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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 04/08/94 -- Vol. 12, No. 41
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middletown 1R-400C
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
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 hogpa!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. Guys, it's that time of year again. Spring. This winter was
too cold to go out and do things. Maybe you have a bit of a spare
tire around the middle. It is time to get into shape. But you
have a bit of a dilemma. It is also the 90s. Do you really want
to build up your muscles the way they show you on those NordicTrack
commercials? You see those guys on those things. Bronze statues
who have meat all over their bodies right up to their heads.
Surfboard types who go to Fort Lauderdale and leer at the women.
Is that how you want to get into shape? Wake up. These are the
politically correct 90s. There has got to be a sensitive New Age
way of getting into shape that is as "with it" as pierced eyebrows.
Don't just exercise, EmpaTHIZE! That's right, I said EmpaTHIZE!
Build up your Political Consciousness while you build up those
Pecs. And build them up the right way. EmpaTHIZE is the one
exercise program specially designed by experts not to create the
Arnold Schwarzenegger look, but to build you into the Alan Alda
that you always wanted to be. You'll learn the Andrea Dworkin
THE MT VOID Page 2
Crunch. You'll build up your posture with Susan Faludi Frontlash.
Build up your arm strength with the Starhawk Flutter. Tone your
legs with the Laura Stempel Stretch. Increase your endurance with
the Susan Sontag Squat-thrust. Build yourself into the sensitive
90s guy you have always knew you could be. Get with the exercise
program as powerful as the movement that inspired it. Be part of
the super-sensitive 90s and live to see the next century. Read
_E_m_p_a_T_H_I_Z_E by Mark Leeper, author of _M_a_s_t_e_r _S_t_r_a_t_e_g_i_e_s _f_o_r _t_h_e _9_0_s,
_C_h_a_r_t_r_e_u_s_e, _T_h_e _D_o_r_o_t_h_y _E_x_p_e_d_i_t_i_o_n and _W_h_e_n _G_o_o_d _T_h_i_n_g_s _H_a_p_p_e_n _t_o
_P_e_o_p_l_e _Y_o_u _C_a_n'_t _S_t_a_n_d. Soon to be at better bookstores
everywhere.
===================================================================
2. SNOW WHITE, BLOOD RED edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
(AvoNova, ISBN 0-380-71875-8, 1993, 411pp, US$4.99) (a book review
by Evelyn C. Leeper):
There is a revival in the fairy tale (or _m_a_r_c_h_e_n, to use the German
word, since as Windling points out in her introduction, there is no
true English equivalent). One even sees panels on them at science
fiction conventions--and not in the children's programming. The
twenty authors here have also returned them to their adult origins
after decades (or more) of being watered down for children (though
some--Hansel and Gretel, for example--would be hard to sanitize
without destroying them completely).
The authors split about fifty/fifty on how they do this. Some
retain the ancient, never-never land settings for their stories.
Others move them into modern cities and give their characters urban
apartments and VCRs instead of cottages and magic mirrors. This
follows the pattern of the "Fairy Tale" books that Windling edits,
and _S_n_o_w _W_h_i_t_e, _B_l_o_o_d _R_e_d could be considered as part of that
series. (It's not officially, of course, since the series name is
owned by Tor. Still if there were no labels on the books, this
would certainly _l_o_o_k like part of the same series, especially with
the gorgeous Tom Canty cover.)
I never thought of myself as a fan of fairy tales, so I was
somewhat surprised to find myself enjoying several of these
stories. Not all, mind you, and the ones I enjoyed seemed to be
mostly the ones that frame an old fairy tale in a modern setting.
(I've also recently enjoyed _T_h_e _W_a_r _f_o_r _t_h_e _O_a_k_s by Emma Bull, _J_a_c_k
_t_h_e _G_i_a_n_t-_K_i_l_l_e_r by Charles de Lint, and _B_r_i_a_r _R_o_s_e by Jane Yolen,
the latter two also from the "Fairy Tale" series.) Even if you are
not a fantasy reader, you might want to give the stories in _S_n_o_w
_W_h_i_t_e, _B_l_o_o_d _R_e_d a try. Or perhaps especially if you're not a
fantasy reader, since it almost seems to have been designed as an
introduction to the modern fairy tale, complete with essays by
Windling and Datlow, and a recommended reading list at the end.
THE MT VOID Page 3
(The latter, by the way, lists several out-of-print books, but
inexplicably--to me, anyway--omits the Charles Lang "Fairy Books,"
which are where my mother first read her fairy tales and are still
in print from Dover.)
===================================================================
3. THE LIST OF 7 by Mark Frost (Morrow, ISBN 0-688-12245-0, 1993,
368pp, US$20) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character whose use is still
restricted by copyright (at least that is my understanding). But
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a real person whose use as a character
in a novel is not restricted. This, I believe, is what led Mark
Frost to write a novel with Arthur Conan Doyle as the main
character and another character very similar to Sherlock Holmes but
not called Sherlock Holmes--it has all the cachet of a Sherlock
Holmes novel without the legal hassle.
It also allows Frost to use Doyle's interest in the occult without
inflecting it on the ultra-rational Sherlock Holmes. And Frost
really pours on the horror and the occult, both the psychological
horror of an unbalanced personality and the more classical horror
of monsters, reincarnated spirits, and Egyptian magic. Doyle's
friendship with Bram Stoker also figures in, and mention is made of
a ship carrying wooden boxes landing at Whitby and a dog jumping
off it and running up the beach.
The Sherlock Holmes character is different enough from Sherlock
Holmes to have his own personality, while retaining all of Holmes's
talents and techniques. At first I thought the ending a cheap
trick, but on reflection concluded that it was not just thrown in,
but in fact formed the logical conclusion of the novel.
_T_h_e _L_i_s_t _o_f _7 is not technically a Sherlock Holmes novel, but it
should appeal to Sherlock Holmes fans, especially those who also
enjoy Victorian horror novels. (Mark Frost was one of the co-
creators of "Twin Peaks," if that gives you some clue to the
style.)
===================================================================
4. FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule review: _F_o_u_r _W_e_d_d_i_n_g_s _a_n_d _a _F_u_n_e_r_a_l has
humor, good dialogue, people the audience cares
about, all to tell a story with just a wisp of a
plot. With a genuine plot this could have been a
film really worth seeing. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4)
THE MT VOID Page 4
There is a lot of truth in advertising in the title of the British
comedy _F_o_u_r _W_e_d_d_i_n_g_s _a_n_d _a _F_u_n_e_r_a_l. This is a film that is about
80% happiness and 20% pain. Hugh Grant plays Charles, a bachelor
who tells himself that he is looking for a wife but is too
indecisive and unwilling to commit to any one woman. So he goes to
wedding after wedding getting increasingly desperate and
frustrated. One after another marriage picks off members of
Charles's group of close-knit friends. The group is centered
around the flamboyant Garath, played superbly by Simon Callow.
Both the character and the actor are incorrigible scene stealers,
upstaging everybody else in sight. Charles has flitted from woman
to woman without ever deciding on one. The only woman really close
to him is Scarlett who is either a sister or a fraternal friend and
housemate. However Charles's latest interest is in a visiting
American, Carrie (Andie MacDowell) who seems to be going to the
same weddings. Charles finds Carrie very attractive--and is often
tongue-tied in her presence--and almost would be willing to commit
to her. The two exchange intimacies of various kinds but neither
can really decide to marry the other.
This film is a portrait of Charles and as with many painted
portraits, most of the interest is in the background. Charles's
friends may well have more interesting stories to tell than Charles
does. The film lets you do some jigsaw puzzle work to piece
together the stories of some of the friends. The script was
written by Richard Curtis, one of the founding forces of British
TV's "Black Adder" series. Here his writing combines the slapstick
of that show's style with more subtle personal drama. Everybody's
worst nightmares about just what could go wrong at a wedding
combine with visual gags, dialogue gags, and even subtitle gags.
Hugh Grant is boyish and pleasant enough but not always believable
as Charles. He is the current holder of the Anthony Hopkins
Ubiquity Award for simultaneously being in this film, in _S_i_r_e_n_s,
and in Roman Polanski's _B_i_t_t_e_r _M_o_o_n. (Of course some of us will
remember him best as a gay Cantabrigian in _M_a_u_r_i_c_e or a kilted Scot
in _L_a_i_r _o_f _t_h_e _W_h_i_t_e _W_o_r_m.) Ironically, Andie MacDowell is central
to the story without having much of a role except to look
attractive. Scarlett, the sister or whatever, is actually a more
intriguing role than is Carrie. But the plum role, of course, is
Garath, whose boisterous love of life makes him the focal point of
so much of the film.
This is a decidedly lightweight film but well made and one that has
occasionally very funny gags. I would give it a +1 on the -4 to
+4 scale.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
leeper@mtgzfs3.att.com
The world is a funny paper read backwards--and that
way it isn't so funny.
-- Tennessee Williams