Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
05/01/20 -- Vol. 38, No. 44, Whole Number 2117
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, *mleeper@optonline.net *
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, *eleeper@optonline.net *
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Topics:
Sign of Our Times
Thoughts on the Horror Film (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Recent Reviews (letter of comment by John Hertz)
As Long As the Hot Pockets Don't Run Out (letter of comment
by Taras Wolansky)
This Week's Reading (Hugo Award Short Story finalists)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Sign of Our Times
Sign seen on a bookstore window:
"Please note: The post-apocalyptical fiction section has been moved
to Current Affairs."
===================================================================
TOPIC: Thoughts on the Horror Film (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I think most people think horror fiction, prose, cinema, etc., is
supposed to be frightening. I am afraid that if fear is the
appropriate reaction I am a near complete loss. A television show
or a movie has not frightened me since I was about age ten. The
last thing that I saw on TV that was actually frightening was "The
Hungry Glass," a story on "Thriller" that was based on a Robert
Bloch story. A vain old woman living in an old cliff-side mansion
took to haunting the glass in the mansion. This glass had
reflected her one-time beauty. Now like a siren she tempts new
owners (including one played by William Shatner) to pass through
the glass to their death. This was pretty scary stuff for a ten-
year-old, and it was the last time that I remember actually being
frightened by a television show.
There is an old saying in science fiction circles that the Age of
Wonder is twelve. For me the age of horror was about eight to ten.
After age ten I was never really frightened by anything on the
theater screen or the television screen. I can pretty much list
everything that frightened me up to that age:
--age 5: "Captain Midnight": "The Electrified Man"
--age 5: "Captain Midnight": land missile episode
--age 7: "Alfred Hitchcock": ghost story (girl reaches for sister
and finds cold and clammy ghost, left bloody footprints)
--age 9: "One Step Beyond": "Reunion" (glider episode)
--age 9: "One Step Beyond": "Image of Death" (spot on the wall
episode)
--age 10: "Thriller": "The Hungry Glass"
I will make one exception and say that I was frightened by the
Peter Watkins pseudo-documentary made for the BBC called THE WAR
GAME. With what was known about the effects of nuclear war in the
late 1960s Watkins tried to show what would happen if nuclear war
came to Britain. It heavily influenced a later British TV movie,
THREADS, though THREADS lacked the dispassionate BBC narrator
explaining exactly what was going on. "This is a firestorm. At
its center temperatures reach 1000 degrees centigrade. These
people are asphyxiating because the fire is pulling all oxygen to
the center of the storm," the narrator helpfully explains. But
this is a different type of frightening from the type one sees in
"The Hungry Glass." This is frightening because it is presenting a
truth that is frightening. It is not the images themselves that
are frightening. There probably is some scary stuff right now
about the COVID-19 virus, but I do not listen to the same channels.
I guess part of the problem is that television is not inherently
the most effective medium for horror. Why not? First of all,
there is too much distraction in the home. It is really difficult
to avoid the urge to pick up a magazine or straighten the coffee
table while watching. Even in a movie theater there are audience
distractions. Someone is opening a snack cocooned in crackly
cellophane or someone else has his phone going off. In addition,
horror depends on imagination to work. In a visual medium you
borrow someone else's visual images. So one would feel that the
written word is a better medium for horror than are purely visual
media.
There is one important drawback of written horror. The person
reading the story is really too much in control of the material
being transferred. The reader is required to turn pages. The
reader really controls the speed of the storytelling and has the
option to just stop reading.
So what are good media for horror? The best electronic medium is
radio or maybe the audiobook. Of course even then there are the
home distractions and the fact that the listener is in a familiar
environment. It is no coincidence that one of the most popular
radio horror programs was called "Lights Out." Actually there is
another medium that is even better for horror. It is the probably
the very first medium of the horror story. The best medium for
horror is the campfire tale. The story told in near darkness
around a fire both gives the listener the full ability to use his
imagination and at the same time the listener gives up almost all
control of the pacing of the tale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Recent Reviews (letter of comment by John Hertz)
In response to Evelyn's comments in various recent issues of
the MT VOID, John Hertz writes:
Recently it seems E only writes about what she thinks is wrong.
I think that's wrong. [-jh]
Evelyn responds:
I *think* John means that he thinks I am writing only about what I
think is wrong, not that I am only writing about it (or that only I
am writing about it). What can I say? I write about what I've been
reading/listening to, and I've hit a stretch of stuff I haven't been
thrilled with. It is not as though there is a stack of books I
loved but decided not to write about. Maybe you'll like my comments
on THE DECAMERON better (even though I do complain about some of the
translation choices). Alas, many of the Retro Hugo finalists do not
seem to have aged well (or maybe 1944 was a weak year). [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: As Long As the Hot Pockets Don't Run Out (letter of comment
by Taras Wolansky)
Taras Wolansky writes:
"How Engineers Are Operating Deep-Space Probes, Martian Rovers, and
Satellites from Their Homes"
Driving the Curiosity rover from a living room
By Loren Grush@lorengrush Apr 20, 2020, 12:06pm EDT
*https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21222372/nasa-telework
https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/20/21222372/nasa-telework*-
curiosity-rover-osiris-rex-asteroid-mission-satellites-remote
P.S.: As "social isolation" continues, am I the only one reminded
of Isaac Asimov's THE NAKED SUN? [-tw]
Mark responds:
At least the spacecraft are setting a good example of Spacial
Distancing. (Been too long since I read THE NAKED SUN.) [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I was able to find all the 2020 Short Story finalists for the Hugo
Award, so I will comment on them while I'm working my way through
the Retro Hugo finalists (and of course, THE DECAMERON).
"Do Not Look Back, My Lion", Alix E. Harrow (Beneath Ceaseless
Skies 1/31/19): This does a lot of hard-to-follow things with
gender. The warriors are women, as are their husbands, husbands
being the ones who are "mannish" and stay at home. (There are
apparently also men, who are also husbands. This would seem to
result in a large imbalance.) There are "daughters" and "near-
daughters" that I couldn't sort out, and eventually I gave up on
the whole thing as a warrior fantasy story that was not only not to
my tastes, but also impossible for me to follow.
"As the Last I May Know", S. L. Huang (Tor.com 10/23/19): The
introduction claims this is an alternate history--it isn't. The
premise is that there is a super-weapon (basically an atomic bomb by
a different name) that can only be used if the President (Prime
Minister?) kills a child who has been chosen for that purpose. It
is basically an elaboration on the argument that the enemy is not a
faceless abstraction, but made up of men and women and children.
Oddly, I could see this becoming a movie, but it doesn't quite work
on paper.
"And Now His Lordship Is Laughing", Shiv Ramdas (Strange Horizons
9/9/19): This is a fantasy/horror story centered around the "denial
of rice" policy of the British in Bengal during World War II. As
frequently happens, the reality is far more horrific than anything
a writer could dream up, but in this case the fantasy is the
aftermath to the horror and the whole story is very effective.
"Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women
of Ratnabar Island", Nibedita Sen (Nightmare 5/19): The title says
it all. There is a lot going on here, addressing aspects of
colonialism, cultural relativism, the politics of oppression, and
so on. This is the sort of meta-fiction that I like, so it is not
surprising that I rate this highly.
"Blood Is Another Word for Hunger", Rivers Solomon (Tor.com
7/24/19): We have recently seen several stories centering around
African-American experiences under slavery and Jim Crow
segregation, including the award-winning "The Secret Lives of the
Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" (by P. Djeli Clark) and
Victor Lavalle's "The Ballad of Black Tom". This is of a different
style, with more religious overtones, but oddly uninvolving.
Still, this is a worthwhile finalist.
"A Catalog of Storms", Fran Wilde (Uncanny 1-2/19): Again, this is
not the sort of story that generally appeals to me, so while it may
have its virtues, I cannot rate it highly.
Ranking: "Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the
Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island", "And Now His Lordship Is
Laughing", "Blood Is Another Word for Hunger", "As the Last I May
Know", no award, "Do Not Look Back, My Lion", "A Catalog of Storms"
Next week, probably Day 2 of THE DECAMERON, and then after that I
will start on the Retro Hugo finalists. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
A barking dog is more useful than a sleeping lion.
--Washington Irving