@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
01/09/15 -- Vol. 33, No. 28, Whole Number 1840
Table of Contents
Philcon 2011 Con Report Available (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
In my Philcon catch-up, I have finished the 2011 report:
http://www.leepers.us/evelyn/conventions/phil11.htm
Also, the 2008 report is now also at
.
http://fanac.org/Other_Cons/PhilCon/q08-rpt.html>
[-ecl]
Loncon 3 Artist Showcase Available On-Line:
The Loncon 3 Artist Showcase, with art and biographies of the
artists in the Loncon 3 art show, is available at:
http://www.loncon3.org/documents/loncon3-art-showcase-final.pdf
The Sharking Truth (comments by Mark R. Leeper):
I was watching a NOVA on preventing shark attacks. There a guy at
the University of Kansas who has found a way to totally avoid white
shark attacks. It comes down to one simple technique: don't leave
Kansas. [-mrl]
My Top Ten Films of 2014 (film comments by Mark R. Leeper):
Admittedly for the year 2014 I have had a harder time than usual
picking films that I think are really good. With the year being
over, I still have not seen any obvious frontrunners for Best
Picture. I have looked at several critics' "Top Ten" lists and not
only is there no consensus on what the leading films were, there is
actually little overlap on "Top Ten" lists. I cannot think of any
film that I expect will be on all or even most reviewers' or
critics' "Top Ten" lists. We have no films that I consider are the
stature of a 12 YEARS A SLAVE and certainly not a SCHINDLER'S LIST.
My film critics' society has not been given as many screeners for
consideration for awards than they did previous years. So
admittedly there are films I have expected to be very good, like
SELMA, that I cannot even find other reviewers who have seen it.
That means the field is really wide open for awards Season.
Whatever film gets Best Picture will have been a dark horse and a
surprise.
Well, so here is what I saw that I liked. As usual, I will list
them in the order of best to ... well ... quite good but not up to
the best. And after the top ten I will include some honorable
mention films.
1. THE IMITATION GAME
2. GONE GIRL
3. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
4. INTERSTELLAR
5. PARTICLE FEVER
6. FRONTERA
7. FIELD OF LOST SHOES
8. A MOST WANTED MAN
9. LULLABY
10. THE CASE AGAINST 8
Honorable Mention
Each film rates high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10.
ANTARCTICA: A YEAR ON ICE
If you have heard about the people who stay year-round at the South
Pole, you must have thought they were crazy. This film directed
and co-written by New Zealander Anthony Powell will confirm it. Be
prepared for some absolutely spectacular photography of what looks
like an alien world. Yes, there is penguin photography, but the
most interesting creatures captured on film were the people.
Powell's specialty is long time-lapse photographic shots. The
filmmakers stayed 12 months at McMurdo Station and Scott Base
filming what life was like for a full year including six months of
the darkest night on earth. If you want to go, you can have any
space reserved for me.
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING
Eddie Redmayne plays physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking in a
performance painful to watch. Hawking suffers from Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis, the so-called Lou Gehrig's disease. The film
spread itself among his life, his love life, and his science. The
film is in large part about how his disease may have been a
blessing in disguise, allowing his the time to concentrate and do
his work. Sadly while the parts about how he did the research are
unique, the story of his relationship with his wife is more
prosaic. Anything that takes time away from the story of him and
his science is disappointing.
THE SACRAMENT
First the bad news. This is another found-footage horror film.
But it is not JUST another horror film. It happens to be on a
subject I find of special interest. It is written and directed by
Ti West who directed HOUSE OF THE DEVIL and THE INNKEEPERS. It is
no clear this should even be considered a horror film, inspired, as
it is, by an actual incident. (I know that claim is made a lot for
films like AMITYVILLE HORROR. But this one really did make
international headlines.) There is more than a little of THE
WICKER MAN in this film. This is a horror film that is more
effective because it is not a fantasy. There are scenes that the
cameraman would be likely to be able to film. I am not sure how
the hand-held camera is able to be where it has to be. Gene Jones
as Father is a charismatic and convincing talker.
[-mrl]
Smart Thermostats (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
We were one of the first people to have a thermostat that could
turn on the air conditioning a half-hour before we got home in the
summer, back in 1974. And Mark built it from an alarm clock and
a screwdriver.
Actually, what we had was one of those classic round thermostats,
with a "slide switch" sticking out on the side. The switch was up
for heat, middle for off, and down for air conditioning. So Mark
tied one end of a string to the switch and the other to a small
but heavy screwdriver. Then he got out old-fashioned travel alarm
clock, where you wind it with a key, and when the alarm goes off,
it uses the turning of the key to ring the bell. He wound the
clock so the key was horizontal, set the alarm for 5:00, and set
the screwdriver onto the key. Then we went to work.
At 5:00, the alarm went off, the key turned, the weight fell off,
the string pulled the switch down, and voila! the air conditioning
turned on.
Maybe he should have marketed it. [-ecl]
[The screwdriver fit through a hole at the base of the
alarm-winding key. When the alarm went off the key turned so the
screwdriver was then rotated and then pointed downward and gravity
dumped it out over the side of the desk the clock was on. -mrl]
THE RUBY DICE by Catherine Asaro (copyright 2008 Baen, and copyright 2008 Recorded Books, 16 hours 58 minutes, narrated by Suzanne Toren) (excerpt from the Duel Fish Codices: an audiobook review by Joe Karpierz):
The books in Catherine Asaro's "Saga of the Skolian Empire" series
have been shifting in tone and direction for some time now. I've
been listening to these novels in internal chronological order
rather than publication order, and thus have been able to watch
this story unfold in a way that readers who originally picked up
the books may not have. The early novels gave us the background
and the beginnings of the Skolian family as we know it, moved on to
tell the stories of the children that eventually came to the
forefront of the narrative--Soz, Kelric, Eldrinson, Althor, and
others--and at the same time introducing us to the evil Eubian
empire and the life of Aristos and Traders.
Somewhere in there, while I wasn't actively paying attention, Asaro
got sneaky. She started letting us in on the life of the Aristos.
We had seen how people in the Skolian Empire lived, but never
really knew anything about the Eubian Empire, but that changed.
Slowly but surely, we discovered that these evil, despicable folks
had lives, concerns, and worries just like the Skolians--or us, for
that matter. They were a people worried about their own future in
the galaxy and how they would survive constant conflict with what
they called the evil Skolian Empire. So maybe, just maybe, we
started feeling a bit sympathetic toward them. Just a bit--not
very much.
Oh, then Asaro made things get even twistier. She threw Soz and
Jabriol II together on a planet and stranded them there for a
goodly number of years. They fell in love and had children, for
goodness' sake, and now there was the unthinkable. A Ruby psion
that was heir to the Carnelian Throne, a man who could probably
rightfully lay claim to the top spot in both empires. Yep, Asaro
brought the two empires together in a way that was eventually going
to get us to THE RUBY DICE.
I think it was inevitable that somewhere along the way in the Saga
that Asaro would have the participating parties try to work out a
peace agreement. But I jump ahead of myself.
THE RUBY DICE eventually gets to the point that I just mentioned
via, of course, two separate but eventually related tales: Kelric,
the Imperator of Skolia, and Jabriol III, the Emperor of Eube.
Jabriol is the son of Soz and Jabriol II, conceived on the planet
Prizm all those years ago, and Kelric is the brother of Soz. So
yeah, Kelric is Jabriol's uncle. That just adds another weird
twist of sorts that I wish was explored a bit more fully in the
book, and maybe it will be in the next book in the series. But
these individual tales are much more than about just these two men;
they are about the empires those men are a part of, the political
games that they and others play to keep their civilizations running
and which eventually lead to the attempt to work out a peace
agreement, and the women these men love.
Of COURSE this book has romance--it's a Skolian novel, for
goodness' sake, although as I type that and look back at it I don't
think it's really just a novel about the Skolian empire--and the
women play a major part in the machinations that bring these two
leaders together. Jabriol is married to the cunning and sneaky
Tarquine, the Finance Minister of Eube who actually seems to love
her husband and supports him, even though his desire for peace is
completely opposite of what the Eubian Empire would want. She can
be cold and calculating nearly in the same breath as she is loving
and seductive.
Kelric has had many wives throughout the Saga, and two come into
play here, the most prominent being Ixpar of Karn, from the planet
Coba where Kelric was at first stranded, and then held captive for
18 years. As an aside, Asaro does a terrific job of tying up some
loose ends here with Ixpar and another of Kelric's previous wives.
It's almost as if Asaro is saying, "okay, let's get on with this,
it's time to focus, people and move things forward".
THE RUBY DICE is a typical Skolian Saga story. Full of intrigue,
political machinations, romance, and clandestine meetings. The
story takes place in the Eubian Empire, the Skolian Empire, on
Coba, and on Earth. There's not much action as we've come to see
in the previous Skolian novels. Most of the conflict is of the
political variety, and most of the action is displayed in the
political chess playing that takes place throughout the entire
book. It is certainly the longest book in the series to date, and
it just might be the most complex and ambitious of the lot. It
accomplishes a great deal with respect to the story line, but yet
leaves so much more to be told. This is one of the better, if not
the best--Nebula winning THE QUANTUM ROSE notwithstanding--in the
series. I highly recommend it.
The narrator, Suzanne Toren, leaves me puzzled. She is yet another
in a series of narrators for the books in this series, and it is
getting to be a bit of an issue. It seems clear that newer
narrators have not gone back and listened to prior books in the
series, nor is there a sort of "pronunciation bible" for all the
terms. The pronunications vary from book to book, and it is
getting somewhat annoying. The most jarring one, for example, is
the pronunciation of Tarquine. Toren pronounces it Tar-queen,
while prior narrators pronounced it Tar-keen. Which is it? [-jak]
ECHOPRAXIA by Peter Watts (copyright 2014, Tor, 352pp Kindle Edition, e-book ISBN 978-1-4299-4806-7, hardcover ISBN 978-0-7653-2802-1) (excerpt from the Duel Fish Codices: a book review by Joe Karpierz):
Uh, yeah. ECHOPRAXIA. Heck I do NOT even know where to begin
here. Well, maybe I do. Crud, then again, maybe I don't. In
looking back at my review of BLINDSIGHT, the predecessor to
ECHOPRAXIA, while it says many of the same things I feel about the
current novel, I can't quite pin down a way to use those words to
describe what's going on here.
One thing that is common between the two books is that I went to
Wikipedia to look up the meaning of ECHOPRAXIA (much like I did for
the meaning of BLINDSIGHt over seven years ago. It tells me this:
Echopraxia (also known as echokinesis) is the involuntary
repetition or imitation of another person's actions.
The definition goes into more detail, of course, but the defintion
I quote above can give us quite a nightmare when we think about
exactly what it can imply.
Heck, I'm rambling, probably because I don't know quite where to
begin. So maybe the logical place, the beginning, will do. The
story takes place not long after the events of BLINDSIGHT near the
end of the 21st century. The Earth is more than a bit messed up
from the things we would expect: scarcity of resources, ravaging
of natural resources, etc. Most people have mods implanted in them
to help them perform various tasks--the total population of
naturals is very small. One of these people is Danial Bruks (and
if I could put the umlaut over the u it would be more accurate), a
"natural" biologist who is out collecting samples in the desert one
evening when he gets caught in the crossfire between an unseen
attacker and an alliance of Transhuman Bicamerals and a vampire and
her zombie hoard. You may remember the vampires and zombies from
BLINDSIGHT. These are certainly not our friendly, neighborhood
sparkly vampires, nor are they Dracula like--no they are much much
worse. They are creatures who are actually extinct but were
brought back to live, much to the dismay of most of the living
creatures that come into contact with them. You may remember,
also, that the vampires, and our vampire in particular, Valerie,
ingest drugs that make it tolerable for them to be in the presence
of right angles (yes, BLINDSIGHT gave us a scientific explanation
for the Crucifix Effect). Transhuman Bicamerals are severely
modified humans who together form a hive mind. These Bicamerals
can barely, if at all, function as normal human beings, and
certainly can't communicate normally. They need modified humans to
understand their gibberish and physical gyrations and who translate
that information for the rest of humanity. The Bicamerals are
brilliant and hold something like a gazillion patents.
Bruks, the Bicamerals, Valerie and her zombies, and a few other
folks head out in a spaceship to visit Icarus, a space station
which, among other things, provides a not insignificant portion of
humanity with its energy supply. It is there that they discover an
entity that effectively changes the course of the novel as well as
the life of Dan Bruks.
Like BLINDSIGHT, this is a difficult novel to describe. On one
hand, it is yet another Singularity story, although it seems just a
tad different than most of the other Singularity stories, in that
it is not the technology that changes so fast that we can no longer
comprehend it--it is ourselves. It is a wonderful discussion on
science versus faith (note that I did not say religion--that is a
related but different argument, I think), with not just the usual
arguments that go back and forth during our time, but the
contention that even science can be relied upon too heavily, and in
fact is yet another kind of faith. The followers of the Bicamerals
think of them almost as gods, and Bruks is skeptical because after
all, how can anyone actually understand what they're saying or
communicating? There's no evidence--other than the aforementioned
patents, for example--that anything they say is real and accurate.
Lianne, a Bicameral follower and the closest person to a love
interest that Bruks has in the story, tells Bruks he must take the
Bicamerals on faith, while later in the novel Bruks says her only
crime was faith.
In the end, there are a ton of ideas in this book, and Watts
writing and storytelling style are marvelous in engaging the reader
to want to know more about what's going on with all this stuff.
And, as with BLINDSIGHT, Watts provides an in depth and detailed
Notes and References section, which includes *140* footnotes to
support his statements. Most, if not all, of these footnotes are
hyperlinked in the e-book edition so if you're really curious about
his research for the book, you can follow along and read up on it
yourself if you like.
Another thing I find refreshing about Watts' writing, both here and
in the short story collection I reviewed earlier this year, "Beyond
the Rift", is that Watts doesn't assume his readers are idiots.
Rather, he assumes they are intelligent and can understand and make
intuitive and logical leaps without being spoonfed everything. He
challenges the reader to put on a thinking cap and work through the
clues he's put into the narrative. All of which says that this is
not your typical beach reading (I think I said that about "Beyond
the Rift", too). You'll be challenged by ECHOPRAXIA, and you'll be
the better for it.
I think it's just as well that I didn't go into too much detail
about the plot of the novel. I think it's best that you read for
yourself and make discoveries along the way. And just how does the
title relate to the book? Look in the mirror. [-jak]
NASA and TIME FOR THE STARS (comments by Dale L. Skran):
The latest TIME cover (Dec. 29, 2014 issue) features a picture of
Astronaut Scott Kelly to illustrate a story titled "Mission
Twinpossible." The Kelly brothers are both astronauts. One, Mark,
is retired, but Scott will be spending a year on the International
Space Station to allow for a comparison study of the human body--one
in Earth and one in Space. The data gathered will support
future deep space missions, including trips to Mars.
Well-informed SF fans will immediately spot a parallel with the
plot of Heinlein's TIME FOR THE STARS which featured another pair
of space-separated twins. Their telepathy is used to maintain
communications between an interstellar "torchship" and Earth. NASA
has not yet mastered telepathy, but this is certainly a case of
life imitating art, and another notch in the belt of RAH. [-dls]
Orion, Pluto Flyby, Ceres Probe, Rosetta Probe (letter of comment by Jim Susky):
In response to Greg Frederick's comments on various spacecraft in
the 12/19/14 issue of the MT VOID, Jim Susky writes:
Thanks go to Gregory Frederick in the 12/19/14 MT VOID about the
upcoming Ceres and Pluto probes and the Orion test flight, which is
scheduled to be followed by another test in 2018. I'd heard of a
plurality of Plutonian satellites (apparently Charon is not alone)
but not that the current count is five.
(BTW when did Pluto get re-designated from Plutoid to Dwarf
Planet?)
The Wikipedia entry for Ceres:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet)
indicates that the Dawn probe will orbit that Dwarf Planet
(promoted from "asteroid") in three successively closer orbits with
instruments blazing.
I remain underwhelmed by current nationalized efforts at manned
space travel. No doubt this is a consequence of being a "space
kid" during the unprecedentedly successful (yet truncated) Apollo
Program. I have long held that if the Soviets had been first or a
close second in the Moon Race, we would soon (by 1980) have had
something like an actual space infra-structure.
This contrasts, of course, with current private Virgin/Branson and
SpaceX/Musk developments on relatively modest budgets.
I think it was on a recent NPR Science Friday that a guest noted
that the time between the first Apollo test and the moon landing
was about two years. Heady times in the late 1960s.
Bottom line--I pay little attention to manned space flight.
Unmanned space exploration is another matter altogether.
When I heard this fall of Rosetta, the European mission to "land"
on a comet, I was struck by the degree of difficulty involved with
making a lander "stick" to such a low mass object as a comet. A
little searching uncovered that the probe had taken more than ten
years and several fly-by's to get a close velocity match at close
proximity (30km) to that chunk of "dirt and ice". This seemed like
the mother of all minimum-energy trajectories.
A little more searching uncovered the gravitational constant, the
estimated comet mass (3-billion metric tons) and the suitable
circular orbit formula. A circular orbit is not really suitable
since I doubt that there was any reason to go for a circle (though
Dr. Benford may wish to comment). It's main advantage is that it's
readily computed to get an idea how "fast" the orbit would have to
be--or how slow, relative to a post-operative, convalescent stroll
using a walker--or the fabled snail (without butter and/or garlic).
I came up with an orbital velocity = 7200 meters/day.
Speed of a Snail:
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/AngieYee.shtml
Excluding "a large banana slug" it appears that snails display a
wide range of speeds ranging from a lethargic 75 meters/day to a
downright vigorous 1100 meters/day.
So the orbiter would settle in at something like 6.5 to 100 times a
"snails pace"--an impressive accomplishment, especially given that
"real time" corrections are not available at greater than one
light-hour away from Earth.
I imagine similarly small values attach to the comet's escape
velocity, so it was no surprise to hear that the lander "bounced" a
few times before resting in the shadow it ended up in--and not on
its feet.
I suppose if asked "do I support unmanned or manned space
missions?" I would say "YES!". Then I wake up, find that no one is
asking, mutter that unmanned missions offer much more bang for the
buck, and go back to sleep.
Best Regards (and Happy New Year)
Thanks Again for Frederick's update. [-js]
And later Jim writes:
An update for the Rosetta mission may be found here:
http://blogs.esa.int/rosetta/2015/01/06/rosetta-in-2015/
It seems that the exact position of the lander is unknown. Doubt
remains about whether it will revive in upcoming months. Meanwhile
the orbiter will approach to within 6 km on Valentine's Day--permitting
better images and spectroscopy. Further fly-bys will
ensue, details for which will be "determined by the activity of the
comet".
A detailed comment indicates that that surface is not sublimating
and that no ice has been discovered. However, some vapor has been
detected: "Ptolomy [sic] indicates that h2o is in the atmosphere
just above the ground" and: "Comet activity Flared up briefly while
still very far from the sun, and before Rosetta had caught up with
it". [-js]
Bess Myerson and Kitty Carlisle (letter of comment by Dan Kimmel):
In response to Evelyn's comments on BIRDMAN in the 01/02/15 issue
of the MT VOID, Dan Kimmel writes:
You may not know who Bess Myerson and Kitty Carlisle were ("famous
for being famous") but Myerson was the first Jewish Miss America
and Carlisle was a nightclub singer and actress who did a few
movies including, notably, "A Night at the Opera." Viewers of '60s
eras shows they were on would have been familiar with that. [-dmk]
Evelyn responds:
I know who Bess Myerson and Kitty Carlisle were, but being a Miss
America is (IMHO) being famous for being famous. And Kitty
Carlisle's acting career was fairly limited--I was a viewer of the
1960s television shows, and I was not familiar with it.
And synchronistically, Bess Myerson's death on December 14, 2014,
was just announced this week. [-ecl]
FOREVER (letters of comment by Philip Chee, Paul Dormer, Kevin R, and Jette Goldie):
In response to Dale Skran's television review of FOREVER in the
01/02/15 issue of the MT VOID, Philip Chee writes:
[Re the immortality of Morgan in FOREVER] There can only be one!
Sorry but someone had to say this. [-pc]
Paul Dormer replies:
Indeed, there was a reference to HIGHLANDER in the last episode
shown over here. (I know someone who won't watch FOREVER because
he thinks of it as a HIGHLANDER rip-off. Never saw HIGHLANDER
myself and am enjoying FOREVER.) [-pd]
Kevin R adds:
When FOREVER was announced, the squawk was that it was too similar
to the novel [ObSF] of the same name by Pete Hamill.*
All owe something to The Wandering Jew and The Flying Dutchman and
other such myths, I'm thinking. [-kr]
Paul Dormer replies:
Reminds me that back in 2013, the Doctor Who serial The Enemy of
the World was re-discovered after having been missing. I remember
seeing this when it was first broadcast, starting just before
Christmas 1967.
Shortly after this, I got out of our local library THE PENULTIMATE
TRUTH by Philip K. Dick and was struck by similarities in the plot.
Both involve a world dictator who keeps a group of people living in
underground bunkers by telling them that the surface has been
ravaged by atomic war and is uninhabitable, even though things are
now normal.
The book was published in 1963, so it's possible that the "Who"
writer David Whitaker could have read it, but Dick was not well
known then. [-pd]
Jette Goldie writes:
HIGHLANDER was ...deeper. FOREVER--so far--has been mostly
'fluff', though there is room for more development. If it gets the
chance.
Forever is sort of "Highlander meets Sherlock meets Bones".
Others said it is a rip off of "New Amsterdam"--perhaps because
it's set in NYC. [-jg]
Paul Dormer replies:
I heard that, although I don't recall ever seeing that. Did it get
shown over here? [-pd]
Kevin R replies:
Chronology:
FOREVER by Hamill: 2003
Hamill's protagonist can't leave the island of Manhattan, so that
is one distinguishing feature. [-kr]
THE MENTALIST (letters of comment by Philip Chee, Paul Dormer, Kevin R, Jette Goldie, Tim Bateman, and Keith F. Lynch):
In response to Dale Skran's television review of THE MENTALIST in
the 01/02/15 issue of the MT VOID, Philip Chee writes:
As far as I know, there are no science-fictional nor supernatural
elements in THE MENTALIST. Please enlighten me. [-pc]
Paul Dormer replies:
Reminds me that when this started, someone pointed out the
similarities to PSYCH, and PSYCH now often mentions THE MENTALIST.
For some reason, the Scifi/Syfy channel over here did show the
first couple of seasons of PSYCH in re-runs, presumably because
they though he was a real psychic. [-pd]
Kevin R adds:
See The New York Daily News, for whom Hamill wrote:
http://tinyurl.com/void-hamill
Loved the book, BTW. [-kr]
Jette Goldie writes:
The character in THE MENTALIST has a history of making his living
as a "psychic" and now that he admits that this was all a con,
sometimes his insights seem almost too good--even his colleagues
sometimes wonder. [-jg]
Kevin R responds:
Patrick has been teaching cold reading tricks to Teresa.
BTW, I don't know if this is a guilty pleasure, but a young Robin
Tunney was in "Empire Records," (1995) along with a young Renee
Zellweger, Liv Tyler, etc. Perhaps as late as you can get where
working in a record store was the "cool job." At the time, I was
working in bookstores, another "cool job." Digital distribution
was still on the horizon: we were trying to fight Barnes & Noble
and Borders, with Amazon just starting to be noticed. Quite a few
similarities (author/artist appearances, family business v chains)
in the plot resonated with my real life experiences. [-kr]
Tim Bateman adds:
It did occur to me a couple of years ago that Jane's abilities are
practically a super-power, the equivalent of Batman's abilities as
a detective, athlete and anything else he does, or Green Arrow's
archery skills. [-tb]
Kevin R answers:
Patrick is in a long line of non-supers whose human abilities
are so refined that they seem like superpowers. I'd put Sherlock
Holmes at the head of that list, of course based on the real life
physician Joseph Bell. If his talents were in hand-to-hand combat
rather than "mentalism," I'd rate him as a "bad-ass normal." [-kr]
Keith F. Lynch notes:
ObSF: How fake psychics can fool people is well shown in James
Hogan's CODE OF THE LIFEMAKER and its sequel THE IMMORTALITY
OPTION. Hogan had some bizarre beliefs, but at least he never
fell for psychic powers. [-kfl]
FILTH (letters of comments by Paul Dormer and Steve Coltrin):
In response to Mark Leeper's review of FILTH in the 01/02/15 issue
of the MT VOID, Paul Dormer writes:
Are you aware that "the filth" is a slang term for the police?
[-pd]
Mark replies:
No, but it makes sense. [-mrl]
Steve Coltrin adds:
Having enjoyed the film, I can say that its title works on both
levels. [-sc]
This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
I finished WAR AND PEACE by Leo Tolstoy (translated by Aylmer and
Rose Maude) (ISBN 1978-1-853-26062-9) and have a few more comments
to add to those of last week.
On Russian names: One needs to remember that Prince Andrew, Andrew
Nikolayevich, Andrew, Andrusha, and Bolkonski are all the same
person. Yes, it's true in English we could have Philip Jose Farmer
referred to as "Phil" or as "Mr. Farmer", but it is unlikely that
he would also be called "Philip" and "Philip Jose".
One also needs to remember that Andrew Nikolayevich Bolkonski's
sister is Mary Nikolayevna Bolkonskaya.
The Maude translation (1923) is highly regarded, but uses
Westernized versions of all the names: Andrew instead of Andrey,
Mary instead of Maria, Sonia instead of Sofia, Helene instead of
Elena, and so on. Since the modern convention is to leave the
names as Tolstoy wrote them (transliterated, of course) this makes
it even more complicated. For example, if one is using a plot
summary or study guide, one needs to recognize that the person it
calls "Prince Andrey Bolkonsky" is "Prince Andrew Bolkonski" in the
Maude translation.
(Given the retention of patronymic and family names, the use of
Westernized given names seems a bit peculiar. "Nikolayevich" means
"son of Nikolai"--why then give the father's name as "Nicholas"?)
One does not think of WAR AND PEACE as containing humor, but there
are definitely humorous sections. For example, in Book XIII,
Chapter IX, Tolstoy describes all the "wonderful" things Napoleon
did:
In regard to philanthropy, the greatest virtue of crowned
heads, Napoleon also did all in his power. He caused the words
Maison de ma Mere to be inscribed on the charitable
institutions, thereby combining tender filial affection with
the majestic benevolence of a monarch. He visited the
Foundling Hospital and, allowing the orphans saved by him to
kiss his white hands, graciously conversed with Tutolmin.
Then, as Thiers eloquently recounts, he ordered his soldiers to
be paid in forged Russian money which he had prepared: 'Raising
the use of these means by an act worthy of himself and of the
French army, he let relief be distributed to those who had been
burned out. But as food was too precious to be given to
foreigners, who were for the most part enemies, Napoleon
preferred to supply them with money with which to purchase food
from outside, and had paper rubles distributed to them.'"
And in Second Epilogue, Chapter I, he writes:
Sarcasm is not dead.
Many years after the end of the Vietnam War, General Frederick C.
Weyand wrote, "But America's fighting forces did not fail us. 'You
know, you never beat us on the battlefield,' I told my North
Vietnamese counterpart during negotiations in Hanoi a week before
the fall of Saigon. He pondered that remark a moment and then
replied, 'That may be so, but it is also irrelevant.'"
But in Book XIV, Chapter XIX, Tolstoy writes:
The Russian military historians in so far as they submit to
claims of logic must admit that conclusion, and in spite of
their lyrical rhapsodies about valor, devotion, and so forth,
must reluctantly admit that the French retreat from Moscow was
a series of victories for Napoleon and defeats for Kutuzov.
But putting national vanity entirely aside one feels that such
a conclusion involves a contradiction, since the series of
French victories brought the French complete destruction, while
the series of Russian defeats led to the total destruction of
their enemy and the liberation of their country."
(For that matter, I think it is argued that Hannibal never lost a
battle in Italy, nor Spain in the Netherlands, but ultimately both
lost their wars.)
The Second Epilogue, Chapters IX-XII, is an excellent discussion of
freedom (The Great Man Theory) and necessity (determinism, the Tide
of History Theory). One observation Tolstoy makes that I have not
seen before is that something what seems like the doings of a
single individual at the time or even a few years later will, after
centuries, seem as inevitable in the tide of history. At the time
of the Crusades, the actions that occurred seemed the result of the
decisions of a few Popes and kings; now we see them as the result
of factors such as primogeniture driving younger sons to seek fame
and fortune elsewhere. Ancient migrations may have seemed to
depend on the tribal leader, but we no longer even remember his
name and attribute them to weather, or a famine, or the
encroachment of other tribes. [-ecl]
Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the busiest actors in filmmaking.
Here he turns in a bravura performance as computer theoretician and
code-breaker Alan J. Turing who broke the Nazi Germany military
Enigma code and later was persecuted by the British government for
being gay. The film--dealing in large part with using computers to
break others' people's security could not have been more timely
getting release at the time of the Sony hacking case. Rating: high
+3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10
A film whose plot is nearly as twisted as the people the film is
about. We get a thriller liberally salted with
I-can't-believe-what-just-happened scenes. It is full of issues of conflict and
has a stinging commentary on the current state of America media.
For once the ads and publicity for the film tricks the viewer into
thinking GONE GIRL is much more prosaic than the film actually is.
David Fincher directs. Rosamund Pike (of DIE ANOTHER DAY) makes a
stunning impression. Rating: high +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10
Wes Anderson brings us a perfect little jewel of a film sending up
Middle European culture of the era before and during WWII in a film
that is funny and stylish. The film is a picture postcard come to
life with incredible attention to scenic detail. Ralph Fiennes is
wonderful as an ever-perfect hotel concierge. Wes Anderson, who
wrote the screenplay and directed, makes the viewer feel the dialog
is heading off into a cliché when he pulls the rug out under the
viewer. There is an army of familiar actors in small parts.
Rating: +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10
SF story with the depth and complexity of a science fiction novel.
Christopher Nolan brings INTERSTELLAR to the screen, based on an
original screenplay he wrote with his brother Jonathan. As the
last-ditch effort for our dying civilization, a mission is sent
through a wormhole to another galaxy in an effort to find an Earth-like
planet to be a new home for humanity. No previous science
fiction film has ever had the scope and span that this film has.
It is surprising it all fits into a very tight 167 minutes.
Rating: +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10
Back in the 1960s people could appreciate and enjoy scientific
accounts of the space program even if they did not understand all
the technicalities. PARTICLE FEVER is a science documentary for
our time. The viewer does not need to have a scientific background
to appreciate and enjoy this account of scientists trying to
uncover the secrets of fundamental particles that could lead to a
better understanding of the universe and its origins. The film
follows six of the 10,000 scientists working for several years at
CERN's Large Hadron Collider. They are trying to capture and find
the mass of the Higgs Boson particle. For once we have a rarity, a
documentary that is not depressing and not even overly political.
Instead it suggests looking at the universe with a real sense of
wonder. Rating: +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10
Two Mexican immigrants illegally cross the Mexican border into
Arizona and are involved in an incident that leaves the wife of the
ex-sheriff dead. The ex-sheriff (played by Ed Harris) begins his
own investigation into the incident only to find that his successor
is coming to very different conclusions about the evidence of the
crime found. The film is reminiscent of LONE STAR. It is
co-written and directed by Michael Berry. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4)
or 8/10
This film recounts the story of the 1864 Civil War battle of New
Market. In Virginia this battle is remembered primarily because
student-cadets from the nearby VMI were pressed into service to
fight the battle with some laying down their lives. Sean McNamara
directs a script by Thomas Farrell and Dave Kennedy. Some of the
style is reminiscent of Ronald Maxwell's films GETTYSBURG and GODS
AND GENERALS. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
This is a spy story complicated and confusing but told with a real
authenticity--in other words, a lot like any John le Carre spy
story. Except this one takes place in the German equivalent of our
CIA. This is an intelligent spy film and the last film this good
that featured Philip Seymour Hoffman. The title refers to a
Chechen/Russian who may be connected with terrorism rooted in the
Muslim/Russian community in Hamburg. Hoffman gives an excellent
performance as an all but defeated intelligence operative. Rating:
high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
A family all together for the last time gathers in a hospital where
the father has requested to be taken off of life support. Writer
and director Andrew Levitas examines death and life. The film has
a powerhouse cast, perhaps more than was needed to make the drama
work. But the drama is engaging with multiple plot lines. Rating:
high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
Unexpectedly poignant and entertaining for a political documentary,
this is a look at the story behind California Proposition 8 and the
Supreme Court decision to overturn it and hence allow same-sex
marriage in California. Directors Ben Cotner and Ryan White could
have looked more comprehensively at the actual law, but we do see
the major players. The film is exhilarating and is a surprisingly
stirring documentary about California's Proposition 8, which
defined marriage as being a pairing of a man and a woman, and The
Defense of Marriage Act which on a Federal level denied federal
benefits to same-sex couples. The court struck down Proposition 8
and on the same day said that major portions of the Defense of
Marriage Act were unconstitutional. A major part of the case made
against each of these bills was crafted and presented by Ted Olson.
The film opens with a very impressive sample of Olson's very clear
reasoning. But the end of the film I found myself getting excited
for the decision that I (and probably every viewer) knew was
coming. HBO makes some very fine programs for their own
broadcasting. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
NEW AMSTERDAM on TV: 2008
FOREVER by ABC on TV: 2014
"With the object of raising the spirits of the troops and of
the people, reviews were constantly held and rewards
distributed. The Emperor rode through the streets to comfort
the inhabitants, and, despite his preoccupation with state
affairs, himself visited the theaters that were established by
his order.
"Instead of men endowed with divine authority and directly
guided by the will of God, modern history has given us either
heroes endowed with extraordinary, superhuman capacities, or
simply men of very various kinds, from monarchs to journalists,
who lead the masses. Instead of the former divinely appointed
aims of the Jewish, Greek, or Roman nations, which ancient
historians regarded as representing the progress of humanity,
modern history has postulated its own aims--the welfare of the
French, German, or English people, or, in its highest
abstraction, the welfare and civilization of humanity in
general, by which is usually meant that of the peoples
occupying a small northwesterly portion of a large continent."
"If the aim of the Russians consisted in cutting off and
capturing Napoleon and his marshals--and that aim was not
merely frustrated but all attempts to attain it were most
shamefully baffled--then this last period of the campaign is
quite rightly considered by the French to be a series of
victories, and quite wrongly considered victorious by Russian
historians.
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Quote of the Week:
A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance,
and to turn around three times before lying down.
--Robert Benchley
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