THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
11/07/03 -- Vol. 22, No. 19
Big Cheese: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Little Cheese: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
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Topics:
Doing the Right Thing (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Free Books On-line (letter of comment from Ed Keighron)
CRAWLERS (book review by Mark R. Leeper)
LOVE ACTUALLY (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CHEEKY (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
RHINOCEROS EYES (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (TOM'S LAWYER, PROBLEMS SOLVED,
HERLAND, and A YEAR OF READING PROUST)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Doing the Right Thing (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I feel another political editorial coming on. These are not my
most popular editorials. Most people are more positive on the
humorous ones. Occasionally the political ones embroil me in long
debates. I try to save them for when I think there is something
that really needs to be said.
I would like to commend George W. Bush for doing the right thing.
The set of issues on which I agree with Bush is very tiny. I
think his policies have been a disaster for this country. But
that is not what I would like to write about today. It is about
an issue that I know very few people who agree with me. Those who
do are generally firmly in the Bush camp. I do not like Bush, but
I have to say that I am proud of the United States for going to
war in Iraq.
The regime that was removed from Iraq actually needed to be
removed. It is now clear that there were incredible atrocities
being committed by Saddam Hussein's family and party against
innocent people. The United Nations, France, and Russia
apparently knew it was going on and for political reasons chose to
ignore it.
Friends and relatives alike have responded to this statement by
asking the same question. Why should America be the only country
take action to stop the atrocities? Shouldn't the United Nations
or the European community have gotten involved? The answer is, of
course, yes. It is not right that the United States is the only
country willing to go in and end the bloodbath. The fact that
Russia and France and the United Nations opposed action against
Iraq simply reflects on those bodies. The United States should
not have had to go in unilaterally (or nearly so). But given the
choice of only one country standing up or none at all, the proper
choice is that we do the right thing.
The next question I am asked is whether the United States should
be policing the world? Are we going to send troops wherever there
is someone being oppressed? The answer is that you have to do
what you can.
These questions of where does the United States want to get
involved always raise in my mind the case of Kitty Genovese. This
was a notorious incident in which a bar waitress was returning to
her apartment and was attacked and stabbed by a man. Neighbors
opened their windows and yelled for the man to go away. He did go
away only to return. Other neighbors yelled and again he went
away only to return. On the third attack he succeeded in killing
Genovese. The neighbors had seen it happen, but none wanted to
risk getting involved. Nobody called the police until it was too
late. Later, explanations were given like "I'm not the police
and my English speaking is not perfect."
If one person had taken a little responsibility and called the
police after the first or even the second attack, the police would
have been on the scene in time to save a life. But nobody did
feel that responsibility. Nobody wanted to get involved.
Whether the community is a one of neighbors or of nations each
member has a personal responsibility to do the right thing. It
may be unfair. It may be that every other member will shirk it
responsibility and act in its own interest. And that is a matter
between them and their consciences. The right thing to do was to
remove Saddam Hussein from power even if it is at the risk of
having to do it unilaterally. Even at the risk of the
condemnation of a world community of countries that are each
acting in self-interest the United States should do what is
right. To do otherwise is hypocrisy. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Free Books On-line (letter of comment from Ed Keighron)
One of our readers sent me this mail. It is self-explanatory.
Hi Mark,
I am sure you already knew, but on the off chance you
didn't, I found this last week:
http://www.baen.com/library/
It's the Baen free electronic library.
I have most of the books offered in paperback, but I found
it convenient to have electronic copies on my palm5 so I
could read easily at the doctors' office or on lines at the
store. Just a heads up. :-)
One of the loyal readers of the MT-VOID,
Ed Keighron
I also carry something on the order of 30 novels on my palmtop as
well as a bunch of current articles to read when I have nothing
else to do, like waiting in lines. My novels are mostly public
domain fiction from Project Gutenberg. Usually they will be
something by A. Merritt or some other quality writer of that
period. This stuff is free for the taking, but you need to read
it off a computer or a portable device like a Palm Pilot or a
palmtop.
If people would like more information of how to find A LOT of good
writing free on-line, let me know and I will write up an article
explaining. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: CRAWLERS by John Shirley (Del Rey, November 2003,
0-345-44652-6, $14.95) (book review by Mark R. Leeper)
"Twelve yards horizontally, two in the air, the crawler leapt--
soared!--and came down on Lance, smashing him onto his back so
hard the bones of his chest exploded from his sides. Everything
Lance would have screamed with was crushed, and he only made a
silent scream with his open mouth."
According to the IMDB John Shirley is considered the "most punk"
of the cyberpunk authors. He has played with rock bands Sado-
Nation, The Panther Moderns, Terror Wrist, and Obsession. He co-
authored the screenplay for the successful horror film THE CROW.
He is also known for his cyberpunk novels like CITY COME A-WALKIN'
and DEMONS. But the best thing I can say about CRAWLERS is that
it does not seem to be cyberpunk. It is set in a small town and
the language is not explosive. The plot just is not very new. At
all.
A science project combining evolution and nanotechnology has gone
terribly awry. It has created creatures that are part animal and
part metal that have incredible abilities. They killed their
inventor and now use these abilities mostly to take more animals
over and make more things like themselves. The government has the
presence of mind to put them all in a rocket (how?) and send them
into orbit. Not quite three years later the satellite falls back
to earth. (Not much of a satellite.) It crashes into a small
town of Quiebra. (Quiebra is Spanish for "fissure" or
"bankruptcy." I wonder which one was meant? It's nice that it
returned to its country of origin.) Now the things are loose and
taking over first animals and then people. The people of Quiebra
don't want to believe it, but their town is in big trouble.
If this all sounds a little formulaic, so is the rest of the book.
So we have the small isolated town that has some sort of science
fiction threat. It is the first line in something that could
destroy the world. And a bunch of young adults are all that
stands between IT and US.
I guess the question I would ask is this: Isn't there enough of
this stuff on the Sci-fi Channel without paying to read it in a
book? [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: LOVE ACTUALLY (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4)
I hate to be the Grinch on this one, but it is just a trifle too
saccharine. It is, in fact, just a big sappy valentine for
Christmas. It tells eight (or so) different love stories that
take place in the weeks before Christmas and they come to their
mostly wonderful denouements on Christmas Eve. The stories also
connect up at the same time. How wonderful it is to have so many
characters happily in love at Christmas time.
Emma Thompson is a wife with a husband who might just be on the
verge of fooling around. Laura Linney is a professional woman in
love with a co-worker but who seems too glued to her cell phone to
make time for love. Colin Firth is a writer with a mutual
attraction to his housekeeper though neither speaks the other's
language. Hugh Grant is the new Prime Minister of Britain who
dances around 10 Downing Street like Tom Cruise in RISKY BUSINESS.
Liam Neeson plays a widowed stepfather trying to help his ten-
year-old over a case of first love. There are the two porno
actors who spend the day working naked together simulating sex,
but... Well, you get the idea.
This is a polished film with only one rough edge, a small slam at
American politics. Billy Bob Thornton, in his first suave role,
plays a somewhat flawed American President. That roughness may be
filed down by the time it plays in the United States. One
potential rough edge has Bill Nighly playing an old and fading pop
star who peppers his public appearances with bad boy vulgarity.
But he turns out to be the only really memorable character in the
film.
If all this niceness of love and Christmas is not enough the film
is peppered with performance of old and popular songs to make this
the cinematic equivalent of comfort food. Little lapses in logic
are peppered throughout to delight the audience. (At a wedding
the brass section of the band are seated scattered among the
guests, instruments ready, but nobody seems to have noticed.
Later, when it suits, Heathrow airport security comes off as
incredibly sloppy and lax.)
This is Richard Curtis's first time directing, but he has written
this and some very popular previous films including FOUR WEDDINGS
AND A FUNERAL, NOTTING HILL, and BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY. LOVE
ACTUALLY is in turns touching and affecting and then sugary. This
film is a reminder that love is wonderful for those who need or
just want to be reminded. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: CHEEKY (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4)
CHEEKY is written and directed by its star, David Thewlis.
Thewlis is an actor I have enjoyed in several films, particularly
RESTORATION (though I have a little trouble picking up everything
said in his particular varient of an English accent). His film is
something of a disappointment. Where it works it does so because
of Thewlis the actor and perhaps Thewlis the director. Where it
fails it is certainly because of Thewlis the writer. This is a
film about Harry (Thewlis) who must forge a relationship with his
son after he loses his wife. Harry is a bookish and likable
toymaker whose world is turned upside down by a fire. He feels,
as he says, "hollowed out." Before his wife Nancy died she
registered Harry for a chance to appear on a television game show.
When Harry is chosen after her death he feels he must go through
with it.
The game show is an incredibly stupid seeming one in which
contestants are tested both in their knowledge and their ability
to insult other contestants. Then he forges a friendship with
another contestant, a nurse whose name is Nancy, like his dead
wife.
Thewlis has written some good scenes for himself and either his
son or the new Nancy. Part of the problem is that logic is
frequently missing from the story. The rule of the game, though
never completely explained, do not make sense. A show with a
concept as volatile as this would never be broadcast live. And
perhaps a complaint that the drama is strong and the logic is not
would not bother Thewlis a lot. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: RHINOCEROS EYES (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Rating: 0 (-4 to +4)
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW opened a market for cult absurdist
comedies and other strange films played at midnight. Successful
examples include ERASERHEAD, REPO MAN, and LIQUID SKY. More
frequently, films aimed for this market fail to catch on and are
quickly forgotten. The odds are against RHINOCEROS EYES getting
much attention much less a cult following.
Chep is a fringe autistic man who lives in a film prop warehouse.
He knows the contents of the prop shop supremely well. The prop
shop has nearly anything customers want and Chep is how they find
it. When a beautiful art decorator, Fran (Paige Turco), asks for
some really esoteric props like rhinoceros eyes, the smitten
frustrated Chep dons a Tor Johnson mask he used for Halloween and
goes out to steal the props for her. This causes a panic and a
reign of terror. Chep himself becomes unbalanced and starts
seeing props start forming themselves into human forms and giving
him advice.
The film written and directed by Aaron Woodley in much the same
campy style as REPO MAN. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Peter J. Heck has been writing a mystery series with Samuel
Clemens (Mark Twain) as the detective. The sixth and latest is
TOM'S LAWYER (yes, they all have this sort of clever title). As
with many of this sort of thing, the initial appeal of the premise
wears off after a few volumes and one is left to judge the books
solely as mysteries. Unfortunately, as mysteries they are (in my
opinion) merely passable. If you're interested in Twain, I'd
recommend you read one or two (the first, which introduces the
narrator, was DEATH ON THE MISSISSIPPI).
Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini collaborated on several
mystery and science fiction stories, which are now collected in
PROBLEMS SOLVED. (It's impossible to tell from the book if this
includes all their short collaborations or just a subset.) I know
Malzberg mostly from his science fiction rather than his
mysteries, and Pronzini only as an editor, so it's hard to compare
these stories with their other writings. I found them reminiscent
of John Collier or Jeffrey Archer, and they're all very short
(half a dozen pages or so). I'm a Malzberg completist, but for
those who aren't the book is a bit pricey. Alas, as a trade
paperback, it's unlikely to show up in your library either.
Charlotte Perkins's HERLAND is a classic feminist Utopia which is
by today's standards fairly boring and obvious. Actually, it's
not clear to me that it wasn't boring and obvious by the standards
of her own time. I suspect this is assigned reading in a lot of
feminism courses, but if you don't have to read it, why bother?
I had hoped that Phyllis Rose's A YEAR OF READING PROUST would be
more about reading Proust and less about what happened to the
author during that year, but it wasn't. I was earlier
disappointed in Alain De Botton's HOW PROUST CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE.
Proust may be a great author, but the books he seems to inspire
are neither useful nor informative (though De Botton's is the
better of the two in this regard). [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
It isn't necessary to be rich and famous
to be happy. It's only necessary to be rich.
-- Alan Alda
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