@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @
@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 02/13/98 -- Vol. 16, No. 33
MT Chair/Librarian:
Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-5619 mleeper@lucent.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2E-530 732-957-5087 jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 732-949-7076 njs@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2D-536 732-957-6330 rlmitchell1@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-2070 eleeper@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
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 irregularly; call 201-652-0534 for details, or check
http://www.interactive.net/~kat/njsfs.html. The Denver Area
Science Fiction Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of
every month at Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
1. URL of the week: I don't mean to be an alarmist about the Y2K
problem. I don't know if I am over-rating it or under-rating it.
But if you would like to read a really believable scenario of the
future history of the next three years (with particular emphasis on
electric utilities, which will be a central dependency), take a
look at
http://www.euy2k.com/history.htm
It is still science fiction but it is very possible. In fact
projections of this sort of thing may be one of the most important
functions of science fiction. [-mrl]
===================================================================
2. There is a new game where I work. It seems we have built a
crooked house. I don't know if you have read Robert Heinlein's
classic story "And He Built a Crooked House." Heinlein had seen a
mathematical curiosity. Somewhere he had seen a discussion of how
we make models of higher-dimensional cubes to understand what
things look like in those dimensions. If you take a piece of graph
paper and draw a cross that has a vertical staff that is four
squares and a horizontal bar that is three squares wide, you can
cut it out and fold it into a cube so that each square becomes a
face. Actually there are a lot of different ways you can draw an
unfolded cube, but I am sure some Christian scientist--literally in
this case--preferred the cross.
The cross was a three-dimensional figure unfolded, but it could be
laid flat in two-dimensions. Well, similarly you can take eight
cubes and make an unfolded four-dimensional cube. You stack four
of the cubes int a vertical pile four cubes high, then you glue the
four remaining cubes on each of the four exposed faces of the
second cube from the top. That is an unfolded four-dimensional
cube. Some of you may remember seeing a Salvador Dali paining of a
Christ on this sort of a cross.
In the Heinlein story somebody builds a house like an unfolded
four-dimensional cube and in a disastrous earthquake it folds
itself into a four-dimensional cube. (The name given to a four-
dimensional cube is a "tesseract.") In any case the inhabitants
find themselves in a house where nothing makes sense. It has just
eight cubical rooms, but here is no way out and the rules of logic
no longer apply in the ways one expects. You basically could do
little to use logic to plot a path through the house, you just had
to memorize a sequence of rooms to get around.
But the point is that you really do not have to invoke the fourth
dimension to build a building where the rules of logic as you have
known them break down. You can do it in three dimensions. What
Heinlein had forgotten is that the lay-out of most houses is not in
three dimensions but is a sequence of floors that are two-
dimensional. You have minor concessions to the fact you are in
three dimensions, namely stairs and elevators. But you can build a
building that breaks those rules. And we at Middletown have done
that. We have built a parking garage. Normally this would be
really good news because of all the winter days you have to go out
and scrape ice off of your car. Of course, this is the year that
the Woolly Bear caterpillars grew little sunglasses and Hawaiian
shirts.
In the new garage there are not flat floors but mostly ramps
between floors. And halfway up there is a covered walkway into the
building. People want to park near to the covered walkway so they
have less walking to do. So now you have a maze and a destination.
You even have a reward if you can get to the destination.
But the normal rules don't apply. If you go around in a circle, you
are on a different level. And if you are not careful how you
choose your circle, you could be two levels up and have missed your
target point. So here we have all these Bell Labs scientists
trying to figure out the shortest path to get to the walkway. And,
of course, being Bell Labs scientists, many have great theories
with just a minor flaw. You see them wandering down the garage
stairwell with these bewildered expressions on their faces and you
know they are saying to themselves "if I had just turned right
instead of left at the second level ..."
... but I am a trained mathematician and I figured out the
shortest path the first ... okay, the second day. And I am willing
to tell the secret right in these pages. But, uh, I think I will
wait until I am moved to the new building. Even with my secret,
there are too many people solving the problem and I have to park
further and further from the walkway. But rest assured I will
reveal all once I am not turning readers into competitors. Uh,
somebody remind me. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. THE MOON MAID AND OTHER FANTASTIC ADVENTURES by R. Garcia y
Robertson (Golden Gryphon, ISBN 0-9655901-8-6, 1998, 275pp,
US$22.95) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
Garcia y Robertson writes novelettes rather than short stories, so
this collection (the second publication of Golden Gryphon) contains
eight stories rather than the usual eleven to fourteen. Most of
his stories can best be described as science fantasy rather than
science fiction, which does point to a narrower target audience.
The first story, "Gypsy Trade," used a standard science fiction
device, time travel, but overlays it with gypsy curses and tarot
cards and "Four Kings and an Ace," set in Nineteenth Century San
Francisco, also uses forms of magic. On the other hand, "Cast on a
Distant Shore" is strictly science fiction, with humans on an alien
world hired by other aliens to collect zoological specimens.
The remaining stories ("The Moon Maid," "Gone to Glory," "The Wagon
God's Wife," "The Other Magpie," and "The Werewolves of Luna") are
fantasy in varying degrees: prehistoric fantasy, science fantasy,
and so on.
On the plus side, Garcia y Robertson has a good grasp of
characters. He seems particularly able to write female
characters--reading his stories, I kept thinking that they were
written by a woman. (I have no idea precisely what I mean by that.
But if Robert Silverberg could say that he found Tiptree's writing
"ineluctably masculine," I figure I can get away with this.)
This collection suffers from the fact that all its stories have
appeared in either ASIMOV'S SCIENCE FICTION or THE MAGAZINE OF
FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION. Readers who like this type of fiction,
or Garcia y Robertson in particular may well have all the stories
in magazine form. On the other hand, for readers who don't
subscribe to one or both of those, but who enjoy this subgenre,
this would be an excellent collection. And both this and Golden
Gryphon's previous volume, TO THINK LIKE A DINOSAUR by John Kessel,
would make good gifts to your friends who read novels but haven't
discovered the joys of short fiction. [-ecl]
===================================================================
4. MAKING HISTORY by Stephen Fry (Arrow, ISBN 0-09-946481-0, 1997,
553pp, A$14.95) (a book review by Evelyn C. Leeper):
This book will be printed in the United States, but I was ordering
something else from Australia anyway, so I figured I wouldn't wait.
I'm glad I didn't.
At first it seemed fairly standard stuff--hero uses time machine
(of sorts) to eliminate Hitler. It's been done before, with
varying results, but all pretty much of the "no-World-War-II-or-
the-Holocaust" sort, and whether or not paradise results, the
result is usually arguably better than our timeline in which
54,000,000 people died as a result of World War II.
Fry takes a different approach. His main character, Michael Young,
meets Leo Zuckermann, whose father was at Auschwitz, and as a
result Zuckermann wants to eliminate Hitler. Because the only time
travel capability Zuckermann can invent is the ability to send
small packages back in time, they come up with a fairly interesting
(though very heavily telegraphed) method of accomplishing that.
After Michael Young sends his parcel back through time, he suddenly
finds himself somewhere else. He's not in Cambridge, he's in
Princeton. And though he's the same person, somehow he's
different--or at least the person he is in this world is different.
And this world is *not* better. How Fry manages to do all this and
make this a humorous novel as well is a feat in itself.
Fry does a good job of showing Young trying to cope in a world with
which he is unfamiliar. Unlike the all-too-usual hero who
immediately figures everything out, Young makes mistakes. In fact,
he makes a mistake practically every time he opens his mouth. He
does eventually resort to that tried-and-true approach, finding
history books in the library to explain everything to him, and of
course to us as a side- effect.
One of the things that Fry does is to make it clear that he thinks
our world is pretty good. At one point Young tells another
character, "I haven't told you about Microsoft and Rupert Murdoch
and fundamentalists and infant crack addicts with Uzis. I haven't
told you about lottery scratchcards and mad cow disease and LARRY
KING LIVE," to which the other character replies, "You told me
about political correctness and gay quarters in towns and rock and
roll and Clinton Eastwood movies and kids not having to call their
dads "sir" but saying "motherfucker" and "no way, dude" and
chilling off in Ecstasy dance clubs. I want some of that. I want
to be cool. ... I want to wear weird clothes and grow my hair
long without being fined by the college or having a fight with my
parents. If you want to do that here, you live in a ghetto and the
police round you up and harassle you. ... Give me a chance to use
these words and live this life." How you feel about the book may
depend on how you feel about this philosophy.
MAKING HISTORY is a good blend of alternate history and British
humor that I would recommend to fans of either. [-ecl]
===================================================================
5. GREAT EXPECTATIONS (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: GREAT EXPECTATIONS is an updating of
the Charles Dickens classic novel of
vindictiveness and gratitude and of pride and
shame. This adaptation is much telescoped down
from the original novel, though perhaps that is
not such a bad thing. Director Alfonso
Cuaron's version offers us a very stylish look
and a bravura performance from Anne Bancroft.
Rating: 7 (0 to 10), low +2 (-4 to +4)
New York Critics: 4 positive, 9 negative, 7
mixed
In 1948 when David Lean made his classic version of GREAT
EXPECTATIONS, films were different. While one cannot say that even
he was able to get most of the book on the screen, his version of
GREAT EXPECTATIONS was certainly more complete than the current
one. However, priorities are different these days. The new
version of the Dickens story has more style and less substance.
Not that the Lean version did not have some pretty terrific
photography, particularly in the early, frightening scenes of the
film. But the new version probably still wins for style.
Unfortunately, the story is also a great deal simplified for this
updating.
Finn Bell (Jeremy James Kissner as a boy and Ethan Hawk as a man)
is ten years old and living on the Florida Gulf Coast. His hobby
is drawing, for which he seems to have a great talent. He is an
orphan in the care of his sister and her live-in boy friend (Chris
Cooper). Two strange events happen to him in a short space of time
that will greatly affect him in later life. First Finn saves the
life of an escaped convict, Lustig (Robert De Niro). And he is
invited for a weekly visit to a decaying old mansion (the Ca d'Zan
on Sarasota Bay) of a mad old woman Nora Dinsmoor (Anne Bancroft)
and her beautiful niece Estella (Raquel Beaudene as a child,
Gwyneth Paltrow as a woman). For years the weekly visits continue.
Then just when a romance seems ready to bloom between Finn and
Estella they find themselves torn apart and Finn does not see
Estella for seven more years. When he does he finds he was almost
better off not finding her.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS offers a memorable male and a memorable female
performance, but it is a pity they did not come from the two lead
actors. Anne Bancroft as the updated Miss Havisham, perhaps
exaggerated by in Finn's memories is enjoyably over-ripe as she
tries to relive over and over her few happy moments. Robert De
Niro is the soul of ferocity as Lustig, certainly when we first see
him. He carries over a bit of his performance from CAPE FEAR.
Unfortunately, Hawke and Paltrow are inexperienced and convey
little emotion. Undeniably Paltrow is enjoyable to look at on the
screen but she has no chemistry with anybody. Perhaps it can be
forgiven since her character is intended to be a little more than
mechanical and less emotional. And Hawke too could use some
passion in his role as he has some big surprises come his way. His
manner is almost as indifferent to Paltrow as hers is to him.
Direction is by Mexican Alfonso Cuaron who previously did A LITTLE
PRINCESS. Either he has a marvelous visual sense or Production
Designer Tony Burrough does. In any case the film looks better
than it plays with a marvelous use of dark sets or scenes of high
contrast between dark and light. And usually the camera angle.
And setting the tone for the film throughout is the artwork of
Francesco Clemente. While he might not have been a touch of which
Charles Dickens would have approved, his main character Pip was
involved with business and not art, the film is a veritable gallery
of Clemente's style. Even the end-titles are punctuated with his
paintings.
The plot is somewhat stripped down from the Dickens novel, but what
is left is complex compared to most modern films. For what is left
of the plot and the marvelous look I rate GREAT EXPECTATIONS a 7 on
the 0 to 10 scale and a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
One side comment: Robert De Niro seems to be making a habit of
sneaking up on people in the most difficult ways. In MARY
SHELLEY'S FRANKENSTEIN we have Victor Frankenstein standing in the
middle of a snowy field and somehow De Niro's Creature manages to
sneak up on him. In this film Finn walks down a beach, sees
something orange in the water, investigates and it De Niro under
water holding his breath who springs out to grab him. The man
would have to have cast iron lungs. Now I suppose there is
something of an out from the screenwriter in that he says that this
is the way Finn remembered events, not the way they happened. But
one has to trust what is on the screen as being at least possible
or there is nor reason to be interested in Finn's account. It is
scenes like these that ruin the internal logic of films. [-mrl]
===================================================================
6. BOOGIE NIGHTS (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Capsule: The ups and downs of the pornographic
film industry in the 70s and early 80s come to
the screen as we follow one porno super-star
and his director. The film is witty,
intelligent, and occasionally a little raunchy,
but always fun to watch. This is a film with
several eccentric characterizations and is a
sort of HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD for the porno film
industry. Rating: 8 (0 to 10), high +2 (-4 to
+4) There are some light spoilers in this
review.
New York Critics: 14 positive, 3 negative, 5
mixed
There certainly is nothing unusual in a film about a rise to fame
and a fall of some entertainment sensation. In the field of
popular music there is THE ROSE, IDOLMAKER, THE COMMITMENTS and
THAT THING YOU DO. Another rise and fall film might be
KNIGHTRIDERS, a personal favorite. If you want to stretch a point
CITIZEN KANE is about the same theme. What is unusual is to see a
good film set in the world of pornographic films.
Jack Horner (played by Burt Reynolds) is a super-mellow director of
pornographic films, but he has a dream. He no longer wants to make
just good pornographic films, he wants to make good films that also
happen to be pornographic. His dream is a continuing series with
James Bond-like plots framing his usual show-everything explicit
sex scenes. He wants his audiences to want to know how things come
out, not just to see what things come out. But it is tough to be
experimental in a medium with such a high budget. As Horner puts
it, "Before you turn around, you've spent maybe twenty, twenty-
five, thirty thousand dollars on a movie." And Horner has a new
star for his series. Eddie Adams (Mark Wahlberg) is a bus boy at a
San Fernando Valley night club. Eddie's home life is a mess and he
is looking for an excuse to leave. Horner sees something in Eddie
that could make him a sex-film star. When things get bad enough at
home Eddie agrees to make one film for Jack.
At Jack's insistence he chooses a new name for himself and Dirk
Diggler sounds "sharp" to him. But this is not just an invitation
to a one-time job. It is an adoption into something between a
repertory company and a family, a tightly knit group who make
Horner's low budget films. In fact, one of several running gags in
the film is that it is always the same faces showing up in the
films, only in different parts. Among the regulars are Rollergirl
(Heather Graham) who never removes her roller-skates, even when
making love. In spite of her silly-looking persona she demands to
be taken on her own terms, especially by her lovers. William Macy
plays Little Bill whose wife's cheating on him is about as subtle
as a billboard on Broadway. Perhaps the most normal of the crew is
Buck Swope (Don Cheadle) who is acting in pornography only long
enough to earn enough to open a hi-fi store and whose country-
western persona seems out of place for an Afro- American. If the
company is a family, the father is Horner and it has porno star
Amber Waves (Julianne Moore) as the nurturing mother. Then funding
the who operation is The Colonel (Robert Ridgely) who produces and
likes what he produces. The general format of the film is sort of
a rise and fall as Horner pulls his dream all together, but has
problems keeping it all together in the face of monstrous egos, the
changing market, and the easy availability of cocaine. The film's
longest segment takes place in 1977, then has shorter and shorter
pieces showing how the group fares as the years go by.
The best performance is certainly the super-mellow Burt Reynolds
who is trying hard to hold on to what pretensions his group has.
Julianne Moore is certainly a scene stealer, sustaining the group
in a motherly way, but unable to get custody of her own child
because of her business. Bill Macy, who has become familiar in
mostly unsavory roles manages to generate real pathos in what is
basically a comic situation-a wife who cares so little for her
husband that she is willing to have sex on a driveway with a crowd
standing around and watching.
BOOGIE NIGHTS creates a very plausible look at a moment in the
history of the pornographic film when it looked like it might get
some respectability from the mainstream. I give it an 8 on the 0
to 10 scale and a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
MT 3E-433 732-957-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and
an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a
football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very
least you need a beer.
-- Frank Zappa (1940 - Dec 4, 1993)