Data was an artist on a level organics cannot achieve and I appreciate him.
it continues to astonish me how much Data is proof of neurotypical writers being unable to conceptualize an actual lack of emotion. As an autistic viewer, i always found him deeply, profoundlyĀ emotive, driven by passionate interests and deep bonds, with a strong sense of personal identity. But the text of the show constantly affirmed that none of that was true, that he didnāt feel anythingāwhich, of course, made it all the more absurd that he wantedĀ to feel, because someone who was truly lacking emotions shouldnāt feel the pangs of desire to feel them.Ā
we constantly see Data exploring creative pursuits, immersing himself in different art forms and cultures, while his organic (and especially human) crewmates mostly entertain themselves at the holodeck and other such diversions. How many times was Dataās exploration of an art used in an attempt to convince the audience that he didnāt understand, that he couldnāt feel, when neurodivergent viewers could immediately see a sympathetic attempt to learn a new skill by someone who was inexperienced in it?Ā
Dataās appreciation of a unique poetic form from an ancient nonhuman culture is presented for absurdity, while the series tells us itās perfectly normal that a bunch of space explorers want to play at Robin Hood (what, were there no other great works of storytelling between the point of timeline divergence and the start of TNG? Thatās centuries!)
As a fellow autistic Star Trek fan, Data has always held a special place in my heart. His drive to be more human, his constant desire to understand the human experience resonated with me as a child and young adult who also struggled to be human in the way others demanded of me, to feel and display emotion and to fit in with the society in which I was immersed without standing out like a sore thumb. Dataās earnest attempts at understanding and communicating and fitting in with others, and the frequency with which people got upset or frustrated with him for not being like them reflected my own experiences trying to emulate the behavior of those around me but never quite getting it right.Ā It took me a long time of wrestling with the contradiction between Dataās obvious desires and feelings, and statedĀ ālack of emotionā before I came to a satisfactory answer. Obviously, Data possesses emotions. What he does not seem to possess, however, is a good way of talking about his emotions, of naming and processing sensations and making sense of them. Thereās so much within him that he doesnāt understand and canāt articulate; he canāt cross-reference and compare one feeling to another, give it a name and refer back to it. In other words, Data is deeply alexithymic. He doesnāt know how to connect his behaviours to what he feels inside, how to make the connection and understand the relationship between one and the other.Ā As someone who, in the midst of a deeply distressing and unsafe childhood, could only muster upĀ ācalmā orĀ āokayā orĀ āi donāt knowā in response to any inquiry about my emotional state, who understood emself in terms only of āangryā andĀ ānot angryā, my favorite androidās quest to comprehend his own mind and heart (his oh-so-very-big and beautiful heart, my sweetest of mechanical darlings) and make sense of himself was desperately necessary. And seeing that he had friends, companions, loved ones and meaningful relationships with people who desired his company and included him in their community without condition, was also necessary.Ā Ā I love Data.Ā
Bit with data asking for emotions
@miniatureglittersoul
