THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
04/14/06 -- Vol. 24, No. 42, Whole Number 1330
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:
More Hugo Nominees Available
Spin Doctors (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Soup (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
FORBIDDEN PLANET (letter of comment by Andre Kuzniarek)
FORBIDDEN PLANET Cameras (letter of comment
by Daniel T. Cox)
THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
SIR! NO SIR! (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE
PHOENIX, TALK TO THE HAND, and THOU SHALT NOT
KILL: BIBLICAL MYSTERY STORIES) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: More Hugo Nominees Available
An update to last week's article:
You can find links in the 2006 Hugo and Campbell Nominees list (at
http://www.laconiv.org/2006/hugos/nominees.htm that will allow
you to read each of the short fiction nominees at no cost . . . and
three (so far) of the novels!
In addition to the fiction categories, there are also now links for
each of the nominees in these categories:
- Pro Editor
- Pro Artist
- Semiprozine
- Fanzine
- Fan Writer (yes, even John Hertz is now of the web!)
- Fan Artist
- John W. Campbell Award
===================================================================
TOPIC: Spin Doctors (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Spin is everything. I was reading an article that said that was
talking about the benefits of exercise. They said "the greatest
benefit is for the people least fit." That is such a nice way of
saying that the more you already exercise the less benefit you get
from increasing that exercise. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Soup (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Well, last week I talked about politics. This week I think I am
on Spring Break and you are on Spring Break so I am going to talk
about soup. This is just going to be a sort of digression all
about soups.
I like soup. I guess since I was a kid I have had it often. I
remember they used to advertise on "Lassie". In those days they
had this trademark of two obnoxious-looking fat-headed children.
They were supposed to look cute, but their heads were almost
spherical and their eyes looked like they were bugging out. It
was almost as if these soups had made them so obese that their
little fat heads were about to explode. In those days, that
passed for cute. On the commercials they would sing "M'm! M'm!
Good! M'm! M'm! Good! That's what Campbell's Soups are, M'm!
M'm! Good!" Now the weird thing is that they were advertising
this way on a children's show. It didn't occur to the Campbell
people that this really was not the image that kids had of
themselves or wanted to have of themselves. Nobody wants to be a
Campbell kid. People might end up looking that way when Nature
goes somehow wrong. But the promise of looking anything like the
Campbell kids was no enticement whatsoever to kids to consume
soup.
Of course being fair, there were good things Campbell's did to
advertise. It was Campbell's Soup that came to Orson Welles's
rescue after he committed a science fictional faux pas on Mutual
Radio Network. That night in October, 1938, was the end of the
Mercury Theater under that name, but it did continue on the radio
as Campbell Playhouse. I think that in gratitude, Welles swelled
up so he had the same sort of spherical head as the Campbell
kids. In his later years he looked like a Campbell kid with a
beard. But that is a digression. I was talking about the mid-
1950s.
In those days, when I was about five, I had Campbell Tomato Soup
a lot at lunchtime. I think my mother and I would share a can.
It was a nice, convenient, cheap lunch. The problem is that
there were not a whole lot of soups to choose from. Dietary
restrictions dictated that any Campbell's Soups we bought had to
be vegetarian. I got to know Campbell Tomato Soup and Campbell
Cream of Mushroom Soup really well. We still have cans of both
in the cupboard. For years Campbell claimed that their condensed
soups were as good as the fancy continental soups.
Campbell's Soups are not the soups I have frequently these days.
Ramen has replaced them as the kind of soup I have the most.
Like the Chinese seem to, I will frequently have ramen for
breakfast. I have that and some weird canned mushrooms--oyster
mushrooms, abalone mushrooms, and that sort of thing. Any
Chinese mushroom named for shellfish is good. They make a nice
filling breakfast. But I also like various gourmet soups. Soup
is a good thing to order when you eat al fresco in fancy
continental cafes. If it rains you can spend all afternoon on
one bowl.
Somehow the ordinary rules of food and drink do not apply to soup
just like they don't seem to apply to pizza. Now this is going
to be a shocker to my family. When I make some soups, I add
sherry. Some times a fair amount of sherry. Why is that a
shocker? Generally I can't stand the taste of alcohol. The
first time you taste alcohol as a kid it tastes terrible, but you
get over that. At least some people do. I never did. I cannot
imagine what people taste when they drink wine. If it is what I
taste, they must be nuts to drink it more than once. But I do
drink one alcoholic beverage. I drink sherry. But I need a
mixer. And the mixer is a whole lot of black bean soup. With
tablespoon of sherry I need a mixer of a cup or more of black
bean soup. But I do have a taste for continental soups.
So I saw that Campbell is branching out. Now they have a line of
non-condensed fancy soups. They have them in a box (liquid soup
in a box?), ready to eat. You pour it out and the soup is ready
to reheat. There is no preparation time. Zero. If you use a
microwave it is even faster. I think that may even violate
causality.
We got a box of Blended Red Pepper Black Bean Soup. Evelyn saw
it and knew I liked spicy things so I would like the red pepper.
She also knew I liked Black Bean Soup. And I could probably add
sherry if I wanted. So we paid a small premium for this fancy
soup, but I was willing to try it. Just the thought of a
continental soup from Campbell seemed weird. They have some an
image of homey middle American soup.
Well, I opened the box and heated the soup looking forward to it.
It looked more like tomato soup than black bean soup. Well, they
*were* Campbell and tomato is their flagship soup. So I stuck in
a spoon and dipped out some Blended Red Pepper Black Bean Soup.
Then I realized with one taste that I had tasted this before. I
know Tomato Soup when I taste it. This was it. Maybe there was
some difference, but almost none detectable.
Then I realized why Campbell came out with this line of soups.
It was not that they expected to sell. They brought it out to
demonstrate that it did not sell. I can imagine some executive
at Campbell laughing at me and saying, "Okay. There is proof.
Didn't we tell you that our soups were a lot like those fancy
continental soups? Fancy Blended Red Pepper Black Bean Soup
tastes just like Campbell Tomato Soup." [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: FORBIDDEN PLANET (letter of comment by Andre Kuzniarek)
In response to Mark's review of FORBIDDEN PLANET in the 04/07/06
issue of the MT VOID, Andre Kuzniarek writes:
Perhaps it's heresy to suggest it, but I wish there was a version of
Forbidden Planet with a more conventional adventure movie score. It
would really add some oomph to the door burning climax particularly.
I realize simple emotional music cues can be considered manipulative
devices, but I can't help missing them in this movie. Some of the
electronic score could perhaps work in unison with a traditional
score, but it really sounds a lot like sound effects and is almost
distracting that way.
I also wish the studio would release a "restored" version, which
would really be a finished version, i.e., cleaning up the crappy
edits. The rough cutting is painful in some places, and it hurts the
pacing. I don't know what MGM was thinking, except that perhaps with
everything on screen being exotic, and the score being disorienting,
the editing probably wouldn't matter. Tighten up these things, and
the film would indeed hold up against modern productions. It doesn't
have to sound or look modern as much as simply demonstrate good craft
for the time, since plenty movies going back even farther are
engrossing despite their age by simply being good stories, well made.
As it is, the ideas and general imagery of Forbidden Planet hold up
well, but the lack of craft in editing, and the gimmicky score, do
not, IMO. [-ak]
Mark replies:
Your suggestion is NOT heresy, but I am not keen on the idea
either.
Where filmmakers have gone back and improved on popular films, the
fans of those films have not been happy or encouraging. Note
that George Lucas has done that with the three earlier released
"Star Wars" films. People want their classic films, warts and
all, as they were when they first saw them. The film fans seem
to accept changes occurring up to a few days after the initial
release then they want the film fixed and unchanging. I can see
positive aspects of George Lucas's revisions which make it
possible to forge six films into what is really a single film.
I would not like to see FORBIDDEN PLANET altered to be the best
film it could be, the problems are too much a part of the film I
have come to love. The corrections would do little to make it
better science fiction, they would just make it a more polished
movie. I would rather see repaired the films like A SOUND OF
THUNDER that are polished but bad science fiction. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: FORBIDDEN PLANET Cameras (letter of comment by Daniel
T. Cox)
In Mark's review of FORBIDDEN PLANET in the 04/07/06 issue of the
MT VOID, he wrote, "When walking to the reactor, we see a scene in
the power shaft that looks very much like Disney animation. I
assume they also did the rays coming out of the blasters, but not
very well. The line of the blast remains steady even though the
gun is shaking around."
Dan Cox points out, "A lot of cameras sold today have either
optical image stabilization or electronic image stabilization. I
guess the FORBIDDEN PLANET guns use this technology in reverse.
Science Fiction predicts Science Fact again :-) [-dtc]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is a courtroom drama about an alleged demonic
possession and the resulting exorcism. The story is loosely
based on real events. THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE sports a very
good cast, solid production values, and an intelligent script.
By modern standards the gore is minimal and most of the thrills
come from production craftsmanship. That quality treatment has
become a rarity among horror films. It does not make this a
classic, but it is a decent and even compelling horror film.
Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE is something I do not remember ever
having seen before. It is a horror film told mostly in flashback
as a courtroom drama. As the film opens, Emily Rose (played by
Jennifer Carpenter) has died while under the care of her parish
priest Father Moore (played by Tom Wilkinson) after a siege of
what is said to be demonic possession. Moore is charged with
negligent homicide for the death and the Church hires Erin Bruner
(Laura Linney), a successful lawyer hoping to make partner in her
firm. Moore is dissatisfied with having a high-powered lawyer
and wants only that the truth of the case be known. For the
prosecution the court has chosen Ethan Thomas (Campbell Scott).
Thomas, in a somewhat unprofessional mustache, is a religious
man. He is putting his personal beliefs aside for his duty to
prove that Emily Rose had been attacked not by demons, but by
epilepsy and hysteria.
Even though this is supposed to be based on a true story, we are
in the world of a horror film. The script tries to be even-
handed, letting both sides appear to believe in their cause. The
producers of the film can claim that the film is impartial.
However, the mere fact that Emily's horrific visions are shown on
the screen as if they were real leads the viewer to believe that
the filmmaker was on the side of making the possession real.
Admittedly, in films like A BEAUTIFUL MIND and PROOF what we are
intended to accept as mental delusions are shown very literally
on the screen. Even if the supernatural were given even-handed
treatment it would lend credence to that point of view. On the
other hand, the fact that the story of Emily Rose is mostly
related in the third person tells us what we see on the film is
only what Emily was saying she had seen.
There are some screen touches that seem odd. In a recently
adjourned courtroom still full of people she tells her client in
an audible voice that they are going to lose. That seems
unprofessional, as does telling the jury that "facts leave no
room for possibilities" as if facts are a bad thing. This does
not strike me as a good thing to say in a court of law. When
Emily expresses stigmata they appear in the wrong places on her
body. That is historically inaccurate as is, I believe,
portraying the Virgin Mary as a blonde. In the media the
traditional hour of evil, going back to "Ruddigore" (if not
before), has always been midnight. In this film we are told it
is 3 AM. Much of what happens in this film that is evil happens
at 3 AM.
The style of the film is intentionally oppressive. A very
limited color palette is used with colors keyed to themes. Green
is used in scenes of confinement, red for danger. Background
sound in very low registers contributes to the viewers' unease as
does a score that has little or no melody. The visual movement
relies heavily on handheld camera and other flexible camera
effects. There seem to be many echoes of THE EXORCIST, though it
is hard to imagine a film about exorcism that does not echo that
film. Another scene involving a car accident is strongly
reminiscent of NIGHT OF THE DEMON.
This is a well-produced, atmospheric film with a lot of familiar
faces. But the intelligent script is the best touch. I rate THE
EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: SIR! NO SIR! (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: David Zeigler's documentary tells the story of how the
Vietnam War bred a protest movement within the lower ranks of the
military itself and how the military tried to suppress that
movement. Eyewitness testimony recreates the extremes of the
war, the GI protest activity, and the commanders' attempts to
subdue and hide the protests. This is a film about the past and
about the present. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
With the Vietnam War the United States military was faced with a
kind of enemy and war that it had not much faced in the past.
The North Vietnamese military was only a second-class force
facing the most powerful military in the world, so there were
initially high expectations of an easy victory. But at the same
time the United States was facing a stubborn and widespread
insurrection, a war in which the greatest enemy was very hard to
distinguish from non-combatants. Much of this invisible force
did not fight honorably by battlefield rules. Faced with a
conflict that they had not been adequately trained for and for
which they had no clear strategy, the United States military
fought the war in the way they thought was most effective. They
fought in ways that were frequently barbaric and which they did
not want publicized. This soon bred a strong resistance movement
within the lower ranks of the military itself, something that was
very unusual in US history. Again the commanders were in
unfamiliar territory and frequently used force to try to overcome
the political expression that the troops felt was their
constitutional right. David Zeigler's SIR! NO SIR! is a
documentary covering US abuses in waging the war, the GI anti-war
movement, and the military's reaction to a wide-spread resistance
activity among its own troops. Parallels to the Iraqi conflict
are inevitable, but also intentional.
The bulk of SIR! NO SIR! is eyewitness accounts by participants
in the GI anti-war movement. Over a dozen protesters tell their
stories of the abuses from torture and murder of civilians to
bombing and massacring villages. There are accounts of GIs with
head and neck injuries paralyzed for life and asking their
doctors to kill them. Once the case is put forward for the
brutality of the military policy the film tells of the anti-war
movement and of how the military attempted to suppress it.
The soldiers and others who resisted tell their stories of their
protests and of how the military punished them. We hear of
trainers court-marshaled for refusing to teach others to fight
the war. A Navy nurse tells of dropping anti-war leaflets over
military bases. The story of the Tyrell's Boycott is
particularly amusing. Tyrell's was jewelry store chain that
positioned itself near military bases. They were very open in
their policy of selling GIs jewelry to send to their families as
something to remember them by if they are killed in action. And
as a special bonus, debt on the jewelry was cancelled if and when
the purchaser was killed. The ghoulish store kept their "honor
roll" of customers killed in the fighting and absolved of their
debt. Somehow the soldiers were not especially grateful for this
magnanimity. Other topics include the anti-war coffeehouses,
gathering places of protesters. We hear about the mimeographed
amateur protest magazines spread in secret around the military
bases. There is also discussion of fragging--intentional
killing--of commanders. During the war there were over half a
million incidents of desertion. This massive resistance was a
phenomenon entirely new to the American military.
With each form of protest, the film also covers how the military
tried to suppress it. Protesters were threatened with decades of
imprisonment and frequently were sentenced to years in prison.
There was an account of the over-crowded Presidio Stockade. The
military's measures, while they seem bad in this context, are
probably minimal compared to what most militaries would do to
repress revolt. For the most part the military seemed to want to
keep a lid on the situation so they would not be discredited in
front of the American people.
While most of the protesters who speak are actual veterans, they
also include Jane Fonda. She tells briefly of her actions at
that time and her experiences with the traveling FTA anti-war
show she organized with Donald Sutherland. The documentary gets
added dignity by some minimal narration done by Edward Asner
(admittedly a personal hero of my own).
Some of the accounts of military brutality, while verbal, are
explicit and some viewers may find them disturbing. It should
also be remembered that with this as with most political
documentaries, the opposition does not get an opportunity to
refute the case made.
This documentary is strong stuff with a powerful evocation of a
past with strong implications about the present. I rate SIR! NO
SIR! a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I finally got to HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX by
J. K. Rowling (ISBN 0-439-35807-8). Each "Harry Potter" book
covers one year, starting with Harry at ten years old (if I
recall correctly). I'm not sure whether the initial idea was
that readers would read the first one at age ten, the next at age
eleven, and so on, and I don't remember the earlier books that
well, but it does seem that the vocabulary in the fifth book is
more advanced than the earlier ones, with words like "frisson"
and "acerbity". (amazon.com lists the reading level for all the
books at ages 9 through 12, but since that is just a lower
threshold, that is not much of a clue.)
Also, I know they claim not to be re-editing the books for
American audiences, but in chapter 12, when they are making the
potion in Snapes's class, the American edition uses the term
"counter-clockwise" rather than "widdershins" (or even "anti-
clockwise").
After five books, I am beginning to wonder: if students start
when they are ten years old, and we hear about their entire day
and class schedule, when do they learn anything like mathematics,
reading, or spelling (the orthographic kind, not the
hermeneutic)? (I would ask about things like history or
geography, but that would be considered "muggle stuff", and a lot
of their courses *could* be considered science.) And why do all
the wizards celebrate Christmas and Easter?
For reasons too complicated to go in to, I listened to the first
two-thirds or so on CD, then finished the book by reading it.
The two provided very different experiences--listening forces one
to go at the performer's pace, which makes for a more intense
experience than quickly skimming over parts. Or possibly it was
the content itself, because a lot of this book is considerably
"darker" than the earlier books, or even the final part of this
book. Listening to descriptions of humiliation and child abuse
provides a very different experience than reading about "spell-o-
tape" and Quidditch.
Lynne Truss may be an expert on punctuation, but although TALK TO
THE HAND (ISBN 1-592-40171-6) is punctuated very well, it is a
very uninteresting read. Truss is complaining about the rudeness
and lack of consideration in today's society, but since anyone
who hasn't been living in a cave knows that people throw litter
on the ground, talk about personal details in loud voices on
their cell phones, and tell everyone else to "eff off". So
what's the point of a book whinging about this? And is the fact
that credit companies want you to call them if you are going to
another country really an example of rudeness? That is in her
chapter "Why Am I the One Doing This?" and while it makes sense
to complain when one has to input one's credit card number
multiple times on the same call to the credit card company, does
Truss really expect the company to call you on a regular basis to
see if you are going to another country soon? (I bet she
wouldn't like that either.) And she complains that when she
orders coffee, she has to choose size, flavor, type of milk, type
of sweetener, and so on. Here she has a situation where the shop
is trying to be accommodating, and she does not like that either.
THOU SHALT NOT KILL: BIBLICAL MYSTERY STORIES edited by Anne
Perry (ISBN 0-786-71575-8) is an anthology of "Biblical
mysteries"--some set in Biblical times, some in modern times but
paralleling Biblical themes, and some with even more tenuous
Biblical connections. It is a mixed bag, with a couple of good
stories, but also several predictable ones. The best if the
first (as is usually the case): Simon Brett's "Cain Was
Innocent", which is set neither in Biblical times nor the
present. There is Gillian Linscott's "A Blessing of Frogs", in
which the plague in Egypt helps solve a murder. And there are a
Sister Fidelma story from Peter Tremayne and a Father Dowling
story from Ralph McInerny, which will certainly interest fans of
those series. I'm not sure I can recommend buying the trade
paperback new, but it is certainly worth reading. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
I'm so glad to be out of graduate school.
Now I can return to my education.
-- Thom Lewis