@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 10/28/88 -- Vol. 7, No. 18 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158; MT meetings are in the cafeteria. _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. Usually you think of Crackerjack as the product that comes with a surprise, but the other day I got a surprise with a can of Coca- Cola. I read the back of the can and it bore the legend "Bottled by the Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company, Moorestown, New Jersey." Think about it. THE MT VOID Page 2 I think we all know that New Jersey has become the "unmentionable" state. We all know about New Jersey, but we really do not like to talk about it. What is the name of the New Jersey football team? The New York Giants. Oh, sure. Everybody knows that the Delaware coastline does not extend up to New York, but it is indelicate to talk about it in polite society, just like there are parts of the body that it is indelicate to talk about in polite society. And perhaps for much the same reason. New Jersey is often used for other states' elimination of waste. Now I lived in Michigan before New Jersey and when I find a part of New Jersey as bad as River Rouge, Michigan, I am moving out. But of course in Michigan you do not talk about River Rouge in polite society (meaning Grosse Pointe). But as I say, there are parts of the country like parts of the body that we all know about but.... There are even parts of the head like that. The New Jersey of the face is the nose. Casanovas tell naive young things that they have lovely eyes, kissable mouths, and shell-pink ears. Do they ever say, "You know, I love your nose"? You know darn well that if the poor object of his advances did not have a nose our Lathario would lose interest very rapidly, but the nose never gets equal billing. And why is that? Clearly, by any objective standard, the nose is much more aesthetic than the ear. I mean, have you looked at ears recently...really looked? They are all wrinkled in ways that seem to make no sense. Lizards have just two little holes; we have these big acoustical dried apricots around the holes. But do they get the "let's ignore them" treatment? No. People often call attention to them by hanging bits of metal off the loose flaps. If the metal falls off, no problem: just pull out a punch and punch a hole through them. Well, perhaps this is the kind of attention the nose can do without, but I am talking only of backward, savage, and ignorant cultures. Heaven knows the nose is far more functional. There are armies of dentists, opthalmologists, audiologists, and who knows what other ologists for the other parts. How many nasologists have you ever heard of? Perhaps with some of them it is because they do not want to admit at cocktail parties that they cure noses (unless it is part of the package ears, noses, and throats). But the nose requires little care. About the only thing you need is facial tissue. Now there is another euphemism to avoid mentioning the nose. You see big truck drivers buying "facial tissue." "Are you going to give yourself a facial, sir?" "No, I'm going to blow my 2?@2! nose." Well, enough of this. I am sick of seeing New Jersey getting the shaft. I think on my face it is my nose that stands out foremost. THE MT VOID Page 3 I think these unmentionables should band together in a coalition against this conspiracy. How about for a slogan, "Perfect together: New Jersey and noses." Well, maybe that needs some work. Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 957-5619 ...mtgzz!leeper JULIA AND JULIA A film review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1988 Evelyn C. Leeper When we first see Julia (played by Kathleen Turner) she's happily married--just married. Her happiness lasts but a few hours, though, before her husband Paolo (played by Gabriel Byrne) is killed in a car accident. We then jump forward seven years and see Julia going through the daily routine of her life in a state not unlike that of a zombie. Then suddenly she finds herself in another world, one in which her husband didn't die, one in which she is still married and has a young son. But this world isn't all sweetness and light either--Julia in this world is cheating on her husband and being blackmailed by her lover to continue their relationship. Like a pendulum, she finds herself swinging back and forth between the two worlds, first trying to understand what is happening and then trying to create the world she wants. This is made even more confused by the fact that the person who in world two is her lover (played by Sting) also exists in world one as someone Julia meets in the course of the film. Alternate histories are not common in film or television: _Q_u_e_s_t _f_o_r _L_o_v_e, "City on the Edge of Forever" (_S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k), "Stay Tuned, We'll Be Right Back" (_D_a_r_k_r_o_o_m), _A_n _E_n_g_l_i_s_h_m_a_n'_s _C_a_s_t_l_e, and a few others. Why are they not common? Well, maybe it's because alternate worlds are a mental concept rather than an action concept (like car chases). _J_u_l_i_a _a_n_d _J_u_l_i_a demands a mental effort on the part of the viewer to keep track of who's where. The film itself is slow-moving and has a cold and distant feel. _J_u_l_i_a _a_n_d _J_u_l_i_a was shot on video, giving it a made-for-TV look. The Italian setting (it was made by RAI) is well-used but tends to distance the story and make both worlds unfamiliar, adding to the distant feel. Recommended for the more intellectually oriented viewer.