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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 01/08/93 -- Vol. 11, No. 28
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
01/27 THE ENGINES OF CREATION by K. Eric Drexler (The Final Tool)
02/17 ENTOVERSE by James P. Hogan
03/10 STEEL BEACH by John Varley
03/31 WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison (Primitive Humans Vs.
Alternatively-Evolved Bio-Tech-Advanced Reptiles)
03/31 Deadline for Hugo Nominations
04/21 ARISTOI by Walter Jon Williams
(If This--AI, Virtual Reality, Nonotech--Goes On)
05/12 THOMAS THE RHYMER by Ellen Kushner (Fantasy in a Modern Vein)
06/02 WORLD AT THE END OF TIME by Frederik Pohl
(Modern Stapledonian Fiction)
06/23 CONSIDER PHLEBAS by Iain Banks
(Space Opera with a Knife Twist)
07/14 SIGHT OF PROTEUS by Charles Sheffield (Human Metamorphosis)
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 mtgzfs3!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 mtgzfs3!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgzy!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Okay, this time we're really going to try for another
"Survivors" fest. Since the description ran last week, we'll just
say it's at 7 PM on Thursday, January 14 at the Leeperhouse.
2. This seems like a good time to let all our members know exactly
what the Science Fiction Club is and what it does, and what it
fails to do.
Science fiction at AT&T? It seems like a natural, doesn't it?
AT&T are the people who build those impressive bulbous buildings at
THE MT VOID Page 2
World's Fairs and places like the Epcot Center. "Come in and see
the World of Tomorrow, today." You get the feeling that AT&T is
just chuck full of the wonders of the world's future. (If they
only knew, huh?) Bell Laboratories has a reputation for being the
starting point of the future with the invention of nice little
gizmos like the transistor and the laser and discoveries like the
background radiation from the Big Bang. Working there must be like
working for the secret society from _T_h_i_s _I_s_l_a_n_d _E_a_r_t_h. And of
course all these really imaginative people would be into science
fiction, right?
Well, in 1978 when Mark and Evelyn Leeper (your humble authors)
came to Bell Labs, science fiction activity was a handful of people
who shared a subscription to the Science Fiction Book Club and
traded off books. It wasn't that there was a lack of interest, but
nobody wanted to take on the awesome responsibility of organizing a
science fiction club for AT&T employees. It was something of a
struggle to find ten people to say they were interested.
Today the "Mt Holz Science Fiction Club" is, as far as we know, the
largest science fiction society in New Jersey (please hold your
applause till the end) with over 200 members. Sponsored by AT&T,
through good times and divestiture, as an unadvertised fringe
benefit for its employees (AT&T, incidentally, contributes only
space--they take no responsibility for the actions of the Science
Fiction Club, just as the Club takes no responsibility for the
actions of AT&T--it's a comfortable relationship), the Club has
members at more than 40 AT&T locations around the world (including
Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) and
activities at two (Holmdel and Middletown, New Jersey). At those
locations and Lincroft there is also an active science fiction
lending library packed into whatever spare office space we can
muster. (Members at other sites can borrow via inter-office mail.)
There are also tri-weekly meetings, typically to discuss a book
chosen at a previous meeting, but we also show videotapes, sponsor
book exchanges, listen to radio recordings, and generally do what
we can to keep out of mischief over lunch hour.
The binding thread of the Club is the weekly science fiction notice
(the MT VOID), which features slanted editorials, more slanted book
and film reviews by members, slander, malicious gossip, tidbits of
juicy news gleaned from members attending science fiction
conventions, and arguments between members. It is one of perhaps
two or three weekly fanzines in the country (perhaps the only one).
The last three years Evelyn Leeper has been nominated for the fan
writer Hugo award, the science fiction equivalent of the Oscar, for
writings written for the club publication (though they have
subsequently appeared elsewhere).
3. Member Susan Hallander read my piece on letting the month of May
save you big bucks on calendar buying and has piped in with her own
THE MT VOID Page 3
suggestion:
Since there are only 7 days of the week and each year is
either a leap year or it isn't, there are only 7*2=14
different calendars, So, another money saving tip is to save
every calendar you get and simply wait until that permutation
of a year comes along again. Of course, people may ask why
you've got an old calendar hanging on your wall, but I had one
from 1974 hanging all through 1991 and nobody even noticed.
Actually I have thought of the same hint. However, there are some
bugs in the system. Your 1992 calendar will be useful again, never
fear. The next time will be in the year 2020. The last calendar
that would have been appropriate to reuse in 1992 was the calendar
from 1964. Actually this year's calendar, not being a leap year,
is considerably more accessible. A 1982 is correct for this year
again. If you didn't save one from that year just bring up your
1971 calendar you have been keeping in that old trunk.
But thank you, Susan, for that extremely useful tip.
4. Note that CONSIDER PHLEBAS has replaced THE USE OF WEAPONS as
the Iain Banks book to be discussed, since the former contains a
lot of background material in an appendix that would be useful to
flesh out the society being described. [-ecl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzfs3!leeper
Men have feverishly conceived a heaven only to find
it insipid, and a hell to find it ridiculous.
-- George Santayana
SPACE RANGERS
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
The premiere of CBS's _S_p_a_c_e _R_a_n_g_e_r_s is a fast-paced hour, but
at heart just an empty cops-and-robbers story stocked with what at
first appear to be thinly veiled stereotypes. The series will have
to work very hard to cultivate real audience interest in the
characters. The setting is Fort Hope on the planet of Avalon,
essentially a police station. The main characters are a squad of
five good cops who got a hard time from their superiors. There are
three cops in the twenty-ish range who look like they belong on a
disco floor--one of them, Jo-Jo (played by Marjorie Managhan) is a
Rebecca-DeMornay-style blonde who wear too much make-up.
Unfortunately, two better actors, Linda Hunt and Gottfried John, are
relegated mostly to background roles.
Much of the dialogue is snappy, but that is no substitute for
intelligent writing. And some of the writing is notably bad. For
example, the main character says, "Anybody else would call us
misfits, but I call us 'family.'" Elsewhere the script steals a
line from _L_a_w_r_e_n_c_e _o_f _A_r_a_b_i_a.
Visual effects for the first episode range from acceptable to
downright impressive. However, it is questionable if the quantity
and quality of the effects will be sustained in subsequent episodes.
The over-use of sound effects on the soundtrack eventually becomes
oppressive. Combine that with overly cute wipes between scenes and
you have a series that is visually a little more than it needs to
be, but one light on ideas. _S_p_a_c_e _R_a_n_g_e_r_s will appeal to action
fans but it will probably win few fans from _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k.