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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 03/15/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 37
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
04/03 LZ: Book Swap
_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.
03/16 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
04/13 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 834-1563 hocpa!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell LZ 1B-306 576-6106 mtuxo!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
HO Librarian: Tim Schroeder HO 3B-301 949-4488 hotsc!tps
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 576-3346 mtunq!lfl
MT Librarian: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Just The next Leeperhouse fest involves the screen adaptations
of two stories that were set in the fabled "Mountains of the Moon"
in West Africa. One story is true, one fanciful. On Thursday,
March 21, at 7 PM, the Leeperhouse film fest will show (out of
chronological order):
African Adventures
MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON (1990) dir. by Bob Rafelson
SHE (19250 dir. by Leander de Cordova
MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON was my choice for best film of 1990. Very
highly recommended. My original review appears elsewhere in this
issue.
The 1925 SHE is a silent film, of course, and an adaptation of the
H. Rider Haggard classic fantasy adventure. The titles were
THE MT VOID Page 2
written by Haggard himself. It is an artifact and very rarely
seen. Those are the good things to say about it. In all honesty I
must also tell you that it is not a particularly good fantasy film
even for its time. The setting has been moved from its rightful
West Africa to Libya. It is slow, but not unrewarding. While the
costuming is occasionally poor, other places there are some scenes
of spectacle. This may be the only film version to show Ayesha's
origins in ancient Egypt. Try it. If you don't like it, you can
always walk out on it. I found it flawed but still fun.
2. Here are the 1990 World Fantasy Award winners:
Best Novel: _M_a_d_o_u_c, Jack Vance
Best Novella: "Great Work of Time," John Crowley
Best Short Fiction: "The Illusionist," Stephen Millhauser
Best Anthology: _T_h_e _Y_e_a_r'_s _B_e_s_t _F_a_n_t_a_s_y: _S_e_c_o_n_d _A_n_n_u_a_l _C_o_l_l_e_c_t_i_o_n, ed.
Ellen Datlow & Terry Windling
Best Collection: _R_i_c_h_a_r_d _M_a_t_h_e_s_o_n: _C_o_l_l_e_c_t_e_d _S_t_o_r_i_e_s
Best Artist: Tom Canty
Lifetime Achievement Award: R. A. Lafferty
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
Anybody can make history. Only a great man can write it.
-- Oscar Wilde
Robert Silverberg's Time Tours: GLORY'S END by Nick Baron
Harper, 1990, ISBN 0-06-106013-5, $3.50.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper
Well, it was time travel and alternate history (or at least a
"change war" sort of book) so, "YA novel" or not, I picked it up. It's
written in the same universe as Robert Silverberg's _U_p _t_h_e _L_i_n_e, with
the same sort of time travel (minus all the sex, of course), which is
why his name is above the title and Nick Baron's is at the bottom of the
cover. As a young adult novel, it would be passable enough ... _e_x_c_e_p_t.
Except that not once, but twice, the book gives the year of the
Gettysburg Address as 1883 instead of 1863! (Yes, it's an alternate
history, but not _t_h_a_t alternate.) For this I blame not "Nick Baron"
(whoever s/he might be), and certainly not Robert Silverberg , but the
poor typesetting/proof-reading at Harper. Is this unwarranted nit-
picking? Given the sad state of education today, I think not, because
young readers could well walk away from this book thinking that the
Gettysburg Address _w_a_s in 1883. If Harper would get their act together,
they could have a promising series here, of which this is the second.
The first was _T_h_e _R_o_b_i_n _H_o_o_d _A_m_b_u_s_h by William Wu. The third will be
(has been?) _T_i_m_e_c_r_i_m_e, _I_n_c. by John D. MacDonald and Debra Doyle, due
out in February. (Oh, and one final question: is it just my cynicism,
or is the word "glory" in this title just in cash in on the movie
_G_l_o_r_y's popularity? I can't recall ever hearing the word applied to the
Civil War until now.)
TWICE UPON A TIME by Allen Appel
Dell, 1990 (1988c), ISBN 0-440-20576-X, $4.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper
This book is a sequel to Appel's _T_i_m_e _A_f_t_e_r _T_i_m_e. In that, Alex
Balfour found himself dreaming of Romanovs, Bolsheviks, and Rasputin--or
were they dreams? When he wakes up with mud on his shoes and Rasputin's
coat on his back, he realizes he is traveling in time. But this is a
time travel without mechanisms, and apparently not under Balfour's
conscious control (shades of Heinlein's _J_o_b here).
In this novel, Alex Balfour, time traveler, is now traveling back
to 1890 where he finds himself drawn to the Battle of Little Big Horn.
The characters he meets are better drawn than those in _T_i_m_e _A_f_t_e_r _T_i_m_e,
though still, alas, prone to stereotypes. And there is some sloppiness
that (I think) could have been cured quite easily. For example, Balfour
finds himself back in 1890 and remarks (to himself) how lucky it is that
he is wearing jeans with a button-fly instead of a zipper. But if he
knows he could travel back at any time, wouldn't he pick that style just
in case? And Appel still gives far too much detail to his character's
cooking exploits.
All in all, it's an enjoyable read, but is clearly a science
fiction book aimed at a mainstream audience and does not do anything new
or radical with the concepts of time travel or changing history.
(Of the first novel, I said that it should not be confused with
Karl Alexander's book _T_i_m_e _a_f_t_e_r _T_i_m_e (or the movie of the same name
based on it). That one was about H. G. Wells traveling _f_o_r_w_a_r_d in time
to catch Jack the Ripper. Nor is it related to the 1986 John Gielgud
movie _T_i_m_e _A_f_t_e_r _T_i_m_e which has nothing to do with science fiction. Nor
is it Jack Finney's _T_i_m_e _a_n_d _A_g_a_i_n, or Richard Matheson's _B_i_d _T_i_m_e
_R_e_t_u_r_n which was made into _S_o_m_e_w_h_e_r_e _i_n _T_i_m_e. Now I must also add that
this current work should not be confused with Charles L. Fontenay's
_T_w_i_c_e _U_p_o_n _a _T_i_m_e (an old Ace Double dealing with a space traveler
staying young while his wife ages) or Manly Wade Wellman's _T_w_i_c_e _i_n
_T_i_m_e, in which a modern man travels back to 15th Century Florence.
Can't someone think up some _n_e_w titles?)
MOUNTAINS OF THE MOON
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1990 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: The story of one of the great
expeditions of history--and of the controversy that
surrounded it--is brought to the screen spectacularly and
intelligently. While the film takes a few liberties with
the facts, I found it a better adventure tale than _T_h_e
_H_u_n_t _f_o_r _R_e_d _O_c_t_o_b_e_r and give or take a fact or two, it
is all a true story. Rating: +3.
The Nile River came like a miracle out of the desert, the last
place you would expect a great river, to bring life to the great
Egyptian civilization. That civilization was a major world power--often
_t_h_e major world power--for 3500 years, and it was totally dependent on
the enigmatic Nile, the only major river that flows south to north.
Even today the Nile means life or death to countries in its path. Not
surprisingly, when Europeans came to Africa they were fascinated by this
strange river and in particular, where the waters originated. But it
was time when tracing the river to its origins meant an expedition on
foot under nearly impossible conditions. And the only reward would be
to go down in the history books as being the one who answered the great
question: "Where did the waters of the Nile come from?" When the
question finally was answered, it was only at very great cost and it was
an answer that would remain shrouded in controversy for almost two
decades. _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n_s _o_f _t_h_e _M_o_o_n is an intelligent yet visually
spectacular adventure film about the expedition to find the source of
the Nile. It is about Sir Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning
Speke, two very different men who made that expedition, and the
controversy that came out of that expedition.
The film covers much of the same territory that the excellent BBC
mini-series "The Search for the Nile" covered in 1971 (and wouldn't this
be a good time for someone to rebroadcast that series?). It is the
story of how Burton and Speke came to go on such a perilous expedition,
of the experiences on the trek, and of the bitter controversy that arose
from their different conclusions about the sources of the Nile.
Sir Richard Burton was perhaps the most colorful explorer and
anthropologist of all times and the film hardly does justice to the
man's history. Burton had fluency in dozens of languages and was
sufficiently good at the art of disguise that he could make himself
appear to be a native through much of the world. Disguised as an
Afghani, he was the first European to enter Mecca and Medina. He had an
unquenchable thirst to learn about other cultures first-hand, especially
their sexual practices--in which he both observed and participated--and
their erotic literature. He was an eloquent writer and translator, but
because of his fixation on the sexual, many of his writings and
Mountains of the Moon March 11, 1990 Page 2
translations were considered unsuitable in British society. His was the
definitive translation of the "Arabian Nights" and it accurately has far
more sex and violence than the expurgated versions generally available.
Burton was a giant man with giant vices.
On the other hand, John Speke was a petty man with petty vices.
His greatest passion was for hunting and he looked upon Africa in large
part as one big game park populated with animals he could shoot and
populated with savages best avoided. Where Burton had a thirst for
knowledge about other cultures, Speke had an attitude of inflexible
superiority that more than once put his life in danger.
William Harrison's 1983 novel _B_u_r_t_o_n _a_n_d _S_p_e_k_e (recently re-issued
as _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n_s _o_f _t_h_e _M_o_o_n) shows much more the personality conflict
between these two men and only vaguely hints that they may have had a
grudging respect and even an affection for each other. Curiously, this
film written by Harrison together with director Bob Rafelson--based on
the novel and on the logs the two men kept of the expedition--reverses
that viewpoint. It says the two were actually close friends and the
post-expedition conflict about the interpretation of their findings was
due more to English society wishing to take the opinions of an
Englishman, Speke, over those of Burton. Burton was, after all, an
Irishman, a free thinker, and a writer of what English society
considered pornography. Harrison seems to have changed his mind between
writing the book and the screenplay--or had it changed by Rafelson--
about what were Burton's and Speke's attitudes toward each other. The
irony of the conflict, of course, is that while reading the book and
probably while seeing the film you want to believe Burton, it was
Speke's interpretation that this "Lake Victoria" was the actual source
that was vindicated. Speke's measurements were eventually found to be
essentially accurate and his conclusions were correct.
The film's two main characters are powerfully played by Patrick
Bergin as Burton and Iain Glen as Speke, both relatively new to American
audiences. The film also has a good cast of supporting characters. In
a film with two such interesting main characters, it would be quite easy
for Fiona Lewis to go unnoticed as Burton's stay-at-home lover and later
wife Isabel. Not so, however. Shaw's Isabel is a major character
fiercely loyal to an idealized image of her husband, an image of which
even the great Richard Burton fell short. Shaw's expression when seeing
Burton seems to convey an emotion combining joy and astonishment, the
same expression she used as Christy Brown's teacher in _M_y _L_e_f_t _F_o_o_t.
The original Isabel Burton was by all accounts a remarkable woman
totally willing to turn a blind eye to her husband's philandering just
to be married to Burton. Eventually her unquestioning loyalty shamed
her husband into monogamy. On the night he died, she burned a priceless
collection of his unpublished notes and forty-one unpublished
manuscripts in a misguided effort to preserve her dead husband's
reputation.
Mountains of the Moon March 11, 1990 Page 3
Somewhat understated in the film as well as all European accounts
of the expeditions is the presence of Sidi Bombay, at this point an
inexperienced African hired by Burton and Speke as a guide and treated
very poorly by Speke, but who went on to become one of Africa's great
explorers.
The film's account of the great expedition, much abridged from the
novel and logs, remains harrowing and gives a feel for the courage it
must have required to venture into Africa on foot in 1857. The most
horrifying sequence, for me all the more so since I had previously read
the account in both Harrison's novel and in Burton's account of the
expedition, was the incident that resulted in Speke losing his hearing
in one ear. Nearly as disturbing is the account of why Burton had to be
carried and of the primitive first aid. (I will withhold the details of
these incidents for the benefit of readers who do not yet know the
story.) All along the way, there are contacts with the local tribes,
each with its own culture, and many of whom were not happy to see
strangers. The stories of the three expeditions, naturally, had to be
greatly abbreviated for the film--in fact, we are only told that the
third expedition took place--but what we do see is sufficient for good
storytelling.
Harrison and Rafelson's screenplay, while based on the novel and
the expedition logs seem to have invented details not in either. At one
point in a speech, Burton says that no white man can claim to have
discovered a body of water well-known to the local tribes. Even for
Burton with his enlightened views, this would seem an anachronistic
viewpoint. In actual point of fact it is not the discovery of the body
of water that was important so much as its association with the river
that is the lifeblood of Egypt, and Speke really was the first person to
make the association that the two really were the same body of water.
He also gathered reasonable evidence for that point of view. As much as
we would like to credit both the local tribesmen and Burton over the
priggish Anglo-chauvinist Speke, it really is Speke to whom the credit
belongs. As a side note, Burton's views toward Africa were less
enlightened than his attitudes toward Arab peoples. As Robert Collins
observes in his 1967 introduction to Burton's _T_h_e _N_i_l_e _B_a_s_i_n:
Burton's insatiable appetite for travel soon brought
him to Africa. He observed Africa and the Africans at
best with the assumptions of a Victorian Englishman, at
worst with the attitudes of an Arab slave trader. Not
surprisingly, he judged African culture, which he made no
attempt to understand, as hopelessly inferior to the
Asian and European civilizations he knew so well.
African customs, manners, and morals repulsed him,
perhaps because they did not fit his preconceived notions
of civilization. Moreover, he never sought to separate
race and culture. Thus African cultural inferiority
became obvious proof of African racial inferiority.
Mountains of the Moon March 11, 1990 Page 4
This "Afrophobia" led Burton, as well as other
Englishmen, to place Africans at the bottom of the
evolutionary scale of national and racial development.
True, Burton was sufficiently condescending to consider
Africans human beings, but humans of the lowest kind. He
argued that only through emigration, or, perhaps, by the
adoption of Islam, could they hope for salvation.
Burton's bigoted ideas of African inferiority colored all
of his writings about Africa, and the more he saw and
learned, or rather mislearned, the more vicious became
his contempt for the continent. One should not read
Richard Burton without keeping in mind this deep-seated
prejudice.
It is perhaps a pity that _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n_s _o_f _t_h_e _M_o_o_n should be released
withing days of another adventure film, _T_h_e _H_u_n_t _f_o_r _R_e_d _O_c_t_o_b_e_r. Since
I had read both novels, it was _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n_s _o_f _t_h_e _M_o_o_n that I was more
looking forward to. My reasons were at least two-fold. First, however
realistically Tom Clancy writes and however well-researched his facts
were, _T_h_e _H_u_n_t _f_o_r _R_e_d _O_c_t_o_b_e_r is fiction and the Burton-Speke
expedition is authentic history. It really happened. Harrison had some
latitude with the interpretation of events but most of what we are
seeing is true. The second, and perhaps more important, reason was that
Clancy's heroes sit in large and relatively comfortable machines and
play out their game. True, if they lose they die, but if they win the
only price they have paid is that they are exhausted. Arguably most of
the impressive feats are done by the machinery. But to set off on foot
across mid-19th Century Africa with no more defense than a few rifles
requires a different character of courage. Burton and Speke set out
knowing that even if they found the source of the Nile, by the time they
returned Africa would have eaten a big piece of each of them. Speke
could not predict that he would have to mutilate horribly his own ear
and leave himself deaf; Burton could not predict the diseases he would
be stricken with, but that or something just as bad was nearly
inevitable. And Burton and Speke went anyway because a question had to
be answered. To that degree they were greater heroes than Tom Clancy's
fictional imaginings. And yet they were real people. And to find not
one but two different books by Burton describing his expeditions in his
own words I needed to go no further than my public library.
Because I had greater expectations for _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n_s _o_f _t_h_e _M_o_o_n than
for _T_h_e _H_u_n_t _f_o_r _R_e_d _O_c_t_o_b_e_r, I knew it was much more likely that I
would be disappointed by Rafelson's film. Surprisingly, _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n_s _o_f
_t_h_e _M_o_o_n came much closer to meeting my high expectations that _T_h_e _H_u_n_t
_f_o_r _R_e_d _O_c_t_o_b_e_r came to meeting lower ones. Rafelson, whose earlier
films were very different low-budget films (_F_i_v_e _E_a_s_y _P_i_e_c_e_s and _S_t_a_y
_H_u_n_g_r_y), has made an intelligent adventure film to be savored for years
to come. I rate it a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.