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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 04/09/93 -- Vol. 11, No. 41
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
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)
Outside events:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the second
Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call 201-933-2724 for
details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society meets on the third
Saturday of every month in Belleville; call 201-432-5965 for details.
HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 holly!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1C-523 908-834-1267 holly!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 quartet!lfl
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzfs3!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgpfs1!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. On Thursday April 15 at 7 PM, the Leeperhouse Film Festival will
present one of the great epic historical films of all times:
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962) dir. by David Lean
I won't bother to tell you if it is a good film. However:
Director: David Lean (_B_r_i_e_f _E_n_c_o_u_n_t_e_r, _G_r_e_a_t _E_x_p_e_c_t_a_t_i_o_n_s, _O_l_i_v_e_r
_T_w_i_s_t, _T_h_e _S_o_u_n_d _B_a_r_r_i_e_r, _T_h_e _B_r_i_d_g_e _o_v_e_r _t_h_e _R_i_v_e_r _K_w_a_i, _L_a_w_r_e_n_c_e
_o_f _A_r_a_b_i_a, _D_r. _Z_h_i_v_a_g_o, _A _P_a_s_s_a_g_e _t_o _I_n_d_i_a)
THE MT VOID Page 2
Screenwriter: Robert Bolt (_L_a_w_r_e_n_c_e _o_f _A_r_a_b_i_a, _D_r. _Z_h_i_v_a_g_o, _A _M_a_n
_f_o_r _A_l_l _S_e_a_s_o_n_s, _T_h_e _M_i_s_s_i_o_n)
Score: Maurice Jarre (_T_h_e _L_o_n_g_e_s_t _D_a_y, _L_a_w_r_e_n_c_e _o_f _A_r_a_b_i_a, _D_r.
_Z_h_i_v_a_g_o, _T_h_e _P_r_o_f_e_s_s_i_o_n_a_l_s, _R_e_s_u_r_r_e_c_t_i_o_n, _A _P_a_s_s_a_g_e _t_o _I_n_d_i_a, _M_a_d
_M_a_x _B_e_y_o_n_d _T_h_u_n_d_e_r_d_o_m_e, many more)
Cast: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guiness, Arthur Kennedy,
Jack Hawkins, Donald Wolfit, Claude Rains, Anthony Quayle, Anthony
Quinn, Jose Ferrer
Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinamatography,
Best Score
(By the way, it will be the _r_e_s_t_o_r_e_d version we are showing.)
2. Well, it happened again. I don't really apologize about it any
more. It just happens. We were watching Michael Palin's _A_r_o_u_n_d
_t_h_e _W_o_r_l_d _i_n _8_0 _D_a_y_s and they talk about his visit to Suez. Evelyn
comments about the scene in _L_a_w_r_e_n_c_e _o_f _A_r_a_b_i_a in which Lawrence is
in an abandoned desert town. Suddenly a boat is seen apparently
plying its way among the dunes. That was because the high dunes
was obscuring the fact that Lawrence was just yards away from the
Canal. I first point out that it's the camel that is the ship of
the desert. But I also point out that Victor Hugo in _L_e_s
_M_i_s_e_r_a_b_l_e_s wrote a long section about "the Suez of Paris." It is
really a pun that I have probably waited for years to make.
Somewhere in the back of my mind the name "Suez" and the word
"sewers" have seemed similar.
Some puns wait for years, and people think they are spontaneous.
Some just come up in a tenth of a second and I'm asked if I've been
waiting all evening to say that. People generally are wrong as
often as they are right. A pun that just comes right off the lips
people accuse me of having waited hours to make. On the other hand,
a pun I have been trying to get into a conversation for two hours
will cause people to say I am right on my toes. Next week: a
little on what we learn about the mind from puns.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzfs3!leeper
The more violent the body contact of the sports you watch,
the lower your class.
-- Paul Fussell
DESOLATION ROAD by Ian McDonald
Bantam Spectra, 1988, ISBN 0-553-27057-5, $4.99.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper
Magical realism: it's not just for Latin Americans anymore.
What we have here is a novel of magical realism set on Mars.
Dr. Alimantando, Mr. Jericho, Grandfather Haran, Rael Mandella, Rajandra
Das, the Babooshka, Mikal Margolis, Persis Tatterdemalion, the three
Gallacelli brothers, and a host of other characters find their way, by
chance or by design, to Desolation Road, a most unlikely settlement where
the most unlikely things are likely to happen. The names alone are enough
to stir the imagination of the reader, the McDonald provides the magical
events to go with the names.
Magical realism is not the only influence on McDonald. In his
afterword, in fact, he specifically mentions Bradbury as an inspiration--and
it's not just Bradbury's _M_a_r_t_i_a_n _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_s but also such other works as
_S_o_m_e_t_h_i_n_g _W_i_c_k_e_d _T_h_i_s _W_a_y _C_o_m_e_s as well. But other sources have been woven
into the tapestry as well, and serve to make it impossible to categorize as
just this or just that.
If you're looking for a book to stir your sense of wonder, _D_e_s_o_l_a_t_i_o_n
_R_o_a_d may be just what you need to rediscover the magic in everyday life.
THE RAG DOLL PLAGUES by Alejandro Morales
Arte Publico Press, ISBN 1-55885-036-8, 1992, $17.95.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper
This novel opens in Mexico City in 1788. There is a strange
plague that is killing thousands and Don Gregorio is sent from Spain
to try to fight the disease. But all Gregorio can do is postpone
the inevitable by amputating affected limbs. The novel then jumps
to Los Angeles in the late 1970s where another disfiguring blood
plague is beginning. Unlike the first plague, which is fictional
(there was no plague in Mexico City in 1788), this one is real. But
again, the Gregory of this story is unable to do anything but
console the dyning. Finally, in the mid-20th Century, a third
plague arrives, but the Gregory of this time is finally able to
solve the riddle of this plague and of the ones that came before it,
though not entirely to everyone's satisfaction.
As three separate novellas (or perhaps even novelettes), these
stories are interesting character studies, but as a novel it does
not really hold together. For one thing, the plague of the second
part is not apparently related to the plagues of the other two
parts, and this makes that section seem like an awkward interruption
between the other two, which _a_r_e related. For another, the medical
details are often questionable--a female hemophiliac is extremely
unlikely, for example. I wish I could recommend this book, but I
can't.