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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 11/19/93 -- Vol. 12, No. 21
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
12/08 STAND ON ZANZIBAR by John Brunner (Classic SF)
01/05 A MILLION OPEN DOORS by John Barnes (Nebula Nominee) (MT)
01/26 Bookswap (MT)
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. I think it was the philosopher Santayana who said those who
forget the past are condemned to repeat it. I suppose it is also
true that those who remember the past are condemned to be misled
by it. That is because people who look to the past don't know
which analogies are accurate and which are not. When most wars
start, the commanders tend to command by historical analogies to
previous wars. In November of 1941, a month before we entered the
Second World War, we were in good shape to fight World War I and
almost completely unprepared for World War II. A sense of the past
is really a prerequisite for any sort of survival, but it is a
double-edged sword. There is always a certain danger in
indiscriminate erudition.
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I got to thinking about the classical languages, Greek and Latin.
We tend to think of these as languages of scholarship. Some Oxford
classes are taught in the Latin language even if the subject has
nothing to do with Latin. Latin and Greek seem to be held in awe
by scholars as if they were languages of real power and subtlety.
But somehow when you actually see what the words mean, they are
really fairly crude descriptions. Astronomy means literally "star
names." That is really a very crude name for the study. We call a
car a car. We don't call it a motor-coach. There is some
abstraction in calling something a "car." "Dinosaur" means
"terrible lizard." That is not a terribly abstract name. It is
kind of like calling an airplane "big silver bird."
On top of which, if you take a word to its Greek and Latin roots,
you generally find it a misnomer. Dinosaurs were not lizards and
most were not terrible. Astronomy is about a lot more than star
names. Take the word "orthodontia." It means "shape of teeth."
But only very rarely will an orthodontist change the shape of a
tooth. He will change the position, by reshaping the gums and
jaws.
English is such a crude language. And how did it get that way?
Well, it picked up words from other languages like "astronomy."
But enough people were ignorant about the roots of the word that it
could take on new meanings without people realizing. We could only
do that because enough people were either ignorant of the Greek and
Latin roots, or could put them out of their minds when they heard
the word used. What makes English such a powerful and useful
language is a healthy ignorance of the past.
===================================================================
2. GLORY SEASON by David Brin (a book review by Dale L. Skran):
When I first picked this one up, I groaned inwardly. Not another
huge Brin book, this time on the hoary theme of "women on top"!
Out of a sense of obligation to buy any "big new Brin book" I
ordered this one from the SF Book club, and while feeling bored one
day started to read it.
I'm not going to say this is the greatest book Brin's written, or
that it's a sure Hugo winner (although it may well get nominated),
or that I loved every minute of it. However, GLORY SEASON has many
of the strengths of EARTH with few of its flaws. Only a single
main character, Maia, tells the story with the exception of a small
number of log-book entries and quotes. Thus, the confusing and
immense cast of characters in EARTH is dispensed with, and replaced
by a single coherent narrative. At the same time, GLORY SEASON
shares with EARTH a well thought-out background that is unique to
science fiction, not just a retread of some silly scenario where
THE MT VOID Page 3
all the men died in a plague.
Brin does a good job of suffusing the book with a genuine feminist
sensibility while avoiding the production of a propaganda set-
piece. The views of Lysos, the founder fem-engineer of Stratos,
are well argued, but a fully rounded view of the results is
presented as well. This book is best compared to THE LEFT HAND OF
DARKNESS, another tale where genetic engineers played around with
sex roles to create a rather different society. Unlike LEFT HAND,
GLORY SEASON is a slam-bang adventure in the pulp tradition, with
pirates, sea journeys, ancient weapons, life and death traps,
treachery, and loyal friends. Contrary to the impression some may
have, Brin is a very capable pulp writer--see "Thor vs Captain
American" or the last chapter of THE POSTMAN.
GLORY SEASON does not fit well into the "man-writing-adolescent-
female-coming-of-age" sub-genre (to which some might wish to
consign it), which includes PODKAYNE OF MARS and RITE Of PASSAGE
since Maia is as much alien as she is human, and the vast gulf
between her world and our own allows Brin to write convincingly
while being well shielded from the accusation that he just doesn't
understand women.
My major complaint with the book is the "alien" spaceman, Renna,
from the Hominid Phylum worlds. He lands on a strange world by
himself, in a ship that cannot take off under its own power, and
with no backup. Thousands of years have passed since Lysos created
the pastoral Stratos, but Renna's technology seems more like stuff
we'll have a few hundred years from now. Brin apparently focused
so much effort on Stratos that the Phylum was given short shrift.
***SPOILERS FOLLOW***
Finally, the book ends in a rather abrupt fashion with Renna, off-
camera, attempting to use an ancient spaceship to return to orbit,
and Maia seeing the ship explode. Is Renna dead? Everyone but the
reader is convinced. Either the Phylum is full of dunderheads and
Renna was sent to meet new civilizations since there was a lack of
other jobs he was qualified for, or he's still hiding out in the
caves someplace. Merely saying that Renna is expendable doesn't
answer the many questions floating through the readers mind at this
point, which all have as their answer the word "sequel"!
At this point I wouldn't mind returning once again to this
beautifully conceived world (notice I haven't said very much about
it!), but I wish Brin would be more honest and just call this the
"The First Book of Stratos."
Recommended to fans of: hard science fiction, social-science
science fiction, feminist-related fiction, and Brin.
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===================================================================
3. THE RISING OF THE MOON by Flynn Connolly (Del Rey, ISBN 0-345-
38289-7, 1993, US$4.99) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
There's a lot that's good in _T_h_e _R_i_s_i_n_g _o_f _t_h_e _M_o_o_n.
Unfortunately, there's also a lot of extra baggage the story has to
carry as well, and this drags it down a bit.
Ian McDonald's _B_r_o_k_e_n _L_a_n_d (which I reviewed recently) was
basically the story of Ireland set on an alien planet. _T_h_e _R_i_s_i_n_g
_o_f _t_h_e _M_o_o_n is set in an Ireland of the future (or of _a future, at
any rate), but the fact that it is Ireland is almost superfluous.
I say "almost" because it has to be set somewhere, and it uses the
Irish history heritage well. But if an author sets a story in
Ireland, that puts certain expectations in the reader's mind, and
these are not fulfilled. One may argue this is a good thing,
rather than a bad, but it is disconcerting. The fact that in this
future alien contact has been made is a more serious piece of extra
baggage; it serves no purpose except to provide a conveniently
emotional ending.
The story is one of the misogynist dystopia, the future in which
the patriarchy (in the form of the Church) has decided to "put
women in their place." As such, it is more reminiscent of such
books as Margaret Atwood's _H_a_n_d_m_a_i_d'_s _T_a_l_e and Suzette Haden
Elgin's _N_a_t_i_v_e _T_o_n_g_u_e than of books centering on the current
situation in Ireland. Nuala Dennehy returns to Ireland after
fifteen years of self-imposed exile to discover the true situation
back home. Only through some extremely unlikely contrivances does
she avoid getting arrested or thrown out within a few hours of her
arrival--or at several other times. (Things frequently work out
too conveniently to be probable throughout the book.) This soon
develops into what might be considered the standard "people's
uprising" science fiction novel.
This is a strongly feminist book and one major complaint I have is
that although the government seems to oppress men as well as women
(albeit perhaps not as much), the "revolution" is seen as a
strictly female one, and men's assistance is pretty much rebuffed,
which seems to me a serious tactical error--but I'm not the author.
I also find it unlikely that a Church-dominated government would be
as sanguine about sexual assault by the police as this one
apparently is. And it's awfully convenient for the story that the
Church officials are as corrupt as they are.
These criticisms may make me sound more negative on _T_h_e _R_i_s_i_n_g _o_f
_t_h_e _M_o_o_n than I really am. Certainly it will appeal to fans who
have an interest in Irish history and the real heroes and legends
from Ireland, since this draws heavily on them (and not at all on
the Irish Celtic mythology that one sees so much of in science
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fiction and fantasy). And as political underground science
fiction, this is as good as most.
===================================================================
4. MYTH AND MODERN MAN IN SHERLOCK HOLMES by David S. Payne
(Gaslight Publications, ISBN 0-934468-29-X, 1992, US$24.95) (a book
review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
This is perhaps not so much a review as a way to tell people of the
existence of this book. In this scholarly work, subtitled "Arthur
Conan Doyle and the Uses of Nostalgia," Payne examines the social,
economic, and political forces at work at the time Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle wrote his Sherlock Holmes stories, and how those stories fit
in, both as a reflection of the times and as an aid to readers to
get them through that time of change. His thesis is interesting
and even thought-provoking, but seems belabored after almost three
hundred pages. The later chapters often seem a mere listing of
quotes supporting his contentions about, for example, Holmes
(Doyle) and foreigners. While valuable in presenting a more
balanced view of Doyle's views, pointing out the negative aspects
as well as the positive, I find it hard to recommend this book at
full hardcover price. Still, it's unlikely to be available any
other way.
===================================================================
5. MY LIFE (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule review: Bruce Joel Rubin himself directs
the fourth film in his "Dying and the Death
Experience" series. Michael Keaton plays a dying
public relations executive who videotapes life
lectures for his yet unborn child and the tapes lead
him to resolve the unfinished business of his youth.
Some good believable human drama here is sabotaged
by gratuitous mysticism about the nature of death.
Rating low +1 (-4 to +4).
Bruce Joel Rubin has previously written the story of _B_r_a_i_n_s_t_o_r_m and
screenplays of _J_a_c_o_b'_s _L_a_d_d_e_r and _G_h_o_s_t, each exploring its own
mystical view of life after death. His latest film focuses a
little more closely on the dying experience itself. Bob Jones
(Michael Keaton) had a sad childhood filled with disappointments
and he has tried hard to bury that past. But now he is heading for
the biggest disappointment of all. Just when his life was coming
together with his beautiful wife (Gail, played by Nicole Kidman)
pregnant with their first child, Bob was diagnosed as having
terminal cancer. Now in his days remaining he is taking all of his
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fatherly advice and putting it on videotape as a legacy for the
child that he may never know. Bob wants to be sure his child knows
who Bob was. But Bob himself is not sure who he is. He has
intentionally buried his unhappy childhood in the Russian immigrant
community of Detroit. As part of that burial he had even changed
his name to Jones from Ivanovich as part of his escape from the
past. Now that he is dying he must come to terms with that past in
his few remaining days, or he will never finish that business.
Rubin's script is often moving, as we would expect. It would be
difficult to make a film that shows the dying process in such
detail without being moving and at some level manipulative. But
surprisingly here the experienced Rubin has problems with the very
mechanics of script-writing. There are places where the script
just does not convey what is going on. For example, the first time
we are aware that Gail knows about the tapes, she is watching a
tape about herself and she is angry. Why? Is she angry about the
project of making the tapes? Is she angry about the content of
this particular tape? It is not clear from the script. And with
the writer being the director, if Rubin thinks the idea is
conveyed, nobody can overrule him. Gail's mother is an important
character in the plot, but for several scenes it is unclear if she
knows about her son-in-law's condition and the interpretation of
those scenes makes knowing important.
This is a story that might well have been done better in other
hands, in spite of Rubin's fascination with death. Rubin's
previous films assumed a life after death. In some senses that was
the whole point of _G_h_o_s_t and _J_a_c_o_b'_s _L_a_d_d_e_r. _M_y _L_i_f_e did not need
any mystical metaphysics to tell its story and it would have been a
more poignant story without the nice comforting mystical view of
life of life after death. However, Rubin gives in to the
temptation to philosophize about survival of the soul and mystical
healing processes and in doing so he kills much of the credibility
the film had. This is a film that will get people thinking about
the death experience and it is probably fairly accurate to the
famous Elisabeth Kubler-Ross studies of the psychology of dying,
but it also throws in some metaphysical fantasy without leaving it
clear that it is fantasy.
_M_y _L_i_f_e has many good points, but often Rubin's screenplay betrays
them and compromises. My rating would be a low +1 on the -4 to +4
scale.
===================================================================
6. A BRONX TALE (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule review: Calogero is growing up in the Bronx
in the late 50s with two father figures. One is his
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honest, hard-working, biological father and the
other is a likable hood who takes Calogero under his
wing. Robert DeNiro directs the film as well as
playing the honest father while the screenwriter of
the semi-autobiographical story turns in a winning
performance as the hood. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4).
When I think of Robert DeNiro these days, I mostly think about an
interview he gave about _G_u_i_l_t_y _b_y _S_u_s_p_i_c_i_o_n. His comments about
the blacklisting era were so shallow and so lacking in information
and insight that at the time I assumed he was a person with few
talents other than line-reading. Now I have to reassess that
conclusion after seeing his directorial debut.
Romantic love triangles are a staple of the film industry. For
Robert DeNiro's directorial debut he has chosen a story with a
different sort of love triangle, one of paternal love. Calogero
has two father figures in his life. His true father (played by
DeNiro) is a poor bus driver. That does not get a lot of respect
in the Bronx Italian community in the late Fifties. What does get
respect is being a hood like the local neighborhood boss Sonny
(Chazz Palminteri). One day Sonny kills a man and nine-year-old
Calogero lies to save his idol Sonny from the police. From that
point on Sonny adopts Colgero, after a fashion. Both he and
Lorenzo, Colgero's real father, want what is best for the boy, but
Lorenzo is a straight arrow and wants his son to have nothing to do
with the hood. In spite of his own profession, Sonny wants to keep
Colgero honest and put him on the path to success.
Francis Capra is a little too sharp playing the nine-year-old
Calogero. He is just a bit overly clever in his repartee with his
parents. But then screenwriter Palminteri is actually writing
about himself so might be a little willing to exaggerate his own
verbal prowess when he was Calogero's age. And Calogero does have
to be a little devious in how he balances his two father figures.
The second part of the story has Calogero (now played by Lillo
Brancato) seventeen years old and romantically interested in an
attractive Black girl (Taral Hicks). The story comes to involve
tensions between the Black and Italian communities in the Bronx.
Now to Calogero, Sonny seems to be the only sane and tolerant
person in the Italian community.
The story of _A _B_r_o_n_x _T_a_l_e is based on the Palminteri's semi-
autobiographical play which he used to perform as a one-person
show. The details of life in the Bronx and the style of
storytelling are reminiscent of _G_o_o_d_f_e_l_l_a_s and DeNiro even has a
cameo for Joe Pesci. Just as earlier this year Mel Gibson proved
he had a better hand at directing than most of us would have
expected, so too DeNiro's style is surprisingly good for a first-
timer. He has a very sure hand at combining music into the action.
His direction shows this in one of the first scenes of the film in
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which a montage of scenes from a stickball game are synchronized to
a do-wop song.
But the real show-stealer is Palminteri himself as Sonny. The same
stage presence that worked for him doing the story in his one-man
show translates to charisma on the screen. Like Joe Mantegna in
_H_o_u_s_e _o_f _G_a_m_e_s, Palminteri is the central attraction whenever he is
on the screen. As the hood, Sonny is magnetic while the audience
expectation is that he will at some point do something nasty and
his relationship with the boy will break down. That may or may not
happen, but the character is real enough to transcend stereotypes
and the story of the relationship probably more interesting and
credible than most fiction writers would have made it. DeNiro
proves himself as an accomplished director his first time around.
My rating is a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
===================================================================
7. There is a new SF/mystery show in Montclair, New Jersey: Beam Me
Up, Watson! Books, 358-1/2 Bloomfield Avenue, Montclair NJ 07042,
201-744-7343, Mon-Wed,Sat 10 AM-6PM, Thu-Fri 12:30PM-8PM. (This
information courtesy of Phil DeParto of the Science Fiction
Association of Bergen County. Personally, I think the best in the
(wider) area is still the Science Fiction Shop at 168 Thompson
between Houston and Bleeker--note new address!--212-473-3010, FAX
212-475-9727). There's also Science Fiction, Mysteries, and More
at 140 Chambers west of West Broadway, 212-385-8798, Mon-Fri
11:30AM-7PM, Sat-Sun 2PM-6:30PM, but call ahead to check, as it
sometimes does not open at all on weekends. (I have been unable to
get to this store because of its hours.) The SF Shop will do
mail-order.
On the more local scene, there are a few superstores in the
Middletown/Holmdel/Lincroft area: Borders in East Brunswick, and
Barnes & Noble in Middletown and West Long Branch. The Middletown
store seems to carry all the major SF magazines (including _A_m_a_z_i_n_g
and _T_h_e _M_a_g_a_z_i_n_e _o_f _F_a_n_t_a_s_y & _S_c_i_e_n_c_e _F_i_c_t_i_o_n as well as the more
common _A_n_a_l_o_g and _A_s_i_m_o_v'_s). Borders used to have monthly
discussion groups for horror and science fiction; I don't know if
they still have them. Barnes & Noble in Middletown would
undoubtedly start them if enough people expressed interest,
especially if someone offered to run them. (If anyone hears
anything further, let us know.)
On a related note, the book for the January 5 discussion, _A _M_i_l_l_i_o_n
_O_p_e_n _D_o_o_r_s, is now available in paperback. [-ecl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue
freely according to my conscience, above all liberties.
-- John Milton