THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
09/24/04 -- Vol. 23, No. 13
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:
The Return of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
(comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Hugo Awards (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Square People (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE (film review
by Mark R. Leeper)
SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (film review by
Mark R. Leeper)
DUNE: THE MACHINE CRUSADE (book review by Joe Karpierz)
SILVER CITY (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
BANG RAJAN: THE LEGEND OF THE VILLAGE WARRIORS
(film review by Mark R. Leeper)
WHEN WILL I BE LOVED (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (TIME PATROL and FEAR GOD AND TAKE
YOUR OWN PART) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Return of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
BBC Radio 4 has produced two new series of their hugely
super-popular semi-sci-fi but mostly comedy series "The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy". They began broadcasting on September 21,
which may seem like just any other date to you, but it is the day
in which the light and darkness are in equal proportions and this
is the country of paganism and Stonehenge.
But, I hear you say that BBC 4 is a whole ocean away. (Well, some
of you are now saying no it isn't, but those voices are saying it
in a British accent. (How cultured it sounds. Can this really be
the people that spends its evenings drinking in pubs and which
produces those tawdry tabloids and whose Ministers of Parliament
are so frequently found in their cups and in ladies' foundation
garments? (But I digress.))) The inescapable fact is that very
few of us on this side of the pond have radios strong enough to
pick up the Beeb (that is the super-secret nickname for the BBC
that only us aficionados who are real insiders know) so we will
have to wait for local broadcasts of the series just like last
time. But, hark, many things have changed over the last 26 years
since the show's first broadcast. (America still had the respect
of the world then, for one thing. (But I guess that was true four
years ago too. (But I digress.))) Fear not, fair varlet, if thou
hast one of those useful PC thingees with the screen and the
keyboard and the spam and the pop-ups. For one can yet get BBC 4
over the Internet. Yet wait, says you, have I (you) not already
missed the first episode? In sooth thou hast, but thou canst
download an episode up to a seven days after its Thursday
re-broadcast. There is still time, but thou bestest rush for the
deadline draweth nigher and nigher.
Details at
and the BBC's own information at
.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Hugo Awards (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
The Hugo and Retro Hugo awards this year were as follows:
Novel: PALADIN OF SOULS by Lois McMaster Bujold
Novella: "The Cookie Monster" by Vernor Vinge
Novelette: "Legions in Time" by Michael Swanwick
Short Story: "A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman
Related Book: THE CHESLEY AWARDS FOR SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
ART: A RETROSPECTIVE by John Grant, Elizabeth L. Humphrey,
and Pamela D. Scoville
Professional Editor: Gardner Dozois
Professional Artist: Bob Eggleton
Dramatic Presentation, Long Form: THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE
RETURN OF THE KING
Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: Gollum’s Acceptance Speech at
the 2003 MTV Movie Awards
Semi-Prozine: LOCUS
Fanzine: EMERALD CITY
Fan Writer: Dave Langford
Fan Artist: Frank Wu
Retro Hugos
Novel: FARENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury
Novella: "A Case of Conscience" by James Blish
Novelette: "Earthman, Come Home" by James Blish
Short Story: "The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
Related Book: CONQUEST OF THE MOON by Wernher von Braun,
Fred L. Whipple & Willy Ley
Professional Editor: John W. Campbell, Jr.
Professional Artist: Chesley Bonestell
Dramatic Presentation, Short Form: THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
Fanzine: SLANT
Fan Writer: Bob Tucker
Lois McMaster Bujold is now tied with Robert A. Heinlein for
number of Hugos won for novels, at four each. Heinlein won for
DOUBLE STAR, STARSHIP TROOPERS, STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, and
THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS; Bujold won for THE VOR GAME,
BARRAYAR, MIRROR DANCE, and PALADIN OF SOULS. Each also has four
non-winning nominations. Heinlein was nominated but didn't win
for HAVE SPACESPUIT--WILL TRAVEL, GLORY ROAD, TIME ENOUGH FOR
LOVE, and JOB: A COMEDY OF JUSTICE. Bujold was nominated but
didn't win for FALLING FREE, MEMORY, A CIVIL CAMPAIGN, and THE
CURSE OF CHALION.
However, Heinlein is still ahead--he also won a Retro Hugo for
FARMER IN THE SKY. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Square People (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
They had an interesting statistic on the news this morning
apparently 12% of the American public is currently on low-
carbohydrate diets like the Atkins diet right now. That is an
amazing statistic when you think about it. It is hard to get one-
eighth of the American population to do anything for any reason,
but particularly for health reasons.
But that is not evidence that they are really successful at losing
weight on the Atkins Diet right now. It would interesting to
know. What we might really need to know is a statistic the United
States Government does not give us. The government year after year
consistently stonewalls us on making this data public. What we
need to know is just what is the weight of the American Public.
Is it the weight down because of the low carbohydrate diets? Is
it up because of immigration? Just how much does the American
People weigh? If you could put the public on a scale without
clothing--no, don't try to visualize it--what would it weigh?
Someone must have a reasonable estimate. How much of this
pulsating flesh is there? This is the really gross national
product and we deserve to know it. Just as a back of the envelope
calculation I am guessing there is about a 20-megaton mass of
American citizen out there. That is assuming about 300 million
people averaging about 133 pounds.
I think as a whole Americans are getting healthier as the average
weight drops. The average weight is dropping as we get more
immigration from Asia where people tend to be lighter on the
average than Europeans. Those Asians who are heavy--Sumo
wrestlers come to mind--are already profitably employed in Asia
and are not a big part of American immigration.
But of course the average weight of people on a diet is not really
the whole story. Even if people on a given diet do lose weight,
it does little good if there are not many people on that diet. If
we want to get a figure of merit of the Atkins diet, it is unfair
to take the total weight of American citizens on the Atkins. We
don't know if a large number is good or bad. Having reached 12%
of the American public is pretty amazing. That would tend to push
the figure up. It is no longer a fringe diet so much as a social
movement. It should be evaluated as such. We are talking about
thirty-six million people. Even if each person loses only a pound
there are eighteen kilotons of weight lost.
The real measure of the effectiveness of the diet, of course,
would be the number of people on the diet divided and not
multiplied by their average weight. If the number of people on
the diet doubles the average effect is twice as effective. If the
average weight should be cut in half (an extreme case) then you
would want the effectiveness figure to double then also. That is
why you divide and not multiply by the average weight. We really
want to track the number of people on the diet divided by the
average weight to find the true effectiveness of a diet.
The units on the numerator is persons (or people). On the
denominator the unit is pounds-per-person. Invert and multiply
and it is easy to see the unit of effectiveness is the
square-person-per-pound of people on the diet.
(36,000,000 persons)/(150 pounds/person) = 240,000 sq-people/pound
As I figure it with Atkins we are dividing 36,000,000 people by
something like 150 pounds-per-person. That comes to something
like 240,000 square-people-per-pound. How many diets in the
history of dieting can be claimed to have achieved that many
square-people to a single pound? Most people would consider a
successful diet to have an impact of something like 0.006 square-
people-per-pound. I guess that is 12 square-people per ton. With
Atkins we are talking 240,000 for each pound! That is an impact
of 15,000 square-people-per-ounce. I don't know about most you,
but I personally find it very difficult to picture that many
square-people for every ounce of someone on the Atkins diet. It
boggles my mind.
In any case it certainly gives you something to think about.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE (film review by Mark
R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Complex and a little hard to follow but imaginative and
spectacular anime film. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE is a new adventure set in the
world of the original GHOST IN THE SHELL. This is a future world
where everybody is part machine. The main characters are two
police officers, one almost all human, one almost all machine.
The new story, set just twenty-eight years in the future, involves
a revolt of female pleasure robots called gynids who one day start
acting in non-robotic ways by killing people and by committing
suicide. Both actions go against their moral ethic--essentially
what are Asimov's laws of robotics.
I saw the film in a subtitled version in one pass with subtitles
that frequently are hard to finish before they are whisked away.
The plot is as complex as most science fiction novels. It was
rather difficult for me to keep on top of just what was happening
in the film. Nevertheless I was impressed with the apparent
profundity of the story. Visually the film is frequently near
live action and a live-action film with this much spectacle would
these days cost in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It may no
longer be necessary to prove the power of animation, but at least
GHOST IN THE SHELL 2: INNOCENCE demonstrates it.
The animation is never flat, but demonstrates varying degrees of
dimensionality, frequently within the same frame. The film is
told against a backdrop of future Japan, but punctuated with some
traditional settings like a traditional Japanese festival. It is
interesting that for years American films have shown the world
American culture. These days the international film community is
seeing many different cultures. And that is true of mass marketed
films as well as art films. While there is the usual gratuitous
violence of anime films, there are still some really breathtaking
images that make this a film worth the effort to watch. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (film review by Mark
R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: The Art Deco future as it was seen from the late 1930s is
the background for this super-paced sci-fi adventure. The plot is
just a chain of action sequences, one leading to the next, and the
characters are one-dimensional. Even the artwork is a little too
dark, but the images are genuinely exciting and they are what make
the film worth seeing. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
Back in the 1930s people grew tired of the daily grind of the
Great Depression and looked to the future for some reason for
optimism. People embraced recent large-scale engineering marvels
like the Hoover Dam and the Empire State Building with its (never
used) dirigible mooring at the top. The art style of the future
was Art Deco and buildings like the geometrically decorated
Chrysler building captured this spirit, as well as the Hoover Dam
and the Empire State Building. Capturing this mood is a new film
that seamlessly combines realistic-looking animation and live
action. SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW gloriously captures
the same art deco sepulchral futurism of the original Max
Fleischer Superman cartoons. But these images are presented in a
style that makes them almost look as if they have come to life.
The film is a terrific exercise in art and a visually fascinating
film.
The story begins with the kidnapping of a great scientist, one of
many who have disappeared. Then suddenly New York City is
attacked by a fleet of flying machines that turn out to be sixty-
foot-high robots who unstoppably march through the streets of the
city with some mysterious goal. Nearly killed in the onslaught is
pretty Polly Perkins (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), a daring
newspaper reporter who is known to take chances. Parker was once
the lover of Joe Sullivan (Jude Law) who under the name Sky
Captain leads a staunch team of great pilots and scientists who
offer their services to those who need them. Sky Captain destroys
the rampaging robots, but this is only the beginning of his battle
to destroy the evil schemes of the nefarious Dr. Totenkopf (German
for "Death Head").
The plot is on a comic-book level, but that is part of the idea.
The pace of this high-octane adventure is so fast there is no time
for a real story. But never do we get a chance to sit back and
bemoan the lack of consistent plot. This is a film paced for the
video-game generation with just one action sequence shortly after
another. There is no character to particularly like. Jude Law's
Sky Captain does not have a lot of personality. He is just a man
getting an important job done the best he can. That puts him a
point up on Gwyneth Paltrow's Polly whose small deceptions and
indignant poses quickly outstay their welcome to become
irritating. Characters are not the chief attraction of this film.
This is one of those films that a lot of the fun is finding the
allusions to other films. A background setting will be recreated
from one film, a sound effect from another. In the course of two
hours we visit several of our favorite fantasy films. The images
on the screen are nearly all huge. Doorways on Sky Captain's
island are twenty feet tall and must be really hard to move. Why
does it tweak our imagination to see machines that tower over us
and make us feel small? Maybe because we imagine using the power
in those huge machines. Maybe when they are destroyed we feel
like powerful Davids bringing down Goliaths of steel. In any
case, much of the spectacle is the scale of the robots and the
flying machines. The one complaint about the majestic visual
imagery is that so much of the film is shown in twilight of semi-
darkness. This may make the animation easier and cover over
errors, but it makes the images harder to see. What we see is
visually terrific, but it might be even better if we could more
easily see the detail in those majestic images we are looking at.
This film with the action and pacing of a super science fiction
serial on steroids is a unique film and even with some of the
story shortcomings is a real entertainment. It is interesting to
compare it to another super-science alternate history, the soon-
to-be-released anime feature STEAMBOY. And it is even more
interesting that these two films were made so close to each other
in time. Perhaps the time is right to look at our past and think
about what might have been. I rate SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF
TOMORROW a low +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: DUNE: THE MACHINE CRUSADE (book review by Joe Karpierz)
DUNE: THE MACHINE CRUSADE by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
(copyright 2003, TOR, $27.95, 619pp, ISBN 0-765-30158-X) (book
review by Joe Karpierz)
We're back for the second installment in the "Butlerian Jihad"
trilogy, THE MACHINE CRUSADE. We have yet another doorstop in an
increasing number of doorstops written by Anderson and Herbert,
although in a panel at the recent WorldCon on Doorstop Books
Anderson admitted that he likes to write them. He says that he
likes complex books with lots of characters and different plot
threads, and as a result you end up with a doorstop.
Here's what I wrote about the "Butlerian Jihad" trilogy in my
review of the previous book, THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD: "I guess they
then thought it would be a good idea to go all the way back to the
event that gave this book its name, the Butlerian Jihad, and tell
the tale of the war against the Thinking Machines that freed
humanity, oh, about 10,000 years prior to the events of the
original 'Dune' novel."
There's a reason for everything, of course--sometimes you just
have to look hard to find it. In this case, when I wrote the last
review, I didn't know that Frank had asked Brian to write the
Butlerian Jihad story with him. I found this out by listening to
Kevin Anderson talk at WorldCon. So anyway, they did it in part
because Frank wanted to write it anyway.
The book starts out about twenty years after the last book, and
things aren't going well for the good guys. The war has dragged
on and on and on and on, and there have been heavy casualties.
Iblis Ginjo, who has a political agenda of his own, runs the
Jihad, occasionally pulling Serena Butler out to make
inspirational speeches that show her support for him. I disliked
him from the start, and he turned out to be one nasty dude.
Xavier Harkonnen and Vorian Atreides have become good friends--
although I'm sure that will change in The Battle of Corrin, just
released--and Vorian has acquired a love interest. Meanwhile, the
remaining Titans, led by Agamemnon, are plotting against Omnius,
the overmind that controls all the machines. Erasmus, our robot
with just a bit too much free will, also begins to rebel against
Omnius. The Cogitors, deep thinkers who long ago left human
society behind by having their brains removed from their bodies,
inserted into a life support canister of sorts, and left the
vicinity, have returned to muck things up. Hecate, the Titan who
left long ago comes back to cause some problems--but I'm not sure
of her purpose here. In order not to give away anything, I'll let
the reader decide why I make that comment. The Tlulaxu are
involved in an insidious scheme to provide the Jihad with
replacement body parts. Norma Cenva, daughter of a high priestess
of Rossak, ends up making several discoveries that will alter
space travel as they know it. We also follow the story of Selim
Wormrider and his tribe, the predecessors to the Fremen.
Have I left anything out? Probably, but you get the point.
This book is full of stuff, and there isn't much padding. It's a
good adventure tale, and it's interesting to see how the authors
are pulling all the pieces together that will eventually lead to
the Dune universe as we know it.
I'm still not convinced it was necessary to write these books.
But the authors seem to be having a good time, so they might as
well go ahead. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: SILVER CITY (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: John Sayles gives us a murder mystery highlighted by
several cynical observations of current American politics. The
film has an all-star cast. Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10.
As is frequently the case with John Sayles films, it is the
background that is the real point of the film and the foreground
story is really just a good excuse to explore the background. In
SILVER CITY we have a murder mystery set in Colorado. As the
murder mystery the film does function but only with tepid
interest. Looking for the murderer we also get more than an
eyeful of state politics during a political campaign for a state
gubernatorial election. And the governor's race is really a
thinly veiled commentary on the very real upcoming national
election.
Running for the top position in Colorado is Dickie Pilager (Chris
Cooper), the less than competent--and not even coherent--son of a
former Senator (Michael Murphy). While a political advertisement
is being shot falsely portraying Dickie as a great outdoorsman and
fisherman, Dickie's fishing line fouls on something in a lake.
The something turns out to be a corpse. Is it something that has
been planted there to sabotage the campaign? Private investigator
Danny O'Brien (Danny Huston) is hired to find out just how the
corpse got in the lake. Is it connected with an attempt to smear
Dickie? From the outset this seems unlikely since the snagging of
the corpse was such an unlikely event. But the Pilager family and
their advisor Chuck Raven (Richard Dreyfuss) want to be sure and
more importantly want to control any information found. O'Brien
will have to be getting involved with the local mining and
agricultural interests where not all of the policy smells a lot
better than the corpse did. As a dubious guide along the way is
Dickie's sister Madeleine Pilager (Daryl Hannah). She has little
love for the politicians in her family, but is as likely to be a
dangerous friend to O'Brien.
John Sayles makes films very much like Robert Altman does. He
uses a big company of familiar actors with whom the viewer can
feel comfortable. His cast includes here Billy Zane, Richard
Dreyfuss, Daryl Hannah, Kris Kristofferson, and Tim Roth. Most
Sayles plots are in no hurry to go anywhere in particular. He
shows us how corruption does damage in the fields of agriculture
and mining and he looks at how the corruption runs deep and
actually works.
The plot as expected of Sayles is intelligent and he makes his
political points just barely avoiding being strident. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: The true story of a motorcycle trip that revolutionist
Che Guevara took with a friend and that was the source of many of
Guavera's later political opinions. Rating: low +2 (-4 to +4) or
7/10
When Ernesto "Che" Guevara was in his early twenties in 1952 with
a rudimentary medical education, he and his friend Alberto Granado
took an old motorcycle, left Buenos Aires, and went on a road trip
to see first their native Argentina and then the rest of South
America. They actually visited only Argentina, Chile, and Peru.
What they saw molded their lives.
The journey was initially a carefree one for pleasure until they
started seeing the poverty and pain of the native population at
the mercy of the wealthy. In the course of the film they meet a
doctor who is committed to revolution, reform, and helping the
poor. The youths toy with revolutionary ideas and work for a time
in a leper colony. Eventually, as their diaries told, Ernesto and
Alberto went their separate ways. Ernesto, of course became a
seminal revolutionary of the Cuban Revolution. Alberto devoted
his life to medicine, helping the poor in very different ways.
The story of this journey is dramatized in the new film THE
MOTORCYCLE DIARIES, based on the diaries that the two kept on
their trip.
Walter Salles directs the film in two halves really. The first
half of the film is a fairly lighthearted road picture. The boys
may not always get along with each other, but the problems they
face are more or less what they expected and the style is
carefree. In the second hour of the film things get more serious
for the two young men. They encounter some farmers who have been
forced off of their land by land speculators. For the first time
they meet people not just insolvent at the moment but who are
profoundly poor. They start thinking of political reform. A
scene which was just a paragraph in the original diaries becomes a
central metaphor in the film: a swim across a river becomes a
decision of commitment versus shirking commitment.
The politics in the film is present but generally is kept mild
even relative to a film like THE GRAPES OF WRATH. Perhaps the
political impact is stronger if the viewer bears in mind that this
is the famous revolutionary. Even then it is true mostly in the
second half.
THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES is less a revolutionary tract and more a
relic of the life of a will-be revolutionary. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: BANG RAJAN: THE LEGEND OF THE VILLAGE WARRIORS (film review
by Mark R. Leeper)
[This review originally ran in the 10/26/01 issue of the MT VOID,
but since the film is just now being released in the United States,
we are re-running it.]
CAPSULE: This is a Thai film commemorating a heroic village who
resisted the Burmese armies invading Siam in 1765. The style of
the film is crude but promising. As international historical
films go, this seems like a low-budget epic that somehow does not
grab the imagination quite like a Kurosawa might, but still has
well-executed moments. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), +1 (-4 to +4)
In the mid-18th century certain provinces of Burma resisted the
central government. These provinces needed outside support and
got much of their support from the neighboring country of Siam
(now Thailand). When a new ruler of Burma came to power his first
priority was to subdue rebellious provinces and his second was to
punish Siam for supporting the revolt. In 1765 he sent two armies
into Siam to capture the capital, Ayudhaya. The two armies were
intended to converge on the capital, but only one arrived. One
army was held up by the resistance of a single tenacious Siamese
village, Bang Rajan. This village has become legendary in
Thailand as sort of a Siamese Alamo. This film is the story of
the Bang Rajan resistance.
In the film the village knows the Burmese are approaching and
chooses Taen as their leader against the Burmese. The village
also asks Chan, a non-villager, to help. Chan is a cagey veteran
fighter who lives in the local woods. Chan's strength of spirit
and his resolve seems to be symbolized by an unusual huge mustache
that looks like the horns of a water buffalo. Chan brings with
him to the fight a group of fighters and trains the village how to
fight. The village asks Ayudhaya for assistance to fight off the
enemy in the form of cannons, but Ayudhaya offers no help so the
villagers have to forge their own weapons. Meanwhile the village
grows as neighbors join Bang Rajan for protection and to fight.
But will they be able to overcome the formidable Burmese forces?
This is a historical war film but it is very differently in style
from a RAN or KAGEMUSHA. Akira Kurosawa, in his films, makes the
most of military regalia, armor, weapons, and local architecture.
Thanit Jitnukul, who directed BANG RAJAN, cannot make his films as
picturesque and hence cannot create the same sort of feel. His
heroes are simple villagers. Chan fights in open shirt and
loincloth. Typical weapons are arrows, axes, and machetes. The
battle strategy is something like "each man must run at the enemy
and kill as many as possible." Somehow it is harder to make these
crude forest battles look as impressive as Japanese or Korean Clan
Wars or horseback battles of kingdoms in India. Also the film
style is much cruder. At least twice in the fighting mud is
splashed on the camera lens. Most filmmakers would have edited
that part out. The music by Chatchai Pongprapaphan is, however,
powerful and exciting. The production cost $1.3M, which I am told
is the cost of four typical Thai films, but in Thailand it has
grossed the most of any domestic film ever. That is partially
fueled by current tensions on the Burma-Thailand border. In fact
this film is considered to be part of the provocation for those
tensions.
The story of Bang Rajan Village is known to every school child in
Thailand. Tanit Jitnukul directs and co-authors this new film,
bringing the story to an international audience. I rate it a 6 on
the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: WHEN WILL I BE LOVED (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: About half an hour's worth of story seasoned with a lot
of sex and other padding. Rating: -1 (-4 to +4) or 3/10
Somewhere deep within the misleadingly titled WHEN WILL I BE LOVED
there is a good tight half-hour episode of the old "Alfred
Hitchcock Presents" television series. It seems to be a variation
and comment on the film INDECENT PROPOSAL. But James Toback, who
wrote, directed, and plays a role in the film does not have a
place to sell for so short a story. Instead the story is
tediously padded out to 81 minutes with full (back) nudity shower
scenes, (possibly) anal sex, lesbian sex, long tedious portraits
of a street hustler hustling and of his wealthy girlfriend trying
to work their way in the world. Toback has previously given us
the film FINGERS and the fascinating documentary THE BIG BANG.
Both of these are far more engaging films. Here he demonstrates
just how not to add padding to a story. Shot in "11 or 12 days"
with improvisational dialog and no rehearsal allowed to his actors
to slow production, WHEN WILL I BE LOVED seems like more a failed
experiment in speed film production than a serious attempt at
making a feature film. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
This week's column will be somewhat shorter, because I spent the
last three weeks at a science fiction convention and a film
festival, where reading time was sparse, to put it mildly. The
previous three weeks' columns were written ahead of time, but I'm
out of backlog.
The book chosen for our science fiction discussion group this
month was Poul Anderson's TIME PATROL. There seem to have been a
variety of collections of Anderson's "Time Patrol" stories, called
variously THE TIME PATROL, THE GUARDIANS OF TIME (released once
with four stories and once with five, I think), TIME PATROLMEN,
and ANNALS OF THE TIME PATROL. (There's also the novel THE SHIELD
OF TIME.) However, we said that whatever people found, the
stories to read were "Time Patrol", "Brave to Be a King",
"Gibraltar Falls", "The Only Game in Town", and "Delenda Est".
The premise seems classic, but may well have been invented by
Anderson: a corps of "time patrolmen" makes sure that people don't
tamper with history. Most of the stories involve agent Manse
Everard traveling to fix history, sometimes with a brief section
in the parallel timeline that would evolve if the change was
allowed to remain. As an alternate history fan, I love these,
though the earlier ones are somewhat dated in their attitudes.
And while Anderson is not generally known for his imagery, his
description from "Gibraltar Falls" is one that has stuck with me
long after many other stories have passed from memory. Alas, I
think these are currently out of print, though easily available
used.
I found Theodore Roosevelt's FEAR GOD AND TAKE YOUR OWN PART (ISBN
0-898-75414-3) at a book sale and while much of what he writes is
colored by the attitudes of the times, some seems remarkably
pertinent today. For example, writing of President Wilson's
policies in the title essay, Roosevelt says, "Mr. Wilson has more
than once interfered--to use his own scholarly and elegant
phraseology, 'butted in'--by making war in Mexico. He never did
it, however, to secure justice for Americans or other foreigners.
He never did it to secure the triumph of justice and peace for
among the Mexicans themselves. He merely did it in the interest
of some bandit chief, whom at the moment he liked, in order to
harm some other bandit chief whom at the moment he disliked."
That sounds like our foreign policy for many years after Wilson as
well. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead;
For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
-- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
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