(no subject)

[skygiants]

I wrote a series of Deep Space Nine ficlets about space Jews for the Purimgifts exchange this year, which was an interesting experience because a.) it's definitely the most Jewish fic I've written, including the year I wrote Fiddler on the Roof fic and b.) I tend to forget that many people don't necessarily know things like 'who is Queen Vashti' or 'what is a Purimshpil.' Which doesn't really matter, because these fics are unashamedly written for the people who do know those things, and that's fine. But it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

Anyway: Space Jews Celebrating Space Purim. I have accidentally given myself a lot of Jewish Star Trek headcanons now. Anyone want to talk to me about Starfleet Academy Hillel?

Comments

[sovay]

And that was even without factoring in the latinum he'd raked in after Morn discovered Manischewitz.

HUZZAH.

[skygiants]

SOMEONE'S GOTTA LOVE MANISCHEWITZ.

(...I love Manischewitz.)

[sovay]

SOMEONE'S GOTTA LOVE MANISCHEWITZ.

I don't love Manischewitz, but I'm here all day for jokes about it!

(The other two are also quite good. Is Jewish Bashir canonical and I missed when it went by or headcanon?)

[skygiants]

(Totally not canonical so far as I know, but hey, there's nothing to say he isn't, either! It's headcanon for my recipient for the exchange I was writing for, so I'm happy to roll with it.)

[sovay]

Totally not canonical so far as I know, but hey, there's nothing to say he isn't, either!

I was almost certain I would have heard if it were canonical, because that is my relationship to Jewish characters in media, but the fact that I have seen maybe ten episodes out of seven seasons inclined me to ask. Anyway, if I'm parsing the sambusak el tawa correctly, I like the idea of him being Iraqi Jewish.

Also, regarding—

"You can't just explain away things that don't make sense by waving your hand and saying a Q did it!"

I can't remember if you have read Phyllis Gotlieb's A Judgment of Dragons (1980), but the argument "a Q did it" is hilarious from the standpoint of that book.

[skygiants]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking! We know from canon that he's raised in London as a kid, so probably his family emigrated there a generation or two back.

I have not read A Judgment of Dragons, should I?

[sovay]

I have not read A Judgment of Dragons, should I?

Depends on how you feel about telepathic big cats, trickster energy beings, and a mid-future galactic federation full of all kinds of aliens, most of whom are the protagonists instead of humans. The opening novella is a time travel story from the perspective of some of its characters and a story of the Yiddish supernatural for others. I am sure there are spiky problematic bits scattered throughout, but A Judgment of Dragons (especially "Son of the Morning") was a huge influence on me from about age—eight?—onward and I like most of Gotlieb's other books very much. I wrote up some recommendations once here. Her GalFed stories are some of the most basically Jewish science fiction I have ever read. (So, yes.)