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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 03/06/92 -- Vol. 10, No. 36
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.
LZ meetings are in LZ 2R-158.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
03/11 LZ: THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS by Stanislaw Lem (Who defines
reality?)
04/01 LZ: WHICH WORLD? (Lost in the fantasy worlds of Andre Norton)
04/22 LZ: WONDERFUL LIFE by Stephen Jay Gould (Science non-fiction as a
source of ideas)
05/13 LZ: ONLY BEGOTTEN DAUGHTER by James Morrow (Books we heard are
very good)
_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.
03/14 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Barbara
Hare (computer gaming) (phone 201-933-2724 for details)
(Saturday)
03/14 Film Festival: SOME LIKE IT HOT and OSCAR (Sunday)
02/21 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
03/30 Hugo Nomination Forms due
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 hocpb!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1D-505A 908-834-1259 mtuxo!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. The next Lincroft discussion will be on Wednesday, March 11, and
will be about _T_h_e _F_u_t_u_r_o_l_o_g_i_c_a_l _C_o_n_g_r_e_s_s by Stanislaw Lem. As is
becoming all too typical, the person who volunteered to write the
blurb is unable to, and it falls to me. I haven't even read the
book, but luckily Neil Barron (in _A_n_a_t_o_m_y _o_f _W_o_n_d_e_r) comes to my
rescue: "A satire on contemporary society, on professional
futurists, and on 'on the sleeper wakes' utopias. Tichy goes to a
convention held in the 100-story Costa Rica Hilton. Pointless
THE MT VOID Page 2
terrorism abounds, and Tichy is caught up in a local rebellion and
the counter-measures that unloose a flood of mind-altering drugs."
[-ecl]
2. Our next film festival will feature two stories of the dirty
underbelly of American society. We are going to take a closer look
at the world of racketeering: the killers, the victims, the
guns.... Hot damn! On Sunday, March 15, at 1 PM at the
Leeperhouse, we will be showing:
Gangster Comedies
SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) dir. by Billy Wilder
OSCAR (1991) dir. by John Landis
SOME LIKE IT HOT is one of the most popular comedies of all time.
Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis are two musicians who find themselves
in just the wrong garage in Chicago in the wrong St. Valentine's
Day Now they want to get out of town fast, but the only way they
can get away is to disguise themselves as women and join an all-
girl band. Then things get really weird. Also starring are
Marilyn Monroe, Joe. E. Brown, and George Raft. The last line of
the film, written only hours before it was shot, has become a
classic.
As a rule I detest Sylvester Stallone films. I even hated the
first _R_o_c_k_y film, the one that won the Academy Award (Oscar!) for
best picture. So when Stallone decided to break out from action
into comedy, I had just about zero interest in the result. Then
OSCAR got some good reviews, so I went to see it at the local cheap
theater. It starts slow, then it turns into one of the funniest
comedies I have seen in years. I mean that. This is the sort of
screwball comedy Frank Capra made in the 1930s. Oddly enough,
Stallone is just fine and the rest of the cast is great. This is
actually the remake of a French farce and with all the weird
characters it is very funny. (A full review appears elsewhere in
this notice.)
3. The Lincroft chairperson, Rob Mitchell, has moved to Holmdel,
but by vote of the Lincroft members (or at least the attendees at
the last Lincroft meeting), will remain as chairperson for
Lincroft. This is either a vote of confidence, or an indication
that no one else wants the job. [-ecl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper
Try to keep the rebel artist alive in you, no matter
how attractive or exhausting the temptation.
-- Norman Mailer
TIME'S ARROW by Martin Amis
Harmony Books, 1991, ISBN 0-517-58515-4, $18.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper
Tod T. Friendly, John Young, Hamilton de Souza, Odilo
Unverdorben. Or should it be Odilo Unverdorben, Hamilton de Souza,
John Young, Tod T. Friendly? Because in _T_i_m_e'_s _A_r_r_o_w, the one
person is inhabited by a soul living backwards in time.
This idea is not new in science fiction (or is it fantasy?
Stephen Hawking discussed the scientific basis for time reversal in
_A _S_h_o_r_t _H_i_s_t_o_r_y _o_f _T_i_m_e, so I'll call it science fiction). Philip
K. Dick did it years ago with _C_o_u_n_t_e_r-_C_l_o_c_k _W_o_r_l_d. But Dick's
premise was not as tightly thought through--though people start
conversations with "Goodbye" and end with "Hello," in between the
conversation seems to go from what we would consider start to
finish, and so on. Amis is much more precise: though he does in
general spell each speaker's lines in the normal English fashion,
the lines are given in what we would call last first (e.g., answer,
then question) order.
All this sounds somewhat frivolous. But Amis is not being
frivolous. Unverdorben turns out to be (have been?) a doctor in
Auschwitz and part--but only part--of what Amis is doing is showing
how much of life and our existence makes more sense when lived
backward. Ecologically, for example, turning cars into iron ore and
replacing it in the earth has a certain appeal that going in the
other direction lacks. And clearly the Holocaust makes more sense
run backwards than forwards. Many authors and philosophers have
tried to make sense of the Holocaust and, while it's not clear that
Amis's approach provides any practical answers, it does highlight
how the Holocaust may be the archetypal example of humanity's
tendency to do precisely the reverse of what makes sense.
Conversely, of course, the normal function of a doctor (Tod
T. Friendly's profession) makes more sense forward than backward.
So in both our timeline and the reverse Tod T. Friendly (a name
chosen with great care by Amis) moves from sin/evil to redemption--
in a sense, anyway, though the actual situation is far more complex.
None of this description, of course, conveys the richness of
ideas or the poetry of words in _T_i_m_e'_s _A_r_r_o_w. It is far and away
the best science fiction novel of 1991 I have read and at the top of
my Hugo nominees list.
HEAR MY SONG
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A bunch of newcomers to feature
filmmaking make a highly impressive debut in this
very original and funny comedy about a young
impresario and a legendary Irish singer. You may
have to go some distance to find _H_e_a_r _M_y _S_o_n_g, but it
is well worth seeking out. Rating: low +2 (-4 to
+4).
_H_e_a_r _M_y _S_o_n_g is the first film directed by Peter Chelsom. It is
based on a screenplay Chelsom co-authored with Adrian Dunbar, the
actor who plays the film's main character. It is a spectacular
start for two major talents. British Chelsom is starting out with
more talent than 90% of American directors and with a skill that it
took Bill Forsyth two or three films to attain. I choose Forsyth
because Chelsom and Forsyth are both British and each has a loving
feel for the personalities of minor characters and local color.
_H_e_a_r _M_y _S_o_n_g is constantly doing the unexpected. Only in the last
ten minutes does the film get a bit sugary.
Mickey O'Neill (played by Dunbar) is a thirty-year-old concert
promoter in an Irish neighborhood in England. He wants little more
from life than to put on successful concerts and to woo his
girlfriend Nancy. Tara Fitzgerald, who plays Nancy, has the sort of
pristine beauty that Grace Kelly had. There is absolutely no need
for the film to explain why Mickey is anxious to win Nancy. Mickey,
however, is having problems, both with Nancy and with his
promotions. He finds himself promoting sleazier and sleazier
singers to ever-shrinking audiences. Then he manages to book a
legendary Irish singer who has been a tax exile from England since
1958. That sparks unexpected events and a quest in Ireland.
Chelsom's style of story-telling is brisk and usually
intelligent. Plot details are not overly explained. Some
concentration is required and there is the feeling that the plot
could take a right-angle turn at any moment. Unusual camera angles
abound. Chelsom and Dunbar pack the film with comic situations and
dialogue. Some mention should be made of the films only two
recognizable stars. Top billing goes to Ned Beatty as a reclusive
Irishman who could be the key to Mickey's success. His singing is
one of the few negative touches as his singing voice--dubbed by
Vernon Midgley--just does not seem to go with his speaking voice.
David McCallum is largely wasted as a police inspector and as a
heavy.
This is a genuinely funny comedy and well worth looking for. I
rate this a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
OSCAR
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A delightful surprise. _O_s_c_a_r is a
throwback to manic screwball comedies of the 1930s that
takes chances and has them off. Undemanding as a star
vehicle for Sly Stallone, _O_s_c_a_r is packed with eccentric
weirdos, funny hoods, and lots of nutty dialogue. It has
been a good long time since I laughed so much at a
comedy. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4).
Fifteen years ago Sylvester Stallone became a major star with a
single film, _R_o_c_k_y. Since then he has made nothing but macho action
films. But surely now he realizes that he cannot keep playing low-
personality action figures on the screen. Even John Wayne discovered he
had to put some acting and character into his roles. And Wayne was
considered more charismatic on the screen than Stallone. So the time
has come for Stallone to cross over into comedy. His choice of comedy
shows unexpectedly good taste. It is not only a very funny comedy, but
it is a comedy unlike comedies that have been made for many years.
Although originally written in French in 1958, it is very much in the
style of some of Frank Capra's screwier comedies, such as _A_r_s_e_n_i_c _a_n_d
_O_l_d _L_a_c_e and _Y_o_u _C_a_n'_t _T_a_k_e _I_t _w_i_t_h _Y_o_u. It also takes some chances in
that it has the claustrophobic feel of a filmed stage play: 95% of it
takes place in one house and much of that is just in the course of one
morning. But it is such a gem of a stage play that it may just do the
trick for Stallone.
The plot defies describing in any detail, since a big part of the
fun is just making the plot more and more convoluted, until the
characters themselves are totally bewildered about what is going on.
The film opens with a surprisingly unfunny scene between mobster "Snaps"
Provolone (Stallone) and his dying father (played by Kirk Douglas).
Almost undoubtedly this scene was written just for the film, since it is
poorly written and it does not take place in the Provolone house, as
most of the rest of the film does. Poppa makes Snaps promise to go
straight. Flash to a charming credit sequence featuring what looks like
a Puppetoon opera singer singing the "Largo al factotum" from Rossini's
_B_a_r_b_e_r _o_f _S_e_v_i_l_l_e. Flash to a month later and Snaps's morning starts
with an unexpected meeting with his accountant, who admits that he has
been embezzling from Snaps but explains it is all okay because he will
soon be one of the family since he wants to marry Snaps's daughter.
Except it turns out to be a daughter that Snaps does not happen to have.
Well, sort of. If that sounds a little strange, you ain't heard nothing
yet. That is just how it starts. Give the film another five minutes
and stranger will happen still.
Oscar May 18, 1991 Page 2
The heart of this film is an incredible array of minor characters,
some very funny, far too many to mention. The film is well chosen to
let the bit parts do the most to pull the film along and place small
demands on the leading man, who appears to be up to the small demands
that are placed on him, and even if he were not, the pacing, the script,
and the minor characters would still make this film worth seeing. _O_s_c_a_r
makes it as one of the funniest comedies in a long time. I give it a +2
on the -4 to +4 scale.
Boskone 29
(Part 1 of 2)
Con report by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper
Traffic was very light most of the way (it got bad only between
Hartford and Bradley Airport) and we managed to make the trip to
Springfield in just over four and a half hours. Next year, if course,
it will take longer to get to Boskone, since it's moving to Framingham.
But more on that later.
Last year panelists registered in the regular registration area and
were given their panelist information there. This year we had to go to
the Green Room to get our panelist information. Since one was in the
Sheraton and one in the Marriott, this was a trifle inconvenient, but at
least we ended up in the hotel with the dealers room.
Hotels
This year the weather was warmer than usual, making the outdoor run
across the street between the Sheraton and the Marriott not too bad,
except for Saturday night, when it was raining. The connecting overpass
was kept open (it usually closes when all the stores in Baystate West
do), but it does add quite a ways onto the distance. This whole two-
hotel situation is one reason the convention is moving next year. As
far as space goes, there was never a problem with crowding. Boskone 29
was about the same size as Boskone 28 (900 or so members), and though I
heard some of the parties got very crowded, none of the function space
was a problem.
Dealers Rooms
Boskone stayed with the idea of a single dealers room (after having
had one in each hotel for a couple of years). The number of dealers
seemed to hold steady, though it appeared to me (and others) as though
the number of _b_o_o_k dealers was down. Non-book items included art,
jewelry, Japanese videos, filk and folk cassettes, and knick-knacks.
The woman running the table (well, corner) for Tales from the White Hart
said that sales were a little better than last year, but still not high
enough to make her happy about the cost, since Boskone charges the same
for a table at their current conventions (of about 900 members) as they
used to for the ones with a couple of thousand members. If attendance
(and sales) don't go up next year, more dealers may drop out--Mary
Southworth was at the convention, but didn't have a table in the dealers
room for the first time in many years. I found several books, both for
me and for a friend, but it was a somewhat disappointing selection, with
only one table with a large supply of used books. I didn't get to
either Treasure Island (a comic store in the mall) or Johnson's
Bookstore across the street, due in part to lack of time.
Boskone 29 Feburary 17, 1992 Page 2
Shortly after we arrived, we met Dave who said that Kate, Cynthia,
and Barbara (all friends of ours) had had several drinks in the bar when
they arrived, and were somewhat "snockered." Where was Kate now, we
asked. "Oh, she's in the Dealers Room." "You let Kate go drunk into
the Dealers Room?!?"
Art Show
It seems to consist mostly of 1) well-executed pieces in which I
have no interest in the subject matter of, and 2) poorly-executed pieces
in which I have no interest in the subject matter. There is far too
much fantasy, "cat art," and media art (e.g., pencil sketches of _S_t_a_r
_T_r_e_k actors) to suit me. There were some good etchings (a form one
doesn't see often in art shows) and a few good pieces. The print shop
had a good selection reasonably priced, but again, much of it didn't do
anything for me.
Film Program
The film program consisted of _A_e_l_i_t_a: _Q_u_e_e_n _o_f _M_a_r_s. There was a
video program, which was mostly Japanese animation, with Fritz Lang's
_S_p_i_e_s and _S_p_i_d_e_r_s, and the silent versions of _N_o_s_f_e_r_a_t_u, _V_a_m_p_y_r, and
_2_0,_0_0_0 _L_e_a_g_u_e_s _U_n_d_e_r _t_h_e _S_e_a. The video program was on a seventeen-inch
screen; it would seem as though getting a twenty-five-inch screen might
be a good idea. _A_e_l_i_t_a was shown with live accompaniment by the Shirim
Klezmer Orchestra. This had its pros and cons. The accompaniment was
good, but the fact that the film started twenty-five minutes late, and
that there was a twenty-minute intermission between reels (for the band
to rest) was not.
Programming
Last year I said I wanted the science track back. Well, there were
some science panels this year: "Robotics," "What's New in Science?,"
"Worldbuilding 104: Destroying Planets," "Chaos and Ecology," and
"Cosmology." Unfortunately, the panels I was interested in were opposite
panels I was on. So it goes.
I also went to fewer panels this year (seven versus last year's
eleven). I don't know if this means the panels are becoming repetitive,
or if I'm less likely to rush from panel to panel. It is true that if
I'm on a panel, I won't go to a panel during the immediately preceding
hour, and tend not to rush off to one immediately following either. But
it may be that there were fewer panels altogether. Certainly there were
fewer panels in the evenings (after the dinner break), and that means
fewer time slots I can go to panels in.
The First Night
The "Meet the VIPs" party was held in the Boscave (the con suite).
This was probably because last year the Con Suite went virtually unused
Boskone 29 Feburary 17, 1992 Page 3
during the party. Free soda was provided, but drinks and munchies were
on a cash basis. Entertainment was provided by the before-mentioned
Shirim Klezmer Orchestra, and while the music was perhaps too loud to
allow conversation (okay, not perhaps--it _w_a_s too loud), I enjoyed it a
lot. A couple of dozen of us danced a line to one of the songs earlier
on, but then were too out of breath to try it again later. Dave
Langford came over and introduced himself to me (claiming I was his
competition, to which I replied I wasn't much competition), and gave me
a copy of his latest fanzine. Given that he is normally hard of
hearing, conversing with him in a room filled with loud music was almost
impossible.
There were some panels Friday night, but I didn't get to any of
them.
Guest of Honor Speech
Saturday, 11 AM
Jane Yolen
(Before the speech started, I asked Yolen to autograph a copy of
_T_h_e _D_e_v_i_l'_s _A_r_i_t_h_m_e_t_i_c and she mentioned she had just finished another
novel set in the Holocaust, _B_r_i_a_r _R_o_s_e, which would appear in Terri
Windling's "Fairy Tale" series.)
Yolen spoke about censorship, which I assume overlapped with her
panel on censorship (which I didn't get to). She began with some
introductory comments, including saying that somebody had said that the
reason women are put on pedestals is because that way you can look up
their skirts. Her response to this was to tell us, "That's why I'm not
wearing a skirt--so you can put me on a pedestal."
She began by defining what she saw as the main problem, or rather,
twin problems: PC ("politically correct") language, and the "Satan
hunters" (which she labeled, in the way of fantasy novelists, as
"Authorsbane"). She then read newspaper reports of many examples of
both, some of which were _s_o ludicrous that one had to laugh. For
example, one person objected to a book because the number 33 appeared in
it, and "two times thirty-three is sixty-six, which is just one digit
away from the number of the beast." (I asked if this person also
checked all the arithmetic books.) Another person objected to rainbows
as "Satanic," in spite of their mention in the Bible as a sign from God.
She related that a book she wrote in 1971 referred to a garden full of
"gay flowers and beautiful plants"; the publisher insisted she change
this to "gaily-colored." She tried quoting Lewis Carroll to him ("The
question is who [between the words and the writer] is to be master, that
is all"), but it didn't help. The Northampton Chief of Police once made
a list of words he wanted to see banned, including the word "chitlins."
Now as Yolen points out, she considers chitlins (which are hog
intestines prepared as food) as certainly not kosher, not something she
would ever want to serve or be served, and possibly obscene, but she
would not want to see either the food or the word banned. It is
Boskone 29 Feburary 17, 1992 Page 4
believed, however, that the Chief of Police had not the slightest clue
what chitlins were, and decided it _s_o_u_n_d_e_d dirty. (By the way, he is no
longer the Chief of Police.)
One school removed a book titled _M_a_k_i_n_g _I_t _w_i_t_h _M_a_d_e_m_o_i_s_e_l_l_e from
its library, only to reinstate it when it was pointed out that it was a
pattern book. (Long-time science fiction fans or "Twilight Zone"
watchers may first themselves thinking "It's a cookbook!" here. :-) )
Another cancelled a Christmas play because one parent objected to the
word "pregnant" although Yolen pointed out that no one has ever
suggested that Jesus was delivered by the stork or found under a cabbage
leaf. Another protest was against "Snow White" because it "encouraged
mirror-gazing." As Yolen pointed out, the Wicked Witch who gazes into
the mirror ends up being forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes, which
doesn't sound like much encouragement to her (or anyone in the audience,
for that matter). This reminded me of the school in Michigan that had a
stress-management course that came under fire because it included deep
breathing, which apparently "leads to out-of-body experiences, promotes
mysticism, and undermines Christianity." My first observation was that
anyone taking a deep breath of Michigan air would _w_a_n_t an out-of-body
experience, preferably into another state. A more serious observation
is that any religion undermined by someone taking a few deep breaths has
more serious problems than deep breathing. Yolen mentioned Texe Marrs's
book _R_a_v_a_g_e_d _b_y _t_h_e _N_e_w _A_g_e: _S_a_t_a_n'_s _P_l_a_n _t_o _D_e_s_t_r_o_y _O_u_r _K_i_d_s, which has
a whole chapter attacking fantasy. (I'm not recommending you buy this,
mind you, because that only encourages them; check your library for it.)
Perhaps one of the most ridiculous attacks was the one against
C. S. Lewis and Madeleine L'Engle on the grounds they were "anti-
Christian."
Yolen recently edited an anthology for young adults titled _2_0_4_1,
which contains a Connie Willis story about censorship: "Much Ado About
Censorship." The premise is that in the future so many special interest
groups attack Shakespeare that only two lines are left in _H_a_m_l_e_t. A
side-effect of this is that students spend a lot of time and effort to
get the unexpurgated Shakespeare and read it. "It's an ill wind that
blows no one good," as someone once said. (Ha! Fooled you! It was _n_o_t
Shakespeare--go check.)
You can see that there have been some pretty flimsy reasons for the
attacks. But as Cardinal Richelieu said, "Give me six lines written by
the most honorable of men and I will find an excuse to hang him." In
other words, it's not hard. As Yolen said, "Metaphor is right over the
heads of these people." The result is that they are unable to see that
the only good adult in _H_u_c_k_l_e_b_e_r_r_y _F_i_n_n is black, and decry the book as
racist instead, because it uses the word "nigger." Nor is banning books
new, Yolen pointed out. At one point, all of Dickens except _O_l_i_v_e_r
_T_w_i_s_t was banned, as were many others, including (from a list I had--
Yolen listed only some of these):
l l. Angelou, Maya _I _K_n_o_w _W_h_y _t_h_e _C_a_g_e_d _B_i_r_d _S_i_n_g_s
Boskone 29 Feburary 17, 1992 Page 5
Anonymous _G_o _A_s_k _A_l_i_c_e Bannerman, Helen _L_i_t_t_l_e _B_l_a_c_k
_S_a_m_b_o Blatty, William Peter _T_h_e _E_x_o_r_c_i_s_t Blume, Judy _F_o_r_e_v_e_r
... Brown, Claude _M_a_n_c_h_i_l_d _i_n _t_h_e _P_r_o_m_i_s_e_d _L_a_n_d Buck,
Pearl _T_h_e _G_o_o_d _E_a_r_t_h Childress, Alice _A _H_e_r_o _A_i_n'_t
_N_o_t_h_i_n' _b_u_t _a _S_a_n_d_w_i_c_h Dickey, James _D_e_l_i_v_e_r_a_n_c_e Frank,
Anne _T_h_e _D_i_a_r_y _o_f _a _Y_o_u_n_g _G_i_r_l Golding, William _L_o_r_d _o_f
_t_h_e _F_l_i_e_s Griffin, John Howard _B_l_a_c_k _L_i_k_e _M_e Hawthorne,
Nathaniel _T_h_e _S_c_a_r_l_e_t _L_e_t_t_e_r Hemingway, Ernest _A _F_a_r_e_w_e_l_l
_t_o _A_r_m_s Huxley, Aldous _B_r_a_v_e _N_e_w _W_o_r_l_d Jackson, Shirley _t_h_e
_L_o_t_t_e_r_y Kesey, Ken _O_n_e _F_l_e_w _O_v_e_r _t_h_e _C_u_c_k_o_o'_s _N_e_s_t Klein,
Norma _I_t'_s _O_K _i_f _Y_o_u _D_o_n'_t _L_o_v_e _M_e Knowles, John _A _S_e_p_a_r_a_t_e
_P_e_a_c_e Lee, Harper _T_o _K_i_l_l _a _M_o_c_k_i_n_g_b_i_r_d Orwell, George _1_9_8_4
Parks, Gordon _T_h_e _L_e_a_r_n_i_n_g _T_r_e_e Salinger, J. D. _T_h_e _C_a_t_c_h_e_r _i_n
_t_h_e _R_y_e Shakespeare, William _M_a_c_b_e_t_h Solzhenitsyn, Alexander _O_n_e
_D_a_y _i_n _t_h_e _L_i_f_e _o_f _I_v_a_n _D_e_n_i_s_o_v_i_c_h Steinbeck, John _O_f _M_i_c_e _a_n_d _M_e_n
Steinbeck, John _T_h_e _G_r_a_p_e_s _o_f _W_r_a_t_h Swift, Jonathan _A _M_o_d_e_s_t
_P_r_o_p_o_s_a_l The Boston Women's Health Collective _O_u_r _B_o_d_i_e_s,
_O_u_r_s_e_l_v_e_s Trumbo, Dalton _J_o_h_n_n_y _G_o_t _H_i_s _G_u_n Twain, Mark _T_h_e
_A_d_v_e_n_t_u_r_e_s _o_f _H_u_c_k_l_e_b_e_r_r_y _F_i_n_n Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. _C_a_t'_s _C_r_a_d_l_e
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. _S_l_a_u_g_h_t_e_r_h_o_u_s_e-_F_i_v_e Vonnegut, Kurt
Jr. _W_e_l_c_o_m_e _t_o _t_h_e _M_o_n_k_e_y _H_o_u_s_e Zindel, Paul _M_y _D_a_r_l_i_n_g, _M_y
_H_a_m_b_u_r_g_e_r
Why do many of these (and other) books get attacked? Because,
Yolen said, they carry the very dangerous message that we should "value
our differences and speak out against authority when authority is
wrong." Yolen also said that stories are what define us, because "only
the human animal tells stories." Other animals may use tools, have
language, or exhibit other behaviors frequently labeled human (though
her claim that dogs and hyenas laugh is flawed, I think, in that the
sound like laughter that they make is not to indicate that they find
something funny). And also, she said, "Quite simply, stories change
lives." To support this, she gave several examples of letters she had
received from people whose lives or the lives of those they knew had
been changed by her stories. Well, in this I'm sure the censors would
agree with her, because if they believed that stories _d_i_d_n'_t change
lives, they wouldn't be trying to ban them.
Yolen closed by saying that she had been called in a sermon "a tool
of Satan." After thinking about that she decided that wasn't specific
enough--which tool was she? So she declared, "I am a ball-peen hammer."
And she produced "Satan's Toolchest" T-shirts, listing a variety of
writers who opposed the censors:
Bruce Coville--crowbar
Steven Brust--sickle
Gene Wolfe--pencil-sharpener
Patricia Wrede--astral plane
Kara Dakley--Phillips screwdriver
Suzy McKee Charnas--C clamp
Steven Gould--tape measure
Judith Reeves-Stephens (?)--torque wrench
Boskone 29 Feburary 17, 1992 Page 6
Delia Sherman--awl
Tappan King--power drill
Beth Meacham--hex wrench
Theresa Nielsen-Hayden--spirit level
Patrick Nielsen-Hayden--thin edge of the end of the wedge
Someone from the audience then pointed out that the Bible has more
sex and violence than all the books people were objecting to. Yolen
again pointed out that these people were not operating under logic.
(She also said that the statement was true, and "Dorothy Parker had a
parrot she named Onan because he always spilled his seed.")
People asked what they could do. The ACLU, the American Library
Association's Freedom to Read Foundation, and People for the American
Way were mentioned, but Yolen felt that what was really needed was more
grass-roots action: people should get more involved with their school
boards and libraries and raise as much of a fuss when books were
attacked as the attackers were raising. Otherwise, it's too easy for
the school board to say, "Well, why don't we just drop this? It will be
easier all around." If parents come in and give them hell when they
drop books, and threaten to sue them for malfeasance, just as the
attackers threaten to sue them for _h_a_v_i_n_g the books, then the board will
have to make their decisions on the merits of the books and the
arguments, rather than just taking the easy way out.
(All this talk of school censorship struck a chord. My first-ever
book review was of _T_h_e _P_a_s_s_o_v_e_r _P_l_o_t. I wrote it in 1967, when I was
seventeen, for the high school paper. The town was over 75% Catholic,
the principal always checked over the newspaper's content, and my review
didn't get printed.)
1991: The Year in SF on Film and TV
Saturday, 1 PM
Chuck Rothman (mod), Mark R. Leeper, Laurie Mann
The panel began, predictably enough, with each panel listing their
favorite films from the preceding year. Leeper listed _P_r_o_s_p_e_r_o'_s _B_o_o_k_s,
_T_h_e _S_i_l_e_n_c_e _o_f _t_h_e _L_a_m_b_s, _T_h_e _R_o_c_k_e_t_e_e_r, and _B_e_a_u_t_y _a_n_d _t_h_e _B_e_a_s_t as
being not only his favorite science fiction, horror, or fantasy films,
but also in his "Top Ten" list for _a_l_l films in 1991. Rothman said that
he didn't get to the movies as often as he would have liked (he has a
seven-year-old and trips to the movies get expensive), but he liked
_A_l_i_c_e, _L._A. _S_t_o_r_y, and _D_e_f_e_n_d_i_n_g _Y_o_u_r _L_i_f_e. Mann said the year was
good, but derivative, and gave _T_h_e _A_d_d_a_m_s _F_a_m_i_l_y, _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _V_I, and
_T_e_r_m_i_n_a_t_o_r _2 as prime examples. She described _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _V_I as the "Jack
Chalker of the _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k series" in that it threw out a lot of ideas,
only some of which worked. (She has a ten-year-old, so she had some of
the same problems as Rothman.)
_B_e_a_u_t_y _a_n_d _t_h_e _B_e_a_s_t and _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k _V_I were given special attention.
Leeper observed that the animated _B_e_a_u_t_y _a_n_d _t_h_e _B_e_a_s_t drew a lot on the
Boskone 29 Feburary 17, 1992 Page 7
Cocteau version. For example, the Cocteau version showed a scene down a
long hallway lit by candles held in candle-holders shaped liked arms and
hands, which on closer examination turn out to be live arms and hands.
This was elaborated on in the recent version, so that the candlestick
was a "live" candlestick--it talked, sang, danced, etc. As far as _S_t_a_r
_T_r_e_k went, Leeper pointed out that it was the first self-correcting
television show, in that because of the enormous amount of discussion
about it on electronic networks (such as Usenet), if the producers are
doing something the fans/viewers don't like, they will find out about it
very quickly and in great detail. (Fan posting: "Yet _a_n_o_t_h_e_r Wesley-
saves-the-universe story." Producer: "Okay, no more Wesley-saves-the-
universe stories for a while.") Even so, _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k: _T_h_e _N_e_x_t _G_e_n_e_r_a_t_i_o_n
was described as "infuriatingly uneven." One audience member claimed
that every old _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k episode was better than any _N_e_x_t _G_e_n_e_r_a_t_i_o_n
episode, but he was clearly a minority of one in that opinion.
Little-noticed films or shows that panelists recommended were
_T_r_u_l_y, _M_a_d_l_y, _D_e_e_p_l_y (originally titled _C_e_l_l_o in Britain) (Mann), the
made-for-cable _C_a_s_t _a _D_e_a_d_l_y _S_p_e_l_l (Leeper), and the television show
_D_i_n_o_s_a_u_r_s (Rothman). Leeper also mentioned _D_e_a_d _A_g_a_i_n, which he said
was similar to a 1985 film titled _D_e_j_a _V_u. He also suggested _I_c_i_c_l_e
_T_h_i_e_f as a fantasy film not likely to be thought of (though it was
actually a 1989 film), _W_a_r_l_o_c_k, and the various animation festivals.
Audience member Walter Kahn suggested that a lot of science
fiction, fantasy, and horror was being done on the USA Network;
unfortunately, no one gets good enough listings for it to figure out
what's on when (one of the problems with the proliferation of channels
that comes with cable). _Q_u_a_n_t_u_m _L_e_a_p was recommended as well for
television.
In our equivalent of "Screened by Teens," I asked what the
panelists' children liked. The seven-year-old liked _H_o_o_k; the ten-
year-old liked _T_e_r_m_i_n_a_t_o_r _2.
Other dramatic presentations mentioned included the new (to New
York, anyway, though not eligible for a Hugo because it had already run
in London--or is a play in a different country with a different cast a
different production?) musical _R_e_t_u_r_n _t_o _t_h_e _F_o_r_b_i_d_d_e_n _P_l_a_n_e_t, the radio
show _W_B_U_R _S_c_i-_F_i _T_h_e_a_t_e_r.
Meeting of the Society for the Aesthetic Rearrangement of History
Saturday, 3 PM
Mark Olson (mod), Steven Brust, Steven Gould, Judith Tarr,
The subtitle of this panel, given at the beginning of the panel
rather than in any advance schedules, was "How History Ought to Have
Been," and it was claimed that the title of the panel came from
Ferdinand Feghoot. Well, it's been too long since I read a Ferdinand
Feghoot, so I can't "confirm or deny" this, but I'm sure _s_o_m_e_o_n_e can.
Boskone 29 Feburary 17, 1992 Page 8
Olson started this off by saying that he often thought it was a
pity that the Roman Empire fell. Tarr countered this by saying that it
never really did: it's now the Cosa Nostra. Gould offered the scenario
of Isabella and Ferdinand (_n_o_t Feghoot, but the Spanish king) having
never been born, not because of any effect on Columbus, mind you, but
because without them there probably wouldn't have been any expulsion of
the Jews and Moors from Spain. Brust wanted the Huns to meet the
Vikings (in a tag-team match? :-) ). Tarr's scenario involved Charles
Martel losing at Tours in 732 against the Muslims. (I wrote down
"Poitiers" rather than "Tours," but I'm sure she meant Tours and I may
have misheard it, as she has a slight speech impediment.)
There was some further discussion of Gould's scenario. Gould
suggested that if the Moors and Jews hadn't been expelled, the Moorish
civilization in Spain would have continued, but others disputed this,
saying that Muslim fundamentalists destroyed Baghdad in the 7th and 8th
Centuries, and could have as easily destroyed Spain. Checking later, I
discovered my encyclopedia says that Baghdad was _f_o_u_n_d_e_d in 762 and
remained a center of Muslim culture until 1258, when it was sacked by
the Mongols, so there seems to be some contradiction here. (It makes
one wish one had an encyclopedia right at the panel, doesn't it?)
Brust suggested somewhat frivolously that if Christianity hadn't
gotten to Britain, we wouldn't have a lot of air-headed pagans today;
presumably he meant we would have the real ones instead.
Someone in some context quoted Saki as having said that the Balkans
produce more history than can be consumed locally. This led to a
discussion of the Alexandria library and scenarios in which it wasn't
burnt. One panelist (I can't remember which) observed that literary
critics would now say that everything in it was by "dead white males."
One person suggested a scenario in which the library was a circulating
library and all the best works were checked out when it was burnt down.
Brust said (apropos of not much) that he would specifically not
change anything about Richard Nixon: "My God, that was fun!"
Someone asked about looking at the topic from a different
perspective: what if some fictional description of the world were true
to it? As an example, what if John Norman's descriptions of people's
motivations were accurate? Unfortunately, this didn't catch on (too
complicated, I suspect), and the panel rapidly drifted back to such
questions as "what would have happened if the United States had lost the
Revolution?" (One answer was that we would be speaking English.)
Olson, returning to the Roman Empire scenario, observed that the
Jewish population of the Roman Empire in the 1st Century was about 10%,
and in addition was rising (because Jewish men were considered good
husbands, so non-Jewish women would convert to marry them--but did this
mean that non-Jewish men converted to marry Jewish women or what?).
Without Christianity, would we have had a Jewish Roman Empire? An
Boskone 29 Feburary 17, 1992 Page 9
audience member (either named Michael Wood, or quoting someone named
Michael Wood--my notes are unclear) claimed that the Western world chose
Christianity as its religion because it embodied the Western values of
personal freedom, etc. This led to much heated debate on two counts.
First, many people claimed that Christianity did _n_o_t embody these
values. And second, many thought that claiming these were Western
values without defining Western was careless. In particular, I asked
where the Native Americans fit into this East/West dichotomy. Two books
mentioned as pertinent to this discussion in some fashion were the
fiction book _T_o_o_l_m_a_k_e_r _K_o_a_n by John McLoughlin and the non-fiction book
_L_e_s_s _T_h_a_n _W_o_r_d_s _C_a_n _S_a_y by Richard Mitchell.
Somehow the panel got off onto a discussion of why Hungary had
turned out so many great mathematicians. Brust (who in case you hadn't
figured out, is of Hungarian ancestry) said that it might be because
math does require a lot of expensive lab equipment. I suggested that it
may also be that math does not require any particular language skills.
With Hungarian being so different from any other language in Europe
(with the exception of Finnish and Estonian, I think), the ability to
work internationally in other fields might be limited, but you could
read mathematics papers from anywhere without knowing the language, and
become a world-class mathematician without having to write in a
different language. (As a further example of the lack of need for any
special equipment, Ramanujian was mentioned.)
The _U_t_n_e _R_e_a_d_e_r had an article about a year ago on "the World
Championships" which talked about how long some empires had lasted,
empires about which most people probably know very little these days. I
said that my husband often pointed out that we were living in the short
period following the fall of the Egyptian empire. Along these lines of
"what everyone knows that isn't so," people also mentioned Stephen
Robb's "A Letter from a Higher Critic," in which a historian from four
hundred years hence analyzes World War II and proves it was as much myth
and legend as the King Arthur stories that everyone used to accept as
history. Given what we've learned about the sorts of "facts" that are
thrown around during wartime (handless Belgian children and incubators
come to mind), this story has a hard edge to it. It's sobering to think
that it may be the lesson we learned about propaganda during wartime
from World War I (the most common circulating atrocity story was that
"the Huns" were cutting off the hands of Belgian children--large sums of
money were collected to help them, but after the war, no one could
manage to find any of the handless children that the stories had
described) that made most people disbelieve the stories of the Nazi
concentration camps until the first pictures started coming back as the
camps were liberated. I have no way to explain the people who _s_t_i_l_l
claim the Holocaust never happened, however. But all these stories
prove is that is it very difficult to decide what's fact and what's
fiction until years later. Unfortunately, decisions have to be made at
the time, not years later, and it is worth remembering that they can end
up being made on "what everyone knows that isn't so."
Boskone 29 Feburary 17, 1992 Page 10
Other examples of pointing out that what people know isn't so (and
its flip side, what people don't know is) include Tony Rothman's essay
"Genius and Biographers: The Fictionalization of Evariste Galois"
(_A_m_e_r_i_c_a_n _M_a_t_h_e_m_a_t_i_c_a_l _M_o_n_t_h_l_y, Vol. 89 No. 2) in which he disproves all
the commonly held beliefs about Galois's work--for example, it turns out
that most of what Galois wrote on his last night was not fresh work, but
just rewriting some older papers); the fact that Dumas was black (pe`re
or fils was not clear); and the real meaning of Caesar's death (it was
not a betrayal and murder by a friend, but the assassination sanctioned
by law of a tyrant). As you can tell, we strayed off the topic a lot.
Of course, for most, if not all, of these scenarios, there are
alternate history stories dealing with those ideas. The "non-fall" of
the Roman Empire shows up in dozens of stories, including Robert
Silverberg's "To the Promised Land," "An Outpost of the Empire," and
"Tales from the Venia Woods"; Gregory Benford's "Manassas, Again";
S. P. Somtow's "Aquiliad" series; Edmund Cooper's "Jupiter Laughs"; Kirk
Mitchell's "Procurator" series; Frederik Pohl's "Waiting for the
Olympians"; Clifford Simak's _W_h_e_r_e _t_h_e _E_v_i_l _D_w_e_l_l_s; and others.
Ferdinand and Isabella? Well, a couple in which they were born, but not
victorious, include Philip Guedalla's "If the Moors in Spain had Won"
and Esther M. Friesner's "Such a Deal." Martel losing at Tours? Gordon
Eklund's "The Rising of the Sun," Harry Harrison's _A _T_r_a_n_s_a_t_l_a_n_t_i_c
_T_u_n_n_e_l, _H_u_r_r_a_h!, and J. B. Ryan's "The Mosaic." (Tarr herself wrote a
story in which upon hearing of Roland's death and Ganelon's treachery at
Roncesvalles, Charlemagne converts to Islam. The story is called, not
surprisingly, "Roncesvalles.") I know of none in which the Vikings meet
the Huns, but I'll bet there are some.
The best story in which Christianity doesn't get to Britain is
probably Esther M. Friesner's _D_r_u_i_d'_s _B_l_o_o_d, a Sherlock Holmes pastiche,
but there is also Michael Moorcock's _G_l_o_r_i_a_n_a; _o_r, _t_h_e _U_n_f_u_l_f_i_l_l'_d
_Q_u_e_e_n, and Cooper's "Jupiter Laughs" (mentioned above) has an epilogue
in Britain. The Friesner is closest to what Brust was hoping for, I
think. Even Olson's unlikely-sounding Jewish Roman Empire shows up in
Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne's "The Wandering Christian."
I won't even bother listing the "what if the United States lost the
Revolution" stories--there are too many.
(End of Part 1)