The Footnote: An Explication de Texte

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The Footnote: An Explication de Texte was an essay originally printed in R & R #12 in 1980 In 1985, Gran wrote: " Years ago, when ST:TMP first came out, I wrote an analysis of it, a mock-serious, minute textual exegesis. It was buried in the back pages of an issue of R S R (it was so long ago, I can't even remember which one) where few K/S fen were likely to see it." -- comments in K/S & K.S. (Kindred Spirits) #12 in February 1985 , reprinted by Gran in K/S & K.S. (Kindred Spirits) #12 in February 1985, and posted to alt.startrek.creative in 1997. 
In 1985, Gran called it an "analysis... a mock-serious, minute textual exegesis." K/S & K.S. (Kindred Spirits) #12 in February 1985 
The essay analyzes the ambiguous language in a particularly infamous footnote in Gene Roddenberry's novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in which Kirk comments on the "rumors" that he and Spock are lovers. 
In particular, the footnote tells us that Spock thought of Kirk as his "t'hy'la," a Vulcan word that, the editor's note tells us, can mean "friend," "brother" or "lover." The editor then proceeds to get a quote from Kirk himself, the ambiguous nature of which forms the subject of the greater part of Gran's analysis.
The phrase explication de texte is real and not an attempt by the author to be flippant. It is a French term indicating a type of close reading, the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text. A real explication de texte consists of:
* A brief summary of the literal, not the figurative, content;
* A description of the text's type and structure (e.g. Was it a sonnet? What kind?) and its tone;
* The poetic devices used in the text (e.g. personification)
* Conclusion
==Original Essay: 1979==
As printed in R & R #12.
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==Full Text of Roddenberry's Footnote==
:Editor's note: The human concept of friend is most nearly duplicated in Vulcan thought by the term t'hy'la, which can also mean brother and lover. Spock's recollection (from which this chapter has drawn) is that it was a most difficult moment for him since he did indeed consider Kirk to have become his brother. However, because t'hy'la can be used to mean lover, and since Kirk's and Spock's friendship was unusually close, this has led to some speculation over whether they had actually indeed become lovers. At our request, Admiral Kirk supplied the following comment on this subject:
:"I was never aware of this lovers rumor, although I have been told that Spock encountered it several times. Apparently he had always dismissed it with his characteristic lifting of his right eyebrow which usually connoted some combination of surprise, disbelief, and/or annoyance. As for myself, although I have no moral or other objections to physical love in any of its many Earthly, alien, and mixed forms, I have always found my best gratification in that creature woman. Also, I would dislike being thought of as so foolish that I would select a love partner who came into sexual heat only once every seven years."
==Excerpt from "The Footnote" by Judith Gran==
==Subject of a 2001 Class==
==Fan Comments==
1985: 
 
==Further Reading==
* The Roddenberry Footnote
* A Careful Analysis: The Roddenberry Footnote, from Naked Times #3 (1979)
* Shatner: Where No Man#Gene Roddenberry on Shatner, & Kirk Roddenberry, in an interview with Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath, acknowledges "deep love" between Kirk and Spock, but admits he "never thought of" invoking "the Greek ideal".
==References==
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