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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 02/05/93 -- Vol. 11, No. 32

MEETINGS UPCOMING:

Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.

_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C

02/17 ENTOVERSE by James P. Hogan (Fantasy Written as Hard SF)
03/10 WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison (Primitive Humans Vs.
Alternatively-Evolved Bio-Tech-Advanced Reptiles)
03/31 STEEL BEACH by John Varley (Near-Future Uptopias--
Or Are They?)
03/31 Deadline for Hugo Nominations
04/21 ARISTOI by Walter Jon Williams
(If This--AI, Virtual Reality, Nanotech--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. 1939 was a classic year for MGM studios. Along with _T_h_e _W_i_z_a_r_d
_o_f _O_z and _G_o_n_e _w_i_t_h _t_h_e _W_i_n_d, Ernst Lubitsch directed Greta Garbo
in what is probably the best remembered film from either career,
_N_i_n_o_t_c_h_k_a. The story pokes fun at politics in the Stalinist Soviet
Union. In the title role Garbo plays a Soviet envoy sent to Paris
to clear up some problems in the sale of some jewels from Tsarist
Russia. Initially a political fanatic and patriot, she finds
herself falling in love with a gigolo (played by Melvyn Douglas)
and with Western decadence in Paris.

THE MT VOID Page 2

I had a chance to hear a 1939 radio adaptation of the film,
complete with laugh track, just recently and after the fall of the
Soviet Union. You would think that after the film's attitudes
about the Soviet Union have been vindicated, that the dogma
Ninotchka recites would sound even sillier. Au contraire. The
Communism may have failed, but what sounded like absurd Soviet
political correctness in 1939 just sounds politically correct in
the 1990s in the United States. The supposedly indoctrinated
Ninotchka would be very much at home in the 1990s United States.

Let's look at Ninotchka in the first part of the Lubitsch film.
Start with the basic situation. Three Russians in Paris are
waiting on a train platform for an envoy from Moscow and suddenly
realize, to their surprise, that the envoy is the plainly dressed
Garbo.

Iranoff: What a charming idea for Moscow to surprise us with a
_l_a_d_y comrade.

Kopalski: If we had know we would have greeted you with flowers.

Iranoff: Ahh, yes.

Ninotchka: Don't make an issue of my womanhood. We are here for
work, all of us.

Ninotchka is always practical. On seeing the suite of rooms her
predecessors had rented in the fancy hotel:

Ninotchka: How much does this cost?

Iranoff: Two thousand francs.

Ninotchka: A week?

Iranoff: A day.

Ninotchka: Do you know how much a cow costs, Comrade Iranoff?

Iranoff: A cow?

Ninotchka: Two thousand francs. If I stay here a week I will cost
the Russian people seven cows. Who am I to cost the
Russian people seven cows?

These conversations were apparently amusing to 1939 audiences.
Replace Russia with a corporation and we could be hearing Melanie
Griffith in _W_o_r_k_i_n_g _G_i_r_l. Even more so at the end of the scene,
when Ninotchka has already formulated an action plan and sends
Kopalski to get the best lawyer in Paris and Iranoff to get her the
section of the Civil Code on properties. In 1939 this was very

THE MT VOID Page 3

unusual characterization for a film. Today it is nearly cliche.

Ninotchka seems obsessed with hard facts and figures, to the
amusement of Leon (played by Melvyn Douglas). They have the
following exchange in the street when they first meet. Ninotchka
is flat and expressionless throughout and very businesslike:

Ninotchka: Correct me if I am wrong. We are facing north, aren't
we?

Leon: Facing north. Well, now, I'd hate to commit myself
without my compass. Pardon me; are you an explorer?

Ninotchka: No, I am looking for the Eiffel Tower.

Leon: Ah. Good heavens, is that thing lost again? Oh, are
you interested in a view?

Ninotchka: I am interested in the Eiffel Tower from a technical
standpoint.

Leon: Technical? No, no, I'm afraid I couldn't be of much
help from that angle. You see, a Parisian only goes to
the top of the Tower in moments of despair to jump off.

Ninotchka (still deadpan): How long does it take a man to land?
...

Ninotchka (still deadpan): I'm interested only in the shortest
distance between these two points. Must you flirt?

Leon: Well, I don't have to but I find it natural.

Ninotchka: Suppress it.

These days a response stronger than "suppress it" might be given,
but still her reactions do not seem at all out of keeping with the
United States in the 1990s. the same conversation ends with:

Ninotchka: You're very sure of yourself, aren't you?

Leon: Well, nothing's happened recently to shake my self-
confidence.

Ninotchka: I have heard of the arrogant male in Capitalistic
society. It is having a superior earning power that
makes you that way.

Leon: A Russian! I love Russians! Comrade, I've been
fascinated by your Five-Year Plan for the last fifteen
years.

THE MT VOID Page 4

Ninotchka: Your type will soon be extinct.

The rhetoric is somebody's idea of Stalinist rhetoric, but the
concerns seem quite modern. One final exchange to show Ninotchka's
1990s pride at being able to take care of herself and her
unwillingness to be dominated by others:

Ninotchka: My father and mother wanted me to stay and work on the
farm, but I preferred the bayonet.

Leon: The bayonet? Did you really?

Ninotchka: I was wounded before Warsaw.

Leon: Wounded how?

Ninotchka: I was a sergeant in the Third Cavalry Brigade. Would
you like to see my wound?

Leon: I'd love to.

Ninotchka: [throws head forward to show back of neck] A Polish
lancer. I was sixteen.

Leon: Poor Ninotchka. Poor, poor Ninotchka.

Ninotchka: Don't pity me. Pity the Polish lancer. After all, I'm
still alive.

The irony, of course, is that while the Stalinist system that
_N_i_n_o_t_c_h_k_a was satirizing has fallen, the attitudes that were being
lampooned have not fallen with it. The revolution that Ninotchka
was so committed to at first may indeed still be taking place.
Ernst Lubitsch may have thought he was only poking fun at another
country, but he was actually poking fun at the future. He probably
never expected the day would come when Ninotchka would seem the
most normal character in the film.

2. The next discussion book, James Hogan's _E_n_t_o_v_e_r_s_e is available
in paperback at Encore Books in Middletown in the Pathmark Shopping
Center at the corner of Route 35 and New Monmouth Road. [-ecl]

Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzfs3!leeper

Capsule review: Teenage love, the Cuban Missile
Crisis, and a likable, stop-at-nothing film producer
make for a film that is a lot of fun. It also has
something to say about the nobility of the bad sci-fi
films of the 1950s and 1960s. The writing flounders
a bit in the second half but the memories are
terrific. Rating: low +2 [-4 to +4].

This one is going to be hard for me to be objective about. I
think Joe Dante may be a couple of years older than I, loved the
same films I loved when I was growing up. He and I subscribed to
the same monster magazines and probably had the same books in our
libraries; we idolized the same filmmakers; we were both walking
encyclopedias about the same films. Now he has reached into his
past, grabbed it, and put it on film and at the same time he put a
lot of my past forward too.

It is October 1962 in Key West, Florida, and the second biggest
thing happening in the world is the Cuban Missile Crisis. People
are going crazy because they might die at any minute. But right now
the big thing happening is that Lawrence Woolsey is coming to town.
The great William-Castle-like filmmaker of lousy monster movies is
coming to key West to test-market _M_a_n_t!, the story of a man turning
into a giant ant. Woolsey is a genius at promoting his films and
uses every trick in the book and some never in any book to fill the
seats with joy buzzers below and frightened kids above.

_M_a_t_i_n_e_e is a film with a terrific first half. This is a film
that manages to tie together a teenage love story, a serious anti-
war theme, a satire of science fiction films, and the comic story of
Woolsey trying to have a successful sneak preview. John Goodman's
Woolsey is extremely well-written, appearing at first to be a stop-
at-nothing self-promoter and then proving to have the char, and
natural showmanship of a Will Rogers. Cathy Moriarty plays Ruth
Corday, a great foil for Woolsey. She stars in _M_a_n_t! and then
brazenly has to don a nurse's costume and play the ersatz "nurse in
attendance" at the showing. All the time she is letting Woolsey
know exactly how stupid the entire proceedings are. Moriarty is
great, but the role feels as if it was written for Mary Woronov.
Simon Fenton (of _T_h_e _P_o_w_e_r _o_f _O_n_e) plays Gene Loomis, starting in
high school and dating for the first time. Currently he is coming
home to a family terrified of the missile crisis and worried for the
Navy father who is off enforcing the embargo of Cuba.

Matinee January 29, 1993 Page 2

It is a great start, but the screenplay by Charlie Haas falls
apart in the second half. Much of the logic of the story breaks
down with some of the plot not making sense at all. No film made in
the 1950s ever combined so many gimmicks to bring in an audience.
But that exaggeration is almost acceptable compared to the miles-
over-the-top lampoon of the 1950s and 1960s films themselves. Any
film with the budget _M_a_n_t! required really would have been better
crafted. The writing might have been dull, but it is unlikely to
have been so melodramatic or vaudevillian. The distorted style of
_M_a_n_t! is inconsistent with the rest of the film.

Part of the fun of _M_a_t_i_n_e_e is picking out all the allusions to
1950s and 1960s films. Of course, there are the seat vibrators of
_T_h_e _T_i_n_g_l_e_r, the insurance policies of _M_a_c_a_b_r_e, and the monster
unveiling of _T_h_e _F_l_y, but see if you can recognize the music
borrowed from the 1950s Universal sci-fi films and even snatches of
_H_o_u_s_e _o_f _F_r_a_n_k_e_n_s_t_e_i_n. Even the "M" in the _M_a_n_t! logo is borrowed
from _T_h_e _D_e_a_d_l_y _M_a_n_t_i_s. And the film is peppered with actors from
1950s films. Not Kenneth Tobey for once--at least I did not notice
him--but Robert Cornthwaite, Kevin McCarthy (who plays General
Ankrum, a reference to Morris Ankrum who often played upper-rank
military men), and William Schallert. Also present in nice ironic
roles are Dick Miller and John Sayles. Sayles, of course, is rarely
an actor but he got his start writing _P_i_r_a_n_h_a, _A_l_l_i_g_a_t_o_r, _B_a_t_t_l_e
_B_e_y_o_n_d _t_h_e _S_t_a_r_s, and _T_h_e _H_o_w_l_i_n_g, the first and last directed by
Dante.

While I cannot recommend every minute of _M_a_t_i_n_e_e there is
enough pleasure here to make this one well worth seeing. My rating
would be a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.

Hugo Recommendations
by Evelyn C. Leeper

Since the Hugo nominations are due in a couple of months, I
thought I'd suggest what I think are good choices. If other people
have works they want to recommend, let us know and we can include
the suggestions in future issues.

Novels (>40000 words):
Kim Stanley Robinson -- RED MARS
Gore Vidal -- LIVE FROM GOLGOTHA
Connie Willis -- DOOMSDAY BOOK
Jane Yolen -- BRIAR ROSE

Novellas (17,500-40,000 words):
Bradley Denton -- "The Territory" (F&SF, July)

Novelettes (7500-17,500 words):
Pat Cadigan -- "No Prisoners" (ALTERNATE KENNEDYS)
Donna Farley -- "The Passing of the Eclipse" (UNIVERSE 2)
Nancy Kress -- "Eoghan" (ALTERNATE KENNEDYS)
W. M. Shockley -- "A Father's Gift" (IASFM, April)
Robert Silverberg -- "Looking for the Fountain"
(WMHB4: AA; IASFM May)

Short Stories (<7500 words):
Pat Cadigan -- "50 Ways to Improve Your Orgasm" (IASFM, April)
Kristine Kathryn Rusch -- "The Best and the Brightest"
(ALTERNATE KENNEDYS)
Kathe Koja -- "By the Mirror of My Youth" (UNIVERSE 2)
Pat Murphy -- "Going Through Changes" (F&SF, April)
Lawrence Watt-Evans -- "Truth, Justice, and the American Way"
(ALTERNATE PRESIDENTS)
Connie Willis - "Even the Queen" (IASFM, April)

Dramatic Presentation:
"Fool's Fire"
PRELUDE TO A KISS
SHADOWS AND FOG
ZENTROPA

ELVISSEY by Jack Womack
Tor, 1993, ISBN 0-312-85202-9, $12.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper

Well, I suppose it's only reasonable that after reading three
books centering on God and Jesus, I should proceed to a book set in
a future where the main religion is the Church of Elvis. And, in
fact, the parallels are intriguing, especially with Monteleone's
_B_l_o_o_d _o_f _t_h_e _L_a_m_b: both deal with unwilling messiahs, called forth
by fallible human beings to save the world. And because those who
summon them are fallible, things don't go as planned.

_E_l_v_i_s_s_e_y is part of Womack's "Dryco Chronicles," set in a world
forty years in the future in which most power is held by Dryco
Corporation and Elvis is not just the King, but the Messiah as well.
Dryco figures that if they actually had a live Elvis, they could
exert even more control, so they decide to pick one up by sending a
couple through a "gate" to get Elvis from a parallel world which is
eighty years behind and where, in addition, Lincoln was assassinated
in 1861, resulting in a somewhat different world than ours--or than
the world Dryco knows as its history. Still, John and Isabel manage
to cope, right up until they find Elvis standing over the body of
his mother, whom he has just shot. Then things get really weird.

My main complain is still the futurespeak that Womack has
invented (would language really change that much in only forty
years?), but it was less annoying than in _T_e_r_r_a_p_l_a_n_e. That may be
because I'm getting used to it, or it may be because it's tempered
by the need of the main characters to use more understandable
language when communicating with people in or from the parallel
world. Or maybe it's the wordplay Womack throws in: "Call me
Isabel," the main character says at one point. And later, on the
telephone, John asks, "Information, help me. Get me Memphis,
Tennessee." In any case, it's probably only slightly more difficult
than the language in Heinlein's _T_h_e _M_o_o_n _I_s _a _H_a_r_s_h _M_i_s_t_r_e_s_s, and
easier than that of Russell Hoban's _R_i_d_d_l_e_y _W_a_l_k_e_r.

Though part of the "Dryco Chronicles," _E_l_v_i_s_s_e_y can be read as
a stand-alone and is, in my opinion, better than the earlier works
in the series. Start with this one and then decide if you want to
try the other ones.