Kirk Your Enthusiasm (Intro)

By: HILOBROW
July 29, 2012

Introduction to a series of posts, each one analyzing a single Captain Kirk scene from the Star Trek canon.

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In its tireless mission to bring truth and beauty to the Internet, HiLobrow brings you KIRK YOUR ENTHUSIASM!

Inspired by the success of last summer’s KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM series (25 posts, by 25 authors, about Jack “King” Kirby), tomorrow HILOBROW will launch a 25-part series of posts dedicated to the social, political, cultural, psychological, historical, dramaturgical, and epistemological analysis of Captain James T. Kirk.

KIRK YOUR ENTHUSIASM is a critical celebration of Kirk — the character, and the man. There will be no fanboy or fangirl pettiness about green tunic variants and standard-issue mustard-yellow garb. Nor will you find any cynical deconstruction of what our friend Greg Rowland terms Star Trek’s “desilusion” — the simulacrum principle behind the fiction and reality of the original series as manifested on the Desilu set.

kirk vs. snark

And most importantly of all, there is no snark! Snark is like the M-113 creature in “The Man Trap”: It’s magnetically attracted to Kirk’s body, and therefore deadly to him. Although (like McCoy), HILOBROW’s editor Joshua Glenn sometimes mistakes snark for the beautiful irony with which he fell in love as a younger man, when snark threatened Kirk (via some of the pitches he received for posts in this series) he was dimly able to perceive its true monstrousness — and destroyed it without hesitation.

With our thanks to the good people at Greg Rowland Semiotics (sponsor of this series), welcome! To a series of essays penned by some of the most insightful and talented Star Trek critics around. The series lineup is below.

As Kirk says at the beginning of “The Apple,” start your readings.

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Justice or vengeance? by DAFNA PLEBAN

Kirk teaches his drill thrall to kiss by MARK KINGWELL

“KHAAAAAN!” by NICK ABADZIS

“No kill I” by STEPHEN BURT

Kirk browbeats NOMAD by GREG ROWLAND

Kirk’s eulogy for Spock by ZACK HANDLEN

The joke is on Kirk by PEGGY NELSON

Kirk vs. Decker by KEVIN CHURCH

Good Kirk vs. Evil Kirk by ENRIQUE RAMIREZ

Captain Camelot by ADAM MCGOVERN

Koon-ut-kal-if-fee by FLOURISH KLINK

Federation exceptionalism by DAVID SMAY

Wizard fight by AMANDA LAPERGOLA

A million things you can’t have by STEVE SCHNEIDER

Debating in a vacuum by JOSHUA GLENN

Klingon diplomacy by KELLY JEAN FITZSIMMONS

“We… the PEOPLE” by TRAV S.D.

Brinksmanship on the brink by MATTHEW BATTLES

Captain Smirk by ANNIE NOCENTI

Sisko meets Kirk by IAN W. HILL

Noninterference policy by GABBY NICASIO

Kirk’s countdown by PETER BEBERGAL

Kirk’s ghost by MATT GLASER

Watching Kirk vs. Gorn by JOE ALTERIO

How Spock wins by ANNALEE NEWITZ

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PS: HiLobrow wishes to thank our friend and contributor Adam McGovern, who went above and beyond the call of duty in his efforts to help us recruit the best possible writers. HiLobrow also wishes to thank our old pal Dan Reines, who has suggested a promising old-skool hip-hop theme for next summer’s series: KOOL HERC YOUR ENTHUSIASM.