THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
03/04/05 -- Vol. 23, No. 36 (Whole Number 1272)
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:
La plus ca change, la plus c'est la meme chose (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
Thought for the Week (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Bookmobiles and Children's Books (letters of comment)
10 ON TEN (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER,
CAPTAIN STORMFIELD'S VISIT TO HEAVEN, and
LETTERS FROM THE EARTH) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: La plus ca change, la plus c'est la meme chose (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
I was complaining a little about my video store that of late has
had fewer titles and instead has large sections of shelf devoted
to what I called "the latest blow-em-up-real-good" film. It
occurred to me to add that what I would like to see is more
classic films like THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and WAR OF THE WORLDS.
You know, the *old* blow-em-up-real-good films. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Thought for the Week (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
There is a rather amazing controversy going on currently in
Britain right now about, of all things, inspirational message on
the BBC. British journalist Melanie Phillips chronicles it in
her column at:
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/2005_02.html
It started with a segment "Thought for the Day", a periodic
homily on the BBC. Generally these short thoughts are intended
to have a calming and inspirational effect on the listeners.
Instead it has dredged up all sorts of insights into people's
reasoning. On February 10, the Rev. Dr. John Bell of the Iona
Community gave as his thought of the day a message that included
the following.
"Two years ago, in a Lebanese restaurant in Vancouver, I talked
to a waiter called Adam who was an Arab Israeli. That means he
was of Palestinian Muslim stock, born in the state of Israel and,
like his Jewish compatriots, he had been conscripted into the
Israeli Army. There he had distinguished himself as a good
soldier and was made a corporal. He was also imprisoned for
refusing to shoot unarmed schoolchildren. And one day, when off-
duty, he saved many lives by killing a suicide bomber who entered
the bus on which he was travelling. At the end of our
conversation, he asked, 'How old do you think I am? I was sure
he was 29, but I said 27 to flatter him. 'No,' he said, 'I am
only 19. But this is what happens when you have been through
what I have been through."
Dr. Bell went on to say that this man's experience would be
passed on from on generation to the next and would always
generate enmity. You can read a more complete quote at
http://tinyurl.com/6mcud.
Perhaps not surprisingly the British Jewish community was upset
at these very extreme claim and demanded corroborating evidence
that this story that Dr. Bell had picked up and passed on was
actually true. The BBC could never get away with reporting as
news a story that they had heard as a rumor from one extremely
biased source without doing any fact-checking whatsoever. But
these standards probably have never been applied to their
religious broadcasts. This story did not pass even cursory
examination. For one thing there are no nineteen-year-old
corporals in the Israeli army and this man would have had to have
been younger than that when it all happened. Nor is it possible,
apparently, that the boy had been conscripted. The BBC had not
expected that their gentle "Thought of the Day" program could
cause such angry controversy and investigated the claim on their
own. After some inquiry they offered an on-air apology over the
"Thought of the Day":
"On Thought for the Day on Thursday 10 February, the Rev Dr John
Bell told the story of an Arab man who said he was an ex-soldier
in the Israeli Army. We have talked to the Israeli authorities
and we are unable to find any evidence to support the story told
to Dr Bell and recounted by him on Thought for the Day. We also
understand that Dr. Bell made two factual mistakes in his script.
Those facts should have been checked before the broadcast. The
Religion and Ethics Department apologises on behalf of the BBC
and regrets the offence that was caused."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/apology.shtml
I am a little surprised that Bell himself did not reason that the
person he was using as a source might possibly have an ulterior
motive for telling the worst stories that he thought he could get
people to believe. But apparently Bell took the stories entirely
at face value and passed them on. Even the BBC in their apology
seems to take the story as mostly true with just a few factual
errors rather than consider the possibility that entire story
might have been just a hate-filled fabrication that Bell was all
too willing to believe.
All this would be of some interest, but it is not yet the weird
part. Sandy Gemmill, deputy treasurer in the Church of Scotland,
has weighed into the discussion with his own take on this story.
He writes:
"Two thousand years ago there was a man in Israel who used such
uncorroborated tales of Samaritans, servants, agricultural
workers, sheep, weddings and the like to illustrate various
controversial points. Clearly the passage of time has not
dampened the enthusiasm of the Israeli authorities to speak out
against such tales and take action to suppress apparent lies....
Unfortunately, any criticism of the Israeli government is now
taken as being anti-Semitic.... The term should not be used to
deflect unfavourable comments about the way that governments
abuse their powers. The Israeli government is no different from
those in authority in, for example, Great Britain and the United
States. Governments are like monoliths in exercising power on
behalf of the people and from time to time must be reminded of
the need to see beyond their own self-centred interests to those
of the human race. If an uncorroborated story concerning any
member of the Israeli Army, real or imaginary, can aid that
process then that should be applauded."
So it is Gemmill's attitude that spreading libel and hate-
mongering is actually a virtue if you think you are doing it in a
just cause. (And who thinks of his own cause as unjust?) He is
saying smearing people and rumor-spreading MUST be okay. After
all, he asks, didn't Christ do it? I wonder how would feel if he
were on the receiving end of such a hate-fantasy told for
somebody else's ends. (I admit I considered including such a
libel in this editorial and then decided even that would be in
poor taste.)
Whether Christ used slander or not is a moot point. Nobody ever
recorded how well-documented and corroborated the stories that
Christ told were. I think that one could argue that the stories
that Christ told were told to make philosophical points and were
not as vicious as this waiter's story was. But most people would
consider the action of spreading such stories without bothering
to check if there is any truth in them to be a moral evil. The
BBC did or claimed to. Gemmill is saying that it only seems an
evil, but it cannot be one because Christ did it too. This is a
bizarre and dangerous argument. He is at once defaming Christ
and claiming that Christ endorses allowing a dubious end to
justify evil means. He is essentially telling God that this
apparently immoral thing is allowed because "You let Christ get
away it." [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Bookmobiles and Children's Books (letters of comment)
We got a lot of response to Mark's article on the bookmobile. It
is interesting that some people responded to the bookmobile
description and some responded to the choice of books. The books
mentioned were all authentic, by the way.
Dan Kimmel wrote: "No wonder we hit it off. We grew up with
much the same juvenile SF. Don't recall THE SPACESHIP UNDER THE
APPLE TREE but went through 'Danny Dunn' and 'Miss Pickerell' and
the 'Mushroom Planet' books, and the 'Freddy the Pig' books, too.
I was telling Amanda the plot of DANNY DUNN AND THE HOMEWORK
MACHINE, which has stuck with me over the years. It's almost
prehistoric now. (Doing your homework on a computer? Wow!) I
wonder if the books are still available. I know they've
reprinted the 'Freddy the Pig' books."
Mark responded: "Probably there are a lot of us [who grew up with
the same juvenile SF]. :-) THE SPACESHIP UNDER THE APPLE TREE I
remember well. A spaceship crash-lands in main character's
grandmother's apple orchard. It has an alien who needs to get
his spaceship working again. (Same basic premise as IT CAME FROM
OUTER SPACE but the alien is assumed to be a ten-year-old
nicknamed Martin.) The main character and the alien spend the
early summer trying to get the spaceship working again. The
missing piece of the ship was a coil of wire that the main
character had found and was using as fishing line, not realizing
who it belonged to and that it was important. A similar idea was
used in the book SON OF THE STARS by Raymond F. Jones, one of the
better Winston Science Fiction books. I hope the phrase 'Winston
Science Fiction books' also conjures up fond memories."
Dan answered: "Nope, doesn't mean a thing. Sorry. But the alien
being a boy named 'Martin' sounds vaguely familiar (and, no, I'm
not thinking of Ray Walston on 'My Favorite Martian')."
So Mark elaborated: "No, I'm sorry. Winston is one of the most
fondly remembered sets of science fiction books ever published.
It was a series of hardbacks for teenagers. Almost all were
about two hundred pages. The stories were good. The early books
had an end-paper that was a Whitman Sampler of everything that
kids found exciting in science fiction. This can be viewed at
http://tinyurl.com/6thvx, and samples of the covers can be
viewed at http://home.att.net/~maychap/bookcvr.htm. A
complete list of the books in the series can be found at
http://home.att.net/~maychap/booklist.htm."
Dan explained: " This may be the difference in ages. They
stopped publishing these when I was six, long before I was
reading this level of SF. By the time I was exploring by junior
high school library's SF collection, I was reading stuff like
Asimov's NINE TOMORROWS and Silverberg's PARABLES AND PARSECS.
Indeed, by eighth grade I found myself being thought a daring and
adult reader by other students (who obviously couldn't get beyond
the title) when I read CHILDHOOD'S END. The only juvenile series
I came across--having read about half before I outgrew it--were
the Hardy Boys."
Mark responded: "But they stayed on shelves into the 1960s. I
guess they may not have been as noticed. I do find a lot of
aficionados even among adults. Note that there is a web site.
I liked Tom Swift, Jr. [rather than the Hardy Boys]. It had the
added benefit that it was an act of rebellion in a family that
didn't really like my reading fantasy.
Mark also added: "I think DANNY DUNN AND THE HOMEWORK MACHINE was
the very first book offered by the Weekly Reader Book Club.
Certainly it was the first I got. Yes, now that age has come to
pass."
Dan answered: "I got books through what was called the
'Scholastic Book Club', but it may well have been the same thing
under other name. The 'Danny Dunn' books I got from the library.
But I do remember eagerly awaiting the new 'Encyclopedia
Brown' mysteries. :-)"
Pete Brady wrote: "I remember 'Freddy the Pig', written by
someone named Brooks. Our grade school library had his whole
collection, which was given a shelf of it own because there was
such demand for it. This must have been around 1946."
Mark responds: "It was Walter R. Brooks." Also, commenting on
the demand, he says, "So my piece is not entirely a fantasy. I
seem to remember FREDDY AND THE SPACESHIP and FREDDY AND THE
IGNORAMUS. Probably most of the others came along later. They
were all real books."
Tony Pszeniczny recalled, "WoW! That brings back memories for me
and I think you have remembered correctly--bookmobiles WERE like
that. I can remember it parking on the road in front of our house
(on a hill) and walking either uphill or downhill through the
inside looking for books. The smell too, was interesting . . .
almost like a library--a bit musty. When school let out for the
summer we always waited impatiently for the published routes that
it would take each day of the week so that we knew when to be
ready. Alas, the bookmobile for my district died an ignominious
death behind the school, a rusting hulk, succumbing to budget cuts
and kids who no longer wanted to read."
Mark responds, "I wish. I think that the joke was the claim that
bookmobiles were treated with the same enthusiasm as ice cream
trucks. They were never this popular, but they should have been.
I am getting the most reaction from people who remember the books.
Those were all real kids books I remember from when I was growing
up. We had them come around to the school occasionally, but it
sounds like there was really serious bookmobiling where you were."
And Dennis L. Mumaugh says, "I also used a bookmobile in San
Diego, CA, where the nearest civilization was four miles away. We
were in a small community in the desert. Then in San Lorenzo, CA,
where the library was three miles away. Both were large vans
(almost RVs). They had a large power cable that snaked into the
local grocery store. We could enter and walk the aisles and
look. The lady always knew what you liked and helped you. But
no, no crowds of screaming kids. Not when I wandered by in the
evening."
===================================================================
TOPIC: 10 ON TEN (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Abbas Kiarostami a popular Iranian director gives a
course in his theory of film in ten lessons. Much of what he has
to say is interesting; much is irritating. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4)
or 6/10
Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami talks about his theory of film
in ten short lessons as illustrated by his films 10 and TASTE OF
CHERRY. His approach to filmmaking is highly individualistic,
though much of his individual style is an adaptation to the
constraints of making films in Iran.
Kiarostami plans a project by writing for himself a half a page
describing the expected film. Then with some thought he expands
the half page to three pages. If he is still excited by the film
after writing three pages and he still thinks it is feasible, he
makes the film. He never scripts the film and usually tries to
avoid using experienced actors, preferring non-actors whom he
generally wants to invent their own dialog. For him this gives
the most realistic result. He uses music only minimally since he
says music imprisons the viewer and forces certain emotions on
scenes which he wants to achieve in more natural ways.
Kiarostami really loves the new digital cameras that simplify
filming and which he feels helps him get natural performances.
He is afraid that big cameras and recording devices would stifle
his untrained actors' performances.
He has a love-hate relationship with profitable "American" films.
He says that it is big business behind the standard of using "big
cameras" for shooting films. (I think the big cameras have
always been used because that was what captured the highest
quality image. It is much more the case that business interests
are behind the proliferation of the technology he prefers, but it
is probably not politically advantageous for him to admit that.)
The motif of the lessons is Kiarostami driving through the hills
of Iran while talking to a static camera fixed on the seat of the
car. Kiarostami loves cars in his films as he feels they create
dramatic possibilities not possible in houses. People, he feels,
are more likely to argue in a car stuck in traffic than in their
homes.
At one point he demonstrates the role that sound and picture each
give to a scene by breaking them out and showing each
individually.
The Iranian filmmaker sees another conspiracy claiming that new
tools are forced on filmmakers by technologists. I suppose that
is just like the canvas suppliers and brush-makers force the use
of canvas and brushes on artists. The exception he does not
mention is the digital camera he loves. When he speaks of
American film he does not seem to know even about independent
film in US. Perhaps lower budget American films do not make it
to Iran and so he is unaware of their existence.
Abbas Kiarostami is both interesting and irritating. But he
makes films of quality that have garnered international interest.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
"Eternal Rest sounds comforting in the pulpit. . . . Well, you
try it once, and see how heavy time will hang on your hands."
(Mark Twain, CAPTAIN STORMFIELD'S VISIT TO HEAVEN)
Mark Twain had very little use for organized religion, and this
comes through fairly clearly in two of his novellas that I just
read, THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER (ISBN 0-486-27069-6) and CAPTAIN
STORMFIELD'S VISIT TO HEAVEN (ISBN 1-583-96053-8). The former is
set in the 16th century in Austria; the latter in an unspecified
time in Heaven. However, one may suppose the time is equivalent
to when Twain was writing, which would be 1868, even though he
waited forty years to publish it. And the place is described as
that part of Heaven corresponding to New Jersey. Really. (And
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER was not published until several years
after Twain's death.)
The "mysterious stranger" of the story of that title is Satan, who
delights not only in tempting people, but also in pointing out
that what seems like good is really evil, and vice versa. As in
many of his works, Twain examines the notion that what may appear
to be good luck is just the opposite: a man may be rescued from
drowning only to spend the next forty years paralyzed, or may
become a murderer and bring misery to others. (And conversely,
someone who dies may be spared that future.) People are vain and
cruel and self-centered. The ending, however, is even more
nihilstic and bitter than the rest of the story, and represents
perhaps the peak (or would it be the nadir?) in Twain's pessimism.
CAPTAIN STORMFIELD'S VISIT TO HEAVEN is more light-hearted,
although Twain still takes plenty of shots at organized religion.
Many are on the level of the old story about a new arrival being
taken past the building with the Jews, and the one with the
Baptists, and so on, but when they go to pass the one with the
Catholics, his guide whispers, "Quiet while we're passing here--
they think they're the only ones here." Twain does not use this
specific joke, but the style is similar. He addresses people's
beliefs that in Heaven you have a halo, wings, and a harp; that
you will meet all your relatives, as well as the Patriarchs; that
you will be this age or that; and so on. Twain examines these
ideas with the same sort of rational, and at times mathematical,
approach that one sees in such recent articles as why Heaven is
actually hotter than Hell. (It has something to do with a
description of Heaven having the brightness of a large number of
suns or something.)
LETTERS FROM THE EARTH (ISBN 0-060-92105-6), a collection of
similar material containing "Letters from the Earth", "The Papers
of the Adam Family", "Letter to the Earth", "and other unrelated
works, was not published until a half a century after Twain's
death, and goes onto my list of books to read "real soon now".
(See http://www.twainquotes.com/19620824.html for the story of
how these came to be withheld for so long.) Also related in
theme, though far less pessimistic, are "Extracts from Adam's
Diary" and "Eve's Diary". Note that while Twain may have been
negative on organized religion, he was a great admirer of faith.
In such works as THE INNOCENTS ABROAD, he could deride the former
while respecting the latter. The one biography he wrote was a
very favorable biography of Joan of Arc, a girl of faith not well
served by the organized Church.
Note: Most of the books I mention are available in various
collections of Twain's works, and also--because they are in public
domain--free on line in Project Gutenberg and elsewhere. (CAPTAIN
STORMFIELD'S VISIT TO HEAVEN is sometimes called AN EXTRACT FROM
CAPTAIN STORMFIELD'S VISIT TO HEAVEN, though whenever I see that
it seems to be the complete text that Twain wrote.) "Letters from
the Earth" and other related works that appeared with it in the
1962 Bernard DeVoto edition seem to surface on-line from time to
time as well. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Questions focus our thinking. Ask empowering
questions like: What's good about this? What's
not perfect about it yet? What am I going to
do next time? How can I do this and have fun
doing it?
--Charles Connolly