THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
12/01/06 -- Vol. 25, No. 22, Whole Number 1363
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:
Janis Ian on Howard Waldrop
A Lot of Mathematics in Ten Pages
Breaking Into a New Dimension, Just a Little Bit!
(comments by Mark R. Leeper)
ETERNITY ROAD by Jack McDevitt (book review
by Joe Karpierz)
THE FOUNTAIN (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
BABEL (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (THE LITTLE SISTER,
THE MIND OF A MNEMONIST, THE RABBI'S CAT,
INTRODUCING CAMUS, and FARTHING)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Janis Ian on Howard Waldrop
"Howard Waldrop doesn't have e-mail. He doesn't have a word
processor. He doesn't surf the Internet. I guess that means he
spends most of his time writing. From my point of view as a
devoted Waldrop reader, I'm eternally grateful to the Luddite in
him." --Janis Ian
===================================================================
TOPIC: A Lot of Mathematics in Ten Pages
Those of a mathematical frame of mind will find much of interest
and value in ten pages of PDF with the "Theoretical Computer
Science Cheat Sheet." You need to have Acrobat PDF-reader
installed on your machine. The cheat sheet is at
http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/cheat.pdf. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Breaking Into a New Dimension, Just a Little Bit! (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
We were at Philcon at a panel on ideas connected with dimension.
One of the panel members commented that there are figures that
are of a number of dimensions that is not a whole number. He
said he could not imagine how this could be, but he knew it was
true. How can it be? I explained it to him. It sounds like it
is a very complex idea, but I was able to stand up in the
audience and explain it to him in under a minute. That must be
some measure of simplicity of an idea. I will take a little
longer here.
It seems an amazing concept that a curve can be so jagged that it
becomes more than one-dimensional, yet still less than two-
dimensional. But it is true. And a surface can be so crinkly
that it is more than two-dimensional, but less than three-
dimensional. Yet some such curves and surfaces can be shown to
have this property in a way that is so simple that one is not sure
at first that it really is that simple.
Suppose you are playing with sugar cubes. You want to make a
single cube that is twice the scale of the ones you are playing
with. It takes eight such sugar cubes. That is 2x2x2 or eight,
which is 2 to the power 3. To make it three times the scale it
would take 27 cubes or 3x3x3. That is 3 to the power 3, or
3-cubed. For three-dimensional figures you cube the scale to find
how many pieces you would need.
On the other hand if you have a square it takes 4 or 2x2 to
double the scale. To triple the scale it takes 9 or 3x3 or
3-squared. The number of pieces needed is the scale raised to the
power that is the number of dimensions of the figure. For
two-dimensional figures you square the scale to find how many
pieces you would need.
For those comfortable with logarithms the actual formula is:
dimension = log(pieces)/log(scale)
For example if it takes 8 individual cubes to make a cube twice
as long on a side, then the cube is of dimension log(8)/log(2)
which is 3.
Now consider what is called the snowflake fractal. It is so
called because it looks like an edge of a snowflake. It is
created by taking a line segment of, say, nine inches long. Then
you build an equilateral triangle whose base is the middle third
of the segment and then remove that base. We then have a piece
that looks like _/\_ made up of four segments that are each three
inches long. You repeat the process on each of those four
segments. That gives you 16 segments each 1/3 the length of the
ones in the previous step. You continue this an infinite number
of times. That is the snowflake curve. You can see it many
places on the Internet under its proper name, the Koch Snowflake.
For example, see http://math.rice.edu/~lanius/frac/koch.html.
Suppose you have copies of the snowflake curve. How many do you
need to make a triple scale model of the one? You place one
horizontally, then one tipped up at a 60-degree angle, then one
tipped down at a 60-degree angle, then one more horizontal. It
took four copies to make a copy of the edge three times as big.
The question is then what number does three have to be raised to
in order to make four? That will tell you the number of
dimensions of the Koch snowflake curve. If you know how to play
with logarithms you get a number just a little less than 1.26186
or about 665/527. The precise value, by the formula above, is
log(4)/log(3). So the snowflake pattern is more than one-
dimensional but less than two. It is a little more than 1.26-
dimensional.
Now somebody may object that when we make the new larger
snowflake model it is not really the same shape as the original.
It has one more level of crinkle than the originals had. That is
just like _/\_ has one more layer of crinkle than does ___.
However that is part of the magic of working with infinity. We
said that the original process is completed an infinite number of
times. It has an infinite number of crinkles. Adding one more
crinkle is not going to change the number that it has. Just like
there are precisely as many elements in the set {1,2,3,4,5,...} as
in {0,1,2,3,4,...}. You can pair them up, one from one set one
from the other set and each member of the first set is paired
with one member of the second set, and vice versa.
This is not a very constructive process. If, for example, I
wanted to see a curve that is exactly 1.5 dimensions it would not
help me a bit. But does give us a toehold in this new world of
fractional dimensional spaces. There is at least one curve we
can show has a number of dimensions that is not a whole number.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: ETERNITY ROAD by Jack McDevitt (copyright 1997, Harper
Prism, 338 pp, SFBC, ISBN 0-06-105208-6) (book review by Joe
Karpierz)
Back in September my wife and I decided that we should attend
Windycon, a local long-running convention that we attend
occasionally. Jack McDevitt was to be the author Guest of Honor,
so I decided that maybe I ought to start reading one of his
novels before the convention. I picked ETERNITY ROAD simply
because it was the shortest of his novels that I had in my to-
read stack.
McDevitt has long been one of those authors whose books' capsule
summaries invariably draw me to them. I pick them up and put
them on the aforementioned to-read stack. And just as
invariably, I keep buying books and I never get around to reading
the last book I bought. You'll notice the copyright date of
ETERNITY ROAD. Yep, it languished *nine years* on my to-read
stack.
The problem with finally picking up and reading books in that
fashion is that many times the book is just good enough to make
you want to read more of that author's work. So of course, I
picked up something like four more McDevitt novels to read. If
Evelyn and Mark are still publishing the MT VOID when I get
around to reading them (after all, my to-read stack has probably
over a hundred books on it), you'll finally see reviews of them.
ETERNITY ROAD is the story of a post-disaster civilization. The
United States has fallen victim to a plague. (It's not clear if
the rest of the world has fallen victim to the same plague, and
it's actually irrelevant to the story.) Civilization has
regressed. Economics, farming, and technology--for our cast of
characters in particular--resemble that of something from the
middle of the 1800s. They are certainly aware of the plague and
its results. The ruins are all around them--roads, cities,
artifacts. They call the folks from before the plague the
Roadmakers--and legend has it that the Roadmakers stored all
their knowledge in a far-away place called Haven.
As the story begins, a sole survivor of an expedition to find
Haven returns after a long absence. He claims he never found it
--that his information and maps were wrong. It just doesn't
exist. He refuses to talk about the trip. He feels responsible
for the lives of his fellow members of the expedition, and it's
just too tough on him. When he dies, he leaves a copy of A
CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT to Chaka, the sister of
one of the members of the expedition. It's rare because all of
Mark Twain's books were thought to be lost. So, where did it
come from, and why did it fall into her hands?
Chaka, reluctant at first, finally decides to put together
another expedition to Haven to find out what really happened.
Chaka lives near the Mississippi somewhere--the impression is
down south near the Gulf of Mexico--so she and her band have no
idea how far away it is or how long the trip will be; or, for
that matter, what they will encounter along the way. The only
clues they have are the sketches her brother made while on the
trip, and the trail markings along the way made by the guide who
led the last expedition to Haven.
The story then settles into a typical kind of adventure story,
with the party experiencing strange technologies, large cities
(the party makes it to Chicago and Detroit, just to name two),
abandoned highways, pirates, remote villages, and all sorts of
other wonders. It felt to me that I may have been reading parts
of an old Clifford Simak novel. Half the fun is trying to work
out what or where McDevitt is describing, because for the most
part he doesn't name anything. We have to figure it out on our
own.
The point of the story, of course, is not whether they reach
Haven, but what happens along the way. ETERNITY ROAD is a well
told story--nothing more. The plague disaster is the backdrop--
it's the reason this story can take place. If this book were
written today, I suspect it would be about 250 pages longer with
much more detail about the plague, current civilization, etc.
I'm glad it was written ten years ago.
This isn't a great book--it's a good book. And hey--it made me
pick up more McDevitt novels. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE FOUNTAIN (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Mystic pizza. This is an enigmatic story involving the
Tree of Life with three story lines: one in the 1500s, one in the
near future, and one in the far future. Darren Aronofsky is less
interested in coherence than in creating New Age-ish cosmic
images. This is the sort of film that plays much better at
midnight whether you stay up that late or not. Rating: 0 (-4 to
+4) or 4/10
The film 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY actually caught on when a certain
sort of customer discovered it was a great film to see stoned.
If there are any of you guys left around, boy do I have a film
for you! You will probably not see another film like this one
this year. You many not see one like this again this decade.
And you may never see the credit "Directed by Darren Aronofsky"
ever again.
The story conflates the biblical Tree of Life from the Garden of
Eden with the Fountain of Youth that Ponce de Leon searched for
in the New World and failed to find. In the 1500s Tomas Creo
(played by the ubiquitous Hugh Jackman) comes to explore the New
World. Through mystical means he believes he has a map of the
way to the Tree of Life which God has hidden in the Mayan
jungles. The radiantly beautiful but otherwise uninteresting
Queen Isabel (Rachel Weisz) sends him on this mission.
Interwoven with this plot line we have the story of Tom (Hugh
Jackman), a near-future medical researcher who is trying to cure
disease, but instead finds his new botanical substance may also
reverse aging and restore youth. He has a special interest in
saving lives and giving immortality because his beautiful wife
Izzi (Rachel Weisz) is dying of a brain tumor and Tom will wants
to save her life. Her hobby is writing--longhand--a story of
Tomas Creo who may be real or may be her fictional imagining. We
do not know for sure which so we do not know if we are supposed
to accept the 1500s story as being fact in this world or her
fiction. She is creative, but still is an untouchable image,
emotionally as flat as Queen Isabel.
A third plot thread takes place in the far future with Tommy
(Hugh Jackman) floating in Xibalba, a golden glowing nebula out
in space. He is there to worship his love embodied as a tree.
The tree has absorbed his love more or less like something out of
"The Quatermass Experiment". The tree cannot talk to him, being
a tree, but it does show its love by having tendril-like fibers
in its bark respond to the proximity of his Tommy's hand.
Bits and pieces of what is going on do sneak past all the
beautiful, but mostly incomprehensible imagery to tantalize the
viewer with hints of what the story is actually about. These
frequently take the form of images repeated from one age to the
next. For example, there is a repeating image of three stars (or
holes or objects) forming an equilateral triangle to point to the
fourth object at the center. Or we see a car or a horse coming
at the camera, but the camera is upside-down. The eye is
momentarily confused, but as the car/horse passes under camera,
our view follows it turning right side up. One wonders whose
point of view this is supposed to be.
Eventually the coherence of the story is forgotten and replaced
by more incomprehensible images. Certainly we see mandalas as a
background for Tom floating and levitating in lotus position.
The images are nicely reminiscent of the 1960s and 1970s
psychedelic style. The story is very nicely illustrated, but
opaquely told.
The film appears to be short in a most thrifty manner. All
scenes seem to have been filmed on a soundstage, and a small one
at that, making the film seem a little claustrophobic, ironic for
it cosmic themes. The film does have major actors like the
ubiquitous Jackman and like Weisz. Smaller roles go to Aronofsky
veterans Ellen Burstyn and Mark Margolis.
It is hard to completely pan a film that is so visually, if
claustrophobically, stunning. But it is harder to recommend a
film that is so cryptic as to be incomprehensible. This is a
film for the very narrow audience who can be just be immersed in
its mysterious cosmic imagery. Drink deep of this fountain or
not at all. I rate it a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale or 4/10.
===================================================================
TOPIC: BABEL (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is a moving but very downbeat film. Four inter-
related tragic stories are told in parallel. In that sense it is
much like last year's CRASH. But the stories do not add up to
much other than to say that bad things happen. Rating: high +1
(-4 to +4) or 6/10
Director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and writer Guillermo Arriaga
give us what is we are told the third film in their trilogy,
following AMORES PERROS and 21 GRAMS. In it, four interrelated
absorbing stories are told in parallel.
A Moroccan goatherd buys a high-powered rifle to protect his
goats from jackals. He allows his sons to practice with the gun,
and one takes a potshot at a tourist bus. The results have
tragic consequences for his family.
Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett play Richard and Susan, Americans on
a tour in Morocco. Susan is very cautious about all the tourist
sorts of worries like ice cubes from non-purified water.
However, she sits next to a window on a tour bus and is very
badly wounded by a bullet that mysteriously flies through a bus
window. There are no medical facilities nearby to handle such a
crisis. But with Susan bleeding profusely Richard must manage
the nightmarish situation and try to save Susan's life.
Two American children are left in the care of a trusted nanny
Amerlia (Adriana Barraza) while their parents tour Morocco.
Amerlia needs a day off to attend her son's wedding in Mexico.
Unable to find a substitute babysitter, the housekeeper realizes
she has to bring the children into Mexico and to the wedding.
Driven by her irresponsible nephew (Gael Garcia Bernal) the four
go off across the tense international border.
Kikuchi (Rinko Kikuchi), a hearing-impaired young woman in Japan,
has deep emotional problems after the loss of her mother. Her
sympathetic father desperately wants to help her, but she is
looking for something that he cannot provide. (This story
eventually has a minor connection to other story lines, but it
seems the most forced connection.)
The film flashes around from Morocco to the United States to
Mexico to Japan. The language shifts from Arabic to English to
Spanish to Japanese, justifying the title. Each country has a
different life style. Each individual story is compelling and
well told. BABEL's biggest weakness is its attempt to tie the
four subplots together into a single story. The moral of all
this is that there is no moral. The problem is not tourism or
terrorism or immigration policy or globalization, though we are
reminded of all these issues. And perhaps it is even a bit of a
relief that this film is not grinding some political axe. The
problems the people face is just that bad things happen to good
people. The fates may have it in for us. This is a film
populated with decent people who are just unlucky. So, perhaps
it is saying to enjoy life if and while you can. Even that theme
is somewhat undercut by the contrivances tying the stories
together. How often do so many dramatic events happen to a
single family in a single day? It reminds one of the vengeance
of the gods in Greek tragedy. The film as a whole is much less
believable than any of its parts are. The glue does not work
even if each of the pieces standing alone is a good piece of
story-telling and the tension is made stronger by interruptions
for jumps to the other stories.
Some small mistakes are nonetheless bothersome. Susan sits on
the left side of the bus. When the rifle is fired, that is the
side away from the rifle so the shot is impossible.
Perhaps this is just four stories of unfortunate people and the
stories are connected in an unlikely contrivance. There is a
lot that is done well in the film, but it is still flawed. I
rate the film a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I read THE LITTLE SISTER by Raymond Chandler (ISBN 0-394-75767-X)
because I had listened to the BBC adaptation. It turns out the
BBC kept a lot of Chandler's distinctive writing, but simplified
the end. (Of course, with Chandler many people would say the
attraction is the writing, not the plot.) It is ironic that
Chandler is so well known and influential, since he wrote only
seven novels and less than two dozen short stories. But they are
all classics.
When our book discussion group read Jorge Luis Borges's "Funes
the Memorious", someone recommended THE MIND OF A MNEMONIST by A.
R. Luria (ISBN 0-674-57622-5), an account of a real-life example
of phenomenal memory. The subject (called only "S.") remembered
things through synesthesia--a "crossing" of the senses. So, for
example, he may remember a certain word as not just the word, but
also a puff of smoke, or a certain smell, or a particular sound.
Of particular interest was the way S. solved mathematical
problems, using visualizations which often seem to have only
tenuous connections to the problem itself.
THE RABBI'S CAT by Joann Sfar (ISBN 0-375-42281-1) is a graphic
novel about Jews in Algeria in the 1930s, told from the point of
view of the rabbi's cat. I am beginning to think that the
audience for graphic novels must be people with good eyesight--I
found the cursive font large enough, but a bit ornate, and the
sans-serif font a bit small. I am not sure who the target
audience is for this, though I suspect that my library's apparent
decision to file all graphic novels as "YA" is not necessarily
always the right choice. This has a fair amount of religious
philosophy, and also what are often referred to as "adult themes
and language". In any case, I certainly would expect that its
target audience would be mostly Jewish. (Joann Sfar, by the way,
is a man--it is probably pronounced something like "yo-han".)
Coincidentally, I also just read INTRODUCING CAMUS by David Zane
Mairowitz and Alain Korkos (ISBN 1-840-46064-4). Coincidentally,
because Camus was from Ageria and set many of his works there.
(He also played goalie at soccer. This is a fact which won me a
"Dublin Literary Pub Crawl" t-shirt when I was the only one in the
group who knew which position he played. This was because it was
about the only position I knew the name for.) This is one of the
good books in this series, and of necessity covers the political
situation in Algeria as well as Camus's life and writing.
FARTHING by Jo Walton (ISBN 0-765-31421-5) is an English country
house murder mystery set in an alternate history in which Hess's
mission to England succeeded, and England and Germany signed a
peace treaty early in the war. The primary suspect is David
Kahn, a Jew who has married into an old established family, but
is resented by most of them. Readers of this column will know
that the anti-Semitism of 1930s England came as no surprise to
me, although several reviewers seemed to think this was quite a
revelation. For example, Lisa Goldstein wrote, "[Walton] deals
with prejudice and class in ways Sayers and Christie never
dreamed of." I think a large part of this is how we are reading
it differently, not that Walton is writing it differently. I
thought the book worked well as a mystery, but there seemed to be
some heavy-handed parallels being drawn between the society and
the government in the book and our present day. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Hollywood grew to be the most flourishing
factory of popular mythology since the Greeks.
-- Alistair Cooke