THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
06/18/04 -- Vol. 22, No. 51
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
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Topics:
Pizza-Free Zone (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
CGItis (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
An Argument You Can't Win (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
BRIGHT FUTURE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
TO END ALL WARS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (Retro-Hugo Nominees: THE CAVES OF
STEEL, FAHRENHEIT 451, CHILDHOOD'S END, MISSION
OF GRAVITY, and MORE THAN HUMAN) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Pizza-Free Zone (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
This will be a pizza-free issue, the first one in four weeks.
Meanwhile, I can report that after the first month of same-sex
marriages in Massachusetts, the sky has not fallen there, the sun
still rises, and the price of gasoline is about the same as
everywhere else. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: CGItis (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I have been looking at a list of the films coming out this
summer. You know, a sequel to SPIDERMAN, VAN HELSING, TROY.
Everything seems to be a CGI extravaganza of mostly animated film
to minimize the use of live actors. I seem to be suffering from a
bad enthusiasmic cinematic dysfunction. It has been months since
I have been able to achieve an enthusiasm. Probably not since
MASTER AND COMMANDER. And even that film was in large part
computer-generated. That is a long time to go without achieving a
genuine enthusiasm. I wonder if my doctor can help. Is there
such a thing as moviagra? [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: An Argument You Can't Win (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Evelyn is constantly joking about how Woody Allen was right in
SLEEPER when he said that every food that you are told is good for
you will eventually be bad for you, and everything that is bad
will eventually be good. The scientists who wake up Woody in the
future tell him that now they know that along with smoking, deep-
fat frying and hot fudge sundaes are the best things for your
body. It seems likely to me that certainly that there are a lot
of foods that have not been properly studied to determine if they
are healthy or not.
The problem is that there are not enough financial sources that
are going to fund health and nutrition studies objectively. The
government funds a little via institutions like the National
Science Foundation, but they consider this money to be almost like
charity. With the scantiness of government funding of research it
is going to be a long time before the government funds a study of
whether something like chocolate is actually healthy. In fact,
there was such a study and it was found that chocolate is full of
healthy anti-oxidants. The plaque that builds up in arteries and
causes coronary problems requires oxidation to form and be
maintained. Anti-oxidants impede the growth of this plaque and
actually help to break it down. Anti-oxidants also seem to fight
cancer through mechanisms I believe we do not understand. They
also fight aging apparently.
But the study that established that chocolate was healthy because
of the anti-oxidants was funded by the Mars Candy Company. They
funded it because they were gambling that it would be healthy and
that knowledge would help their sales. And of course when the
study discovered that chocolate anti-oxidants where healthy, those
findings were at first suspect because of who was funding the
study. Actually, the finding is not all that self-serving after
all. It seems that dark chocolate is rich in anti-oxidants, but
milk chocolate is not. I don't think that Mars has many dark
chocolate products. They deal almost exclusively in less healthy
milk chocolate. (One of their standard milk chocolate candy bars,
the Milky Way, has a dark chocolate version for some reason also
called a Milky Way.) But the point is that most nutrition
research is self-serving and so its results are therefore
questionable. Hence our knowledge of what foods are healthy
improves only slowly.
If you have been reading the news about health matters over the
last few months you may have seen some articles about the health
value of hot chocolate. It seems that a study was made of common
table beverages to look for anti-oxidants. The mechanism is that
they reduce the free radicals in the body. You may have heard
that red wine and black and green tea are very good for your
arteries. Well a study by the American Chemical Society found the
champion health beverage is really hot chocolate. The anti-
oxidant concentration of hot chocolate is about twice that of red
wine, five times that of black tea, and three times that of green
tea.
Also recently discovered is that cinnamon seems to reduce blood
sugar levels. And it contains yet more anti-oxidants that protect
cells from free radicals. The Department of Agriculture did this
study. So what do I do? I have a daily cup of hot chocolate
sprinkled with cinnamon. Actually cinnamon and hot chocolate is a
standard combination. It is common to stir a cup of hot chocolate
with a cinnamon stick. Now it is known that hot chocolate with
cinnamon reduces free radicals and blood sugar. I never
previously liked hot beverages. They always are too hot and I
burn my mouth or too cold and they are not palatable. I don't
think that hot beverages are even natural. I think we may be
genetically programmed to prefer cold beverages.
How's that again? Flashback to 10,000 B.C. It is Thursday
afternoon. You have two pre-humans. Troglodyte A for some reason
has a genetic preference for drinking things that are cold.
Troglodyte B has no such preference. Both are thirsty. Each
takes a sip from a local pond but Troglodyte A spits it out
because it is warm. Warm doesn't bother Troglodyte B. He takes a
big drink of the water even though it is fetid and smelly and
stagnant. Troglodyte A runs a mile further to drink from a stream
of cold water. That water is cleaner because it is recently
melted from snow. As a result of being picky Troglodyte A drinks
fresh water while Troglodyte B drinks stagnant water. Guess which
troglodyte has a better chance to survive to create little
troggies? And so the genes for liking drinks cold, if they exist,
get passed along. There is a genetic advantage to liking what we
drink to be cold. But I digress.
Our generation has at least a better chance to eat healthy than
previous generations because we now know about things like hot
chocolate with cinnamon is healthy. We were on a WWII aircraft
carrier and got to see what people ate in the 1940s. It is
amazing these people lived to fight a war. Even for people who
live active lives it was amazing all the cholesterol in their
diets did not kill them. We probably know better now and our
tastes have really changed to healthier diets (if we do not eat
too much at fast food restaurants). At least it is possible to
have a diet that is better than your parents had and one that will
let you live longer. Of course, the downside is you will never be
able to convince your parents and older friends of that. If they
are around to see you are living a long life, at least so far they
are living a longer one. Think about it. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: BRIGHT FUTURE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
[This originally ran in the 10/31/03 issue of the MT VOID as part
of the Toronto International Film Festival coverage, but since it
is getting its United States release now, we thought we'd re-run
the review.]
Rating: high 0 (-4 to +4)
For quite a while I have been claiming that the two best horror
film directors currently working are Guillermo del Toro and
Kiyoshi Kurosawa. While other horror film directors seem to feed
off of older ideas and styles, these two are inventive. And of
the two Kurosawa is probably the more inventive. Truly his films
are weird enough that they frequently leave the viewer behind. I
have seen his SEANCE, CURE, and PULSE, and would definitely
recommend CURE and PULSE. His new film is certainly a weird
story, though not strictly speaking in the horror genre.
With A BRIGHT FUTURE Kurosawa says that he is making a non-horror
film. However if this is not a horror film it is something very
much akin. It certainly is bizarre.
Yuji and Mamoru are two workers in a laundry who are friends. As
a hobby Mamoru has a project to take poisonous jellyfish and adapt
them so that they can live in fresh water. Their supervisor at
the laundry picks these two out to be friends in spite of their
disinterest in them. He starts insinuating himself on them more
and more. He visits Mamoru's apartment and watches sports on
Mamoru's television. When he sees the jellyfish he wants to poke
fingers into its water. Yuji is ready to warn him that the
jellyfish is very dangerous, but Mamoru gestures to Yuji not to
interfere. But nothing happens. The boss discovers that the boys
almost let him be killed and realizes they hate him. He fires
them both. Yuji is so angered that he goes to the boss's hose to
kill him, but when he gets there he discovers that Mamoru has been
there already and has murdered the boss.
Mamoru is convicted of the murder and sentenced to be executed.
In prison Yuji and Mamoru's long-lost father visit Mamoru. Yuji
determines to finish Mamoru's project to adapt the jellyfish to
fresh water. Mamoru commits suicide in prison, but Yuji is still
dominated by Mamoru's vision. The dead man's spirit still seems
to dominate Yuji and Mamoru's father.
In spite of Kurosawa's claims and the title, this is a very bleak
film. The jellyfish is filmed hypnotically and the film carries
us to the conclusion that seems inevitable. This film may not
have the appeal of Kurosawa's CURE or PULSE, but it nonetheless is
like no other film I have ever seen. Kurosawa's greatest gift is
his originality and uniqueness. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: TO END ALL WARS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
[This originally ran in the 10/05/01 issue of the MT VOID as part
of the Toronto International Film Festival coverage, but since it
is getting its DVD release this week, we thought we'd re-run the
review.]
CAPSULE: This is a harrowing look at a rarely dramatized chapter
of WWII, life in a Japanese prison camp. TO END ALL WARS is a
moving film about the struggle of prisoners to retain their
humanity and their dignity. The somewhat religious interpretation
may not be to everyone's taste. Rating: 9 (0 to 10), +3 (-4 to
+4)
More than any other people the Japanese seem capable of acting
with one goal and not letting any other consideration get in their
way. This may be a holdover from the code of Bushido when loyalty
to ones master was the only law. During World War II, of course,
the one goal was winning the war. This led them to do some very
inhuman things in pursuit of that goal. When the Japanese had
captured prisoners, they were very much treated in whatever way
would be optimum for achieving the one goal. Minimum resources
were to be spent in maintaining prisoners in keeping with maximal
positive output. While the Germans, not known for their kindness
in those days, had a 6% mortality rate among captured prisoners of
war, the mortality rate of Japanese prisoners of war was 27%. The
best thing for the war effort was working prisoners nearly to
death on the Thailand to Burma railroad. That railroad was needed
if Japan was to attack India as it planned to do. The best thing
for the effort was not to waste much food on the prisoners so
short and amazingly wretched food was the order of the day. And
just being in the jungle without proper medical aid took its toll.
In the public mind Japan has never been held as accountable for
war atrocities as was Germany. Filmmakers have been reticent to
tell the story, perhaps for fear of offending the Japanese. There
are comparatively few films about the Japanese POW camps.
Certainly there was David Lean's THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI.
There were some low-budget British exploitation films and that was
about it. Then there were TV series "A Town Like Alice" and
"Tenko." Lest the experience be forgotten we have a new film TO
END ALL WARS directed by David Cunningham and written by Brian
Godawa. It is based on the account of Ernest Gordan who survived
the horror of that World War II prison camp and went on to become
for 26 years the Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University. The
film while realistic shows the conditions in the camp as being
considerably more brutal and sadistic than BRIDGE ON THE RIVER
KWAI portrayed them.
The story opens with six or so soldiers being marched into the
prison camp only to be immediately placed in front of a firing
squad. It turns out to be a grim joke, one of many that the
sadistic Japanese play to amuse themselves. Beating and torture
are commonplace events. Men already imprisoned tell the new
arrivals to enjoy the last of their health; it will not last long
with parasites and disease almost inevitable. However, unlike as
in KWAI, the prisoners want to avoid going to the hospital, called
by the prisoners the Death House.
So goes a war within a war with the prisoners trying to maintain
their humanity and with the Japanese trying to make them
interchangeable and highly expendable cogs in a rail-laying
machine. This is more than just a battle of who will win the war
but a battle of ideologies. The Japanese believe that the
individual is nothing, that conformity to group's norms is all
that gives a life meaning. Conformity is purpose. Before the
film is over there will be some surprising revelations about the
character of the prisoners and the character of those running the
camp. If this story showed nothing but sadism from the Japanese
it would be one kind of story. If the British (with one American,
by the way) and the Japanese learned to respect each other it
would be another kind of story. It is neither. It is a stirring
and believable account of camp life.
The color has been distorted in the film to give a washed out
yellow. This serves a double purpose for Cunningham. It gives an
effect of Technicolor film that has been left in heat. It also
creates a distancing effect. The only touch that seems a little
out of place is the use of Gaelic music.
This is a powerful and philosophical view of the prison camp
experience. I rate it a 9 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +3 on the -4
to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I've been saving up the Retro-Hugo nominees to discuss all
together. Even though I read Arthur C. Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END
last September and Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451 last November, I
decided to re-read them now so that I could compare all five
fairly.
Isaac Asimov's CAVES OF STEEL (ISBN 0-553-29340-0) still holds up
well. Oh, a lot of the social conventions and attitudes are
somewhat dated, but I find that adds to the "charm" of it all.
Asimov was one of the first authors who managed to meld science
fiction with mystery and not have either suffer as a result. I
may even go back and re-read the sequel, THE NAKED SUN. (Asimov
eventually tied these into all his other works--unwisely, in my
opinion.)
Ray Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451 (ISBN 0-345-34296-8), unlike many
"topical" books, is still a classic worth reading. The premise
might be unlikely, but then so is the premise of (for example) THE
SPACE MERCHANTS. The whole idea of speculative fiction is to
accept the one premise and see where it leads. (I think it owes a
lot to GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, another book full of unlikely
premises.) If you've only seen the movie and not read the book--
and what does that in itself say?--you should be aware that the
book is richer in detail, less dedicated to a happy ending, and
contains an entire sub-plot about how governments making war wage
the propaganda battle at home that is as pertinent today as ever.
I read Arthur C. Clarke's CHILDHOOD'S END (ISBN 0-345-34795-1)
last October and commented on it then (MT VOID, 10/05/2003). In
particular, I have already noted the incorrect predictions for
sexual mores and for broadcast media, and the rather unbelievable
claims for the Overlords' technology (one is reminded that "any
sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic"). So I'll comment now on other aspects that bothered me
this time around. First, Clarke has this magical technology as a
way to enforce world peace. However, given its limitations even
in the book I suspect it would not be very useful against a group
of terrorists. He also sees the "time-viewing" as putting an end
to the world's religions, but many of those religions do not
really depend on specific events in history. Clarke also talks
about theft disappearing because no one lacks anything--this was
obviously written before the corporate scandals of the last couple
of decades. The reference to Israel as the last independent
country and to the state of race relations in South Africa at the
time of the arrival stick out as having missed the mark; when
Clarke temporarily updated the first chapter, I don't think he
went through and changed any of these, and the first chapter is now
restored to its original state anyway.
Hal Clement's MISSION OF GRAVITY (ISBN 0-345-00993-2), unlike the
Asimov, did not seem to age well. Maybe my tolerance for pages of
world-building infodump has decreased, because I seem to remember
that when I first read it about thirty years ago it was great.
I know Theodore Sturgeon's MORE THAN HUMAN (ISBN 0-375-70371-3) is
a classic. I know people love it. I am not one of them. I have
tried many times to read this book, and while I probably did
finish it at least one of those times, this time I decided life
was too short and my reading list too long.
So my vote would be (in order) for FAHRENHEIT 451, THE CAVES OF
STEEL, CHILDHOOD'S END, MISSION OF GRAVITY, then "no award", and
finally MORE THAN HUMAN last.
In future issues I will be covering the novellas, novelettes, and
short stories. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Formerly, when religion was strong and
science weak, men mistook magic for
medicine; now, when science is strong
and religion weak, men mistake medicine
for magic.
--Thomas Szasz
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