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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 08/21/92 -- Vol. 11, No. 8

MEETINGS UPCOMING:

Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are on Wednesdays at noon.

_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C

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 4N-509)

_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.
08/15 NJSFS: New Jersey Science Fiction Society: TBA
(phone 201-432-5965 for details) (Saturday)
09/12 SFABC: Science Fiction Association of Bergen County: Michael
Kandel (author) (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. The next book for discussion in Holmdel (on August 26) is Emma
Bull's _B_o_n_e _D_a_n_c_e, about which Evelyn Leeper says:

What can I say about _B_o_n_e _D_a_n_c_e? Well, it's in the minority among
Hugo-nominated novels this year in that it is _n_o_t part of a series
for which a previous entry has won the Hugo. I realize that isn't
exactly a stirring recommendation, but at least it means that it
was nominated on its own merits, not because it was something that
readers felt "comfortable" with. Set in a sort of post-holocaust
punk world, it is populated with characters who survive by
scavenging the remains of our civilization. The holocaust was "not
a bang, but a whimper," so the remains that are valuable include
classic videotapes and other technological doo-dads that would be
worthless after the usual sort of holocaust science fiction has
dealt with. This sort of in-between situation is becoming more

THE MT VOID Page 2

popular as a milieu these days, but Bull does it better than most.
[-ecl]

2. Anyone in Middletown who wants to carpool to Holmdel for the
discussion, please contact Evelyn Leeper (x7-2070, mtgzy!ecl).

3. A few issues back I was writing about my Presidential campaign.
I am now calling my party the None-of-the-above party. So anyway,
I am about ready to announce a second platform for all you None-
of-the-abovists out there. This has come after a great deal of
conferring with my advisors.

Oh, does it surprise you that I have advisors? Yes, it is more
than just Evelyn. I actually have a large staff of advisors out
there to tell me about world events. They report to me on the hour
and on the half-hour. I don't listen to them that often, but I try
to give them my ear every day or so. Turns out they are the same
advisors Saddam Hussein had and they helped him win a (somewhat
belatedly announced) victory over some of the strongest countries
in the world.

I say belatedly announced, because word of how we screwed up the
Persian Gulf War had to wait until there was a Presidential
campaign going on. And that brings me to my announcement of a
plank in my platform. Most people will tell you that Presidential
campaigns go on much too long in our country and it is much better
in places like Britain, where campaigns for the reins of power go
on for only about a month. Well, that us what the politicians want
you to believe. Not me, though. The None-of-the-Above party
recognizes that it is only during Presidential campaigns that
anything gets done. It is only during campaigns that you get an
inkling of what is going on.

You think it was just a coincidence that it was not until this
season:

- that you had a world-wide environmental conference that made
each country state where it stood?
- that new evidence in Irangate (out of the papers for years)
has come to light?
- that we find out that there were American MIAs held in the
Soviet Union?
- that somebody asked Dan Quayle to spell "potato"?
- that there are witnesses who claim that they saw George Bush
in Paris, presumably negotiating the delay of the Iran
hostages?
- that American POWs from the Korean War were taken to China?
- that the Pentagon now admits that films it showed to the
public and said were the destruction of SCUD sites were really
only showing tanker trucks being bombed?
- that in the shooting down of the Iranian airbus, the ship was

THE MT VOID Page 3

spying in Iranian territorial waters, expected to be attacked,
and interpreted the airbus as such an attack in spite of the
fact it was ascending rather than descending?

All this good stuff waited until a Presidential campaign. (You
want to know how dependable it is? As I started writing this
article I turned on CNN and got a new example, the China/Korean War
POW story broke as I was writing.) Do you really think nobody knew
till now that we had the kind of Vice-President who couldn't spell
"potato."

If elected, I promise to work with Congress to lengthen the
campaigns and shorten the term of the Presidency so that we can
always have the benefits of a current Presidential campaign. I
promise that within thirty days of my becoming President, people
will already be campaigning against me.

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

A respect for the will of the majority is more harmful
than respect for the will of God, because the will of
the majority can be ascertained.
-- Bertrand Russell

THE LOST ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES by Ken Greenwald
Mallard Press, ISBN 0-792-45107-4, 1989, $9.98.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Evelyn C. Leeper

This book came in and went out of print so fast that if you
blinked you missed it. I did, and ended up having to pay more than
cover price for it (at Whodunit? in Philadelphia which still had two
or three more copies). It comprises thirteen short stories based on
the original radio plays starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
from the 1945-1946 season. The plays themselves are available on
cassette as "The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," which includes
not only these stories but several more from the series as well.

The stories themselves are rather pale imitations of Doyle. As
radio plays they engage the listener's attention, but transcribed to
paper they seem rather thin. Some are based on incidents briefly
mentioned in the Canon (e.g., "The Adventure of the Notorious Canary
Trainer"). And one of them even includes the daughter of Irene
Adler--I'm beginning to hate _t_h_e woman (here rendered as "THE
WOMAN," making it sound as though Holmes is screaming every time he
says it!).

All in all, _T_h_e _L_o_s_t _A_d_v_e_n_t_u_r_e_s _o_f _S_h_e_r_l_o_c_k _H_o_l_m_e_s is probably
of only minor interest and I can't recommend spending a lot of time
looking for it or money if you find it.

%B Lost Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
%A Ken Greenwald
%C ?
%D 1989
%I Mallard Press
%O hardback, US$9.98
%G ISBN 0-792-45107-4
%P 203pp

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1992 Mark R. Leeper

Capsule review: The title is cute and some of
the Valley Girl gags really are funny. But the
horror elements are poorly handled and seem to have
been chosen from other films for restaging. This one
is cable fare. Rating: -1 (-4 to +4).

The one original vampire hunter and the best known was, of
course, Van Helsing from Bram Stoker's _D_r_a_c_u_l_a. Universal had the
character in two films in the 1930s. Hammer had at least some
character named Van Helsing (always played by Peter Cushing) in four
different films. It created the idea that the Van Helsing family
took it as a congenital mission to destroy vampires. _B_u_f_f_y _t_h_e
_V_a_m_p_i_r_e _S_l_a_y_e_r modifies this idea to say that there are a chain of
women vampire hunters going back to the Middle Ages. It asks what
would happen if the mantle fell on the shoulders of a Valley Girl
who is less than totally bright (to put it charitably). Well,
perhaps the idea has possibilities. We may never know. What we
have gotten is a film that bears the earmarks of having been made
from the first draft of a script, then edited by someone who was not
interested in the material.

Buffy seems to be majoring in sensual cheerleading at Hemery
High School in the San Fernando Valley. In the opening sequences we
establish that she is very now and awesome and, in her own words,
"vacuous." Then a mysterious character named Merrick arrives on the
scene and tells Buffy that she is next in line to be a vampire
slayer. Why does he think it is she? Why did this honor come to be
conveyed on her? Why ask why? The screenwriter didn't. Though
Buffy is skeptical at first, when bodies start digging their way out
of graves, she starts to reconsider.

So far the plot isn't so bad. We could stand to have a little
more explanation for what is going on, but this film could still be
decent. Then _B_u_f_f_y sours very quickly. At least the horror aspects
of the plot do. We get a few scenes of vampires reprised from other
films as if borrowing their scenes also borrows their logic. There
are scenes of the main vampire (played by Rutger Hauer made up to
look like Edgar Allan Poe) catered to by his assistant (played by
Paul Reubens)--the sort of thing you saw in the later and poorer
Hammer films with Mike Raven. But why is this aristocratic vampire
showing up in Southern California, so near to where this
generation's slayer is being created? Is it coincidence? Is there
a reason? We never know. It is convenient for the story that he be
there, so he is. And given that vampires have kept their existence
almost entirely secret all these years, why do they suddenly start

Buffy the Vampire Slayer August 14, 1992 Page 2

acting as openly and blatantly as Hell's Angels? Well, the film
needed a spectacular third act and that logic is more important than
story logic. This is a film that never fails to sacrifice its
intelligence when that becomes convenient. Prime example: to show
how dense the teachers are at Hemery High, their reaction to the
vampire attack is to officiously drop detention slips on each of the
victims. It makes no sense but, hey, maybe it will get a laugh.

The film does work a little better as a satire of the Valley
Girl lifestyle; perhaps the writers understood that a little better
than the horror aspects. But even there, there are problems with
the basics. The plot has Buffy becoming friends with the local
rebel who shaves off his beard for her. That sounds simple to show
in film. But the beard disappears before the shaving scene and then
returns. This is a lot more than a marginal continuity error since
the film does focus on the shaving ritual. Another problem in
script muddling is Buffy's satorial realization of what an enigmatic
statement really means. The problem is that it is never explained
to the audience.

_B_u_f_f_y _t_h_e _V_a_m_p_i_r_e _S_l_a_y_e_r has a little humor that really is
funny, some that is heavy-handed, and some horror film trappings.
Unless publicity works overtime, _B_u_f_f_y will quickly zap to its
appropriate medium, video. I rate this a -1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

Capsule review: _D_i_g_g_s_t_o_w_n is a fast, smart film
about a con job worthy of the "Mission Impossible"
team. Unfortunately, it leaves holes and unanswered
questions and has an ending that is just not
completely satisfying. It is, however, a good film
to get the juices flowing. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4).
(Following the review will be a spoiler section
presenting script problems.)

Gabriel Caine (played by James Woods) is a con man about to be
paroled and he is not waiting to be released to get into mischief.
He has a scam in mind that could leave him owning a sizable piece of
a redneck town. Diggstown is a town that lives and dies for boxing.
It is named for a local boxing legend who once took on five men in
one day. Now the town is covertly owned by John Gillon (played by
Bruce Dern) who runs the town like a king. Caine, with a little
help from some friends like card sharp and hustler Fitz (played by
Oliver Platt) and a boxer, "Honey" Roy Palmer (played by Lou
Gossett, Jr.) is going to put the squeeze on John Gillon in an
absurd bet that Palmer can take on any ten locals. Once these two
men set up an honorable bet, each is going to cheat in any way
possible to win.

Steven McKay's screenplay based on Leonard Wise's novel _T_h_e
_D_i_g_g_s_t_o_w_n _R_a_n_g_e_r_s races and forces the viewer to work hard to keep
up with everything that is happening in _D_i_g_g_s_t_o_w_n's 97 minutes.
This dialogue is fast and funny, though the film's best line
(starting "Just remember") is reportedly an ad lib by Woods clever
enough that the trailer is built around it. _D_i_g_g_s_t_o_w_n is directed
by Michael Ritchie, who at some time decided to concentrate on
sports films like _S_e_m_i-_T_o_u_g_h, _D_o_w_n_h_i_l_l _R_a_c_e_r, _T_h_e _B_a_d _N_e_w_s _B_e_a_r_s,
and _W_i_l_d_c_a_t_s. That may be a pity, since his one really superb film,
_S_m_i_l_e is about a beauty pageant rather than sports. Ritchie's
_D_i_g_g_s_t_o_w_n is not as good as _S_m_i_l_e, but it is diverting. I give it a
+1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

(Spoilers)

Diggstown August 16, 1992 Page 2

There are problems with the screenplay. One is that Caine is
entirely too brilliant at knowing what his opponent will do. He is
prepared for eventualities that he would have no reason to suspect
would happen. Also, for him to choose the right set of the ten
boxers to involve in his plan requires knowledge that he is unlikely
to have had. Finally, the punishment at the end seems surprisingly
mild when one considers what has happened before.