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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 04/17/92 -- Vol. 10, No. 42

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

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)
06/03 LZ: THRICE UPON A TIME by James Hogan (Time Travel)
06/24 LZ: RAFT by Stephen Baxter (Gravity)
07/15 LZ: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION by David Pringle (SF
reference books)
08/05 LZ: THE SILMARILLION by J.R.R. Tolkien (Alternate Mythologies)

_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.
04/18 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: Robert John Betancourt
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
05/09 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: TBA
(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 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. Once again, the person responsible for the blurb for Lincroft's
book discussion next week has failed to come through. This malaise
must end! Stephen Jay Gould, the author of the book in question
(_W_o_n_d_e_r_f_u_l _L_i_f_e) would undoubtedly point out that such action would
inevitably lead to the extinction of a species practicing it. Or
would he? Come to the discussion in Lincroft on Wednesday, April
22, and add your opinion.

THE MT VOID Page 2

2. So this was how it came down this morning. I was listening to
WABC talk radio--never a good idea at the best of times. Curtis
and Lisa Sliwa were interviewing a Pat Buchanan backer and
apparently a racist. As the racist maintained, "I have a right to
defend my species." At that Lisa bristled. "Blacks aren't your
species?"

"No, if you read science books, blacks and whites are different
species."

"Well, not everything science tells us is true."

At this point we have four losers: the racist, Curtis Sliwa, Lisa
Sliwa, and science. And I don't think science even knows it was
playing. For the record, pigmentation is far too trivial a
difference to draw a species line. As a rule of thumb, if A and B
can mate, they are the same species. Undoubtedly there are those
who think there should not be interracial marriage, but if blacks
and whites were different species, it would not even be an issue.
Someone has been lying about what science says and using the lie
for their own ends and all parties in the above conversation had
roughly the scientific knowledge of fleas.

I am reminded of the famous story about Harry Cohn, one-time master
of Columbia Studios. Cohen's brother Jack had brought Harry a
proposal for a Biblical epic he thought the studio should make.
"You don't know a damn thing about the Bible," Harry stormed (a
peculiar choice of words). "I've got fifty dollars that says you
don't even know the Lord's Prayer."

Jack thought for a second and said, "Now I lay me down to
sleep...."

Sheepishly Harry took out fifty dollars. "I'll be damned! I _r_e_a_l_l_y
didn't think you knew it."

3. John Manoyan is doing his best to keep Mark honest; he sends the
following corrections to the March 27 issue of the MT VOID:

1. BACILLUM is not a recognized form. Too bad because it sounds
good. It's either BACILLUS or BACTERIUM but not something in
between. Bacillus is normally used to refer to rod-shaped
bacteria.

[Oh gosh! I hope I haven't offended any! I suppose the ones
I was talking about were bacillus, but I bet if I say that in
the notice I will get mail from some saying they prefer to be
called bacteria. -mrl]

2. Idem with BOTULINUS. Botulism is the food poisoning that you
can do without. Botulinum is the Clostridium Botulinum

THE MT VOID Page 3

bacterium that causes it, and botulin is the toxin. You
know, you would've gotten it right if you had swapped the M
for the S [or vice versa] in each case.

[Sorry, I am just not keeping up with my S and M these days.
-mrl]

Thanks for the corrections, and sorry to take so long to print
them! (Glad to know people are actually reading these things.)

Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzy!leeper

Do not use power to supress opinions you think pernicious,
for if you do the opinions will supress you.
-- Bertrand Russell

GENE WOLFE'S BOOK OF DAYS by Gene Wolfe
Arrow, 1985, ISBN 0-09-939230-5, L2.25.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper

You're probably asking why I'm bothering to review a seven-
year-old book now, especially in a British edition. Well, first of
all, some people who are reading this may actually live in Britain,
but also, if I managed to find this, you might too.

Clearly I'm going to recommend this book (else why would I be
reviewing it?). It's an intriguing idea--eighteen stories, each for
a particular holiday. Though this edition is British, there was an
American edition in 1981, which would explain the choice of some
purely American holidays: Lincoln's Birthday, Arbor Day, Armed
Forces Day, Memorial Day, .... It's odd, in fact, that Independence
Day is missing--I wonder if it was in the original edition and
omitted in this one. And the Memorial Day story is about World War
II, not the Civil War. I should explain to the majority of United
States readers as well as those elsewhere that Arbor Day is a
holiday celebrating trees (no, not by cutting them down, like at
Christmas, but by planting them). It's very popular in the Midwest,
especially in the schools--I can remember every year in school in
Illinois buying a small sapling for a nickel (if I recall correctly-
--certainly no more than a dime) and taking it home to plant it in
the yard. Two or three of the five actually survived until we
moved-- they may still be there. However, it could be that the
Midwest borrowed it from Israel. (Gene Wolfe lives in either
Illinois or Indiana, so that would explain his use of Arbor Day.)

Now that I have finished the Midwest cultural lesson, I can
return to the book at hand. What makes this collection even more
unusual is that Wolfe did not start out to write a story for each
holiday. The copyright dates indicate that they were written over a
span of several years, but this merely underscores the importance
holidays have in our lives. Even when the holiday is not mentioned
in the story, it is the same underlying motivation for both.
Wolfe's stories would be good even without the holiday theme, but it
serves to focus our attention on the fact that holidays were not
just invented by greeting card companies (well, not all holidays
anyway) and that they have a meaning and, to the extent they show us
that meaning, a purpose. And this is what makes this collection
worth seeking out.

Capsule review: Awful cliche-ridden script
about a murder case on the Oglala Sioux Indian
Reservation. Well-intentioned film has a good
performance by Graham Greene (of _D_a_n_c_e_s _w_i_t_h _W_o_l_v_e_s),
but don't trust the film's portrayal of Native
American culture and don't expect to see a new plot.
Rating: -1 (-4 to +4).

Okay, now we all know the rules; let's go over them one more
time. On one side we've got good guys, on the other we've got bad
guys. All the cute people with personality on are the good guys'
side. Bad guys get to be backed by the United States government.
Good guys get all the women and children. Bad guys get all the
fancy guns. Good guys get to fight for their land, their homes, and
principle. Bad guys are fighting for money and always get to strike
first. Nice looking woman. Yeah, she's a good guy all right.
Heck, bad guys are all men anyway. She's lived here all her life.
No, wait. She went away to school but she came back to help her
people. Yeah. She's a doctor or a teacher or something that's got
the right tone. And she's _v_e_r_y _p_o_l_i_t_i_c_a_l_l_y _c_o_m_m_i_t_t_e_d. After all,
this is the 1990s. The old woman who looks like a Cabbage Patch
doll? She's the doctor's mother. Now you need someone for the
audience to identify with. He's the star, and he's an American. So
naturally he comes in sort of on the bad guys' side. But when he
sees how nasty the bad guys are and how cute and good the good guys
are, he slowly changes sides. He's attracted to the teacher. Or
did we decide she was a doctor? Anyway, through learning about the
good guys by being around them and through the magic of sexual
tension, our hero slowly figures out who the good guys are and who
the bad guys are. Now who are the good guys going to be? Indians?
No, we did them with _B_r_o_k_e_n _A_r_r_o_w. Vietnamese? _T_h_e _U_g_l_y _A_m_e_r_i_c_a_n!
Chinese? _T_h_e _S_a_n_d _P_e_b_b_l_e_s! Salvadorans? _U_n_d_e_r _F_i_r_e. We've done
Arabs _a_n_d Jews and blacks. It's been done with the Irish, but then
it was the British government supplying the bullets. Maybe it's
time for Indians again.

Oh, heck, I know director Michael Apted's heart was in the
right place, but John Fusco's script was just awful. Twenty-five
years ago this would have been a good script but it has been used,
with variations, just too often. And the Indians who have been
handed so many injustices deserve a better story. The motive for
the murder that brings FBI man Ray Lavo (played by Val Kilmer) to
the Oglala Sioux reservation is also one that has been used too
many times. And for one more cheap shot, the film leaves ambiguous
if Indian magic might be working. I thought that went out with

Thunderheart April 7, 1992 Page 2

_B_i_l_l_y _J_a_c_k. Native Americans don't have any magic any more than
anyone else does. I wish they did. Maybe if they did, they could
use it to get some justice. But Apted uses trick photography and
staged scenes to imply you really can see ghost dancers who
disappear in a flash or to imply that a man might have turned
himself into a deer. Indians are not great magical people who live
half in a spirit world. They are just a group of ethnic peoples who
have been cheated and exploited and who desperately need a little
bit of justice. Throwing them a bone by implying that their magic
really breaks the laws of physics is just not what they need. If
enough people confuse compassion for American Indians with liking
this film, Tri-Star Pictures could make a bundle of money, almost
none of which will go to help the Indians.

Some note should be made of Graham Greene's performance as a
reservation policeman. His laconic performance is the most likable
thing on the screen. And seeing his special Indian detection skills
were certainly of some interest. Unfortunately, there is not enough
of Greene to keep the film afloat. And for those who care, yes,
there is a car chase to liven things up. I think that it is typical
of Americans that after this whole plot is so thoroughly worn out,
they give it to the Indians. I give _T_h_u_n_d_e_r_h_e_a_r_t a -1 on the -4 to
+4 scale.