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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 11/12/93 -- Vol. 12, No. 20
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
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 HO 2C-318 908-949-4156 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. In observance of Jewish Heritage Month, the next discussion book
will be _B_r_i_a_r _R_o_s_e by Jane Yolen. In _B_r_i_a_r _R_o_s_e a woman tries to
find out the secret of her grandmother's past, and why her
grandmother was so obsessed with the fairy tale Briar Rose
(a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty).
For as long as Rebecca can remember, her grandmother Gemma has told
Rebecca and her sisters the tale of Briar Rose (which we know as
Sleeping Beauty). But more than that, she has told them that _s_h_e
is Briar Rose. Now that Gemma has died, Rebecca is driven to find
out who her grandmother really was and why she told this story.
Even from the beginning, Rebecca discovers that much of what she
believed about her family history isn't true. Eventually her
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search takes her to Poland and the truth about the dark time of the
Holocaust.
Yolen has done a very good job in describing a Jewish family and
its history, but what is worth noting is that she has not ignored
the other aspects of the Nazi regime during that period. One of
the primary sources of information for Rebecca when she travels to
Poland is a man who was imprisoned for his homosexuality. And the
history involves other groups persecuted as well. Yolen manages
this without minimizing anyone's suffering--it is not a contest of
what group suffered more, but a look at the people who suffered and
how they often worked together against the horror.
Marge Piercy's _H_e, _S_h_e, _a_n_d _I_t told a 16th Century legend, both in
its own time and then as a re-telling in a near-future time, so
that we could see that what seemed like just an old story was still
very relevant to the issues that face us today. In _B_r_i_a_r _R_o_s_e,
Yolen takes a fairy tale rather than a legend, but then does the
same thing: shows us that it would be a mistake to write it off as
just another story--shows us that even a fairy tale may have much
underlying truth in what it says. [-ecl]
===================================================================
2. Well as of this writing, we are back from India for less than
one week (though it will probably be delayed several weeks in
publication). India, of course, has a culture that is really very
unlike just about anything you can see in this country. You can
get little tastes of what India is like, but a small taste is very
often misleading. When I was about three years old my father had a
bottle of saccharine on the kitchen table. He would put a tablet
in his coffee and it would make it sweet, I was told. My mother
would occasionally put sugar cubes in coffee for the same purpose
and I had eaten those from time to time and liked them so I bided
my time and when nobody was around I got the bottle of saccharine .
I tasted the dust around the rim and found it tasted sweet. So I
took two or three saccharine tablets and prepared to pop them in my
mouth. It was nice that I could fit more saccharine tablets in my
mouth than sugar cubes. In the next second the three tablets went
into my mouth. Blech! Ptooey! Out they came. Concentrated
saccharine tastes terrible. It's bitter. It tastes just about the
opposite of what a small taste is like. The taste of a foreign
county may act the same way. Going to an Indian restaurant may
not, in fact does not, give the feel of India but closer to the
exact opposite feel.
But when people ask why I want to go to such weird places I usually
tell them it comes from my reading of _H_u_c_k_l_e_b_e_r_r_y _F_i_n_n. There is
an incident in it in which Jim finds out that somebody speaks
French. Jim has never heard of there being different languages.
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"If he's human, why don't he talk like a human?" he asks. Well,
gang, you and I know that you don't have to talk English to be
human. But what else is there that we assume is true of everybody
that may not be? What about kissing? That is something I guess
you sort of think is an instinctive behavior. It is not so
intrinsic of humans as you might think. For example the Japanese
never heard of the practice of kissing until they came in contact
with the West. So it isn't so intrinsic to humans as you might
think. Another example was our first night in China our National
Guide, a very nice man who had never come in contact with many
non-Chinese people before wanted to say something nice to his new
American guests. He looked at out tour group, which except for
about five people were all retirees, and told us "We served you a
vegetarian meal because vegetables are very good for old people."
The way his mind worked was to assume all people, or at least most
people, are proud to have attained a great age. I am sure eleven
years later that the National Guides in China know better that
Westerners don't like to think of themselves as old, and it is
probably a less interesting trip because of it. One of the things
we tell ourselves to give ourselves a warm, fuzzy, friendly feeling
is that people are all really alike. Don't you believe it. It
would be a much less interesting world if they were. The hardware
may have similarities, but the software is really, really
different. And that is why I travel.
===================================================================
3. THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (a film review by Mark R.
Leeper):
Capsule review: Tim Burton proves himself a
creative genius with a film deserving of instant
holiday classic status. Just about everything comes
together and genuinely works in the best holiday
film since Alistair Sim starred in _A _C_h_r_i_s_t_m_a_s
_C_a_r_o_l. Rating: +3 (-4 to +4)
From the on-again off-again career of Tim Burton comes a film so
original and incredibly creative that it genuinely is unlikely to
be surpassed as a holiday film for decades. While Burton did not
actually direct in this outing (Henry Selick did), Burton produced
and wrote the story, creating the characters. And _T_h_e _N_i_g_h_t_m_a_r_e
_B_e_f_o_r_e _C_h_r_i_s_t_m_a_s shows an unmistakable Burton style. The entire
film is done in beautiful 3-D animation and is the culmination of
the poetic fairy tale style we saw some of (but not enough) in
_E_d_w_a_r_d _S_c_i_s_s_o_r_h_a_n_d_s crossed with the tongue-in-cheek horror-spoof
style of "Frankenweenie" and "Vincent." This film dazzles the
viewer with so many beautiful images that I found just taking my
eyes off the screen to make notes meant I was missing something I
wanted to see. The style the film kept reminding me of some
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exceptionally creative Czech films--particularly those of Jiri
Trnka--and wishing more films like that could be done elsewhere.
Now a visual style every bit as compelling, perhaps more, has found
its way into an American film. The fairy tale style that I liked
so much in _E_d_w_a_r_d _S_c_i_s_s_o_r_h_a_n_d_s I attributed to Caroline Thompson, a
then first-time screenwriter whose talents I claimed were just what
Burton needed. I am very pleased that Burton seems to have had the
same insight. Thompson wrote _N_i_g_h_t_m_a_r_e's screenplay also and this
time she and Burton have completely fulfilled the promise their
pairing showed in that film. The ten musical pieces here are
written and scored with the clever style and quality of a Gilbert
and Sullivan operetta.
The story takes place in a land where holidays are born. One town
makes Halloween each year, another makes Christmas. The artistic
genius of Halloweentown is one Jack Skellington, a sort of skeleton
with a globular head. But then everyone in Halloweentown is a
horror, that is the spirit of Halloween. The town is full of
werewolves, vampires, bats, spiders, mad scientists, and things for
which there are no names. Jack is dissatisfied with Halloween and
stumbles on Christmastown. He is enchanted and puzzled by the
idea of Christmas and decides he and his town of horrors can do it
all better. Halloweentown starts working on putting on a horror-
tinged Christmas. If that seems a silly plot, well you don't
expect a holiday film is going to have a Dostoyevsky-level story.
Just accept the story and watch how well it is told. Regardless of
the plot this is a film that you _w_i_l_l find rewarding. Take it from
me you may possibly have seen a film like this before but only
rarely, and you have never seen it done so well for 75 minutes. If
you thought _T_h_e _W_i_z_a_r_d _o_f _O_z was an impressive children's film, go
see _T_h_e _N_i_g_h_t_m_a_r_e _B_e_f_o_r_e _C_h_r_i_s_t_m_a_s. Amazingly to me I give a
Christmas film a rating of +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
===================================================================
4. GETTYSBURG (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule review: This film of military history
contains more authentic military history than any
other film I have ever seen. The film itself is
more than four hours and very little seems to be
fiction. Perhaps a little is speculation, but the
highest proportion of time is reenactment of the
most important battle in United States history.
Rating: +3 (-4 to +4)
As usual when I see an historical film, I will go home afterward
and pick up many historical accounts of the event and pick holes in
what I have seen on the screen. I have not yet read Shelby Foote's
account of the battle of Gettysburg (which is about 120 pages), but
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I have read several shorter accounts. What I have discovered is
that the film contradicts no account any more than the accounts
contradict each other. And that is not surprising since by all
accounts writer/director Ronald F. Maxwell, after basing his script
on a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, _T_h_e _K_i_l_l_e_r _A_n_g_e_l_s by Michael
Shaara, allowed his small army of historical experts to be tyrants
over the production of the film. What made it to the screen is
what the experts agreed happened. What _S_t_a_r _W_a_r_s was to the
special effects film, _G_e_t_t_y_s_b_u_r_g is to the historical film. Nobody
who sees the film and later reads account of the battle can come
away without the feeling of having witnessed the battle already and
without remembering a flood of images from the film. As far as how
well the actors look and dress like people of the Civil War the
film gets an A+. For the degree to which each major actor looks
like the actual person he is portraying the grade is a not-too-
shabby B+. (The opening credits show the original and the actor
and invite comparison.) Why not higher? Well for example at the
time of his most familiar photographs, Lee had a fuller beard than
Martin Sheen sports. That is the sort of variation you get. Of
course nobody mentions how full Lee's beard was at the time of
Gettysburg so perhaps I am underrating the film. But if I can find
no less picayune quibble than the length of a beard in a 254-minute
historical film, I am not just impressed, I am floored.
The actors are often familiar, if you can make them out under the
heavy beards typical of the Civil War period. (The presence of
women, incidentally, is limited to a count of two and a screentime
of about six seconds.) But actors seem to be chosen more for
proven acting ability than for marquee value. The players include
Tom Berenger as Gen. Longstreet, Martin Sheen as Gen. Lee, Stephen
Lang as Maj. Gen. Pickett, the late Richard Jordan as Brig. Gen.
Armistead, Jeff Daniels as Col. Chamberlain, Sam Elliot as Brig.
Gen. Buford, and Kevin Conway (whom I thought had been dead for at
least a couple years) as the what I would guess was an interpolated
character, Sgt. Buster Kilrain.
Gettysburg was the climax of the Civil War as Midway was the climax
of the war in the Pacific. And I found myself comparing this film
to the film _M_i_d_w_a_y as I watched it. _M_i_d_w_a_y is only five minutes
longer than half of GETTYSBURG's length, yet for that film a whole
fictional plot of "human interest" was added about an American
commander's son in love with a Japanese-American woman. Apparently
the filmmakers thought that so much history was too much for the
viewer. In _G_e_t_t_y_s_b_u_r_g with the exception of a few conversations to
broaden the characters, and a rhetorical speech added here and
there, what we see is all documented history and ironically the
film is more and not less compelling as a result.
From the point of view of the film five men were responsible for
the South going from a winning war to a losing war with this one
battle. For the North, Buford created the strategy and Chamberlain
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defended the weak flank. For the South, Jeb Stuart chose to raid
rather then reconnoiter, Ewell failed to attack at a strategic
moment, and Lee's ego told him to fight the battle even on the
enemy's terms because winning would almost certainly bring the end
of the war. Of these the most screen time is devoted to
Chamberlain who, torn with self-doubt, shows himself to nonetheless
represent both heroism and decency.
_G_e_t_t_y_s_b_u_r_g was reportedly made as a television mini-series and at
some point was redirected to the big screen. It will certainly
lose much of the impact of its huge cast when translated to the
small screen. In incredible list of historical reenactment
societies apparently volunteered to act as extras and to reenact
the battle. The men participating in Pickett's charge form a very
long wall that will not be nearly as impressive when the flanks are
cut for television's aspect ratio. On the other hand, getting the
film on video will allow the stopping of the film and reading from
historical sources about the various actions being depicted. My
initial reaction to the film was that it must have cut out a lot of
what was really happening to concentrate only on Buford's defense
of the high ground the first day, Chamberlain's defense of the
flank the second day, and Pickett's charge the third day. The
first source I saw that described the battle in any detail listed
three important actions and they were exactly the ones chosen by
the filmmakers. This engaging film is almost a textbook about the
battle and because at the same time it is so enthralling, this is
one of best and perhaps in some respects is the best historical
feature film ever made. Nothing quite like this has ever been done
at this length and done this elaborately, so it is all the more
impressive. My rating is +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
===================================================================
5. FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule review: Suffering for one's art is the
theme of this film from three cooperating Chinese
countries. The story follows two Beijing Opera
singers over a half century. They suffer to learn
their art and then each political change in China
brings new suffering. This is a film that is well
made but which has limited capacity to be enjoyed.
Rating: 0 (-4 to +4).
How much misery can anyone give to their art is the question asked
by _F_a_r_e_w_e_l_l _M_y _C_o_n_c_u_b_i_n_e. It is the story of a poor boy, the son
of a prostitute, who becomes a popular opera star and what is
required of him. Douzi is groomed for only one role, the loyal
concubine of a defeated king who kills herself rather than desert
her lover and master. Learning any role requires an incredible
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regimen of punishing physical training and potentially lethal
beatings from the sadistic perfectionist schoolmaster. Douzi's
training entails an even worse aspect--to better play a woman he
has to offstage and on renounce his gender entirely and think of
himself as a woman for the rest of his life. He is paired to go
through life with Shitou, the actor groomed for the role of the
king. Once they achieve greatness Douzi's problems are still only
beginning. Shitou decides to take a wife of his own, an act of
chivalry toward a prostitute. But the pairing now turns into a
triangle. Douzi is forced to take lovers, but only male ones.
Just when this lifestyle looks like it cannot get worse, the
Japanese invade China. This brings a new set of hardships, and yet
another set of hardships come along when the Nationalists regain
China, the Communists bring yet another bad turn that only gets
worse with the Cultural Revolution. The film reminds one of a
Dickens story except that things do not get better with time. The
overall theme seems to be that when you are a man slotted for the
Beijing Opera to play a woman in a single role for your whole life,
that life is really a bitch and then you die.
It is hard to imagine a much more nihilist film. Every good deed
that one of our two characters performs results in all the more
misery for them or others. If you are Chinese it is quite possible
that there is a perceivable nobility in all the pain, but--and I
say this as someone who has seen or heard several Beijing operas--
it is very hard for a Westerner tp appreciate the aesthetics of
this art form. Even without that there will be some aspects of
story that a Westerner will find hard to understand.
At 170 minutes _F_a_r_e_w_e_l_l _M_y _C_o_n_c_u_b_i_n_e is a difficult film to watch
particularly with its relentlessly downbeat theme. There have been
several films this year with Chinese themes and this one is harder
to recommend than most. With my limited understanding of Chinese
culture I would rate this film a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
===================================================================
6. To those of you who saw the recent announcement that various
Bell Labs locations in New Jersey would start charging for
conference rooms, rest assured that (for now, anyway) Bell Labs
club activities are exempt, so our meetings will continue. [-ecl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy to be called
an idea at all.
-- Elbert Hubbard
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