The thing is, I really don’t want William Shatner to come down off his pedestal – I’ve defended him against all the claims of “bad actor” (the classic Star Trek was not about the acting, it was about the story), “asshole” (he probably just comes across that way – not everyone is a social savant), “snob” (just because he didn’t talk to you), “can’t sing” (OK, I never defended this one, but I do have his old works to laugh at; and Has Been is awesome!).
I never really believed that people had a realistic view about him – I didn’t go so far as to chalk it up to jealousy, but I really (wanted) to believe that people who’d met him, and worked with him, just weren’t clued in to the *real* Bill Shatner.
But now I believe.
I stumbled across Wil Wheaton’s blog somehow or other a few months ago, and have been a regular reader since. Being a geek, married to a geek, as well as appreciating good writing, his posts appeal to me. He has written three books: Just A Geek, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, and Dancing Barefoot.
Dancing Barefoot is a collection of five narrative non-fiction short stories about his life. The first four stories (including illustrations) take up only 26 pages, but three of them pack a big punch.
Inferno was interesting but didn’t touch me the way the other three did – I felt the nostalgia and the awkwardness, the sense of wistfulness, and I enjoyed the story, but it was just that – a story. Wil’s power is communicating emotions without writing them to death, and either Inferno doesn’t have a specific emotion to communicate, or it is one that I don’t relate to.
My favorite one is Houses in Motion, about the grief of losing a beloved relative. I never had the chance to have such a close relationship with any of my relatives, and rarely saw any of my aunts, uncles, cousins, or grandparents more than twice a year because my parents moved to a different state (from the relatives) before I was born. I’ve long regretted that I never got to know any of these people well; and when we had a memorial for one of my uncles in 2007, all the local cousins had great stories about him, but I only had impressions. As I read the story, not only did I feel the raw grief that Wil felt, but I felt the grief of never having had such a person in my life. It reaffirmed for me that I need to make sure I don’t miss out on the rest of the family – I’ve been working slowly on building relationships, but have a tendency to let “real life” intervene. This story will be my reminder that real life *is* family.
But back to Wil and Bill Shatner.
The final story is about looking at what is important in life; about learning perspective; about balancing positives and negatives, and possibly surprising yourself with which really weighs more. The answer (as it is in the other four stories as well), is that people are the most important thing – your spouse, your children, your family and friends, your co-workers, your audience.
Wil describes his first meeting with Bill, and boy – Bill is definitely not about people.
And perhaps because Wil writes so powerfully about emotion, and I connect so deeply with what he’s saying, I finally believe that Bill Shatner *is* WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER; and conversely, because I feel a connection to Wil through his writing (but not in a drooling fangirl way), I believe that Wil is *not* WFS.
So come on, Shatner – everyone can be an asshole occasionally, but you’re an actor, so at least *act* like you’re not an asshole! (But I still love you. So there.)
(Go to YouTube and check out keywords: Henry Rollins William Shatner shock and awe. Be sure to watch both part one and part two. . .)
