@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society Club Notice - 07/17/92 -- Vol. 11, No. 3 MEETINGS UPCOMING: Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon. _D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C 08/05 HO: Hugo-Nominated Short Stories (see below) (HO 1N-410) 08/26 HO: BONE DANCE by Emma Bull (Hugo nominee) (HO 1N-410) 09/16 HO: THE SILMARILLION by J.R.R. Tolkien (Alternate Mythologies) (HO 1N-410) _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. 07/18 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA (phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday) 08/08 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Multi-media astronomical presentation (phone 201-933-2724 for details) (Saturday) HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 hocpb!jetzt LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1D-505A 908-834-1267 hocpb!jrrt MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzy!leeper HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 homxc!11366ns LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 908-576-3346 mtfme!lfl MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzy!leeper Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgzy!ecl All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted. 1. There is nothing like listening to what is new in science to flip around your world view. Everybody knows that we are cutting our own throats by letting the Amazon rain forests be burnt down. That's where we get a lot of our oxygen, and as a species we find that oxygen is one of our favorite things. There is reason now to question just how deeply we are cutting our throats. Perhaps that burning is not a serious threat. Perhaps the Gaia people are right and Nature does defend itself. What is this all about? Well, people are putting greater and greater volumes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. And there is a greater amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere each year, but not nearly in the volume any of us expected. CO-2 is going somewhere faster and faster each year. We still have an THE MT VOID Page 2 excess, just not as serious an excess as we would expect we would have. Where is all the CO-2 going? Well, about half goes into the ocean, it is now thought. And half does not. That leaves only plant life out of the water. We have always assumed that air pollution is bad for nature, and seen some good examples, I might add. But we never gave Mother Nature a vote. Now it is beginning to look like the vegetable biomass is expanding each year. Mother Nature is having a field day, so to speak. In fact, there are reports from Europe that some of their forests are not just healthy, but getting thicker and healthier. Why might this be? There is a bit more carbon dioxide and nitrogen available in the air. Does this say that air pollution is a good thing? Certainly not. There will probably be plenty of negative effects from it. But it may well be that Nature is better adapted to animal life than we ever thought. _S_i_l_e_n_t _R_u_n_n_i_n_g may have been all wet as a predicter of the future. We may end up with a future of jungles encroaching on cities. It's not exactly the nightmare future that has been predicted. 2. Do I actually believe what I said in item 1? I don't know what to believe. I am just presenting it as a possibility. Next thing you know somebody is going to call me a dupe of industrial capitalists. 3. Since all Hugo-nominated short stories are now readily available to just about everyone in the Club, it was decided to have a meeting which actually discussed them (and probably we'll vote on them at the end). For those of use into the traditional forms of publication, the stories are available in magazines as follows: Terry Bisson, "Press Ann," IASFM, August 1991 John Kessel, "Buffalo," F&SF, January 1991 Geoffrey A. Landis, "A Walk in the Sun," IASFM, October 1991 Mike Resnick, "One Perfect Morning, With Jackals," IASFM, March 1991 Mike Resnick, "Winter Solstice," F&SF, October/November 1991 Martha Soukup, "Dog's Life," _A_m_a_z_i_n_g, March 1991 Connie Willis, "In the Late Cretaceous," IASFM, Mid-December 1991 (IASFM is available at many local public libraries. _A_m_a_z_i_n_g is a little harder to find.) As stated in the last issue, the stories are also available via E- mail. Send mail to ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com or att!decwrl!ftpmail. The subject is ignored; The text should be as follows: connect chdir pub/sf THE MT VOID Page 3 dir ascii get READ.ME get cretaceous get dogs_life get perfectmorn get pressann get walkinthesun get wintersolst get buffalo quit The stories are also available via anonymous ftp from "sf.clarinet.com" in the directory "sf". IMPORTANT NOTE FROM THE PROVIDER: These stories are all copyrighted, professional stories. The writers should be thanked for taking this sort of new venture, allowing you to have the stories for free. They are granting you permission to download these stories for your personal use. However, you may not copy them further, forward them to others, put them in archives or republish them in any way. Please respect the rights of these superb SF Pros. [Further details, including how to give a small "thank you" to the authors for this, are in last week's issue. Note that per Brad Templeton's request, I cannot forward these files to you. Since all but one or two members have e-mail access, this should not be a major problem. -ecl] Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 ...mtgzy!leeper Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. -- Hector Berlioz, "Almanach des lettres francaises" PRELUDE TO A KISS A film review by Mark R. Leeper Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper Capsule review: Romance, comedy, fantasy, and even a little softcore horror combine in an intelligent and thoroughly enjoyable film. _P_r_e_l_u_d_e handles an old idea, but at the same time says a lot about life and human relationships. Even the acting by minor characters is good. (This is one of those films whose actual premise comes as a surprise well into the film. I will be very vague below rather than spoil the plot.) Rating: high +2. Peter Hoskins (played by Alec Baldwin) and Rita Boyle (played by Meg Ryan) are made for each other. They are both bright, lively people. Peter is quiet, sedate, and thoughtful. Rita on the other hand is all over the map. She clearly playfully loves life in the daylight but at night has terrors that something terrible will happen to her world. She does not know how right she is. Something will happen to her on her wedding day. It is something that is weird, right out of the Twilight Zone with touches of Kafka. At the same time Peter is going to be pulled into a strange struggle to prove his love. Take an idea that has been done many times in films. Make it one that everybody thought could not be done one more time. Give this idea to a good enough writer and you occasionally can find fresh new approaches. In this case the writer is Craig Lucas who proves that an old fantasy mechanism can be given a new spin and can reveal insights into human nature and the aging process that nobody has seen in it before. Lucas wrote his story first as a Broadway play. Now he adapted his story into a screenplay. _P_r_e_l_u_d_e _t_o _a _K_i_s_s was his fifth play and second produced screenplay. His previous film was the excellent _L_o_n_g_t_i_m_e _C_o_m_p_a_n_i_o_n. Lucas's play _M_i_s_s_i_n_g _P_e_r_s_o_n_s, his film _L_o_n_g_t_i_m_e _C_o_m_p_a_n_i_o_n, and now his film _P_r_e_l_u_d_e _t_o _a _K_i_s_s were all directed by Norman Rene'. Rene' who must be a great director, since just about every speaking performance in his films seems to be very good. I think many people will be enthralled by Richard Riehle's performance as an elderly man who crashes the wedding. I found myself fascinated with a small but magnetic performance by Stanley Tucci playing Peter's best friend, Taylor. It is just a small role, but Rene' invests the character with a lot of personality. Also notable is Ned Beatty as Rita's father, but most people expect Beatty to turn in a good performance. It is some of the lesser known actors who give this film its texture. _P_r_e_l_u_d_e _t_o _a _K_i_s_s is a light fantasy with some heavy ideas that audiences can think about or choose to ignore. Operating on multiple levels, it is a surprisingly satisfying film to be coming out in the summer fluff season. I rate it a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.