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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 10/22/93 -- Vol. 12, No. 17
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
10/27 THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS by Robert A. Heinlein (Classic SF)
11/17 BRIAR ROSE by Jane Yolen (Nebula Nominee)
12/08 STAND ON ZANZIBAR by John Brunner (Classic SF)
01/05 A MILLION OPEN DOORS by John Barnes (Nebula Nominee)
01/26 Bookswap
02/16 Demo of Electronic Hugo and Nebula Anthology (MT)
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 MT 2G-432 908-957-5087 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. Our next discussion book is the classic _T_h_e _M_o_o_n _I_s _a _H_a_r_s_h
_M_i_s_t_r_e_s_s, of which Rob Mitchell says:
I must confess, I was quite pleased when Evelyn asked me to review
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. It's my all-time favorite
SF novel, and depending on my mood I might even say it's my
favorite novel of any genre. Rereading it for this review was like
visiting an old friend--a friend with slight flaws, like anyone,
but a friend nonetheless.
The year is 2075. The Moon has been colonized, but the three
million inhabitants are either criminals who have been shipped up
THE MT VOID Page 2
from Earth (like Britain used to send convicts to Australia), or
descendants of such criminals. The Earth is still nationalized,
but with a world government called the Federated Nations, one
department of which is the Lunar Authority--which runs what little
organization exists on the Moon. The major role for the Authority
is to ensure nothing disrupts the flow of lunar-grown wheat to the
hungry people in places such as India. The Authority generally
leaves the Loonies alone, although all communications, inter-warren
travel, the meager militia, and the grain economy, are all
controlled by the "Warden" without any representation from the
inhabitants.
The story is the first-person narrative of Manuel O'Kelly Davis, a
one-armed jack-of-all-trades. Mannie is a modest, apolitical
Loonie who is friendly with several interesting characters, such as
Professor Bernardo de la Paz, (a political exile with a social
philosophy of "rational anarchy"), Wyoming Knott (a typical
Heinleinesque heroine--good-looking, smart, and self-confident),
but most interestingly of all, Mike (a self-aware computer that
controls virtually everything on Luna, from the telephones to the
ballistic catapult that shoots the grain down to Earth). At the
beginning of the story, Mike has been "awake" for less than a year,
is lonely because only Mannie talks to him, and has the disposition
of a genius six-year-old.
The novel has been described as a retelling of the American
Revolution, set on the Moon, and there are certainly some vague
parallels. A unique aspect of the book, though, is the pivotal
role Mike plays. As the central, but under-noticed, fact of Loonie
life, he is well-placed to coordinate communications among Mannie
and the other revolutionaries, when they decide to overthrow the
Authority. The drawback, of course, is whether anyone, organic or
computerized, have *that* much power....
_T_h_e _M_o_o_n _I_s _a _H_a_r_s_h _M_i_s_t_r_e_s_s is more than a novel about the
politics and ugly realities of revolution. One of the most
stimulating aspects of the book is that Heinlein continually
challenges us to question why we do things. Family roles, the
purpose and structure of government, the meaning of "soul"--all
come under scrutiny. Furthermore, although the characters in the
novel offer answers to these issues that are tremendously different
from modern-day answers, the Loonie answers are plausible (for
their culture), creative, and thought-provoking. The novel is a
classic Heinlein story with strong plot, competent people,
unobtrusive writing style, and a well-thought-out environment. It
is also significant for being a story in which Heinlein is willing
to have major characters die.
I first read _T_h_e _M_o_o_n _I_s _a _H_a_r_s_h _M_i_s_t_r_e_s_s in high school, and I've
been influenced to this day by its "question authority, value
freedom" context. Mike is perhaps the most memorable computer in
THE MT VOID Page 3
SF, and the novel regularly appears at or near the top of surveys
on "the best SF novel of all time." Give yourself a treat; read,
or reread, this book. [-jrrt]
===================================================================
2. I was watching a mummy movie the other night. You know, one of
those old Universal films where a mummy comes to life and kills
people. These things were always a lot of fun in spite of some of
the obvious absurdities. First of all, Egyptians were very short
by today's standards. How scary is a monster about 55 inches high?
If you have seen real mummies, that is about the average height.
What is he going to do--grab you around your waist? Then there is
the fact that ancient Egyptians almost never wrapped the legs
separately. There is one mummy I have seen with the legs wrapped
separately and some Hammer Films makeup artist really did model one
of their mummies on the real thing, but the mummies in Universal's
movies in the 1930s and 1940s were wrapped like no real mummies
ever were. Uh, one exception there. Boris Karloff loses his
bandages almost immediately in the original 1933 film _T_h_e _M_u_m_m_y,
but he was the mummy Im-ho-tep. All the other films were about a
mummy named Kharis. Incidentally, just for your edification, like
Dracula there really was an Im-ho-tep. He has been nearly
forgotten but he was one of history's geniuses. He was a great
physician for the time. He also was a great architect who invented
the idea of placing tapering mastaba (burial vaults) one on top of
another. In doing so, he invented the pyramid and the step pyramid
at Saqarra--the first of all pyramids--was built by him. He later
became deified like the Pharaoh he built for and was worshipped far
longer. I have heard there were still cults who worshipped him in
the Middle Ages.
However, most of the old Universal mummy movies are about Kharis,
who is a never-was character. Im-ho-tep was brought back to life
with a magical scroll. Kharis never died due to the use of a sort
of soup made from secret tana leaves. Tana is also a literary
invention and, I can tell you, there were not a whole lot of leaves
that were secret in Egypt. Everything green lives in a narrow
strip on either side of the Nile.
The idea is that the mummy gets three of these leaves during the
cycle of the full moon to keep him alive. Nine leaves and he can
actually walk. More than nine leaves and he will do the funky
chicken all over the head and body of anybody who gets in his way.
(Incidentally, while he walks at about one mile an hour and drags a
foot, somehow he manages to catch the fleeing heroine.)
Anyway, it occurred to me to wonder how many of these leaves were
needed. There are about 13 cycles of the full moon per year and
they seem to give the leaves to the mummy about 4 nights each
THE MT VOID Page 4
cycle. That is, each cycle of the moon is about 4 weeks, but each
cycle of the _f_u_l_l moon, whatever that is, seems to last about 4
nights. So the mummy will usually get 12 leaves per cycle of the
moon. There are 13 cycles per year, so just maintenance to keep a
mummy alive will cost you 156 leaves per annum per mummum. Now say
once a decade you have to raise Kharis to polish off the odd tomb
desecrator or misguided Egyptologist. Maybe you have to raise your
mummy 2 nights in that decade. That is 18 tana leaves per annum,
if we spread the cost out. Just as a round figure, let's say you
will disperse 160 tana leaves per year. Now Egypt fell as a major
power about 2000 years ago after having been among the top three
world powers for 3500 years. It would be safe to estimate Kharis
was first placed in his case about 1500 B.C., or 3500 years ago.
That would imply he has consumed something like 550,000 tana leaves
so far. Figuring 10 leaves to the ounce, 16 ounces to the pound,
Kharis has already consumed 3400 pounds of leaves (or 1545
kilograms, if you prefer). They show these leaves being kept in a
little box. It is possible that 1-3/4 tons of leaves are hidden in
other boxes in the tomb, but it seems like a task that would be
difficult to keep a secret.
===================================================================
3. THE AWFUL EGG by Kenneth Robeson (June 1940) and ESCAPE FROM
LOKI by Philip Jose Farmer (August 1991) (two book reviews by Dale
L. Skran):
As a long time Doc Savage fan, I looked forward with anticipation
to the "first all-new Doc Savage adventure since 1949," especially
one written by Farmer. Farmer, perhaps the greatest, or at least
the hardest working Savage fan, has produced a number of books on
or related to Doc Savage, including _D_o_c _S_a_v_a_g_e: _H_i_s _A_p_o_c_a_l_y_p_t_i_c
_L_i_f_e (a "biography"), and _T_h_e _M_a_d _G_o_b_l_i_n and _A _F_e_a_s_t _U_n_k_n_o_w_n (tales
of a "Doc Caliban" who is basically Doc Savage updated to modern
times). The Doc Caliban stories and the related Lord Grandrith
book _L_o_r_d _o_f _t_h_e _T_r_e_e_s operate on the pulp level, with _A _F_e_a_s_t
_U_n_k_n_o_w_n adding a generous dollop of the blood and sex usually left
out of 40s pulp magazines. Overall, the Farmer books are engaging
and entertaining, with interesting villains in the form of the
Immortal Nine, and a set of revisionist biographies of "Doc" and
"Grandrith"(who is really Tarzan).
Thus, when I saw _E_s_c_a_p_e _f_r_o_m _L_o_k_i at a huckster table at Worldcon,
I snapped it up immediately. I also decided to read one of the
original "Doc" novels that I hadn't read before (_T_h_e _A_w_f_u_l _E_g_g) to
provide a comparison. _L_o_k_i tells the never before written story of
Doc as a sixteen-year-old fighting in World War I, how he met the
fabulous five, and the experiences that formed the basis of his
life-long battle against evil. Unfortunately, Farmer, who added so
much color to Doc Caliban, seems unable to do the same with the
THE MT VOID Page 5
original character. Part of the problem is that great heros
require great villains. The Joker and the Catwoman provide at
least half the interest in a Batman story, and the same is true of
Doc. Unfortunately, Von Hessel, the immortal German commander of
"Camp Loki" never quite springs off the page, and the reader
stumbles through an oft-told tale as allied POWs attempt to escape
from a German prison camp that is "escape-proof." Robeson did far
better with Doc's nemesis "John Sunlight" and fantastic dangers
such as "The Living Fire Menace."
In _T_h_e _A_w_f_u_l _E_g_g, we see minor Robeson. However, even this less
than memorable story of the original Doc has more life than _L_o_k_i,
and is especially interesting in the way it presages _J_u_r_a_s_s_i_c _P_a_r_k.
The main plot element concerns a villain who finds a frozen
dinosaur egg and (apparently) embarks on a reign of terror after
the egg hatches.
Robeson is no literary genius, and his alternating fists and guns
plots will not impress you with their deep character insights, yet
Doc Savage is one of the truest reflections of the American Spirit
of the 20s and 30s, with an optimistic faith in the power of
technology and education to produce a superman capable of
overcoming a world full of evil-doers. Is it overly fanciful to
see in America's crusade overseas to end the horror that was the
Third Reich more than a little of Doc Savage? A lot of that faith
was diminished by the 60s, by Vietnam, and the eternal gray of the
Cold War that found us more and more like our adversaries. Yet it
is Americans who are hunting warlords in Somolia as I write this.
Hope springs eternal that we can apply our technology and our
strength as a force for good, if necessary by destroying evil
directly. Yes, I know that George Bush doesn't resemble the
ragged-shirted bronze behemoths that grace the covers of Bantam's
reprints of the Savage novels, but in his heart, George must have
had just a little of Doc's desire to crush evil for its own sake,
hidden in along with the Machiavellian schemer who let the Kurds
twist in the wind.
So what can we learn from all this? The hubris that led to Vietnam
shows up in Doc's conviction that he can "cure" criminals with an
amnesia producing operation, the same hubris that saw the frontal
lobotomy as a cure for mental illness. Yet the opposite of that
hubris is a cynical resignation, of the sort exhibited by
Chamberlin in WWII, and which we see today as Europe and, indeed
the world, turns a blind eye to "ethnic cleansing" in Bosnia.
Clinton, as the current embodiment of America, seems constantly
torn between the desire to build a better world (seen in his health
care reform program) and a miserable and cowardly cynicism shown by
his brush-off of the Bosnians and his apparent abandonment of his
promise to open the military to gays and lesbians. On the whole,
we could stand a little more faith and hope, along with some
courage and hard work, not to mention a few more wonderful gadgets!
THE MT VOID Page 6
I don't think Doc would be pleased with everything that America has
done, but I don't think he'd quit either.
Recommended mainly to fans of the original Doc Savage stories, and
to Savage completists. Readers should keep in mind that although _A
_F_e_a_s_t _U_n_k_n_o_w_n is loads of fun, it has some heavy duty violence and
sex, as well as sex-n-violence.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
None can love freedom but good men; the rest love not
freedom but license, which never hath more scope than
under tyrants.
-- John Milton
ConFrancisco 1993
Con report by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper
(Part 3 of 5)
Panel: WWWWiiiillllllll tttthhhheeee FFFFuuuuttttuuuurrrreeee LLLLooooooookkkk LLLLiiiikkkkeeee tttthhhheeee MMMMoooovvvviiiieeeessss
Saturday, 12 noon
Martin Brenneis (m), Evelyn Leeper, Bill Warren
[Much thanks to Mark for again taking copious notes during this
panel, as I can't be on a panel and take notes at the same time.]
"If a present-day cinematic art director could fast-forward to
the future, how disappointed would he or she be?": Well, I think
the conclusion was that he or she would not see anything like what
was portrayed, but probably wouldn't expect to either.
One of the things we noted at the start was that what was
portrayed in films didn't actually have to work. The automatic
sliding doors in _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k were actually operated by people behind
the set pulling and pushing on them, and the blinking lights on
computer panels are often just someone sitting under the panel
randomly pushing buttons. Of course, sometimes it's real: _C_o_l_o_s_s_u_s:
_T_h_e _F_o_r_b_i_n _P_r_o_j_e_c_t used the studio's payroll computer for the title
character. Warren noted that in the movies, computers had large
tape reels long after it ceased in real life (no pun intended)
because viewers expected it. And no one really predicted PCs. (For
that matter, you have at least half a dozen computers in your house
in some form or other.)
It was agreed that in general the future goes at a pace nobody
can comprehend. I noted that Bob Lucky (a director of research at
Bell Labs) has been quoted as saying that scientists creating the
future have no idea what is coming. They thought the Picturephone
would be popular years ago, but it was a complete flop (even thought
the way they showed future in movies in the past was with
Picturephones). On the other hand, they totally missed out on how
FAX machines and cellular telephones would catch on. Nobody knows
what will be popular.
Someone mentioned that the future is often too clean. Brenneis
liked the idea that the hydraulics in _S_t_a_r _W_a_r_s leaked, leaving
spots on the hanger floor. Warren commended Rob Cobb for his work
on _A_l_i_e_n and _L_e_v_i_a_t_h_a_n, saying Cobb understood the objects he was
working with better than the director.
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 2
As far as objects go, I commented that they are frequently
designed more with an eye for style than with any notion of utility.
Citing Donald Norman's book, _T_h_e _P_s_y_c_h_o_l_o_g_y _o_f _E_v_e_r_y_d_a_y _T_h_i_n_g_s
(a.k.a. _T_h_e _D_e_s_i_g_n _o_f _E_v_e_r_y_d_a_y _T_h_i_n_g_s), I noted that this is
somewhat true even in actual objects in use (like clock radios with
flush, identical buttons for all functions), but said that even so,
the idea of putting the planetary "blow-up switch" in a child's
classroom in _F_o_r_b_i_d_d_e_n _P_l_a_n_e_t seemed like a bad idea. Warren
agreed, but felt that _F_o_r_b_i_d_d_e_n _P_l_a_n_e_t (credited to Cedric Gibbons)
was in general a good depiction of a future house and seemed to look
like someplace a human being might want to live. Most other films,
he felt, showed something totally unlike what a human being would
want. Someone in the audience asked when we would see ergonomic
designs, such as the pyramidal keyboard--I suspect the pyramidal
keyboard will be about as popular as the Picturephone was.
There was also discussion of crazy architecture designs in real
life. In Texas there is a building shaped like a dollar sign. I
said that reminded me of the old June Taylor Dancers on _T_h_e _J_a_c_k_i_e
_G_l_e_a_s_o_n _S_h_o_w, who did synchronized routines that made sense only
when viewed from above; to the studio audience they much have looked
like random motion. I also remarked that someone at Chicon V had
commented that with the shopping mall connected to the hotel
connected to the office complex, the "domed city" of the future had
arrived. We just don't always recognize the old ideas from science
fiction when we meet them in real life. Brenneis said that future
cities with be a blend of the old into the new. For example, the
Marriott near the convention center looks like a 1950s jukebox. He
felt that the future will always have some element of the past, and
this was often lacking in films. Too often, everything looks as
though it were constructed in the two years immediately preceding
the time of the film. Brenneis said it was fun to see holdouts from
the past in real life: a CPM computer does as well for typing in as
a Cray, so you have a blend of old and new. The old will not go
away.
One person noted that they are waiting for roads to look like
they do in the movies. Brenneis said he had a friend who worked in
a building that had been built to fit into a curve of an old Los
Angeles freeway. After the freeway was torn down, the building had
a very odd futuristic look to it! I noted that films always seem to
have a lot of working mass transit, in spite of the fact that the
sorts of things they show (e.g., moving sidewalks) would break down
very quickly under heavy use. Althea McMurrian commended
_B_l_a_d_e_r_u_n_n_e_r on doing a good job of portraying a future city, and
Bill Warren said that Sid Mead deserved the credit for that.
Someone else mentioned _D_e_m_o_l_i_t_i_o_n _M_a_n and Warren said not to expect
a lot from that, though it seems to have the idea of the
megalopolis: Santangeles, which runs from Santa Clara to Los
Angeles. (I assume there has been some earthquake that wipes out
the cities north of Santa Clara on the peninsula.) _W_i_l_d _P_a_l_m_s was
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 3
interesting and maybe not too unrealistic, though the technology
seemed a bit too advanced.
Someone said that people who make films actually have a strong
influence on the future. For example, everyone who saw an LED watch
in a James Bond film wanted one. (Of course, just because everyone
wanted the jetpack in _T_h_u_n_d_e_r_b_a_l_l didn't mean everyone was going to
get it.) Sometimes the futuristic items are current technology,
used as product placement (though sometimes the set designer will
use them without being paid by the company).
On the whole, clothing predictions are wrong, though Warren
reminded us that _F_o_r_b_i_d_d_e_n _P_l_a_n_e_t did predict the mini-skirt. I
remember a "predictor" on _T_h_e _J_o_h_n_n_y _C_a_r_s_o_n _S_h_o_w predicting that
sometime around 1979 all the women in St. Louis would shave their
heads. They didn't, but that was the year _S_t_a_r _T_r_e_k--_T_h_e _M_o_t_i_o_n
_P_i_c_t_u_r_e came out, with a leading actress with a completely bald
head. Someone claimed that clothing was very conformist--we were
all wearing jeans. This was not entirely true, but it is true that
skirts seemed largely to have gone away. I noted that Arcosante, a
"planned community," succeeded only by making money from groups of
visitors touring it--people wanted to be individuals and a planned
community made everyone's homes and lives look alike.
If the future does look like the movies, in part that will be
because the movies influence the people designing the future. Or
occasionally the people making the movies will do real research
(such as for _2_0_0_1: _A _S_p_a_c_e _O_d_y_s_s_e_y). When it was noted that this
didn't carry through to _2_0_1_0, Warren said this is because Kubrick is
a genius and the director of _2_0_1_0 is a hack.
I said I expected to see a more global view of things in the
future. John Carpenter does a good job, for example, of showing
that not everyone is white in the future--his film's casts reflect
the diversity one sees in daily life. (_T_i_m_e _T_r_a_x did this also, but
failed on many other counts.) Also, different countries have
different views of the future. A Third World country's view of the
future would undoubtedly differ from ours.
Panel: LLLLaaaannnngggguuuuaaaaggggeeee:::: BBBBaaaarrrrrrrriiiieeeerrrr oooorrrr BBBBrrrriiiiddddggggeeee
Saturday, 1:00 PM
Thorarinn Gunnarsson, Gay Haldeman (m), Michael Kandel,
Yoshio Kobayashi, Maureen F. McHugh
"Translation helps bring works to audiences who can't read them
in the original, but how are works affected when the words and the
grammar change?": The panelists had some commentary on why they
thought they were chosen for the panel and what their _r_e_a_l
qualifications were. Gunnarsson said, "I've never done translation
work, but I've been annoyed by enough of it." McHugh said that she
though she was on the panel because so many of her stories were
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 4
about China that people thought she spoke Chinese. She claimed she
didn't, but it was clear from things said during the rest of the
panel that her Chinese was certainly more proficient than most
folks' second languages are.
The first, and perhaps obvious, point made was that translating
is not a one-to-one thing. You can't sit down with a dictionary and
a grammar and hope to get any sense of what the original meant in
the translation. Kandel noted, for example, that objects (nouns) in
some languages can have gender, which can lead to interesting word-
play if these objects are animate. If "wall" in Spanish is
masculine ("el muro") and in German is masculine ("der Wand"), then
if a Spanish author writes, "The wall said to her, 'Wake up, dear,'"
that will have a different connotation than it would in German (or
in English). (I should note that going in the other direction,
there _i_s a masculine word for wall in Spanish ("la pared"), so that
translator would have a way out.)
Kobayashi said that in Japanese there is no swearing (or
certainly not the variety we have in English), so translating strong
language into Japanese can be a problem, particularly when the
literal and figurative meanings of the words are both important.
And often etiquette is tied up in language, according to Kandel--for
example, whether the formal or familiar "you" is used matters in
other languages, but there is no such distinction in English.
Sometimes the difference is even more subtle: someone mentioned that
Anne Frank's diary was much "livelier" in Dutch than in English, but
was unable to explain just quite how.
Other, non-translation-specific, changes can creep in. McHugh
said that when the German rights for her novel _C_h_i_n_a _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n _Z_h_a_n_g
were sold, her agent wondered whether all the characters would sit
down to a nourishing bowl of Brand Something soup. When McHugh
asked what he was talking about, he explained that in Germany, they
sell product placements in books, so the characters might all stop
their conversation to sit down to a bowl of their equivalent of
Campbell's Soup, and then resume their discussion. (This apparently
is the case in the German edition of Kim Stanley Robinson's _P_a_c_i_f_i_c
_E_d_g_e.) Speaking of product placements, Gunnarsson thinks they are
one reason that historical films aren't as popular any more--you
can't sell product placements in them.
Sometimes a knowledge of other languages can affect the English
original as well. McHugh said that since in Chinese everything is
in the present tense, with a "tense marker" at the end of the
sentence to say whether it is past, present, future, or what, she
wrote _C_h_i_n_a _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n _Z_h_a_n_g in the present to give it that feel. She
also thought that, while science fiction may be partially global,
it's not yet Chinese. Many concepts which we assume are understood
around the world--such as faster-than-light travel and time travel-
-are unknown outside of science fiction circles and perhaps not
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 5
known even there.
Science fiction poses its own special pitfalls for the
translator. A translator needs to know some science, otherwise you
get something like "brown movements" for "Brownian motion." But in
Japan (and other countries, no doubt), translators are not educated
in science, and scientists are not educated in languages. The
result is that it is very difficult to find someone who can
translate science fiction well. One thing Kobayashi said was that
good style and characters are not important to Japanese science
fiction readers (this is undoubtedly a result of the division of
education as well), and that the literati hate science fiction. I
suppose this makes translating a bit easier--one needn't spend as
much time searching for just the right phrase.
Someone of course noted that sometimes it may be necessary to
translate English into American or vice versa. "He was left
standing outside her door in his pants and vest" means one thing to
an Englishman and another to an American.
The panelists agreed that the best translations are the ones
you do yourself, but that it was impossible to learn that many
languages and translate your work into them and still have time to
write anything new. The translators on the panel said it took them
about six months to translate the average novel. Kobayashi said
Lucius Shepard's _L_i_f_e _D_u_r_i_n_g _W_a_r_t_i_m_e took him a year, due no doubt
to Shepard's heavy use of stylistic devices. A film novelization
might take only one month.
While most translators don't talk to the authors whose work
they are translating, sometimes it can be very helpful, as when Joe
Haldeman's Japanese translator called up to ask just what he meant
by "Unitarians on quaaludes."
Kandel noted that in Italian there is a proverb: "To translate
is to betray." Ironically, the words in Italian for "translate" and
"betray" are very similar ("tradurre" and "tradire"), forming a
word-play that is entirely lost in English.
Panel: TTTTiiiimmmmeeee TTTTrrrraaaavvvveeeellll iiiinnnn HHHH.... GGGG.... WWWWeeeellllllllssss aaaannnndddd MMMMaaaarrrrkkkk TTTTwwwwaaaaiiiinnnn
Saturday, 2:00 PM
Poul Anderson, Mark Twain, Lili Tyler (m), Connie Willis
"Twain sent his Yankee back in time and Wells sent his
adventurer forward. Why did each chose the approach he did? Are the
conventions of literary time travel still set by these early
examples?": I guess I have to explain Mark Twain as a panelist.
ConFrancisco found someone (Jon DeCles, if I interpret _N_o_r_t_o_n _R_e_a_d_e_r
#9 correctly) who could imitate Mark Twain (much as Hal Holbrook is
known for doing) and had him as the "Dead Guest of Honor" for the
convention, during which time he officiated at functions, served on
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 6
panels, and gave speeches. The speeches and officiating would be
fairly straightforward--write a script and stick to it. But the
panels are much more demanding, and Mr. Twain was well up to the
task of not only remaining in character as Mark Twain but also of
discussing the topic and answering questions that were raised. In
this case, for example, when Poul Anderson said, "I have been
writing longer than most of you have been in this world," Twain
responded, "I've been dead longer than Poul Anderson has been
alive." His performance is going on my list of Hugo nominees for
Best Dramatic Presentation next time around.
Twain noted that time travel stories get involved with the fact
that people believe that they are the end of evolution and the
pinnacle of achievement. So backward time travel usually focuses on
how ... well ... "backward" people were, and forward time travel
often assumes that technology will change but people won't improve.
This is probably less true now than in Twain's time--or is that just
my making the same error? Willis said this reminded her of _W_h_a_t
_H_a_p_p_e_n_e_d _t_o _E_m_i_l_y _G_o_o_d_e _a_f_t_e_r _t_h_e _G_r_e_a_t _E_x_h_i_b_i_t_i_o_n by Raylyn Moore;
a woman attending the Great Exhibition in 1876 finds herself
suddenly a hundred years in her future in 1976. But contrary to
what people might think, she wasn't thrilled with being in 1976 and
really wanted to return to her own time, when things were much
better. All this proves is that there is a certain inertia to
people, and whether or not what they are accustomed to is better (on
some absolute scale, assuming there is one), it _i_s what they are
accustomed to. As Tyler noted, the most important thing in life to
you are _y_o_u_r problems. What happens to you if you time travel and
discover that they don't matter any more?
The panelists pointed out that time travel has many uses. It
can be just a puzzle, or a romp, or a study. Tyler said she thought
there were more stories about going forward in time than backward,
but I doubt that.
Connie Willis said that she used the time travel to the past in
_D_o_o_m_s_d_a_y _B_o_o_k to cast light on the present (which is, of course,
just what Twain did in _A _C_o_n_n_e_c_t_i_c_u_t _Y_a_n_k_e_e _i_n _K_i_n_g _A_r_t_h_u_r'_s _C_o_u_r_t).
Willis said that we are often blind to something right in front of
us, and that rather than looking directly at a problem, we need to
look at it with peripheral vision.
Someone noted that we are, of course, all travelers into future
at one second per second. But there have been legends of people
sleeping into the future even before Rip Van Winkle and even before
Sleeping Beauty. Mark Twain, however, is thought to be the first
author to send his character back into the past.
A brief discussion of changing the past ensued, with people
saying that the theory that time is constantly branching can get you
out of a lot of paradoxes. Someone proposed the idea of an
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 7
expanding spatial field of effect, where a change in San Francisco
doesn't have an effect in New York until some period of time later
(presumably longer than is demanded by Einstein's theories on
simultaneity).
Twain felt that time travel should also include those moments
when we suddenly realize that time has passed and we are old, or
those other moments when we find ourselves pushed back in time (like
when as an adult you visit your parents and when you come to the
dinner table they ask you if you washed your hands).
Various stories were noted and recommended including _T_i_m_e_s_c_a_p_e
by Gregory Benford, _T_i_m_e _O_u_t _o_f _M_i_n_d by Pierre Boulle, "The Yehudi
Principle" by Frederic Brown, "A Little Something for Us Tempunauts"
by Philip K. Dick (Willis's all-time favorite--on reading it, I can
see why), "Child by Chronos" by Charles Harness, "All You Zombies"
and "By His Bootstraps" by Robert A. Heinlein (the two classics of
the genre in short fiction), _T_h_e _D_o_o_r _i_n_t_o _S_u_m_m_e_r by Robert
A. Heinlein, "Sideways in Time" by Murray Leinster, "Vintage Season"
by C. L. Moore and Henry Kuttner (made into the film _T_h_e _G_r_a_n_d _T_o_u_r;
it has also appeared under various combinations of their names and
their many pseudonyms), _P_o_r_t_r_a_i_t _o_f _J_e_n_n_y by Robert Nathan (which
weaves back and forth in time), "Compounded Interest" by Mack
Reynolds, _M_i_l_l_e_n_n_i_u_m by John Varley, and the backwards-flowing-time
section of the film _Z_a_r_d_o_z. Anti-entropic (time running backward)
stories that were mentioned included the legend of Merlin, _T_i_m_e'_s
_A_r_r_o_w by Martin Amis, _C_o_u_n_t_e_r-_C_l_o_c_k _W_o_r_l_d by Philip K. Dick, and
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. _T_h_e
_A_l_e_x_a_n_d_r_i_a _Q_u_a_r_t_e_t by Lawrence Durrell gives a "multiple view" of
time (much as the film _R_a_s_h_o_m_o_n did). And the "Back to the Future"
films were full of ideas about time travel.
(In regard to different theories of time, I _h_i_g_h_l_y recommend
Alan Lightman's _E_i_n_s_t_e_i_n'_s _D_r_e_a_m_s.)
Presentation: BBBBaaaannnnttttaaaammmm BBBBooooooookkkkssss
Saturday, 3:00 PM
There was a large room curtained off into smaller rooms for
presentations by artists, publishers, etc. The sound-proofing left
much to be desired, with the result that I also learned a lot about
shading faces in sketches as well as what was upcoming from Bantam.
I have to say that Bantam (Spectra) is my favorite publisher
(imprint). Rare is the month that they don't have at least one book
I am very interested in, and often it's two or three. (Others seem
to agree, since Bantam also had a good percentage of the nominees
this year. Only Tor did as well, and it's my second favorite.)
Most of this presentation was just a description of what was
coming up in the next year or so from Bantam. There's _A _P_l_a_g_u_e _o_f
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 8
_A_n_g_e_l_s by Sheri Tepper (the presenters noted that a review in _A_n_a_l_o_g
had called her "one of the greats of human literature," which says
as much about _A_n_a_l_o_g as it does about Tepper). Coming up for the
holiday season is _T_h_e _A_r_t _o_f _M_i_c_h_a_e_l _W_h_e_l_a_n (priced at $60, it's
something you ask your _g_o_o_d friends to buy for you). Daniel Keys
Moran has _T_h_e _L_a_s_t _D_a_n_c_e_r coming out around the same time, for those
Moran fans. Already on the stands is _T_h_e _D_e_a_t_h _a_n_d _L_i_f_e _o_f _S_u_p_e_r_m_a_n
by Roger Stern ($20 for a novelization of whatever caused the big
fuss in the comics). Along with that there is also _T_h_e _F_u_r_t_h_e_r
_A_d_v_e_n_t_u_r_e_s _o_f _S_u_p_e_r_m_a_n, an anthology in paperback, probably edited
by Martin H. Greenberg. David Zindell's second novel, _T_h_e _B_r_o_k_e_n
_G_o_d, gets its American release in December in mass-market paperback.
All sorts of new "Star Wars" novels are coming out: Timothy
Zahn's third comes out in mass-market paperback in February and
Kathy Tyers has one coming out in hardback in January, with a mass-
market edition in December 1994. These have been selling so well
that Bantam is accelerating their "Star Wars" program. (Oh, well,
they have to pay the bills somehow.)
Connie Willis's second collection, _I_m_p_o_s_s_i_b_l_e _T_h_i_n_g_s, appears
in January, chock full of great stories (I've seen a galley).
Robert Silverberg has a major new ecological novel, _H_o_t _S_k_y _a_t
_M_i_d_n_i_g_h_t, appearing in hardback in February. (But then, any new
Silverberg is a major novel.) In February, we also get the long-
awaited _R_a_m_a _R_e_v_e_a_l_e_d by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee in hardback
and _F_u_l_l _S_p_e_c_t_r_u_m _4 in mass-market paperback. (Someone in the
audience said that _T_h_e _E_c_o_n_o_m_i_s_t had reviewed one of the _F_u_l_l
_S_p_e_c_t_r_u_m anthologies and found it "too literary.")
March has a new, extremely thick novel by a new author,
_R_h_i_n_e_g_o_l_d by Stephen Grundy. This is a retelling of the tale of the
Nibelungen. Even better (as far as I'm concerned), in March Bantam
issues _G_r_e_e_n _M_a_r_s by Kim Stanley Robinson in a trade paperback
edition. (This is the novel, not the novella of the same name and
author.)
Further down the line is an alternate history/time travel novel
by Lisa Mason titled _S_u_m_m_e_r _o_f _L_o_v_e, in which someone goes back to
June 21, 1967, in Haight-Ashbury, and Stephen Bury's _I_n_t_e_r_f_a_c_e.
Stephen Bury is a pseudonym for Neal Stephenson and J. Frederick
George; Stephenson wrote the fascinating _S_n_o_w _C_r_a_s_h, so I'm looking
forward to this one. There's also a new John Crowley coming out,
_L_o_v_e _a_n_d _S_l_e_e_p, and Michael Bishop's baseball fantasy _B_r_i_t_t_l_e
_I_n_n_i_n_g_s.
On a more general note, their novella series (which includes
Frederik Pohl's Hugo-nominated _S_t_o_p_p_i_n_g _a_t _S_l_o_w_y_e_a_r and the I-hope-
to-see-nominated _D_e_u_s _X by Norman Spinrad) seems to be doing fine.
The latest is _O_u_t _o_f _T_i_m_e by James P. Hogan, coming in November.
The Bantam Spectra "Special Editions" line has been discontinued,
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 9
though the books that would have appeared there are still being
published, just without the special label.
And on an even more general note, Barnes & Noble reported that
business was up in 1993 over 1992, even after discounting the
Michael Crichton--John Gresham phenomenon. What's even more
interesting is that the increase is almost entirely due to an
upswing in science fiction sales.
By the way, if you like the artwork on Bantam's books, thank
Jamie Warren, who is the art director.
Panel: EEEEccccoooonnnnoooommmmiiiiccccssss aaaannnndddd DDDDaaaaiiiillllyyyy LLLLiiiiffffeeee iiiinnnn EEEElllliiiizzzzaaaabbbbeeeetttthhhhaaaannnn TTTTiiiimmmmeeeessss
Saturday, 4:00 PM
Hilary Ayer (m), William Foss, Josepha Sherman,
Karen Shearer Voorhees
"The age of Elizabeth I serves as a model for many cultures we
imagine in other universes or on other planets. What was it really
like to live in the time of Shakespeare": Well, of all the panels I
went to, this certainly classifies as "the panel title most likely
to surprise someone who has never been to a science fiction
convention." While there was some mention of science fiction (or
more accurately, fantasy), this was mostly a background panel on the
history of the period so that writers would understand it better
before they used it willy-nilly as background in their stories.
The Elizabethan Age was described as an age of transition. It
marked the rise of the middle class. Though in many ways we look on
it negatively now, it was a society that worked. The whole system
of formal social rank resulted in a sense of belonging and a sense
of being in place. This sense of belonging was also mentioned by
Kim Stanley Robinson in his lecture on Post-modernism and in the
"Gender-Bending" panel, so it seems to be a common concern now. I
would propose this is because we are a much more mobile society now
than ever before and people don't feel they belong anywhere
particular. This supposition is somewhat supported by what the
panelists talked about a little later: that in Elizabethan times
people did not move around very much--in fact, often never went more
than ten miles from their village in their entire lives--and that
meant that your reputation was important and long-lasting. If you
cheated someone in business, you couldn't just pick up and move to
the next county and start fresh. A woman's chastity was important
because of this life-long reputation, but also, of course, because
before contraception, sex usually produced babies. So people cared
about what other people thought of them, more than they do now. And
people felt that they belonged where they were.
The class system led to a lot of the fashions carried through
even until today. Long nails meant that you had someone else to do
your manual labor. White skin meant that you didn't work out in the
ConFrancisco September 6, 1993 Page 10
sun. It also meant that you covered your face with a lead-based
make-up and probably died of lead poisoning, but what's a little
thing like that in the name of fashion? When most work moved
indoors during industrialization, suddenly a dark tan became the
sign of the upper class--people who had enough spare time to sit
around outside and get a tan. Now, of course, a tan means that
you're not worried about skin cancer. Women may have followed all
these fashion fads, but they were beginning to gain power in the
Elizabethan Age as well. In London, the head of the Bakers' Guild
and the head of the Brewers' Guild were both women. (One of the
panelists recommended _W_o_m_e_n _o_f _A_c_t_i_o_n _i_n _T_u_d_o_r _E_n_g_l_a_n_d by Pearl
Hogrefe for more on this subject. I couldn't find that title in
_B_o_o_k_s _i_n _P_r_i_n_t, but I did find one by Hogrefe titled _T_u_d_o_r _W_o_m_e_n:
_C_o_m_m_o_n_e_r_s & _Q_u_e_e_n_s, so perhaps the panelist mis-remembered the
title.)
The best-seller of the time was Erasmus's etiquette book, which
suggested (among other things) that people dull their dinner knives
so that guests couldn't stab each other. This is why we have dull
dinner knives to this day, and also tells us that there was some
reasonable chance that guests _w_o_u_l_d try to stab each other.
The Elizabethan Age also marked a move from intolerance to
tolerance (more or less). There was a break-up of the power of the
Church which led to a wider range of opinions being tolerated. This
was not an all-encompassing toleration; the Jews, who had been
expelled from England in 1290, were not permitted to return until
the 1650s under Cromwell, and I don't know if the expulsion order
was ever formally repealed.
The economy of the period was an economy of scarcity. Clothes
were re-fashioned, cut down, re-used, and so on. The largest person
in the family got the new shirt, because that way it could make its
way down through all the sizes.
The Elizabethan Age was when empires were extended beyond
Europe. (This, of course, is a very Eurocentric view of things.
The Mongols might have had a few comments here--or even the Romans.)
Before Elizabethan times life was collective; in Elizabethan times
it became individual. This means that the Elizabethan Age is really
the first period we can understand, or at least that there is a
quantum leap in our understanding of it over earlier periods. And
this is no doubt why this period serves as a background for so many
stories.
Josepha Sherman plugged her book (co-authored with Mercedes
Lackey), _A _C_a_s_t _o_f _C_o_r_b_i_e_s, set in an alternate Elizabethan era.
(End of Part 3)