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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 03/18/94 -- Vol. 12, No. 38
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middletown 1R-400C
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
03/30 THE MIND PARASITES by Colin Wilson
03/31 Hugo Nominations must be postmarked by this date
04/20 VALIS by Philip K. Dick
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. Just some thoughts that come to mind. I woke up early on Sunday
morning and I genuinely heard this. It was a teaser for a program
that was starting. The announcer said "In all the changing
politics of the word one fact remains clear. Russia still has
nuclear missiles and intends to fire them at the United States."
Then another voice comes on and says "This program is intended to
bring you peace of mind in these troubled times." That's what the
man said. It may actually be true. My suspicion is that is what
they were really intending to do and were just rock-stupid about
how to go about it. I wonder if these people think it is
worthwhile to check their facts or if they just sit in their
armchairs and make them up. Do they realize there is a world out
there to check their facts against? That got me wondering if there
was. Of course that is one of the important philosophical
questions of the 20th Century. Can anything real out there exist
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or is the whole world just a figment of my imagination?
That got me thinking about Solipsism. Do they have Famous
Solipsist School? I can imagine ads on matchbooks and in magazines
that ask simple questions about the material world. If you fill
out the coupon and send it in, you have already flunked out. Now
can I find someone to just go into the business with me?
===================================================================
2. GREEN MARS by Kim Stanley Robinson (Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-
37335-8, 1994, 535pp, US$12.95) (a book review by Evelyn C.
Leeper):
This is the second book of Robinson's "Mars" trilogy. The first
was last year's Hugo-nominated _R_e_d _M_a_r_s, and the series will be
finished with the upcoming _B_l_u_e _M_a_r_s. (I should mention again that
while Robinson's novella "Green Mars" appears to take place in the
same future history as this series, it is not a part of this
novel.)
_G_r_e_e_n _M_a_r_s, it must be said, suffers from the same flaws and
difficulties as most middle-of-a-trilogy novels. It does not start
at the beginning, nor does it go through to the end. While _R_e_d
_M_a_r_s can be read as a stand-alone novel, _G_r_e_e_n _M_a_r_s cannot. You
must know what happened in _R_e_d _M_a_r_s for _G_r_e_e_n _M_a_r_s to make any
sense or have any meaning. (I would really have appreciated a
brief glossary of major characters and political groups--my memory
of the details of _R_e_d _M_a_r_s has faded over the intervening year.)
There is also (to my tastes) far too much technical discussion of
terraforming and areology, particularly in the first half of the
book. For example, on page 148 Robinson writes: "The surface of
the glacier appeared to be extremely broken, as the literature had
suggested--mixed with regolith during the flooding, and shot
through with trapped carbonation bubbles. Rocks and boulders
caught on the surface had melted the ice underneath them and then
it had refrozen around them, in a daily cycle that had left them
all about two-thirds submerged. All the seracs, standing above the
surface of the glacier like titanic dolmens, were on close
inspection found to be deeply pitted." (By the way, a regolith is a
layer of loose rock material resting on bedrock, a serac is a large
mass of ice broken off the main body of a glacier and remaining
behind in a crevasse after glacial movement or melting, and a
dolmen is a prehistoric megalithic [large stone] structure
consisting of two or more upright stones with a capstone, typically
forming a chamber (which doesn't actually sound like what the
seracs would look like, but what the heck). All definitions
courtesy of the _A_m_e_r_i_c_a_n _H_e_r_i_t_a_g_e _D_i_c_t_i_o_n_a_r_y.) I could be wrong,
but I also think that the discussions on pages 175 through 187 and
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elsewhere of the poisonousness effects of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere are confusing it with carbon monoxide. While inhaling
large amounts of carbon dioxide can cause death by suffocation, it
is not poisonous in the usual sense of the word, and it is not
clear to me that in an atmosphere with a certain percentage of
oxygen it matters whether the remainder is nitrogen or carbon
dioxide, at least as far as human respiration goes. (Though the
atmospheric pressure would be important--consider the possible
side-effects of nitrogen to deep-sea divers.)
This may all seem terrible technical and nit-picky, but the book
lends itself to that so well that is should be somewhat expected.
It is only in the second half of _G_r_e_e_n _M_a_r_s that Robinson returns
in force to the political and historical aspects of the series.
While one may argue that he key event that triggers the "phase
change" of _G_r_e_e_n _M_a_r_s' final chapter is totally arbitrary, there's
no denying that historical triggers often are. Still, I have to
reserve final judgement on _G_r_e_e_n _M_a_r_s until _B_l_u_e _M_a_r_s concludes the
series, and then see if _G_r_e_e_n _M_a_r_s serves its purpose in the
overall picture. That is the only way to view this book and much
as I want to see Kim Stanley Robinson finally get a Hugo, it makes
no sense to look at this as a possibility. (I mention this because
this had a British edition in 1993, and hence would be eligible for
the Hugo awards for last year, to be given at Conadian this
September. I note this just to clarify its eligibility for anyone
who does want to nominate it.)
===================================================================
3. SIRENS (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule review: This is a delicious Australian
comedy based on around real incident from the 1930s.
An English vicar visits the estate of an Australian
famous for painting female nudes to convince the
artist not to exhibit a painting deemed blasphemous.
Instead the vicar's wife is seduced by the sensuous
atmosphere surrounding the artist. Rating: +2 (-4
to +4)
It was the 1930s and the Australian art world was shocked by the
so-called immoral paintings of Norman Lindsey. There were some
people who were irritated as he has painted picture after picture
with sensuous female nudes. But for some, particularly for the
local religious authorities, this time he had gone too far. A
local exhibition included a crucified female nude. Around this
minor controversial episode of art history John Duigan has written
and directed the most enchanting comedy film since last year's _M_u_c_h
_A_d_o _a_b_o_u_t _N_o_t_h_i_n_g.
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Anthony Campion (played by Hugh Grant) is an English vicar visiting
Australia. His travel plans will take him near Lindsay's
studio/home. He is given the mission of visiting Lindsay (played
by Sam Neill) and convincing him to pull the offending painting
from exhibition. Campion is deemed an ideal choice since he cannot
possibly appear to represent outdated ideas to Lindsay. After all
Campion was actually was a bit of a progressive himself at Oxford.
And Campion even goes so far as to smoke Turkish cigarettes and
call his pretty wife "Piglet." Lindsay can't help but be impressed
by a free thinker like that, can he? Instead there will be a clash
of worldviews and Estella (a.k.a. Piglet) will discover there is an
entire sensuous world she never knew.
This is a story about conflicting worldviews. In spite of
considering himself very liberal, Anthony lives in a world of
strict, church-dictated limits. Lindsay, his wife, and his three
models live in a world of frequent nudity, open discussion of sex,
promiscuity, and omni-present paintings and statues of female nudes
that unnerves even the neighbors. But it is clear that the
Campions are not prepared to survive in this hostile Australian
world. There is a running gag about hostile animal attacks going
on all around and the Campion's fear, though they themselves never
meet anything more savage than the odd wallaroo. They seem to be
followed by a snake, but his presence seems more metaphorical than
real. Nature really seems toward them to be its most benevolent
and beautiful, as if on its best behavior for guests.
Hugh Grant, does a terrific job of trying to seem free-thinking and
yet being horribly inhibited. In the presence of nude models his
worldly exterior gives way to flustered stuttering. Tara
Fitzgerald of _H_e_a_r _M_y _S_o_n_g initially matches here husbands
disapproval of the sensuous lifestyle but slowly defrosts with
time. There is a marvelous duality in her performance as she tries
to appear straight-laced to her husband while exploring a side of
herself that she has hidden from herself and others. Unfortunately
Sam Neill has little to do in his performance but appeal worldly
and in a way almost fatherly to the models he paints nude. He is
almost the opposite of his character in _T_h_e _P_i_a_n_o.
_S_i_r_e_n_s is often very funny and at the same time serves as a sort of
down-under Monroe Doctrine saying "The is Australia--no Pat
Robertsons are welcome." I give it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
===================================================================
4. Academy Award Shorts (1993) (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper):
For years there have been annual films that are compilations of the
best animated films of the year, but to the best of my knowledge
this is the first time there has been a compilation of Oscar-
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nominated shorts shown as a unit prior to the actual award
ceremonies. The films shown were taken from two categories, three
films were from Documentary Short Subject (all that were
nominated), two films from Live-action Short Subject, and last
year's winner for Live-action Short Subject.
Even at New York City prices, this compilation was in fact well
worth seeing. An effective short film can be as satisfying as a
full length film. While the animation festivals are reaching a
point of diminishing returns, these films, being Oscar-nominated,
are all fairly accomplished and well-made productions so this is a
fairly worthwhile ticket purchase. I have no idea if the
compilation will tour the country or show only in New York City.
It may even be intended primarily for academy voters. However, it
is recommended that you watch your local PBS station who will
likely show some of these shorts as filler.
"Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann"
(Steven Cantor and Peter Spirer, 30 min.)
Sally Mann is a photographic artist, and a pretty good one by the
examples shown here. Much of what she photographs is her own
family around her secluded home out in some woody area. Apparently
her family feels very comfortable with nudity. So of course there
is a lot of child nudity in her art and this has put her on a
collision course with Pat Robertson and people of the religious
right afraid for the possible corruption of public decency and for
the welfare of the Mann children. Her work is not crudely done and
her children have the ethereal look of air spirits in Mann's
photography. This film is a defense Mann and her work. There are
some very superficial concessions to even-handedness perhaps just
to demonstrate there is a controversy. I would have liked to see
Robertson get a better chance to represent his point-of-view. (No,
don't send me indignant mail. I just want to see a fair fight; I
am not siding with Robertson. If Robertson found out what I
actually think of him it would probably ruin his whole week.
However, this could have been a more convincing argument if it
showed more of the opposing point of view.)
In actual fact neither side makes its case very well. Mann
contradicts herself, saying her pictures are not erotic but later
admitting there are many aspects to her photographs and they can be
seen as erotic. Mann claims that the children do not mind posing
nude, but later her son does express some objections during a
posing session and no longer poses nude. On the other hand, the
allegation that the children have been damaged by the experience
seems to be wrong. If anything the children seem more poised and
confident for the experience.
"Chicks in White Satin"
(Elaine Holliman and Jason Schneider, 20 min.)
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My wife found this more moving than I did. This film documents the
preparations for the marriage of two lesbians, Heidi and Debra, and
the eventual wedding ceremony. Much of it is sort of the "Candid
Camera" reactions of people when they do things like trying to
enter a bridal registry at a local department store. The parents
give their reactions to wedding plans. Debra's mother is very
easy-going and just accepts the plan. Debra's father says that he
looked up the word "wedding" in the dictionary and since it did not
say the principals had to be of different sexes, he accepted that
this could be a wedding. Heidi's mother obviously is against the
marriage, but eventually comes to accept it when it is clear there
is nothing she can do to change the plan. Her husband never even
responded when the wedding was announced. The rabbi performing the
marriage simply seems to take it all in her stride. There are some
interesting and even a few touching moments, but not sufficient to
make this a standout film for me.
"Defending Our Lives"
(Margaret Lazarus and Renner Wunderlich, 30 min.)
I am no more an activist on issue of domestic violence than on many
other very worthy issues, and this film did not grab me at the very
beginning. But eventually this proved to be the most powerful film
of the collection and I found myself getting angry in exactly the
way the filmmaker intended. The style is not as polished as any of
the other films, with the possible exception of "Chicks in White
Satin." Instead, it seems just an editing together of several
women telling their stories of domestic abuse intercut with
lectures from a conference on domestic abuse. Part of what pulled
me into this film was that early on I had the feeling that in the
position of the battered women, I would know what to do. My
formula often would included getting the police involved. One
thing this film did for me was to show that this formula, or
probably any formula, could often be futile and worse. Much, much
worse. Too often police are unwilling to intervene in what they
see as a family dispute. I suppose that is not all that surprising
to me, but the film got me empathize to a far greater degree than I
would have without seeing the film. In other words the documentary
was totally successful. So while the film is superficially crude
in style, it is very effective in technique.
"Down on the Waterfront"
(Stacy Title and Jonathan Penner, 27 min.)
This piece had several familiar professional actors and was
professionally produced. But the short comic film is only
occasionally really funny as a satire of how films really get made.
In the post-war decade two filmmakers, whose only experience was
making survival films for the military, would like to go into film
production. They meet in a park with a longshoremen's union boss
(played by Edward Asner) who wants to make film to counter _O_n _t_h_e
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_W_a_t_e_r_f_r_o_n_t and to get revenge on Budd Schulberg for writing that
film. The pace is a little slow, but the big problem is that there
is insufficient payoff at the end beside a small swipe at
Hollywood.
"Black Rider (Schwarzfahrer)"
(Pepe Danquart, 12 min.)
This is a short but very funny little film with two different kinds
of "Black Rider." Unfortunately the pun of the title may be lost
on many of the Americans who see the film and don't know what a
"black rider" is. In Europe you buy a pass to ride busses and
trains. There are only occasional spot-checks to see if people are
carrying passes or are illegal "black riders"--people without
passes. The spot-checks are only occasional but the penalties are
stiff. So in this German comedy we have a man who is riding the
bus illegally because his motorcycle has broken down, and we also
have a bus rider who happens to a black man who has made the
mistake of sitting next to a racist bigot. The story takes a while
to develop, but it pays off with a very funny piece of irony.
"Omnibus"
(San Karmann, 9 min.)
"Omnibus" is last year's winner for live-action short. This is a
witty, ironic piece of man on a train that doesn't stop at the
station he wants. After months of taking the same train, suddenly
the schedule have been changed to shoot right by his stop. He
suddenly realizes the schedule change was on the worse possible day
and his whole way of life will crumble if he cannot get the train
to stop one last time.
In the Documentary Short Subject category I would choose "Defending
Our Lives." I only saw two of the five films nominated for Live-
action Short Subject, but "Black Rider" is the better of the two.
===================================================================
5. Boskone 31 (con report by Evelyn C. Leeper) (part 1 of 3):
Last year the drive was one hour longer due to the move from
Springfield to Framingham, and three hours longer coming back,
because there was a snowstorm added on as well. This year it was
another hour longer going up because of wretched traffic, but only
a half-hour longer coming back. (Going up we averaged 45 miles per
hour, but never actually went 45 miles per hour--it was either 10
miles per hour or 70 miles per hour, and when it was 10, the heater
was going full blast because the engine was over-heating.) Having
everything in one hotel is nice, but is it worth it?
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Three years ago, panelists registered in the regular registration
area and were given their panelist information there. Two years
ago, we had to go to the Green Room to get our panelist
information, and this was in the other hotel, so this was a trifle
inconvenient. Last year they returned to handing out the panelist
information at the regular registration desk. This year--you
guessed it: panelists had to go to the Green Room. I wish they
would settle on one method.
Hotel
The Sheraton Tara was quite nice, and sufficient for the size that
Boskone seems to have settled in to (700-900). Again, the parties
seemed fairly empty.
Dealers Room
The Dealers Room is holding steady, with pretty much the same
dealers (in the same places) as last year. There is a Border's
Bookstore nearby which took advantage of having all these authors
in Framingham to have autograph parties.
Art Show
I took a quick look through the art show, but little there
interested me. I did get a copy of Wells's _F_i_r_s_t _M_e_n _i_n _t_h_e _M_o_o_n
illustrated by Bob Eggleton at the Print Shop, and bid on a "book
pin" (a small brooch that opened up to reveal a tiny story inside).
But last-minute bidding on the pins (there were about a dozen
different ones) was so spirited that I decided it was not worth it.
Programming
Again, it appears that the era of the "hard-science" Boskone is
over. There are some science panels, but not as many as before. I
attended fewer panels and other programming items than last year
(twelve this year versus fourteen last year). Of course, I did not
have all the Connie Willis panels I had last year, but in addition,
the last two I attended this year were totally unplanned (see the
notes for "Does It Have to Be a SpaceMAN?: Gender and
Characterization" and "Deconstructing Tokyo: Godzilla as Metaphor,
etc." for an explanation)
The First Night
I miss the Shirim Klezmer Orchestra! But we did have more
opportunity to talk and mingle, which was somewhat hindered by the
loud music the last couple of years. As I was having my second
drink, Michael Flynn asked me to make sure there was an overhead
projector for the "Turbulence and Psychohistory" panel. Never ask
THE MT VOID Page 9
me to remember something at a party, especially if I'm having a
drink! Naturally I forgot, but luckily the room was small enough
that the attendees could see his viewgraphs when he held them up.
I have no idea what the con suite was like--I never got there.
Comic Books and Alternate History
Friday, 10 PM
Pam Fremon (mod), Michael Flynn, Will Shetterly
(One reason I was doing 70 miles an hour up was that I really
wanted to make it in time for this panel (and was not quite sure
how far Framingham was--it turns out it's just about 255 miles from
work). Well, I made it.)
This was clearly a panel designed around one of the Guests of
Honor. Shetterly is perhaps best known for his alternate history
comic, _C_a_p_t_a_i_n _C_o_n_f_e_d_e_r_a_c_y. (Well, that's what he's best known for
to me anyway.) _C_a_p_t_a_i_n _C_o_n_f_e_d_e_r_a_c_y is set in a world where the
South won the Civil War, and where a band of super-heroes exists.
It ran sixteen issues altogether, twelve from SteelDragon Press and
four from Marvel/Epic. (The twelve from SteelDragon can be gotten
for $10; the address is SteelDragon Press, P. O. Box 7253,
Powderhorn Station, Minneapolis MN 55407.) Shetterly also said
that there might be a continuation of _C_a_p_t_a_i_n _C_o_n_f_e_d_e_r_a_c_y some day.
Shetterly began by saying that all fiction is alternate history (a
claim my husband Mark has been making for years--after all, he
says, Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara did not really exist in our
universe, right?). He added, however, that authors must be true to
their own view of the world, and _C_a_p_t_a_i_n _C_o_n_f_e_d_e_r_a_c_y was no doubt
influenced by the fact that Shetterly grew up in the South. But
the author being true to his or her view does not limit the field;
as Shetterly said, there can be many alternate histories (in spite
of the fact that people often assume that an alternate history is
the definitive one rather than just another one). For example,
Shetterly said that just because his CSA is grim does not mean that
another CSA _h_a_s to be grim. Flynn pointed out that authors also
tend to write alternate histories in which "it comes out right,"
i.e., the way the author would have liked it. (Flynn noted that
Harry Turtledove's _G_u_n_s _o_f _t_h_e _S_o_u_t_h got an award from descendents
of Confederate veterans, which goes to show that people also like
to read alternate histories in which "it comes out right." By the
way, Turtledove has just finished co-authoring an alternate history
with actor Richard Dreyfuss. Entitled _T_h_e _T_w_o _G_e_o_r_g_e_s, it is
reportedly a police procedural in which the Thirteen Colonies made
piece with Britain in 1779. [Thanks to Robert Schmunk for jogging
my memory on this one.])
If Shetterly was influenced by his Southern background, Flynn was
influenced by having early on read J. C. Squire's _I_f _I_t _H_a_d
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_H_a_p_p_e_n_e_d _O_t_h_e_r_w_i_s_e: _L_a_p_s_e_s _i_n_t_o _I_m_a_g_i_n_a_r_y _H_i_s_t_o_r_y, with its stories
by Belloc, Chesterton, Churchill, and others; and "Sideways in
Time" by Murray Leinster. In response to a question from me later,
Shetterly said that he knew of many "what if the South won the
Civil War" stories; he listed Ward Moore's _B_r_i_n_g _t_h_e _J_u_b_i_l_e_e, Terry
Bisson's _F_i_r_e _o_n _t_h_e _M_o_u_n_t_a_i_n, Mackinlay Kantor's _I_f _t_h_e _S_o_u_t_h _H_a_d
_W_o_n _t_h_e _C_i_v_i_l _W_a_r, David C. Poyer's _S_h_i_l_o_h _P_r_o_j_e_c_t, Leonard
Skimin's _G_r_a_y _V_i_c_t_o_r_y, Robert Stapp's _A _M_o_r_e _P_e_r_f_e_c_t _U_n_i_o_n, William
Sanders's _W_i_l_d _B_l_u_e _a_n_d _t_h_e _G_r_a_y, E. Ruffin's _A_n_t_i_c_i_p_a_t_i_o_n_s _o_f _t_h_e
_F_u_t_u_r_e (written in 1860, which I guess means it was not _r_e_a_l_l_y an
alternate history, but a straight extrapolation about the future),
and something by Wilson. At the time I thought he meant Woodrow
Wilson, but I cannot find anything by him; Shetterly may have been
thinking of "If Lee Had not Won the Battle of Gettysburg" by Sir
Winston Churchill.
Shetterly also talked about how one decides what would be
different. Racism, he claims, is an effect of Southern pride, so
one presumes if Southern pride had not been so damaged by the loss
of the Civil War, then racism might not have arisen. He also
thinks that had Lincoln lived, Southern pride after the war would
not have been so undermined, thereby causing less racism in that
scenario as well.
The panelists noted that writing an alternate history assumes
readers know what the real history was. This of course brought to
mind the story Connie Willis told last year about how at a
discussion of her novel _L_i_n_c_o_l_n'_s _D_r_e_a_m_s one of the attendees asked
how much of the Civil War material Willis had made up (none of it,
it turns out). When pressed, the attendee said, "Well, for
example, who's this Grant character?" (I note that in his latest
alternate history sortie, Turtledove lists all the characters of
_W_o_r_l_d_w_a_r: _I_n _t_h_e _B_a_l_a_n_c_e on the endpapers of the novel, and notes
which were real and which are imaginary.)
Flynn noted in some context that "industrial-strength Nazis" as
villains are gone, and someone pointed out that "Saturday Night
Live" had done a skit in which Superman had landed in Germany
instead of the United States and become Uberman.
Various alternate histories and turning points were of course
mentioned. Someone asked what if the disease that killed off most
of the indigenous American people when the Europeans invaded had
worked in the other direction and diseases from the Americans had
killed off most of the Europeans instead? The panelists observed
that this was exactly what happened in Africa, where Europeans died
in comparable proportions to the deaths of the population of the
Americas, and the result was ultimately not much better for the
Africans.
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This somewhat hinted at what the panelists then explicitly
observed: what alternate history readers enjoy has nothing to do
with the plot. The background and other trappings far outweigh the
actual events that may take place. For those who like reading
alternate histories, the panelists therefore recommended a couple
of non-alternate history books of interest: Josephine Tey's
_D_a_u_g_h_t_e_r _o_f _T_i_m_e (a mystery novel in which a modern detective tries
to figure out what really happened to the "two little princes in
the Tower" during the time of Richard III) and Fletcher Pratt's
_B_a_t_t_l_e_s _T_h_a_t _C_h_a_n_g_e_d _H_i_s_t_o_r_y. (Pratt's _B_l_u_e _S_t_a_r and _T_h_i_r_d _K_i_n_g
were cited as actual alternate histories, though.)
A variety of alternate history stories were recommended, sharing
the characteristic that they are hard to find: John M. Ford's
_D_r_a_g_o_n _W_a_i_t_i_n_g (Shetterly said that Ford had a "Byzantine mind"),
Saki's "When William Came," Robert Sobel's _F_o_r _W_a_n_t _o_f _a _N_a_i_l: _I_f
_B_u_r_g_o_y_n_e _H_a_d _W_o_n _a_t _S_a_r_a_t_o_g_a (written as an alternate history of
the United States, complete with scholarly bibliography), and the
1974 _N_a_t_i_o_n_a_l _L_a_m_p_o_o_n complete with alternate history newspaper
edition. (The Usenet alternate history bibliography lists February
1977 and February 1980 alternate history issues of _N_a_t_i_o_n_a_l
_L_a_m_p_o_o_n, but nothing from 1974.)
But back to the specific topic (comic books and alternate history):
when Shetterly began writing _C_a_p_t_a_i_n _C_o_n_f_e_d_e_r_a_c_y, alternate history
in comics was usually at the level of "What if Superman's father
had put a banana in the ship instead of Superman?" (I do not know
what the level of writing in alternate history comics is these
days, but on Usenet in aaaalllltttt....hhhhiiiissssttttoooorrrryyyy....wwwwhhhhaaaatttt----iiiiffff one still sees this sort
of posting--though, mercifully, not very often.) And DC's "Legion
of Superheroes" resurrected 1930s superheroes in an alternate
world. But as Shetterly noted, there is a big difference between
"what if?" and "gosh, what if?" and the comic books have tended
towards the latter. However, superheroes are by definition in an
alternate universe--one in which there are superheroes!--so you
have to count them even if they're not as intellectually
challenging. (I've seen alternate history novels in which Germany
wins World War II where the premise seems to be the author's excuse
to write violent semi-pornography, so I would not claim that books
necessarily hold the moral or intellectual high ground here
either.)
Comic books also often overtly serve the purposes of their
publishers in terms of what in the movies would be "product
placement"--using the publisher's other characters. So we get
"What If?" and "Elseworlds" from DC, in which Batman becomes Green
Lantern instead. (This does not even qualify as "gosh, what if?"
to me, but more like "so what?") On the other hand, _W_a_t_c_h_m_e_n is a
genuine, honest-to-goodness alternate history.
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Movies, on the other hand, tend to ignore alternate histories.
Shetterly thinks this is because Hollywood creates the world anew
in each movie, so alternate histories would be gilding the lily.
(Actually, of course, that's a misquote on my part--it should be
either "painting the lily" or "gilding refined gold." I like to
throw these little education bits in my reports, even if no one
else cares about them.) I should note that Hollywood, or rather
the movie industry, has done a few alternate histories, of which
the best known are _I_t'_s _a _W_o_n_d_e_r_f_u_l _L_i_f_e and "The City on the Edge
of Forever" episode of the original "Star Trek." But I know of
only about two dozen altogether, including foreign productions.
Shetterly closed by reminding people that he is running for
governor of Minnesota. He listed as his main qualification, "I
tell lies for a living and am up front about it."
(to be continued)
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
Extreme affection may not benefit the beloved just as
extreme wrath may bring nothing harmful on to the hated.
-- Guan Tzu
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