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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 04/16/99 -- Vol. 17, No. 42
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-957-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@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
201-447-3652 for details. 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.
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1. Our esteemed Chair (and the Club itself) are mentioned on page
753 of ROGER EBERT'S MOVIE YEARBOOK 1999. [-ecl]
===================================================================
2. Today we live in an age when free expression is given greater
license than at just about any time in the past. I would like to
take a look at how free expression manifests itself in today's
journalism. If you publish a magazine these days you don't have to
worry about anybody telling you what you can and cannot put on the
cover. No subject is forbidden. The taboos are gone. I guess
that's why when I walk past a magazine stand I am struck by how
mind-bogglingly similar and boring magazine covers are these days.
Every magazine looks the same on a newsstand. Every one is on the
same subject. What subject? Sex, of course. We used to have an
artificial super-diversity of subjects that magazines could be
about because the forces of the status quo were stopping magazines
from writing about what we all knew was everybody's favorite
subject, sex.
When I was growing up the subject of sex was too racy for any
magazine but PLAYBOY. You had to go to books to read about sex.
And there used to be separate whole bookstores for this type of
book. And even if you went into those bookstores and bought that
sort of book the covers were plain with just a title. You had to
read the inside to find the nasty stuff. These days that sort of
store doesn't carry books any more. Video has taken over that
market.
These days you don't have to buy that sort of book. You just need
to read the covers of the women's magazines at any newsstand or at
the grocery checkout. And they always are on the same subject,
month after month. Each one promises to improve your sex life by
teaching you to find that all-important "one spot to drive him
wild." Another one is on health and fitness so you "look great
naked." One magazine after another crassly uses sex to entice you.
Each promises to improve your sex life so that every month your sex
will be better than the previous month. I assume that if the
passion really did increase like this month after month, year after
year, you would eventually get people rupturing themselves if not
outright exploding. In SAME TIME NEXT YEAR a character bemoans
having seen a magazine telling women how to have better orgasms,
and it was the same magazine that his mother used to read for the
cookie recipes. That play was written quite a while back, but the
situation has only gotten worse.
Of course men's magazines seem to be about sex also. I guess the
principle is if they are about men telling men about sexual
experiences the magazines have to be hidden behind counters or have
boards over the covers. If the magazines are about women telling
women how to have sex, then it is fine for general consumption and
can be sold at grocery checkout stands. Of course, being fair, you
have to protect public morals and hide away PLAYBOY that will show
on its cover a half- naked lady on a garish red background. This
is totally unlike COSMOPOLITAN that shows on its cover a half-naked
lady on a pastel lavender background.
I used to love to browse newsstands for all the different kinds of
magazines. Now what you see is sex instruction for women and the
magazines for men are mostly about video games, pickup trucks with
five-foot-diameter wheels, and professional wrestling. I won't say
these are any more intelligent than WOMAN'S G-SPOT MONTHLY, but at
least they seem to have their mindset at least marginally out of
the gutter. Not that it makes for anything more readable.
It wasn't supposed to be this way. When censorship went away we
could have let a thousand flowers bloom, not just one flower a
thousand times as big. Paddy Chayevsky said television is
democracy at its ugliest. I don't think he ever looked at a modern
newsstand. [-mrl]
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3. COOKIE'S FORTUNE (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: A gentle crime story set in a sleepy
Mississippi town has more than its share of
eccentric but likeable characters. Robert
Altman has given us his most relaxing and
pleasant film. For once we do not care if all
the plot strands are going to come together or
not, this is just an interesting set of people.
Rating: 8 (0 to 10), high +2 (-4 to +4)
The South is frequently represented negatively in film and
television, particularly since the civil rights movement of the
1960s. While few even from the South would claim that reputation
is entirely unearned, like anywhere else there is good and bad in
that part of the country. Most frequently, "Mayberry, RFD"
notwithstanding, the views of the southeastern part of the country
have been the unpleasant images one sees in NORMA RAE and IN THE
HEAT OF THE NIGHT. Some of the negative stereotypes met and were
defeated by a more positive and even sentimental view in MY COUSIN
VINNEY. MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL took things a step
further and actually portrayed the fancy section of Savannah as
having dignity, charm, and appealing people. COOKIE'S FORTUNE goes
even another step to spread the charm to the middle and lower
middle class. Holly Spring, Mississippi, the setting of Robert
Altman's new film, seems to have only one unpleasant person. These
people are just a pleasure to watch. In fact, Altman has finally
mastered a problem that he has had with his films for years.
Altman makes films in which a lot of individual strands come
together in the final reel. Too frequently there seems to be no
obvious reason for the audience to follow a strand other than faith
that it will become relevant eventually. In COOKIE'S FORTUNE his
characters are eccentric and interesting enough, that they would
worth watching even if the strands did not tie together. This is
an amiable film to watch, one with rich characters and one with
frequent chuckles. We would not feel cheated even if the various
plotlines did not come together. For that reason it may be
Altman's film best coordinated with his style. Even without the
important messages of NASHVILLE or THE PLAYER, it may be Altman's
most successful piece of art.
Holly Spring, Mississippi is one of those sleepy towns where the
sun takes three days to come up and five to go down. The only
thing that is complex about Holly Spring is the leading family's
family tree. The leading citizen is Cookie, legally known as Jewel
Mae Orcutt (hey, Patricia Neal is still acting). Cookie has a
modest fortune, but her close companion Willis Richland (a show-
stealing Charles Dutton) is afraid that she might be getting a
little *too* eccentric. One of the most touching things about this
film is the platonic, cross-racial love that these two have for
each other. Then there are Camille Orcutt (Glenn Close) and her
pet human Cora Duvall (Julianne Moore)-- sisters, and nieces to
Cookie. Camille absolutely dominates the dim Cora, though Cora was
married once (hence the different surname) and had one child, the
town's scandal, Emma Duvall (Liv Tyler). Emma has had a checkered
past and is also the town's leading criminal--flagrantly
disregarding parking laws as she delivers fresh catfish to local
restaurants. This makes things difficult for her current boyfriend
and lover Jason Brown (Chris O'Donnell), the only young policeman
in town. All the rest of the police seem old enough to be his
grandfather. When Cookie decides it is time to move on and commits
suicide, Camille sees this as her chance to get her fair share of
Cookie's fortune. She also wants to avoid the stigma of having a
suicide in the family, so tampers with the crime scene to make the
suicide look like a burglary and murder.
In the end, the plot of COOKIE'S FORTUNE seems a little contrived.
But at the same time it is beguiling. In what are generally
considered to be Altman's best films he nevertheless talks down to
his audience. There are frequently laughs in an Altman film, but
in THE PLAYER the laughs are cynical and cold. Here they are
richer and not at all mean-spirited. It is the old distinction
between laughing with someone and laughing at him. For once
Altman's message is simply "kick off your shoes and enjoy people."
That might make this the best and ironically the most important
film he has ever made. 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
The more I see of men, the better I like dogs.
-- Madame Roland