intellect and reason with the drives of revenge and violence. To borrow from Freud, they embody the fluid tension of ego, id, and superego; society, destructive biological imperatives, and personal survival. In doing so Teal'c and Worf impress their companions with their sameness to them as well as their alien-ness. Worf and Teal'c help their human companions master their environments while Worf and Teal'c pursue mastery themselves.
Worf spends much on his efforts to learn what it means to be a Klingon. Even when that may go against the interest of the Federation, his friends and allies within the Federation, such as Jean-Luc Picard, help him toward that end. Teal’c struggles with the costs of the learning curve of freedom. Teal’c’s allegiance to his family sometimes makes him a security risk for his human allies, and yet high-ranking human military officers that have allegiance with Teal’c (like Jack O’Neill) sometimes put themselves at Teal’c’s disposal. It’s interesting that in some respects, the friends and beloveds of Teal’c and Worf understand that these men, while men, are not human men but even as Others—-in their passions, loyalties, and values-- are to be respected, supported, honored, and deferred to (on occasion) and even at cost.
The journeys Teal’c and Worf make through time are aided, abetted, and facilitated by their alien (usually human) allies. Their human allies, while often seeing themselves as the norm and Teal’c and Worf as aliens nonetheless are truly supportive of Teal’c’s and Worf’s agendas. In their tight-rope walking, directed by them if never completely solo, Teal’c and Worf’s journies manifest the truth that redeeming what is good from the past and making that good available to the present enables positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge. Additionally, for benevolent use of knowledge to occur, deference, challenge, and respect in the context of mutually beneficial relationship is utterly necessary, but also comes at a price. Where there is true friendship, however, the price is willingly and knowingly paid. And, yet, Worf and Teal'c are cut off from their people even while their closeness to humans and other aliens benefit their people.
Sometimes, it's not all about the humans, their needs, and their agendas. Sometimes, the humans are in the Klingons' and the Jaffa's lives because they're useful to the Klingons and Jaffa. Teal'c and Worf's undertakings are to better themselves as individuals and to bring about positive change in their socities. They're not great family men in that they're emotionally distant, aren't particularly nurturing, need other people to handle the day-to-day, moment-to-moment details, and only seem 100% present in life-and-death (crisis) situations. But their reasons, and their aims, are their own. And it's mutually beneficial friendships and alliances with humans that enable Teal'c and Worf to achieve their goals where their own efforts might not suffice. The aliens (meaning non-Jaffa and non-Klingons) with whom they interact are useful people. They are real friends.
For the 6 People Of Color Carnival: Sankofa in Space as hosted at
deadbrowalking![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-17 06:45 pm (UTC)This is an awesome essay.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-17 07:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-17 08:28 pm (UTC)To follow up on your point above
"And, yet, Worf and Teal'c are cut off from their people even while their closeness to humans and other aliens benefit their people."
don't you think that it's a little insidious that the only good Klingon/Jaffar is a socially dead one (at least to those in his/her own community)?
These guys occupy the same liminal state that in Westerns is often occupied by "the half-breed" or the "whiteman gone native".
While I think it's true that these half-in/half-out characters are interesting and useful tropes, if you leave the emotional center stuck at that point and don't extend it out to include other more-integrated Others, then aren't the directors still making the point that the terms that really matter are still the terms of reference of the humies?
I really enjoyed the Worf/Kern episodes on TNG. I thought those episodes really brought out something thoughtful and powerful in both Worf and the scripts of those episodes. I really felt let down when Kern was killed off (heroically of course), because it would have been MUCH more interesting and of course much more destabilizing if he had been allowed to live and to continue challenging Worf's splendid isolation.
Nice job as usual. You know I know I still owe you a response to your V for Vendetta post, it'll come out one of these days. Maybe over the break when I'm supposed to be interacting with my own family !!!
Joyeux Noël
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-18 03:42 am (UTC)Thank you, fa'. :D
don't you think that it's a little insidious that the only good Klingon/Jaffar is a socially dead one (at least to those in his/her own community)?
I don't like that idea. It gives me a bitty tummy ache and if I think about it, the ache gets worse. But that idea is there, and, I think it fits what I've seen of Teal'c and how he's paid and set apart from the Jaffa. *sigh* In seasons 9 & 10 I wept for Chulak. I hated that the Ori tore apart the Jaffa. And it really bugs me, like, omg HOW it bugs me, that Gerak was the credulous, looking-for-God-in-the-bad-place was played by Lou Gossett Jr.
These guys occupy the same liminal state that in Westerns is often occupied by "the half-breed" or the "whiteman gone native".
Tell me more please?
if you leave the emotional center stuck at that point and don't extend it out to include other more-integrated Others,
Like, uh, with Bra'tac and Teal'c? Hmm. I'm'a think on that too.
I adored sons of Mogh episodes. They made me warm. It just... Kern was so Other Brother. But then he and Worf would switch. Like, who's more dangerous?! I dunno! I thought we neutralized them! And the enemies of Mogh's honor would be scrambling. And I the only one who wondered if Mogh was like Malcolm?
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, too. *
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-05 02:57 pm (UTC)And also? veggie ocarina's for the win.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-07 09:09 pm (UTC)thanks for inviting me.
:-)
(no subject)
Date: 2008-04-08 02:19 am (UTC)Thanks! I hope things clear up for you soon.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-17 11:34 pm (UTC)This is really good.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-18 03:43 am (UTC)I shall consider it. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-18 12:03 am (UTC)Gah. Premature comment posting.
Date: 2007-12-18 12:13 am (UTC)Well said. This is an eloquent (and accurate) explanation of what makes these two characters so fascinating. And I think Michael Dorn and Chris Judge had more than a little to do with their characters not just being relegated to the role of 'the muscle' by giving them life and personality and humour even in scenes when they were written as 'the muscle'.
Re: Gah. Premature comment posting.
Date: 2007-12-19 06:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-18 03:44 am (UTC)perhaps slightly tangential
Date: 2007-12-18 06:42 am (UTC)Re: perhaps slightly tangential
Date: 2007-12-18 01:02 pm (UTC)Oh, yeah. That. Ideal for whom?
There are many not to subtle illusions to the Federation being (or at least thinking itself) more enlightened than others such as the Klingons and Ferengi.
Yeah. LOL. *sigh* In one of the earlier Klingon eps, when Worf met those two Klingon renegades who were hungry for war, that 'Federation way is better' showed up biggo.