Make It So
‘When Captain Picard Was My Dad’, by feature author Finnian Burnett, has as its inspiration the make believe. But it feels more real than breath — which it truly takes away.
In our feature author interview, we asked Finnian about the inspiration for the story. Here’s what they told us: “I’ve been working on a whole novella of Star Trek-themed flash fiction stories. I think people are expecting science fiction when I say that, but really the stories are all about contemporary people, dealing with the challenges of life, who get inspiration or healing from Star Trek. This was one of the first stories because I remember watching The Next Generation in high school and thinking Captain Picard was so fair, even when he was angry. I thought he would never raise his hand to a kid, never make them feel dismissed or afraid. I wanted to capture that longing for a home life that some kids don’t experience, the way we transfer our feelings onto a character who doesn’t actually exist and probably wouldn’t be perfect if they did.“
Find out why award-winning author Robert J Sawyer called the story “a gut-punch. Absolutely terrific!” with this excerpt from Issue 41, Winter 2024.
When Captain Picard Was My Dad
by Finnian Burnett
When I didn’t make the kickball team, Captain Picard didn’t say, “I’d hoped at least one of my kids wasn’t a loser.” He didn’t say that at all. He didn’t tell me I’d make the team next year if I lost some weight because an oinker like me couldn’t keep up with the other third-graders. Captain Picard told me that you can do your best and still lose and that he believed I did my best. He said I should be proud of myself, even if no one else was proud of me.
When Captain Picard was my dad, I didn’t get beaten with a yardstick after I was suspended in the fourth grade. I didn’t get thrown into my bedroom without dinner and I didn’t lie awake all night to the throbbing of my burgeoning bruises. After all, when Will Riker violated the Treaty of Algernon, Captain Picard told him that the important thing was not what he did in the past but what he did going forward. Will almost started a war with the Romulans, and all I did was write ‘fuck school’ on the wall of the second-floor bathroom outside the chemistry lab, but Captain Picard forgave us either way.
Captain Picard never said fat girls should have nicer personalities and fat girls don’t have to be strong because they can sit on their enemies, and he never, ever said ‘whoa, my god, it’s coming towards me’. Captain Picard never smashed my head into the garage door or pulled out a handful of my hair or threw the remote at me so hard it left a scar on my eyebrow. And when Captain Picard was my dad, I didn’t wear long sleeves and jeans in the summer.
Find out what happens next, in Issue 41, Winter 2024.
Are you, like Finnian, a writer of flash fiction? Want your chance to appear in the pages of Pulp? Enter the Bumblebee Flash Fiction Contest, open now!
Finnian Burnett holds a doctoral degree in English pedagogy and teaches English online for a US college. Their writing explores intersections of identity — fatness, mental health, disability, queer joy. Finnian was a finalist for the 2023 CBC Nonfiction Prize. Their second novella-in-flash, The Price of Cookies, is available from Off Topic Publishing. Their stories ‘Ethan Peck’s Muscles’ and ‘Nothing Left’ appeared in Pulp Literature Issue 37, Winter 2023. Finnian lives in BC where they spend their time watching a lot of Star Trek and daydreaming about teleportation. Visit them at finnburnett.com.
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