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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 04/26/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 43

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

05/15 LZ: THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS by C.S. Lewis (Getting to Hell)
06/05 LZ: UBIK by Phillip K. Dick (Death and Hell)
06/26 LZ: ALTERNATE WORLDS by Robert Adams ("What If Things Were Different?")

_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.

05/11 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
(phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday)
05/18 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 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. I just had a horrible shock this morning. I mean, it is one
thing to know a horrible injustice has been to you and continues to
be done to you. It is another to wake up one morning and realize
that one's--no, scratch "one's"--my Constitutional rights have been
denied by the government for years. And not just any
Constitutional rights--I am talking about the big one. I am
talking about the First Amendment. I am talking about freedom of
expression that is being denied me. What is more, it has been
denied me for years. It is some shock to have thought I have been
expressing myself for years and to realize that all along my words
have been censored and my message has not been getting out.

My consciousness has been raised this morning by a discussion on
the radio. They were talking about freedom of expression. They

THE MT VOID Page 2

were talking about censorship. They were talking about how those
rats at the NEA, the Nasty Establishment of Art, are picking and
choosing from artists. Apparently the current trend is to hand
over stacks of money to only representational artists. Abstract
artists are not being funded anywhere nearly as well. The abstract
artists are claiming that abstract art is being "censored" by the
government. (Powerful word, "censored," isn't it? Got your
attention, didn't it?) Once again the NEA is censoring art by not
funding the artists who create it. It should be noted that the
representational artists claim that in previous years the abstract
artists had the edge. The report said things are getting so that
abstract artists are turning to representational art just to
continue to be able to express themselves. Now we are even getting
factions of abstract artists against representational artists. If
that happens, how much longer will it be until we start having
devastating Art Wars? Paintcans and brushes will be flying.
Abstractist terrorists, to bring attention to their cause, will be
painting Mondrian rectangles over the Mona Lisa. It could happen.

But a thought suddenly occurred to me while I was thinking about
the powder keg that is the art world today. Even the abstract
artists who are currently decrying the out-and-out censorship of
giving only a little money to abstractists are getting something.
You may not have realized it, but all along every one of my
articles I have written and every film review was intended to be a
work of art suitable for framing. I choose my words very carefully
for just the right amount of black in the letters. When looked at
from a distance they are intended to give a very pleasing effect.
Even Evelyn says that they lose something when you actually get
close enough to read them. But with all this effort would you
believe I have not been given one cent in government grant money
from the NEA for any of my articles. The NEA has not given me so
much as a consideration. Even worse than the abstractists, I am
being censored. And it is the worst kind of censorship. I never
even knew it. I think if I am going to express myself, the First
Amendment guarantees I should be handed stacks of money by the NEA.
Anything less is censorship. What do you think? Responsible
spokesmen of the alternate viewpoint--assuming that isn't a
contradiction in terms--are welcome to respond. (I guess I should
be offering money for a response because we all now know an
essential part of expressing yourself is getting paid for it. I
have a shiny new dime for the first person who writes a response.)

Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper

I am quite sure that (bar one) I have no race prejudices,
and I think I have no color prejudices or caste prejudices
nor creed prejudices. Indeed I know it. I can stand any
society. All that I care to know is that a man is a
human being--that is enough for me; he can't be any worse.
-- Mark Twain

Jekyll and Hyde, Together Again ... and Again ... and Again
Review and commentary by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper

Now that the Dracula/vampire market may finally be saturated (but
there's life in the old boy yet--Fred Saberhagen has just recently come
out with _A _M_a_t_t_e_r _o_f _T_a_s_t_e, the latest in his Dracula series), and the
Frankenstein following never really got anywhere, and the Phantom's
following seems limited to the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical (though again,
there is a new novel by Susan Kay), writers are looking for new old
horror classics to follow, re-work, and otherwise recycle. (Well, this
is the age of recycling, both of physical and of literary resources.)
So they turn to Jekyll and Hyde, who were very popular years ago--
probably more film versions of this story were made than of any other
story--but had fallen by the wayside, and suddenly we have:

- _J_e_k_y_l_l & _H_y_d_e: the musical with music by Frank Wildhorn and lyrics
by Leslie Bricusse,

- _T_h_e _J_e_k_y_l_l _L_e_g_a_c_y: a sequel to the original story by Robert Bloch
and Andre Norton, and

- _M_a_r_y _R_e_i_l_l_y: a parallel telling of the original story by Valerie
Martin.

I will discuss all of these, but first I have a few words about the
original Robert Louis Stevenson story.

Written in 1886, Stevenson's work might seem to be based on Sigmund
Freud's id and ego, but in fact pre-dates the publication of Freud's
works along those lines. Stevenson was probably more inspired by the
story of Deacon Brodie, a famous resident of Stevenson's home town of
Edinburgh. During the day Brodie was a highly respected member of the
community, a deacon, and (by profession) a locksmith. When he visited
the upper class as deacon he could make wax impressions of their keys.
Then at night he would travel across the rooftops to the houses, sneak
in, and rob them. He was eventually discovered and hanged. This "dual
personality" may well have been the inspiration for Stevenson's upright
doctor and hedonistic carouser.

Unfortunately, through the years the story has acquired a lot of
baggage Stevenson never wrote. Those familiar with only the film
versions may be surprised to find that Stevenson's character is not
romantically involved with one woman, let alone two (the standard number
in the films, it seems), and does not present his ideas to his
associates only to be hooted down. These have become part of the
standard film treatment, and (as you will see below) have been carried
into non-film works as well.

Jekyll & Hyde April 19, 1991 Page 2

Another point to note is that the original story is told from the
point of view of Dr. Utterson, and only at the very end, when Jekyll's
letter is read by Utterson, does the reader find out what has been going
on. The films and all the later literary works reveal to the
viewer/reader early on that Jekyll and Hyde are the same person.
Perhaps this is inevitable--the story of "Jekyll and Hyde" is familiar
even to those who have never read it, so it isn't as if there could be
any surprise for the vast majority of the audience. Still, the fact
that the reader knows what is coming makes for a very different
structure in the later works. (In this regard Loren D. Estleman's
_D_r. _J_e_k_y_l_l _a_n_d _M_r. _H_o_l_m_e_s [Penguin, 1979, ISBN 0-14-00-5665-3, $2.95]
follows the original, but since it adds nothing new except the rather
superfluous use of Sherlock Holmes, I can recommend it only to Holmes
fans.)

Given that Stevenson's work _i_s a classic, any new treatment of the
same story should add something: a new point of view, a new
psychological insight, a new something to make it worthwhile. With that
in mind, I proceed.

JEKYLL & HYDE: The Musical
Music by Frank Wildhorn; Words by Leslie Bricusse

I must start by saying I have not seen the musical itself. Of
course, it's played only in Houston, so there isn't much I can do about
it. (By the way, it was co-sponsored by AT&T: On Stage, in case anyone
cares.) However, my comments are limited to the story line, which has
been summarized by Bricusse for the audio cassette (which has been
released in this area), so I don't feel I am being totally unfair to the
production. (Of course, the audio cassette version is sung by Linda
Colm Wilkinson and Eder, who were not the stars in Houston; one can only
suppose that they were going to be in the Broadway version which has not
yet been produced.) And my observation about the story is that it is
based more on the film versions (notably the Frederic March and Spencer
Tracy versions) than on the original story. In this version, Jekyll has
a fiancee, makes friends with a woman of the streets, and aims his
experiments at eliminating the "evil" half of man. None of these
elements are present in the original story; in particular, Jekyll's
experiments are aimed at separating and isolating _b_o_t_h halves, spiritual
and animal, rather than eliminating the latter. (These two halves are
also referred to as "good" and "evil" in the film versions, but
Stevenson tends more toward other characterizations, such as "just" and
"unjust.")

In short, this version should be considered the offspring of the
cinematic Jekyll and Hyde, rather than the literary one.

THE JEKYLL LEGACY by Robert Bloch and Andre Norton
Tor, 1990, ISBN 0-312-85037-9, $17.95

Jekyll & Hyde April 19, 1991 Page 3

Rather than retell the Stevenson story, Bloch and Norton have
chosen to write a sequel incorporating many of the same elements found
in Stevenson's work. Hester Lane (who turns out to be Jekyll's niece)
is a young Canadian woman newly arrived in London. Penniless, she
attempts to get a job reporting on the work of the Salvation Army, but
is too determined to expose the squalor and poverty in London to please
her would-be employer. Luckily, she is found in the nick of time by
Dr. Utterson, who is determined to see Jekyll's fortune passed on to a
relative of Jekyll's rather than accept it himself, even though he _i_s
named as heir in Jekyll's will. But even though Hyde is dead, strange
events occur which make the police think that perhaps Hyde isn't dead
after all: first Jekyll's butler Poole is found murdered, and then ....
But that would be telling.

The story in this book moves along well enough, with a genuine
mystery and solution, but it still isn't as satisfying as the Stevenson.
Well, okay, neither Bloch and Norton, while undeniably good writers, is
Robert Louis Stevenson. But the book suffers from a bit of a split
personality (you'll pardon the metaphor)--in addition to the mystery,
there is a heavy layer of social commentary about the times. While this
could be done well, in this case the commentary does not mesh well with
the plotline. In particular, the commentary is achieved by having
Hester talking or thinking about it, rather than through more subtle
means (see my comments on _M_a_r_y _R_e_i_l_l_y below for more on this). The
characters are well drawn, though they all seem a bit larger than life:
Hester is more intense than most Victorian women, Newcomen (the police
inspector from Scotland Yard) is a bit more inspectorish than most, the
Salvation Army workers are a bit more articulate about the evils of the
time than one suspects the average worker would be, and so forth. _T_h_e
_J_e_k_y_l_l _L_e_g_a_c_y has been compared to a gothic mystery. In that category I
believe it succeeds and is enjoyable, but if you are looking for
something that adds appreciably to the Jekyll and Hyde story, this would
not be it.

MARY REILLY by Valerie Martin
Pocket, 1991 (1990c), ISBN 0-671-73150-5, $7.95

The title character of _M_a_r_y _R_e_i_l_l_y is the underhousemaid in
Jekyll's household, and the action of the book takes place in parallel
with Stevenson's telling of the story. As with _T_h_e _J_e_k_y_l_l _L_e_g_a_c_y, the
story has a fair amount of social commentary added in. Unlike that
other novel, however, the commentary here is left to the reader. Mary
Reilly's life is described--rising at dawn, scrubbing steps and hauling
coal all day, not being able to visit her mother because she has only a
half-day off every week and her mother lives too far away to get there
and back in that time. But it is left to the reader to say, "Oh, how
dreadful!" rather than for another character to say it. Mary herself
believes everything she has been told about servants and masters and
their respective places in society. She is independent at times, but
whenever she steps beyond the bounds of acceptability (as measured by

Jekyll & Hyde April 19, 1991 Page 4

19th Century London standards) she is the first to realize it. While
Hester Lane is an independent, upper-class (or at least middle-class)
woman designed (one suspects) to provide, at least in part, someone the
reader could identify with, Mary Reilly is a lower-class woman of her
times, someone for the reader to understand, and feel for. And to me
this is a greater achievement on the part of the author. It is easy to
make us feel sympathy, fear, or whatever toward a character we see as
similar to ourselves; it is more difficult to evoke sympathy for someone
who is different, who thinks differently, who acts differently.

_M_a_r_y _R_e_i_l_l_y provides a different picture of Dr. Jekyll, as seen by
someone within the household, rather than the relatively distant views
of Lanyon and Utterson. As such it _d_o_e_s add to our understanding of the
original story, or at least provide us with another possible
perspective. As such, it is ultimately more satisfying than _T_h_e _J_e_k_y_l_l
_L_e_g_a_c_y.

THE RIVER OF TIME by David Brin
Book review by Frank R. Leisti
Copyright 1991 Frank R. Leisti

There must be somebody in the world of science fiction fandom that
follows a published author and wonders, "What kind of work did they do
before they became famous?" Well, the book _T_h_e _R_i_v_e_r _o_f _T_i_m_e by David
Brin is a good selection of short stories, novellas and very short
stories, along with some author's notes on each of the stories.

David Brin has organized his eleven stories into four sections
entitled Destiny, Recollection, Speculation, and Propagation.

In the "Destiny" group, there are three very interesting and
diverse stories: "The Crystal Spheres," "The Loom of Thessaly," and "The
Fourth Vocation of George Gustaf." In these stories, the theme of
destiny is quite strong -- in a universe where solar systems are encased
in a huge sphere to protect any life that develops there from being
overrun by other space-faring systems, in a unique touch that joins
mythology and science on Mount Olympus or its equivalent, and finally a
world in which people are encouraged to have multiple vocations, one
professionally and the other amateur attempts to gain professional
status. I found these stories very entertaining and interesting in the
concepts laid down as the basis of the stories.

In the "Recollection" group, the "Senses Three and Six," "Toujours
Voir," and "A Stage of Memory" employ variations in the theme. "Senses
Three and Six" deals with the sense of smell and of the inner mind --
the conflict and collaboration that comes from memory when these are in
conflict and when they move to resolution. "Toujours Voir" is a story
within a story. This story is actually one of the sub-genre of stories
that tell the story in only 250 words. While a little short on
substance, the science fiction aspect of memory shines through. The
final story, "A Stage of Memory," deals with an addiction of new drugs
that allow the reliving of life through one's memories. However, the
addiction is the addiction to recollection.

In the "Speculation" group, the stories included "Just a Hint,"
"Tank Farm Dynamo," and "Thor Meets Captain America." These stories
deal with ideas and bring forth the wonderful thoughtfulness involved
after reading them. "Just a Hint" deals with two separate and distant
worlds, each with their own problems, yet wondering if they can find a
solution from distant worlds. "Tank Farm Dynamo" deals with the
leftovers of the space shuttle: the external tanks that instead of being
dropped to burn in the atmosphere are saved and joined together to form
farms and a jumping off station for higher orbit crafts. When the
government intervenes, the resourcefulness of the director of the tank
farm is pushed to the limit. The final story on "Thor Meets Captain
America" is an alternate universe where Hitler has enlisted the workings
of the Norse gods, with Loki being on the side of America.

River of Time April 24, 1991 Page 2

The final section, "Propagation," the story "Lungfish" shows the
universe as a veritable hostile place with von Neumann devices having
ravaged the solar systems in various stages to either welcome or destroy
other life forms. The final story, "The River of Time," brings about a
world in which for completely unexplained reasons, various people change
on how they view and live in time. The consequences are interestingly
presented.

I feel that David Brin has arranged his earlier work in a very
interesting light which can show the reader the depth and diversity of
his writing and of his ideas. I have found it very nice to read over
the earlier works of authors to find out how they have developed in
their writing and of their ideas -- yet I have yet to get a complete set
of all the works of any author in the chronological order in which they
were written. I wonder how many rejects of other stories are not
present now, yet might be presented as David Brin's fame increases. I
would rate this group of stories at +1 on the Leeper scale.

SUN'S END by Richard Lupoff
Book reviews by Frank R. Leisti
Copyright 1991 Frank R. Leisti

Reaching for the star's ending phases and its impact on life and
society on earth is the topic of this novel. There are two parts to
this story, the before and the after -- both examined from the point of
view of the character Daniel Kitajima, a specialist in electronics sent
up to restore an observatory floating free in earth orbit. The activity
which splits the story into its two parts is an accident in which Daniel
is the sole survivor.

In fact, it becomes questionable what exactly of Daniel survived
the ordeal in space. Both he and the reader discovers the what in bits
and pieces, making a slow transition from remembering to living in the
now present, eighty years later. Daniel, being in the spotlight of this
terrible accident becomes the only person to be almost completely
cybernetic. Only part of his brain and the spinal stem remain, yet each
part is interwoven into the machine parts.

What is more fascinating is the encounters that he has with his
grandson, who appears older than himself -- almost as if the grandson
was his father. Most shocking of all is when he meets his daughter, old
and crippled, feeble-minded -- yet holding a special moment and desire
to have her father return to her -- to eat supper with her father --
wishing beyond all hope that her father would return to her. Yet in her
age and infirmity, the pathos of the meeting becomes too much for the
father. So, he seeks his roots on Earth, yet a very different Earth,
with 26 billion people populating the land, with the greenhouse effect
making more and more of the earth a desert wasteland.

Socially, we are exposed to a lesbian two-some who are willing to
bend their inclinations when confronted with Daniel, the man of steel.
Especially, when Daniel finds out how wealthy he is. Yet Daniel, a man
of action, appears to look at the long view of the situation on Earth
and begins to modify his machine parts and explores certain conditions
of which have been newly discovered since his time.

I found the actions of Daniel somewhat perplexing and not exactly
informative on what he does as well as the motivations behind his
actions. Beyond this and the ending, which shall remain a mystery for
those who choose not to read this story, the novel was an interesting
depiction of advanced medical technology and the driving forces behind
the global forces looking for an escape from the Sun's End. I would
rate it as a -1 on the Leeper scale.

THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT ALMOST BLANK

Capsule review: A strong and emotional view of the
1955 Montgomery bus boycott does not always play fairly
with the facts but manages eventually to have some anger
and excitement. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4).

_T_h_e _L_o_n_g _W_a_l_k _H_o_m_e is a powerful and moving film telling the story
of simultaneous victories over racism and sexism during the 1955 bus
boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. Sissy Spacek plays Miriam Thompson, who
slowly comes to realize her own importance and her power to affect
events when she is torn between loyalty to her family on one hand and
her social conscience on the other.

Miriam, the wife of an influential real estate developer, is
shocked when the police harass her maid Odessa Cotter (played by Whoopi
Goldberg) for accompanying Miriam's children to a whites-only park.
Using her position, she coerces the policeman into apologizing. When
Rosa Parks is arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a bus, the
blacks boycott the buses and Odessa begins the wearing routine of
walking to and from the Thompson house. Initially more out of the need
to have Odessa cleaning the house on time than out of any conviction,
Miriam saves Odessa the long walk two mornings a week by picking her up
on the way back from a convenient grocery. She hides this from her
husband and his red-neck younger brother. Eventually her husband will
find out and she will have to choose between her husband's insistence
that no white woman can drive a black one and her own sense that the bus
boycott is right and should be supported.

The film is a powerful statement, but it is doubtful that after 36
years any of the audience will have any sympathies against the boycott.
Given that is the case, one might expect that director Richard Pearce
and screenwriter John Cork could afford to be a little magnanimous to
the losing side. This most certainly is not the case. With the
exception of Miriam and her children, whites are uniformly portrayed as
being racist, telling racist jokes, and being hypocritical. Blacks are
all honest church-going people, wonderful to each other in closely-knit
families. While these stereotypes may be substantially correct, the
portrayal makes it a little overly obvious where the audience's
sympathies should lie. The film also tampers a bit with historical
fact. The _C_u_r_r_e_n_t _B_i_o_g_r_a_p_h_y article on Rosa Parks says that it had
previously been the practice to force blacks to enter the bus at the
front, pay the driver, exit the bus, and re-enter at the rear door so as
not to walk past whites already on the bus. However, this practice had
already been abandoned at the time of Parks's arrest. The film depicts
this practice as if it were still going on at the time of the arrest.
Certainly the truth is damning enough without distorting it to make an

Long Walk Home April 15, 1991 Page 2

even stronger case. While it would be difficult to exaggerate the
degree of polarization of whites against blacks at the time, this film
manages. While it was a small percentage of Southern whites who
supported the black cause, this film implies there were no more than a
half dozen or so adult whites supporting the blacks, which does
something of a disservice to those whites who were courageous to stand
up for their conscience. It is the opposite problem to the one of
_M_i_s_s_i_s_s_i_p_p_i _B_u_r_n_i_n_g, which went to the other extreme, having it be
mostly whites in the form of the FBI coming in and fighting for black
freedom. My suspicion is that _T_h_e _L_o_n_g _W_a_l_k _H_o_m_e is the closer to being
accurate, but the truth lies somewhere in the range between the points-
of-view of the two films.

Pacing is also a minor problem. It takes Miriam a long time to
decide she will make a stand, then when the story gets going, it is
over, with the remaining history told in screen titles. Still, _T_h_e _L_o_n_g
_W_a_l_k _H_o_m_e is good filmmaking. It makes the viewer angry about injustice
rather than just depressed about it, the way _G_u_i_l_t_y _b_y _S_u_s_p_i_c_i_o_n does.
On that basis it deserves a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.