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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 12/17/93 -- Vol. 12, No. 25
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middeltown 1R-400C
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
01/05 A MILLION OPEN DOORS by John Barnes (Nebula Nominee)
01/26 Bookswap
02/16 Demo of Electronic Hugo and Nebula Anthology (MT 3D-441)
03/09 A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ by Walter M. Miller
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. Okay, now this is a technical company advertising software on
television. Not AT&T, thankfully, but another company that is
advertising on CNN. You would think that if they were advertising
on CNN they would check their facts out and not say something
stupid, but then CNN runs Larry King, so people probably figure
they don't need to check their facts or avoid saying something
stupid. There is what we call a "precedent"--not to be confused
with a "President" who probably also appeared on CNN without
checking his facts and certainly without avoiding saying something
stupid.
But I am digressing. Anyway, this computer company is advertising
on CNN and they want to impress you with their computer technology.
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They say everybody has the same technology in business. Everybody
is making the same technological leaps. But with their product you
can stop playing leapfrog and start playing "quantum leapfrog."
The idea is that making a quantum leap is a good thing, I guess.
Well, you do hear that expression a lot. This is a "quantum leap"
of improvement. And it sure sounds good, doesn't it? Well, what
actually is a quantum leap? Well, it is actually a leap in an
energy level. It seems there is a certain granularity in the
energy levels of a particle. Every energy level leap is some whole
number multiple of the tiniest possible leap. And guess what we
call the smallest possible leap, the leap that is so small it is
almost undetectable as a change at all? That is a "quantum leap."
When somebody tells you they are going to give you a quantum leap,
they are saying they are going to do the minimum for you that is
possible. Which you probably knew already, but heck, I bet they
don't know they are being so up-front about it. Many of you know
that stuff about quantum leaps already, of course (well, don't
you?), but the rising tide of ignorance, misinformation, and
general unscientific rhetoric through which we daily swim is
getting thicker. There is an ever-increasing population of
Americans who think that "25 cents" and ".25 cents" are the same
thing. In fact there are whole countries in Europe who don't have
as many people in all as we have Americans who don't understand
their own currency to the extent that that realize .25 cents is a
quarter of a cent. (The convenience store near my home now
features a vending machine that says "$.25 cents.") And where will
it all end? Mark my words it will not be long until MTV will be
introducing characters called Beavis and Butthead, if it has not
happened already.
===================================================================
2. IMPOSSIBLE THINGS by Connie Willis (Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-
56436-6, 1994, $5.99) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
This is the new collection of Connie Willis stories.
Oh, that isn't enough to explain why you should run out and buy it?
How about the fact that the eleven stories here have collected
seven Hugo nominations (with two wins) and five Nebula nominations
(with three wins)?
Still waiting? Jeez, what a demanding audience.
Okay, for those of you who want hard science fiction, there's
"Schwarzschild Radius." For horror fans, we have "Jack," a
somewhat different look at the London Blitz. For the conspiracy
theorists, there's "Winter's Tale," about who really wrote
Shakespeare's plays. For those who are fed up with political
THE MT VOID Page 3
correctness, try "Even the Queen" and "Ado." The former takes a
somewhat non-standard approach to "women's liberation"; the latter
says that at the rate we're going, "Winter's Tale" will become
irrelevant. And for those who have ever attended a science fiction
convention, "At the Rialto" will have a real ring of familiarity.
"Chance" and "Time Out" both deal with how we look at the past and
lost opportunities, and both also reflect the perspective of the
"housewife," a term that Willis has often applied to herself. "In
the Late Cretaceous" displays her knowledge of the world of
academia (as do many of the other stories as well--the faults and
foibles of our education system seem to be a recurring theme in
Willis's work). And "The Last of the Winnebagos" and "Spice
Pogrom" round out the line-up.
If it seems that eleven stories isn't very much for 496 pages, it's
because Willis writes as many novellas and novelettes as she does
short stories. Indeed, last year she was nominated for the Hugo in
all three categories, a unique achievement. (In 1971, Harlan
Ellison was nominated in both of the _t_w_o short fiction categories
that existed then, but no one other than Willis has hit three in a
year.) And Willis seems to know which length to use for which
stories: her short stories never seem abrupt, nor her novellas
padded.
I _h_i_g_h_l_y recommend _I_m_p_o_s_s_i_b_l_e _T_h_i_n_g_s. (Her previous collection,
_F_i_r_e_w_a_t_c_h, is supposed to be re-issued as well, and I recommend
that also.)
===================================================================
3. ANNO-DRACULA by Kim Newman (Carroll & Graf, ISBN 0-88184-967-7,
1993, US$21) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
What if Van Helsing had not been successful and Dracula had
survived and gone on to marry Queen Victoria? Okay, it sounded
like an unlikely premise, but let's face it: those readers who
can't accept the premise aren't going to read the book in the first
place.
Newman has postulated a London split into two factions: the undead
and the "warm." Gradually the undead--now living openly--are
taking over society. Those who speak or act against them are sent
to concentration camps or impaled upon stakes. Sherlock Holmes,
for example, has been incarcerated in Devil's Dyke on Sussex Downs.
(I should warn Holmes fans who hear of this book that while
Lestrade is a genuine character in the action, Holmes is merely
mentioned a couple of times. And, no, Lestrade is not "the vampire
Lestrade," as one wit suggested.) In addition to Dracula and
Sherlock Holmes, we also have Dr. Moreau and Dr. Jekyll, as well as
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Jack the Ripper and a plethora of vampires, both historical and
fictional. All these well-known characters tend to get in the way
of the story at times, which is actually quite engrossing without
the "spot-the-reference" game. (The Jack the Ripper subplot is
critical to the book, however.)
I initially picked this up because it was both an alternate history
and a Sherlock Holmes novel, but its strengths lie in neither of
those areas, but in its craftsmanship as a vampire novel in the
spirit of Bram Stoker's _D_r_a_c_u_l_a, as well as John Polidori's _V_a_m_p_y_r_e
and James Malcolm Rymer's _V_a_r_n_e_y _t_h_e _V_a_m_p_i_r_e. Its closest
resemblance to a Sherlock Holmes story is in its capturing the feel
of Victorian London, albeit a somewhat transformed Victorian
London. If you find this description at all intriguing, I
recommend you seek out _A_n_n_o-_D_r_a_c_u_l_a.
===================================================================
4. A NIGHT IN THE LONESOME OCTOBER by Roger Zelazny with
illustrations by Gahan Wilson (AvoNova, ISBN 0-688-12508-5, 1993,
$18) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
I read this immediately after reading Kim Newman's _A_n_n_o-_D_r_a_c_u_l_a,
and two more different novels with a similar cast of characters are
hard to conceive. _A_n_n_o-_D_r_a_c_u_l_a had Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes,
Dr. Moreau, Dr. Jekyll, Jack the Ripper, and so on; _A _N_i_g_h_t _i_n _t_h_e
_L_o_n_e_s_o_m_e _O_c_t_o_b_e_r has Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes,
Dr. Frankenstein, Lawrence Talbot, Jack the Ripper, and so on. But
where _A_n_n_o-_D_r_a_c_u_l_a is a "realistic" novel of vampire control of
Victorian London, _A _N_i_g_h_t _i_n _t_h_e _L_o_n_e_s_o_m_e _O_c_t_o_b_e_r is a bizarre tale
of a gathering in which some of the characters attempt to open a
"doorway" to allow the Elder Gods to come to our world, and others
attempt to keep the doorway closed. And it's narrated by Jack the
Ripper's dog.
Unfortunately, I found it totally unengrossing. All the business
of calculating the spot for the doorway seemed like padding, and
most of the rest did too. Gahan Wilson is a very talented artist,
but his illustrations did nothing for the story. The best thing
about this book is probably James Warhola's great cover
illustration. It's possible that reading this right after _A_n_n_o-
_D_r_a_c_u_l_a had me in the wrong frame of mind for it (it didn't "tickle
the funnybone" the way the jacket promised at all), but I can't
recommend this book.
===================================================================
5. HOUSEHOLD SAINTS (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
THE MT VOID Page 5
Capsule review: This tale of Magical Realism in
post-WWII Little Italy tells the story of how a
modern saint came to be born and how she lived.
That plot could have been saccharine but tales of
neighborhood life and different people's reactions
to Teresa actually make this film a very watchable
fantasy. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4)
If a miracle happened today, would we believe it? Would we explain
it away? How would people react? That is the theme of Nancy
Savoca's _H_o_u_s_e_h_o_l_d _S_a_i_n_t_s. The story is about two generations of a
family and takes place over twenty-one years or so. To aid in the
suspension of disbelief the story is told in flashback as a
neighborhood legend by an old Italian couple. The inner story
starts around 1949, taking place in New York's Little Italy.
Joseph Santangelo (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) wins Catherine
Falconetti (Tracey Ullman) in a game of pinochle. But winning
turns out to be one thing and collecting something else. It seems
unlikely that these people would be married this way, but it seems
the hand of some sort of fate is pushing them onward. The story
dwells on their problems of home life: Joseph's superstitious
mother (Judith Malina) hates her daughter-in-law; Catherine's
brother is bewitched and obsessed by Puccini's _M_a_d_a_m_e _B_u_t_t_e_r_f_l_y and
devotes his life to getting a wife who Japanese or Chinese--a
distinction of which he in unaware. Yet all of this seems directed
toward getting Teresa Santangelo born or forming her saintly
character. As a young girl (Rachael Bella; older she is played by
homely but angelic Lili Taylor) she sees John Brahm's _T_h_e _M_i_r_a_c_l_e
_o_f _O_u_r _L_a_d_y _o_f _F_a_t_i_m_a and decides to devote her life to being like
the saint in that film. The film then follows the first eighteen
years of the life of the woman who may or may not be a saint.
This is a slow and atmospheric film that takes a long time to
develop its story, but getting to the main story is as interesting
as being there. There are details of life in Little Italy told
with a sort of magical realism. In humorous contrast to films that
focus in on the details of sumptuous meals, here we see the meal
that an inexperienced Catherine makes under protest. In spite of
the best intentions inexperience dominates and for once an Italian
meal on screen looks less than totally appetizing.
Perhaps central to the story is the examination of three kinds of
faith represented by three generations of Santangelo women. For
Teresa's grandmother faith seems entwined with the dark
superstitions of the old country. Catherine found faith later in
life, frightened into it by her mother-in-law, and her faith is
thin. Teresa's faith is innocent and pure and it is spurred by
mystical visions perhaps from neurosis induced by her upbringing,
or perhaps they are genuine miraculous events. And each woman
responds to life differently--each somewhat strangely--based on her
own brand of faith.
THE MT VOID Page 6
While I am personally skeptical about the existence of true saints,
I found that if I went with the flow and thought of this as a
fantasy film, there was more than enough to keep me interested here
both in an exploration into a religious viewpoint and as a window
onto the community in Little Italy. My rating would be a +2 on the
-4 to +4 scale.
===================================================================
6. GERONIMO: AN AMERICAN LEGEND (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule review: In spite of the presence of Gene
Hackman and Robert Duvall, this is a bland telling
of Geronimo's last uprising. While all the major
characters were real people, there are major lapses
in historical accuracy. At least it does not fall
into the trap of making the Indians all saints and
military all bad. Rating +1 (-4 to +4).
I think that the most positive thing I can say about _G_e_r_o_n_i_m_o is
that it trusts the viewer. It shows historical events and it
trusts the audience to make the right decision about who was right
and who was wrong. That sounds like a small thing, but it was more
than you got from films like _D_a_n_c_e_s _w_i_t_h _W_o_l_v_e_s, _T_h_u_n_d_e_r_h_e_a_r_t, or,
on another continent, _G_a_n_d_h_i. So often when a film shows the old
establishment as wrong, it shows everybody who sided with or worked
for that establishment as being totally reprehensible. I doubt
that anybody can see _G_e_r_o_n_i_m_o and not come away with the belief
that a great injustice was done to the Chiricahua Apache. But many
of the whites in this film are compassionate toward the Indians.
And not all of the Indians agree with each other about their
relations with the whites. Most of the people in this film are a
bit bewildered about what is happening and are ambivalent about
United States Government policies toward Indians. As an example,
Robert Duvall as an army scout professes his hatred of the Indian
in the early parts of the film, but it becomes clear later in the
film that underneath the surface he respects Indians and is also
indignant over injustices done to them. While other aspects of
this film are not so well handled, the complexity of characters is
a change from the pre-digested Political Correctness we often see
in films of this sort. However, the film does twist facts to make
it a more salable quantity.
The story, as narrated by Lt. Britton Davis (Matt Damon) is not a
full biography of Geronimo, but only covers about five years and
Geronimo's last uprising, 1881-1886. At the beginning of the film
Geronimo (Wes Studi) is already a living legend, but he now wants
peace and is willing to turn himself over to the cavalry and settle
into life at the reservation. But when an Indian holy man is
killed in the incident at Cibicue Creek that led to a battle
THE MT VOID Page 7
killing several whites, Geronimo (who is present at the incident)
decides to break his agreement and head for Mexico. The film
covers two expeditions to apprehend Geronimo and his final
surrender.
A major component of this film is the beautiful near-desert vistas
that serve as a backdrop of many of the scenes. Here also you
should take what you are seeing with a grain of salt. The actual
terrain over which Geronimo ranged, particularly around Tombstone,
Fort Thomas, and Fort Bowie does not look at all as majestic with
few of the buttes and other rock formations that we see with most
of this film. You find those a little further north in Monument
Valley and in Utah, the latter being where the exteriors were
filmed. Real "Geronimo territory" is flat or hilly with sand and
scrub.
The film is based on a story by John Milius, who also co-authored
the script, and that leaves some latitude for fictionalizing.
While the film is supposedly narrated by Davis, it is clearly not
based on or even consistent with the real Britton Davis' book about
these incidents, _T_h_e _T_r_u_t_h _a_b_o_u_t _G_e_r_o_n_i_m_o. Do not take much of
this film as actual history. Geronimo was no place near the
Cibicue Creek battle. In real life the incident happened mostly to
White Mountain Apaches, though there were a few Chiricahuas present
at the time. The two different tribes of the Apache nation did not
even like each other more often than not. Chiricahuas did not get
on well with Jicarilla Apaches, Mescalero Apaches, or White
Mountain Apaches. Geronimo's breakout was only very indirectly
related to the battle of Cibicue Creek. Following Cibicue there
was a large buildup in white military force in the area and this
buildup of power is probably what frightened Geronimo off the
reservation about a month later. Britton Davis greatly respects
Geronimo in the film, while the real Davis called Geronimo "a
thoroughly vicious, intractable, and treacherous man." He also
called the Apaches "wild, intractable, and resentful of restraint."
In that book the real Davis had a different point of view both on
the campaign against Geronimo and on the warrior himself. Also
Davis did not go into Mexico under the command of Miles, as it is
shown in the film, and did not participate in the final surrender
of Geronimo. If truth be known, other tribes and even other
Apaches considered Geronimo a loose cannon and an uncontrollable
terrorist. His campaign against the whites probably put him on the
side of some justice, but not for what anyone would really consider
the right reasons. As for Britton Davis resigning the army in
indignation over its policies against the Indians, that too is
total invention. Davis resigned because he got a better job offer
and did not like army life. So much of this film really is a very
inaccurate account of what took place in history, even if it does
cover many real events and characters. This is a very distorted
view to make history seem to support the Millius' wishful
interpretation.
THE MT VOID Page 8
_G_e_r_o_n_i_m_o suffers a great deal by comparison to the recent
_G_e_t_t_y_s_b_u_r_g. _G_e_r_o_n_i_m_o's history is not nearly as accurate and at
the same time _G_e_t_t_y_s_b_u_r_g's characters were a good deal more
interesting. The lead is Jason Patric as Lt. Charles Gatewood.
Patric is a good deal too handsome and is not nearly as formal-
looking or gaunt as the real Gatewood. And he lacks the real
Gatewood's thick moustache. The film wants you to sympathize with
his point of view, and has chosen to make him heart-throb handsome
rather than to go the extra step to make him look like the real
Gatewood's photographs. But Patric is pretty good at horsemanship.
Gene Hackman also fails to capture the look of his character.
General Crook wore a bushy forked beard that gave the impression of
one full beard going off to the right and one to the left.
Director Walter Hill probably decided that the real beard would
upstage the actor. Under Hill's flat direction, only Studi seems
to project any screen presence at all. The historic Geronimo had a
perpetual scowl on his face and Studi is one of the few Indian
actors who really looks the part. Ry Cooder's score, using Indian
themes, may conjure up an emotional response in people who know
more about Indian music than I do, but for me it conveyed very
little of the feeling that was called for.
_G_e_r_o_n_i_m_o: _A_n _A_m_e_r_i_c_a_n _L_e_g_e_n_d is generally accurate to history while
still twisting events to support a predetermined set of
conclusions. It is more fair to both sides than it might have
been, but it still is a lackluster piece of storytelling. I give
it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
===================================================================
7. Since many of the regular attendees at meetings have moved to
Middletown, future meetings have been moved to a Middletown room
(1R-400C so far, which we have asked to be given for all meetings
if possible). If there are still enough people in Holmdel who wish
to schedule meetings there as well, just let us know to announce
them. Obviously, if other locations want meetings there, that's
great (maybe Dundee, Scotland, or Birmingham, England?). [-ecl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close and mathematical
relation to each other.
-- James Fenimore Cooper