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From: friedman@uiucdcs.UUCP (friedman )
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Spock, Sarek, and Amanda - (nf)
Message-ID: <6307@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Mar-84 22:36:53 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.6307
Posted: Wed Mar 21 22:36:53 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Mar-84 08:37:32 EST
Lines: 34

#R:psuvm:-55400:uiucdcs:24900032:000:1763
uiucdcs!friedman    Mar 21 08:14:00 1984

Mike Hyman says:

	Now, I ask you: Under what circumstances would the marriage of Sarek to
	Amanda be the only logical thing to do ??? The ONLY possible reason was
	that Sarek got Amanda pregnant and was forced to marry her to spare
	them both the shame and embarrasement that would follow if they didn't.
	Thus, Spock is the illegitimate son of Sarek and Amanda.

There are a couple of things wrong with this line of reasoning.  First, Sarek
didn't say marrying amanda was the ONLY logical thing to do; he merely said it
was logical (or, rather, seemed at the time to be -- not quite the same thing).
There are lots of other logical reasons possible:  political; affection (even
though he disclaims emotion, he could care for another person enough that the
difference from what a human would call love might be negligible); convenience
of some sort other than preganancy; and on and on.

Second, how would Sarek have gotten Amanda pregnant without intending to do
so?  Spare me, please, the cliche of his coming to pon far with no other
female available.  But in the absence of such a scenario (which, to me, is
far fetched indeed), he could have had no sexual interest in a human female
-- or indeed in any female.

Third (minor semantic point):  if they married after Amanda was pregnant, that
would not make Spock illegitimate, at least in most western (human) traditions.

Any explanation of Sarek and Amanda's marriage has a lot to explain:  What
happened to the Vulcan woman to whom Sarek was presumably betrothed as a
child (on the model suggested by Spock's explanations of his pon far)?
What brought Sarek and Amanda together?  And, of course, what was the
logical reason for the marriage, in the face of all the difficulties that
had to arise from it?