@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 10/21/88 -- Vol. 7, No. 17 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 11/09 LZ: THE MULTIPLE MAN by Ben Bova and other books (Elections in SF) 12/07 MT: Book Swap (MT 4A-217) 1989: 01/18 MT: "Space Colonies in Fact and Fiction" (video) (room to be announced) _D_A_T_E _E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L _M_E_E_T_I_N_G_S/_C_O_N_V_E_N_T_I_O_N_S/_E_T_C. 11/12 Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Vincent Di Fate (phone 201-933-2724 for details) 11/19 New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA (phone 201-432-5965 for details) 05/05/89 CONTRAPTION. MI. GoH: Mike Resnick; FGoHs: Mark & Evelyn Leeper. -05/07/89 Info: Jamie McQuinn, 27321 Dequindre #18, Madison Hts MI 48071. 08/31/89 NOREASCON III (47th World SF Con). MA. GoHs: Andre Norton, Ian & Betty -09/04/89 Ballantine; FGoH: The Stranger Club. Info: Noreascon Three, Box 46, MIT Branch P.O., Cambridge, MA 02139. HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 mtuxo!jetzt LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 mtgzz!leeper HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3M-420 949-5866 homxb!tps LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-6142 lzfme!lfl MT Librarian: Will Harmon MT 3C-406 957-5128 mtgzz!wch Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. We mentioned recently in one of these notices the ever-growing problem of bigotry against sub-atomic particles. That of course brings to mind the subject of ethnic and the current ethnic humor crisis. The issue, I guess, deals with the fact there are cruel jokes told in ethnic humor as often as not, but occasionally--I say occasionally--the jokes really are funny. Well, this raises a serious dilemma. On one hand, we don't want to hurt anyone but on THE MT VOID Page 2 the other we have the world-wide shortage of funny jokes. Jokes change with time and what was funny thirty years ago is not funny any longer (e.g., Milton Berle). Then some humor becomes less funny through over-exposure (e.g., Monty Python). In the current shortage the world cannot afford to rule out any jokes that really are funny. There have been desperate attempts to find new jokes and new humor while there is still time, but most of these efforts have gone disastrously awry. I think we have all been touched to see news footage of some of these disastrous displays of young comics bashing watermelons with hammers and pulling rubber gloves over their heads. But it's generally acknowledged that not all the experiments into humor will pan out and while not all the failures will be so spectacular, there will be failures. But I digress. I think we are all aware of the extent of the humor shortage. It really is the driving force behind the controversy on ethno-cultural humor (ECH). On one hand you have the shortage; on the other hand, you do not want to sanction humor that might be taken the wrong way and might be used against people. And the rules are not by any means straightforward. I think we all can agree that a black comic--say an Eddie Murphy or a Richard Pryor-- telling "white people" jokes and doing exaggerated impressions of white people is both funny and acceptable by contemporary standards. Reverse the two colors and the joke is not nearly as funny or acceptable. Similarly there are funny, perceptive books written by women on what is wrong with men. Try an innocuous- sounding change like reversing the two sexes and you end up with inflammatory sexism. The International Congress on Humor and the Funny has been examining the issue of the humor shortage and has set up the now famous Board for the Licensing of Ethno-Cultural Humor (or BLECH) to decide what humor is politically correct and to make an effort to preserve ethnic jokes, without being unfair to any group. BLECH has published several specifications for what is politically correct in ethnic humor. Specification B487, expected to be ratified by the member nations this year, proposes that ethnic jokes making fun of inanimate objects--I am not sure if subatomic particles count--is allowable the committee further recognizes that there is some ethnic humor that will not work if it is not aimed at a human. It has come up with the much-lauded proposal B625, which sanctions the telling of "bigot" jokes. This clever decision defuses the whole ethnic joke issue rather nicely. The vast majority of people who are negative on ethnic jokes are even more negative on bigotry. In fact the only organization that has spoken out to protect bigots from being slurred is the ACLU. In the meantime, amendment B625.14 has laid out characteristics of bigots that are "fair game." People may tell jokes making fun of THE MT VOID Page 3 bigots for their 1) low intelligence, 2) inconsistent attitudes, 3) low-income lifestyle, 4) their drinking, 5) their predilection for mystical secret societies, 6) regalia associated with their organizations (e.g., white sheets, helmets, arm-bands, etc.), and a wide array of other specified characteristics. It should be pointed out, however, that B625 has yet to be ratified by the member nations and may not be until the early 1990s. 2. There is no film festival this week, or for the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for the announcement of the next festival. Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper SHY PEOPLE A film review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper As you watch _S_h_y _P_e_o_p_l_e, you're sure you know what it's about. Don't be so sure. At the end, it makes a right turn in another direction entirely. This is not bad, just unexpected. Jill Clayburgh is a writer for _C_o_s_m_o_p_o_l_i_t_a_n who decides to visit her distant relatives in Louisiana as research for a series on family roots that she is doing. She drags her teen-age daughter along to get her away from the daughter's 45-year-old boyfriend and they head off into the swamp. There she finds her cousin, played by Barbara Hersey. Hersey rules her family with an iron hand, and a somewhat odd family it is. One son has left the swamp and is treated as dead by Hersey, one son is kept locked in the shed, one son is "missing a button," and one son is trying to trap enough crayfish to keep the family fed. Clayburgh and her daughter have difficulty understanding the life their cousins lead; for their part, Hersey and her sons look askance at Clayburgh and city people in general. (They keep saying Hersey comes from Baltimore, even though she repeatedly tells them she is from New York, probably to soften the blow of having "Yankee" city relatives.) Some of the subplots seem unnecessary, but they all fit together in the end. Only Hersey's character is fully developed. Clayburgh doesn't seem to know how to play her character and remains unconvincing (or perhaps vague is a better term) through most of the film. Hersey's sons and Clayburgh's daughter seem more like types than characters, but the wonderful acting job by Hersey manages to overcome these flaws and make this a film worth watching.