@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 05/17/91 -- Vol. 9, No. 46
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
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.
05/18 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
06/08 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: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 957-5619 mtgzy!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. I see now on television that there really is some guy out there
who suggests the way to bring your life together is to teach
yourself to walk on hot coals. I guess the idea is that it is very
self-affirming to do something crazy. I think we all know the
principle that if you think you can do something, you can. If you
think, for example, that you can find two even numbers that total
to an odd one, then you can. The only thing that prevents your
finding two such numbers is that you just don't have the confidence
to go looking for them seriously. Now, I have no doubt that
confidence helps in many situations, but I wonder just in how many
situations does the knowledge that you can do something like
walking on hot coals do much for you.
I cannot vouch for the authenticity of this story, but I have been
told that a certain major corporation has a confidence-building
THE MT VOID Page 2
program. On a regular basis, they send people out and have them do
things that are nutty and dangerous just so the company can
rearrange their minds on subjects like teamwork and what the
individual can do. Now, I don't know about you, but I am kind of
fond of my mind. I mean, it and I grew up together. I guess it
has information storage and information processing facilities and I
am fond of both. I am willing to let my company add to the
information storage part. The only resistance I put up is that
portion's natural resistance to going beyond its capacity, and if I
could increase that capacity I would. But the processing section-
-that one is mine. Nobody pays me enough to let them go fooling
around in there. Certainly not to improve the company's profits.
Anyway, so the story goes, to instill confidence in some of its
engineers, a leading company was having them trained by a fire-
walker to walk on coals. If you believe you can walk on coals, you
can. If you believe you can get a job done, you can. That was the
lesson. One of the engineer asked if the fire-walker would still
believe if there were some coins thrown on the coals--perfectly
ordinary room-temperature coins. It does not matter, he was told;
what matters is the belief. So the engineer tossed the coins.
Well, the fire-walker believed he could walk on the coals, so he
did. He believed he could walk on the coins, so he did. But then
he decided he was willing to take a second opinion from his feet,
which told him walking on hot coins was not the same thing as
walking on hot coals. Nasty burn! He turned around and sued the
company. Here this guy was an expert on fire-walking and didn't
even know why it worked. Coals get hot without conducting heat.
You can stick your arm in a hot oven without burning it; you can
walk on coals if you walk fast. But coins are a good conductor.
Perhaps faith can move mountains, but physics can move galaxies.
And does.
So what's the point? Ah, you figure it out. But while you're
figuring, don't do anything really stupid to impress yourself that
you can do it.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
Man is a Religious Animal. He is the only Religious Animal.
He is the only animal that has the True Religion--several of
them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as
himself and cuts his throat is his theology isn't straight.
-- Mark Twain
THE UNTELEPORTED MAN by Philip K. Dick
Book reviews by Frank R. Leisti
Copyright 1991 Frank R. Leisti
Information. In any society which controls information, it is
always the ones with knowledge that has the advantage over all the
others. Whether it is from having advance knowledge of a company's
financial records, or someone's legal and illegal activities, or in the
form of patents or proprietary information, the ones with the knowledge
can use it against others who do not. The classic example is the con
artist experienced with the shell game. When the marker is palmed, the
marks loose their money hand over fist.
In the story of _T_h_e _U_n_t_e_l_e_p_o_r_t_e_d _M_a_n, Philip K. Dick brings us a
society in the near future, where the large companies hold the
information and the power. In this near time, mankind has created a
device to teleport people to a distant world, about eighteen light years
away. The only unfortunate thing is that it is a one-way trip. The
company has stated that one can not teleport back from that planet. Of
course, with this mode of transportation, the company that had banked on
ferrying hundreds of colonists via deep sleep ships moving near the
speed of light went bankrupt, and the owner died leaving his son facing
all of his debts.
Rachmael ben Applebaum, the sole heir to the debts of his father,
discovers a terrifying secret that the broadcasts from the planet of the
colonists are false. He also considers that there must be some people
on that planet who want to get back to Earth, so he wants to take his
father's last and fastest ship out 18 years to the Formalhaut system to
bring back people for a fee. Yet, the company who owns the Telpor
system is doing everything that they can to prevent him from going.
What dark secret is this company hidding? Can a company which fulfills
a basic need for mankind become more powerful than governments. What is
the price for information? For Rachmael, it is the planning of an 18
year journey without the benefit of deep sleep devices to make his time
of passing easier. What price do we pay for not having the information
of others?
While the story is fairly simple and predictable, the underlying
society values and the aspect of information control and distribution is
quite fascinating and rather scary, when we begin to realize how much
information is controlled by people we do not know. How much of your
own information is passed on to others for their advantage against you?
For the story itself, I would rate it only at -0 on the Leeper scale,
however, unless you have read this story as well, I have the information
about the story and you don't unless you are willing to read _T_h_e
_U_n_t_e_l_e_p_o_r_t_e_d _M_a_n by Philip K. Dick.
SON OF THE TREE by Jack Vance
Book reviews by Frank R. Leisti
Copyright 1991 Frank R. Leisti
Political intrigue between three planets and their civilizations
forms the basis of this book by Jack Vance. Of course, what would be
the story without the standard foil of a human who happens to get
involved in the middle of this enterprise? Joe Smith of Earth is hop-
scotching through the universe in an effort to find his rival to the
affections of a woman left back in Earth's solar system.
Joe first meets the Druids of the planet Kyril, who have a huge
population of serfs with a small religious order ruling them. For the
Druids, the Tree of Life is all-important and much of the work is done
on the planet to support this magnificent tree, a trunk five miles in
diameter, and twelve miles from the great kneed roots to the ultimate
bud. This tree is the focal point of the five billion Laity and the two
million Druids. When Joe is thrown into the political arena on this
world, the Druids learn what an Earthman is capable of.
The problem for the Druids and Laity on Kyril is that they need to
increase production for their growing population of Druids, yet are
concerned that if industrialization or education occurs on their planet,
then the Laity will not want to be serfs to the Druids. So, a
neighboring planet, Mangtse, which is populated by the Mangs provides
the services and products that the Druids needs and wants. Of course,
the Druids feel that the Mangs are spying on their lifestyle and they do
not want to become completely dependent upon them, and so the Druids
have turned to another planet, Ballenkarch, which is currently in the
middle of civil war where petty princes attempt to become king.
So Joe on his quest becomes the center pivot point of a plot to
either extend or deny Druid rule to the Ballenkarch planet. The space
journey allows the political intrigue to extend to deaths between the
Mangs and the Druids. The final journey before the newly emerging king
of Ballenkarch is enlightening in both Joe's journey and the journey of
the Tree of Life.
While this story was written some time ago, in 1951, the idea about
the Tree of Life is quite interesting. Also the religion based on the
growth and care of the tree is impressive. Whether dealing with human
or non-human characters, the focused and close-mindedness of these
characters shows the limitations and restrictions of a society in which
religious dogma rules. Even when the events are not explained in
detail, the singlemindedness of the religious order to their Tree of
Life is well exposed when confronted with outsiders of the religion.
While it is somewhat entertaining, I can only give this novel a +0
on the Leeper scale of -4 to +4.