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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 07/29/94 -- Vol. 13, No. 5
MEETINGS UPCOMING:
Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Middletown 1R-400C
Wednesdays at noon.
_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C
07/30 Movie: THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
07/31 Deadline for having Hugo ballots postmarked
08/03 Book: MOVING MARS by Greg Bear (Hugo Nominee)
08/06 Movie: WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
08/13 Movie: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (Saturday night, 8PM, RSVP)
08/24 Book: VIRTUAL LIGHT by William Gibson (Hugo Nominee)
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.
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2G-432 908-957-5087 j.j.jetzt@att.com
HO Co-Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 n.j.sauer@att.com
HO Co-Librarian: Lance Larsen HO 2C-318 908-949-4156 l.f.larsen@att.com
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 m.r.leeper@att.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2D-536 908-957-6330 r.l.mitchell@att.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 e.c.leeper@att.com
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
1. Continuing our discussion of Hugo nominees (and by the way,
ballots must be postmarked by Sunday!), we will be talking at the
next meeting about Greg Bear's _M_o_v_i_n_g _M_a_r_s.
===================================================================
2. I am once again thrust into the realm of controversy and as much
as I hate to do it, I would not feel I have done my duty if I
didn't clear my mind on this weighty issue of American tyranny. I
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had an experience with American Jerk Chicken recently and have
decided it is time to take a stand against American Jerks.
There is a dish known as Jamaican "Jerk" Chicken. I have never
exposed myself to this delicacy, but it has a reputation for being
very hot and spicy. This stuff is supposedly for the brave only.
And when I saw the item on a menu of a local restaurant I was
really impressed ... temporarily. Screwing up my courage I ordered
this delicacy ready for an exciting experience. And guess what?
It had a few little pepper flakes on it, but for the most part it
was just plain roasted chicken. Well, what did I expect? Did I
expect a spicy foreign dish would get a fair day in court with an
American jury? Well, let's look at the record.
Time and time again in places like Chinese restaurants I have heard
some American Jerk, someone who doesn't like things spicier than
farina, at the next table complaining loudly about how hot the dish
he has gotten was. I suppose he bit into one of the red peppers
that I occasionally eat straight as a snack. This farina fan gets
a taste of it and has to make a scene. Now I don't know a single
Chinese restaurant that ever refused to cook a dish mild, if a
customer asked for it that way. And almost all have a little red
asterisk to a dish to warn the faint-hearted farina fan that a dish
is spicy. But American Jerks don't take the time to read. And one
thing that a restaurant owner wants to avoid at all costs is angry
customers yelling about the food. Most capitulate by assuming that
if someone is not of the same ethnicity of the restaurant, the food
should be pallid. This is blatant racism, but it is
understandable. They have stereotyped all Americans as farina fans
because we have so many.
Then there are Indian restaurants. I have considered dying my skin
before going to Indian Restaurants or ordering over the phone with
an Indian accent so they think I am Indian. Now Indian cuisine
tends not to be a really spicy cuisine on the real scale of
things-- at least not compared to the way I like food!--but it is
much better than standard American porridge-level cuisine. It's
mild compared to, say, what I would create at home if it did not
gross out Evelyn. Indian food is comparatively mild. But again
you have the rule that if you are not of the particular ethnic
group, they have been burned too many times by vociferous
Americans. The Indian restaurant near where I live has a list in
the kitchen. If you are neither Indian or on the list, they assume
you can't take it.
The capper is that there are now north of the border Jalapeno
peppers. Americans (a word I am abusing, I admit, by saying
Americans as opposed to Mexicans) like Nachos, but don't like the
fiery, burning, and generally terrific taste of Jalapenos. So now
there are new mild Jalapeno peppers. Isn't that a bear! You can't
even trust a Jalapeno pepper anymore. Cyril Kornbluth's "Marching
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Morons" is not just on schedule, it is actually ahead of schedule.
If you don't know the story it is about a world in which rather
than make a car that will go faster, they modify speedometers to
just say the cars are going faster. The car must be fast if it
says it is, right? And these Nachos must be authentic if they have
all those peppers.
I tell you it gets harder and harder to burn out your mouth and
destroy your digestion these days.
===================================================================
3. Dateline 18 July 94:
NASA and the Red Cross issued an urgent request for supplies to aid
the injured and displaced on Jupiter. The continuing series of
comet impacts have destroyed many villages and prime farming
ground.
Urgently needed items include: purified methane, antenna and bugeye
warmers, and ice packs (which the Jovians use as heating pads, of
course). Local supplies of methane and ammonia are largely
contaminated and help is needed as soon as possible. Send all
supplies to your local launch pad.
[Thanks to Janice Gelb for passing this on.]
===================================================================
4. SEANCE FOR A VAMPIRE by Fred Saberhagen (Tor, ISBN 0-312-85562-
1, 1994, 288pp, US$21.95) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
This is the sixth novel in Saberhagen's "Dracula" series, which
starts with _T_h_e _H_o_l_m_e_s-_D_r_a_c_u_l_a _F_i_l_e (in which Count Dracula meets
Sherlock Holmes). Actually, it's the seventh, since Dracula refers
back to Saberhagen's _D_r_a_c_u_l_a _T_a_p_e_s, making that now officially part
of the series. (I think of it as book zero, sort of like Tolkien's
_H_o_b_b_i_t is book zero of his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy). The other
books in the series are _A_n _O_l_d _F_r_i_e_n_d _o_f _t_h_e _F_a_m_i_l_y, _T_h_o_r_n,
_D_o_m_i_n_i_o_n, and _M_a_t_t_e_r _o_f _T_a_s_t_e.
In _S_e_a_n_c_e _f_o_r _a _V_a_m_p_i_r_e, Holmes is called in by a friend whose wife
may be being deluded by mediums. Well, the mediums are certainly
fake, but the friend's drowned daughter shows up at one of the
seances anyway, and Holmes calls in Dracula for some expert advice.
Their search for the truth eventually leads them to St. Petersburg,
and there the story grinds to a halt while we are given a complete
travelogue of the city, including mention of all the major
buildings and details such as which side of the road people drive
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on and that water needs to be boiled because of a cholera epidemic.
I kept waiting for these things to matter, but they never did. Did
Saberhagen make a trip to St. Petersburg that he wanted to write
off as a business expense?
It's a pity, really, because until the story goes to
St. Petersburg, it moves along fairly briskly, in spite of
switching between Dracula and Watson as narrator, often in mid-
chapter. But Saberhagen manages to let the reader know in the
first few sentences after a transition who is speaking.
And I have a couple of technical quibbles. Dracula says he has a
problem with running water, yet another vampire apparently has no
problem concealing himself in the same stream Dracula wants to
avoid. And would a vampire really stay in a house which displayed
large crosses on the tables? I know Saberhagen has changed the
mythos a bit, but the first is an internal inconsistency and the
second is also fairly blatant.
In spite of these complaints, though, _S_e_a_n_c_e _f_o_r _a _V_a_m_p_i_r_e is still
better than some of the middle books of the series, and a return to
the engaging style of the first couple. I would recommend this,
but wait for the paperback.
===================================================================
5. THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE by Laurie R. King (St. Martin's
Press, ISBN 0-312-10423-5, 1994, 347pp, US$21.95) (a book review by
Evelyn C. Leeper):
Mary Russell is fifteen years old when she accidentally meets
Sherlock Holmes in Sussex. Holmes sees in her, if not a kindred
spirit, at least a kindred intellect, and proceeds to take her
under his wing as an "apprentice" in the field of detection. _T_h_e
_B_e_e_k_e_e_p_e_r'_s _A_p_p_r_e_n_t_i_c_e is the story of this training period and the
cases that arise during it.
As a mystery novel this might pass muster, but as a Sherlock Holmes
novel I found it disappointing. Russell is not as close to Holmes
as Watson was, so this story has Holmes more distant than Watson's
tales. For example, there are several sections in which Holmes
doesn't appear. This appears in Watson's stories too (e.g., _T_h_e
_H_o_u_n_d _o_f _t_h_e _B_a_s_k_e_r_v_i_l_l_e_s) but not often. Also, I never found Mary
Russell convincing. Perhaps it was at the beginning, when Russell
identifies herself to Sherlock Holmes as a "feminist, but not a
man-hater." Since the term "feminist" is so far as I can tell an
anachronism here ("suffragette" might be more likely), I found
myself immediately wary of this as a politically correct Holmes
story, and in many ways it was not unlike Carole Nelson Douglas's
"Irene Adler" stories.
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I also found the plot line disjointed. There were some
introductory events, a mystery, a resolution, more background, and
then another mystery which turns out to be connected to the first.
As a result, the story jumps around more than flows.
There are good historical touches, particularly of life in England
during and after World War I, and parts of _T_h_e _B_e_e_k_e_e_p_e_r'_s
_A_p_p_r_e_n_t_i_c_e are not without interest. But on the whole I found the
book disappointing and cannot recommend it.
Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
m.r.leeper@att.com
Nature is a hanging judge.
-- Anonymous
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