THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
04/12/02 -- Vol. 20, No. 41
El Presidente: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
The Power Behind El Pres: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
To subscribe, send mail to mtvoid-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send mail to mtvoid-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Topics:
Correction
Redux
Redux Correction
Correction Correction
John R. Pierce Obituary
Charles Sheffield on Hard SF
Dance in America (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
PANIC ROOM (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
THE FIRST HORSEMAN (book review by Tom Russell)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Correction
Contrary to what someone wrote in last week's MT VOID, Portugal is
not currently adjacent to France. Nor are there plans for it to be
in the forseeable future. Our apologies to anyone who ruined
clothing trying to cross the border. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Redux
I was reading about the current crisis in the Catholic Church over
clergymen who abused their position for sexual gratification.
One columnist was saying that it was sent as a test of faith.
Those who lose their faith have failed the test. I can see their
point. That is exactly how I felt about the Lewinsky scandal.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Redux Correction
OK, I lied. It wasn't exactly. I did feel that Lewinsky was
older and more willing. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Correction Correction
In fact, the little geographical inaccuracy was intentional. It
was to see who would lose faith in perspicacity of the MT VOID
editorials. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: John R. Pierce Obituary
LOCUS reports: "John R. Pierce, best known as a scientist and
electrical engineer, died April 2, 2002, at the age of 92. He wrote
SF and nonfiction articles, under his own name and as John Roberts
and J. J. Coupling, from the 1930s through the early 1970s."
John Robinson Pierce was a Bell Laboratories visionary and one of
the inventors of the transistor. A longer obituary can be found
at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/05/obituaries/05PIER.html.
In my review of THE YEAR 2000 (1970 original anthology, edited by
Harry Harrison), I wrote, "Though in real life J. J. Coupling was
involved in communications technology (under his real name, John
R. Pierce, he was an executive director in Bell Labs when he wrote
his story), 'To Be a Man' is more about bioengineering. However,
it has some very 'modern' ideas, in particular more of the
concepts that Greg Egan is using these days. (I was particularly
reminded of Egan's 'Reasons to be Cheerful.')" [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Charles Sheffield on Hard SF
Charles Sheffield's thoughts on hard science fiction can be found
at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62465-2002Apr4.html.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Dance in America (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I am not sure what possessed me to watch the PBS special on the
work of Bob Fosse, the choreographer who was responsible for plays
like SWEET CHARITY and CHICAGO. I am sure it could not have been
that some of the dance routines that he designed could be
considered to be of a tawdry or salacious nature. Heavens, no. I
guess I have been a little interested in him since I saw his semi-
autobiographical, semi-fantasy film ALL THAT JAZZ. In truth I
think this is a pretty good film, though I am not attuned to what
some people find so fascinating about dance. Indeed, I have been
puzzled they cover dance so frequently on National Public Radio.
At least if they covered painting, the commentator can describe
the subject matter of a painting. When it comes to dance, the
commentator can do little more than say, "Yup, they're doing it."
I think NPR feels they have to cover the arts. One of their major
functions is publicity. They feel they need to publicize and
build interest in art performances so people will go and spend
money on tickets. A Nijinsky is as interested as a Jerry
Bruckheimer is in getting butts to fill seats. NPR provides
exposure. So NPR will have coverage of dance where the listening
audience has no idea what the dance looks like and this is all in
the interest of supporting the arts. It really makes even less
sense than putting a ventriloquist on the radio. (Please do not
write me. I know that has been done also.)
This program about Fosse was not NPR, however but PBS. They do
broadcast moving pictures. In fact, I suppose if you are
interested in dance, TV is not only better than radio, in my
opinion it is probably a better than live performance. How can
that be? Well, if you have a bunch of people dancing on a stage,
some areas of that stage will be more important than others. Most
people look in the right place, but some may be looking at the
cute thing in a brief something to the left of the stage. (This
was a particular problem in dances choreographed by Bob Fosse who
tended to have cute things in brief somethings in many parts of
the stage.) You might miss a very important pas de deux because
you are looking at the wrong part of the stage. On television
presumably the camera operator has been cued in where it is best
to aim the camera. Camera operators who focus only on the cute
thing in the brief somethings do not get asked back. With a
good camera opeator you won't miss that all-important pas de deux.
What is more, perhaps the best angle to see the dance is
frequently from some point impossible to see from the audience.
Some dance companies specialize in kaleidoscope formations that
can be appreciated only if seen from above. For these dances an
overhead shot would be best. On television you can get an
overhead shot where you probably cannot see from overhead in a
live performance. There are things you can do in television
broadcast dance you cannot due in live performance. And, of
course, the camera can pull in close on a dancer. It can give the
viewer detail that could not be seen from the audience. On the
other hand the wide screen of a motion picture with its detail
would be better than television. But either is better than going
to see a live performance, particularly from the back of the hall
or the balcony.
But it strikes me that Bob Fosse's style of dance is to get
several people doing in unison things that if one person were
doing it, it would look really stupid. Something about the
several people going through a senseless motion it makes it seem
less senseless. It may have to do with symmetry. If you look
though a kaleidoscope you see a random pattern of pieces of
colored plastic replicated so that it really looks beautiful.
Look at just one of the cells and it is a random positioning of
bits of colored plastic. It looks like junk. It is much the same
with dancing. One person dancing may just be just acting
strangely. If six people are dancing identically strangely we
have a much higher threshold of what looks weird. If you have
fifty people in a line doing identical senseless things, they seem
organized. They look impressive. I am not talking just about
dancing now. Adolf Hitler terrorized Europe with huge goose-
stepping armies. At that time at least, before we all came to
know what a goose-step meant, if you saw only one man goose-
stepping, you would chuckle. You'd say, "Look at that. A grown
man imitating a goose!!!" There is safety in 100 men walking like
a goose. Once you see 10,000 men walking in unison like 10,000
geese you start to think that walking like a goose looks really
impressive.
Only one person doing something is eccentricity. Get ten people
doing it and it is imitation. A million people do it and it
become style and something to be admired and emulated. That is
really what the fashion industry is all about.
As for dance as an art form, it has been ruined for me. There is
a brilliant bit in the comedy TOP SECRET. It is an AIRPLANE! sort
of spoof on the spy film. At one point the main character is in
Bavaria. A bunch of couples are on a dance floor and everybody is
doing a sort of Bavarian dance. The steps get loonier and
loonier, but everybody does them in unison. Eventually they look
so absurd that you have to say to yourself that this is
ridiculous. And only then do you realize how ridiculous it has
been for several steps and nobody noticed. As long as everybody
is going through the same steps it does not matter to someone
watching that the dancers are behaving very strangely.
But is it not true that we all are dancers, doing the ridiculous
because everyone else does and it is expected. We never question
it. It is said that one of the great formative influences on
Bertrand Russell was an incident that occurred when he was still a
child. Russell was watching his father shave. "Daddy," he asked,
"Why do you shave?" The elder Russell looked at his son. Then he
looked at the razor. He thought a moment and asked out loud, "Why
DO I shave?" He then put down the razor and never shaved again.
Actually shaving once had a purpose. It became the established
custom originally to eliminate nesting places for lice and other
insects and so as not to provide a handhold in battle. These days
most of us no longer are bothered by facial insects and few go
into battle, but shaving is still with us and most of us do it
because there are a lot of other people who do it. Me? I
compromise. I have a beard. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: PANIC ROOM (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Fairly standard woman-in-distress suspense story as three
men try to break into her new home, a Manhattan mansion. Matters
are complicated by the existence of a special high-security
fortified room. The tension is high, but the content is low. The
biggest thief is Forest Whitaker, who once again steals the show.
Rating: 6 (0 to 10), +1 (-4 to +4)
Forest Whitaker is a big chunky black man, not especially
attractive, in an industry in which most successful black actors
have the look of Will Smith and Halle Barry. Very few roles are
ever written specifically for unattractive black men so for every
film he is in, Whitaker is a quirky casting choice. He seems
constantly cast against type in roles like assassins and that
nearly always makes him the most interesting aspect of any film he
is in. Two years from now people will see the title PANIC ROOM
and remember the strong room and that Forest Whitaker was trying
to break into it. Fewer people will remember it was Jodie Foster
in distress in spite of her top billing, her intelligent
performance, and her fame as an Oscar winner. This probably would
have been much the same film with a Rene Russo or a Nicole Kidman
as the imperiled woman. Replace Whitaker and it would not be the
film we saw. [Postscript: reading other reviews I see that Nicole
Kidman really was initially cast as the lead, but had to bow out
due to an injury.]
Newly-divorced Meg Altman (played by Jodie Foster) and her teenage
daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart) are spending their first night in
their fantastic New York City brownstone townhouse. The house has
all the luxuries including a special high-security fortified
"panic room" just in case there is a break-in. And wouldn't you
know it, the first night that is exactly what the two have to
contend with. Three desperate men do break in, expecting the
house to be empty. There is something specific in the house that
they want, what Hitchcock would call "the McGuffin." Meg retreats
to the panic room with her daughter knowing that the telephone
connection to the police is not yet in place. Safe in their small
vault and command center the mother and daughter might have been
able to wait out the intruders. However, the intruders cannot
take what they want and go since the McGuffin is in the panic room
with Meg and her daughter. Also one of the intruders is Burnham
(Whitaker) who is an expert on fortified rooms, their strengths,
and their weaknesses. If anyone can get past the defenses, he
can. The team of trespassers, who know more about the panic room
than Meg does, play a cat-and-mouse game to get into the safe-like
room. They have other problems just working as a team. Burnham
wants to find the McGuffin, grab, and run without hurting anybody.
Junior (Jared Leto) has no such scruples. He is flashy and
impatient. Raoul (Dwight Yoakam) is nearly silent and inscrutable
behind a ski mask. At least initially he has a facade that is icy
and hard edged. He has unexpectedly come armed and Burnham has
not bargained to be involved with guns. This is going to be a
long night.
This could have been a clever battle of wits between two
intelligent and fallible opponents, but it is somehow only
partially successful. Occasionally Meg does things that are
extremely stupid and it is only the contrivance of the
scriptwriter that keeps her alive. The major problem with the
script is that the opponents are neither as intelligent or as
fallible as would be needed to set this film apart. What should
be an interesting plot twist near the end comes with road signs
that start as early as the opening credits. Speaking of which,
the artistic design of the opening credits may be the most
original feature of this film.
David Koepp's screenplay does little new with its people beyond a
little with his Burnham character. The one thing that sets Meg
apart from other besieged but resourceful women in other films is
that she wears glasses. Glasses are a touch rarely used for lead
actors and generally are used as a visual signal of intellect.
Sarah is the standard rebellious teen who feels insecure because
of the divorce. Her relationship with her mother that is totally
standard.
The film is visualized with a depressed (and depressing) color
scheme of darks and muted yellows and greens. A dark color scheme
and the use of rain are familiar David Fincher touches from films
like SE7EN This is a film that requires the viewer to leave logic
behind. One or two of Meg's defenses would have gotten her killed
in all probability. The viewer may be incredulous but never
bored. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to
+4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE FIRST HORSEMAN by John Case (a short book review by Tom
Russell)
Recently I've been busy with yet another home improvement project:
gutting and replacing a bathroom. During such activities I often
have the radio tuned to 93.9 FM to listen to WNYC, National Public
Radio. Anyhow, one guest said someone had figured that if you
took all the new books as they were published the end of the line
would be moving at ninety miles an hour.
I, of course, don't believe it. However, it would be interesting
to know what that statistic would be for science fiction books.
Perhaps then I wouldn't feel as I'm quite such a laggard in my
reading.
John Case wrote THE FIRST HORSEMAN over four years ago. In it
terrorists attack New York City; Washington, DC; and other high-
profile American targets. A CIA agent evaluates whether anthrax
might be the weapon, and if the Taliban might be responsible. The
book's dust jacket hypes, "Case once again combines cutting-edge
science with political intrigue in a thriller . . . so
frighteningly believable it might just happen tomorrow."
It is frightening to imagine what might have happened if the
anthrax mailer had had the resources to mount attacks such as
imagined in this novel. As the author is, again according to the
dust jacket, an "award-winning investigative reporter" and author
of non-fiction about the intelligence community, perhaps we do
have cause for concern about the plots in THE FIRST HORSEMAN.
[-tr]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Decency ... must be an even more exhausting state
to maintain than its opposite. Those who succeed
seem to need a stupefying amount of sleep.
-- Quentin Crisp
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Stock for $4
and no minimums.
FREE Money 2002.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/orkH0C/n97DAA/ySSFAA/J.MolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
mtvoid-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/