THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
01/12/07 -- Vol. 25, No. 28, Whole Number 1423
El Presidente: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
The Power Behind El Pres: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent will be assumed authorized for inclusion
unless otherwise noted.
To subscribe, send mail to mtvoid-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send mail to mtvoid-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Topics:
Correction
The Absolute Final Version of This Comment (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
My Top Ten Films of 2006 (film comments by Mark R. Leeper)
FROM OTHER WORLDS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CHILDREN OF MEN (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
TRANSCENDENT by Stephen Baxter (book review
by Joe Karpierz)
THE DEATH OF MR LAZARESCU (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
PAPER CHASE (letters of comment by Taras Wolansky and
Carbone17)
The Bay of Pigs (letters of comment by Steve Spinosa and
Taras Wolansky)
Stephen Hawking and THE SONG OF ROLAND (letter of comment
by Taras Wolansky)
THE SATAN BUG (letter of comment by Carbone17)
This Week's Reading (THE UNSLEEPING EYE,
HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON, and THE WIZARD OF OZ)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Correction
I just discovered that when I calculated the whole number for the
MT VOID, I forgot to include the 1985 issues. So the whole number
has been corrected, starting with this issue. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Absolute Final Version of This Comment (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
Dan Kimmel sent me an article that Ridley Scott is working on
re-editing BLADE RUNNER for a new release. It will be called
BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT and will be released by Warner
Brothers. On DVD there will be a choice of four cuts of the film;
there are also the original, the director's cut, and the expanded
international cut.
See http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?category=0&id=36328.
It shows you that Warner Brothers is better than Disney. When
Disney wants to re-release SLEEPING BEAUTY, all you get is the
version you have seen before. (Okay, FANTASIA they revise, but
most re-releases they don't re-edit.) Apparently Warners is able
to get Scott to actually participate in each release and to say
that this is finally the definitive version. I think that BLADE
RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT is supposed to be followed by BLADE RUNNER:
THE ULTIMATE FINAL CUT in November, 2013, and BLADE RUNNER: THE
CONNOISSEUR RECUT is planned for Spring, 2019. Of course, Scott
will be 82 by then. But having seen the recut TOUCH OF EVIL
edited from Orson Welles's notes he is apparently leaving his son
as part of his family legacy a detailed description on how he
really wanted BLADE RUNNER to be seen. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: My Top Ten Films of 2006 (film comments by Mark R. Leeper)
2005 was a banner year for cinema and I looked forward to what we
would see in 2006. Sadly, 2006 just did not have the impressive
quality films of 2005. While there were several films that were
very engaging, nothing really stood out as being particularly
powerful. There is a major film missing from this list. I
almost certainly would have Guillermo del Toro's PAN'S LABYRINTH
on the list if I had a chance to see it. This is what I get for
living in the wilds of New Jersey. I will treat it as a 2007
film (just as 2005 films I did not see until 2006 are included
here).
1) WATER
In India in 1938 a seven-year-old girl who does not even remember
her arranged marriage and who never knew her husband is suddenly
told that she is a widow and has to go live with other widows for
the rest of her life. Widows in India could die with their
husbands or lead a penitent life in seclusion the rest of their
lives. Here a very young girl through no fault of her own falls
into this fate. The story is tragic, but it makes a strong
statement for Gandhi's reforms. The photography of what was
supposed to be Varanasi (but was actually Sri Lanka) is just
beautiful. WATER is a real work of art.
2) THE PRESTIGE
Toward the end of the 19th century two rival stage magicians
compete and battle for dominance. This is a thriller, an
education in stage magic, a mystery, and even a bit of a science
fiction film. Christopher Priest's novel is brought to the
screen by co-writer and director Christopher Nolan in a wonderful
adaptation. This is a film that may be more enjoyable on the
second viewing once you know its intricate secrets.
3) SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE LAST DAYS
The German-language film SOPHIE SCHOLL: THE LAST DAYS tells the
powerful and moving true story of the arrest, interrogation, and
trial of an anti-government student and activist, one of the
founders of the White Rose resistance movement, in Nazi Germany.
It takes the story from her last day of freedom to her execution.
Sophie Scholl's courage and personal morality in standing up to
the evil and the force of the Third Reich make this film a moving
experience.
4) NOTES ON A SCANDAL
In this the strong and disturbing story of two school teachers
Barbara (Judi Dench) befriends and subtly controls her Sheba
(Cate Blanchett). When Barbara discovers Sheba's indiscretion
with one of her students she is able to make Sheba a puppet
without Sheba ever realizing it. This is a real departure for
both actresses.
5) THE HIDDEN BLADE
In Japan 1861 a minor samurai is torn between his responsibility,
his desires, and his morality. With this film Yôji Yamada
follows up his TWILIGHT SAMURAI, also set in the mid-19th Century
against the backdrop of the dying order of shoguns and samurai.
It is a story of a man who must choose between his duty and what
he thinks is right. The film is less one of bloody martial arts
and more a study of a personal conflict in a society at once
overly ordered and rapidly changing. Yamada's film is strong and
poignant, though perhaps it will be more so with Japanese
audiences who better understand societal pressure. The film is
powerful, though it fails a little in the final few scenes.
6) CASINO ROYALE
Daniel Craig is probably the best James Bond on film and this is
probably the best James Bond film. Craig's James Bond is gritty
and mean and a lot more real, albeit still too much a superhero.
He has human fallibility and he gets hurt. The story, closer
than usual to the novel for a Bond film, has the feel of a
serious spy novel and is less like a children's television show
than previous films in the series. Now what I would like to see
is all the Fleming books redone in order with Craig as James Bond
as he was written in the books. I wonder if we will see that.
In any case, this film gives us a chance to rediscover James Bond
on the screen for the first time.
7) MUNICH
Following the terrorist murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the
1972 Munich Olympics, an Israeli Mossad officer is asked to lead
a five-member counter-assassination squad to track down the
Munich terrorists and eliminate them. Eric Bana leads a cast of
major actors in a tense but realistic looks at the dirty business
of undercover work. This film takes place in a world devoid of
warmth. The story has the feel of authenticity, though the
events of the book it was based on have not been and cannot be
confirmed. Still, the story is as intriguing and tense as
anything written by John le Carre is.
8) THE DEPARTED
Martin Scorsese surprises us with a film that is more of a
thriller than his previous efforts. THE DEPARTED is a close
remake of a very good Hong Kong crime film, INFERNAL AFFAIRS.
The police Special Investigations Unit, unable to bring down
gangster Frank Costello, places a mole into his organization.
But Costello (Jack Nicholson) has his own mole in the police SIU.
Each mole tries to determine who the other is. Leonardo DiCaprio
and Matt Damon play the two spies. The film takes a while to get
going, but when it does it really holds the viewer. While this
is one of Scorsese's most entertaining films, I have to say much
of the credit goes to INFERNAL AFFAIRS. THE DEPARTED is the
bigger film in many respects, but INFERNAL AFFAIRS is the better
film. Scorsese added only modest value in return for taking
someone else's plot.
9) THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA
When a Mexican illegal alien is killed, his employer and friend
Pete Perkins (Tommy Lee Jones, who also directs) is unsatisfied
that the authorities are going to do anything. Perkins finds the
killer is a trigger-happy new border patrolman and decides that
some justice will be done. Perkins forces the patrolman to
execute the dead man's final wish. This is a modest, low-budget,
and low-key film but Jones shows a sure hand and real directing
power with handling his actors. THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES
ESTRADA is a simple, likable portrait of the personalities one
find near the border. There is some anger at the American law
enforcement officers but the film's main thrust is not anger for
the Americans but respect for the aliens who come over the border
looking to improve the lives of their families.
10) THE NEW WORLD
Terrence Malick writes and directs the classic story of John
Smith and Mataoaka (nicknamed Pocahontas) and later John Rolfe.
Malick's script reinforces some of the unlikely myths like
Mataoaka's romance with John Smith and Mataoaka dramatically
risking her life to save Smith's life. But like most Malick
films it is also a finely painted portrait showing the smallness
of man in nature. This is a strong, mesmerizing, and authentic-
feeling view of a time and place lost to history. Malick's
pacing is a taste I have not quite acquired and his history has
some faults. But the film is a memorable experience for anyone
with a healthy curiosity about the feeling of history. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: FROM OTHER WORLDS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This light, amiable science fiction film has a woman
encounter two kinds of aliens: one from the Ivory Coast and one
really from "out there." A Brooklyn housewife and mother is sort
of permanently zoned out until she is focused by being abducted
by aliens, having a romantic fling, and going on a quick mission
to save the Milky Way Galaxy. This is all very lightweight and
low-budget stuff, but this pleasant comedy sort of grows on the
viewer. There is nothing earth-shaking here, but the film is
likeable in a gentle way. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
Cara Buono plays Joanne Schwartzbaum, who walks through life
dazed like a stunned duck. Her torpor is a reaction to the dull
routine of being a housewife and mother in Brooklyn. Her life
bores her. Hubby Brian does not understand her and probably
never really tried, but then she does not understand herself.
Joanne needs something extraordinary to happen to shake things
up. But help is on the way. Things change for Joanne when
aliens abduct her. They kidnap her for an evening, remove her
memory of the event, and leave her unconscious on her patio.
Suddenly the world starts looking different to Joanne. Small
things, like fish in a market, fascinate her. Perhaps even more
amazing to her is her discovery that there are actually support
groups for people who have been abducted by aliens and who are
trying to adjust again to life. She decides to attend.
Joanne is taking the strange experience better than some in her
encounter group are, perhaps because she had never adjusted to
life in the first place. Another abductee she meets is Abraham
(Isaach De Bankolé), an Ivory Coast immigrant. Abraham had an
almost identical alien encounter and was left with the same
strange mark to prove it. Together they find a small romance and
a big problem that could destroy the entire galaxy. That part of
the story plays out a little bit like "Dr Who Lite".
FROM OTHER WORLDS was written and directed by Barry Strugatz.
Mr. Strugatz is the veteran of several low-profile project as
well as co-writer (with Mark R. Burns) of two higher-profile
films, MARRIED TO THE MOB and SHE DEVIL, the latter starring
Roseanne Barr and Meryl Streep. He takes humorous jabs at "Star
Trek", CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, "The X-Files", and
1950s science fiction films. Strugatz creates some pleasantly
bizarre characters in a science fiction film that has no real
need for special effects. Perhaps a little more polishing was
needed on the script. Some of the subplots do not go very far.
A subplot with a possible government agent chasing the main
characters fills time with very little payoff.
The cast is mostly unknowns. Cara Buono is attractive, but not a
very good actress. She slips in and out of her Brooklyn accent.
Several people from the UFO encounter group are nicely bizarre-
looking and are a decent backup to the main characters. The film
is lightweight all the way, but is diverting. I give FROM OTHER
WORLDS a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: CHILDREN OF MEN (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: How would universal infertility affect the human race?
How would people react to a death sentence in sixty years or so?
How exactly is society different without children? These and
many other fascinating ideas are foregone in CHILDREN OF MEN in
order to give us a very prosaic action film. The film is
diverting, but empty. Rating: 0 (-4 to +4) or 4/10
[A spoiler section with some questions about the plot follows the
main body of the review.]
This film has been very well received and, as with several other
films this year that have been popular with the critics, I am
just not sure what the fuss is about. CHIKDREN OF MEN seems to
possess an intriguing idea from the trailer, but what you see in
the trailer is really about as far as the film ever gets as
science fiction. There are no ideas or interesting images in the
film that go beyond what you get from the trailer. You see some
people running around and shooting at each other and betraying
each other, but nothing more is done with the ideas. How are
people different in a world without children? Well, they are a
lot meaner and they get into a lot more violent fights. We could
have seen a little about how young couples react to the inability
to have children. Does marriage seem pointless, for example?
Are pets suddenly more popular? We never know and that is not
what this film is about. The film is about fighting and betrayal
in a society grinding to a halt.
You do get extended violent gun battles and scenes of a
devastated England--supposedly the last country still standing.
You get a picture of grunge London dropping back into barbarity.
But it is a barbarity that is nearly indistinguishable from one
that resulted from dozens of other science-fictional causes. How
is a universal infertility fin du monde different from the one in
NO BLADE OF GRASS or one from a terrorist attack on the
government? The answer to Alfonso Cuarón (of Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN)
is that it is not much different at all.
In the year 2027 the youngest person on Earth dies. He was
eighteen years old. When he was born, birth rates were dropping
off disastrously. He was the last child ever born. Apparently
England is the only country in the world where the government is
still in control, and there it is a fascist state that is most
concerned with rounding up illegal aliens and deporting them.
Clive Owen plays Theo Faron, a former radical who now has a
boring government job. He takes time off to visit an old friend,
Jasper Palmer (Michael Caine), who is himself the crumbling
remains of a formidable political activist. On returning to
London, Theo is kidnapped by so-called "terrorists" only to find
that one is his former lover, Julian (Julianne Moore). With
Julian he had a child, but sadly the child died and the
relationship soured. Now Julian wants Theo to be a bodyguard to
take a woman to the Azores and to The Human Project. That
project, if it is more than a myth, is working on correcting the
infertility problem. The woman is to be taken is Kee (Claire-
Hope Ashitey), who miraculously appears to be pregnant.
The film clearly is intended to make some political statement
with its emphasis on calling a not very terrifying group of
people terrorists. Also the film shows a sort of fascist
treatment of illegal aliens. I have not read the book by mystery
writer P. D. James, but this may be something that Mexican
director Alfonso Cuarón chose to highlight. Of course, it could
have come in with one of the five people credited with working on
the script: Alfonso Cuarón, Timothy J. Sexton, David Arata, Mark
Fergus, and Hawk Ostby. Having five writers credited for a film
is generally not a good sign. Muting the colors to give the film
a downbeat feel, as CHILDREN OF MEN does, is becoming a fairly
common practice, going back as least as far as the film 1984
(1984) and has been seen as recently as THE GOOD SHEPHERD. Much
of the film takes place in an England reduced to near-rubble,
further adding to the dismal tone.
This is a film that had a great deal potential, but got too
involved in its action scenes. I rate it a 0 on the -4 to +4
scale or 4/10.
SPOILER QUESTIONS: At one point Theo follows the sound of a
crying baby. Nobody else seems to notice the sound or be curious
about it. Have they all forgotten the sound so quickly? Later
in the sequence people do reverentially stop fighting to let Kee
with the baby pass. After they pass nobody follows the woman and
nobody ever asks Kee about the baby. Everybody goes right back
to fighting without anyone realizing that the existence of a baby
might change everything. Does that make any sense? [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: TRANSCENDENT by Stephen Baxter (copyright 2005, Ballantine
Books/Del Rey, $7.99, 505pp, ISBN 0-345-456792-7) (book review by
Joe Karpierz)
Stephen Baxter concludes his "Destiny's Children" series of
novels with TRANSCENDENT. It is an interesting, ambitious
conclusion to the series, with all the grandiose trappings of a
Grand Cosmic Story. And I think it succeeds reasonably well,
although the end was somewhat flat. But I get ahead of myself.
Michael Poole, revered character in the previous book EXULTANT,
is front and center in this story. He is a nuclear engineer
whose personal life has fallen apart around him. His wife died
in childbirth, and his surviving son and he do not get along. To
top it off, he is being haunted by an apparition of his dead wife
Morag. Morag appears to him at the oddest times and places--
indeed, she appears to him even in his childhood, long before
Michael knows who she is and what she will become in his life.
The world really is falling apart ecologically, as global
warming, among other things, has caused a transformation in the
world's economy. Gasoline powered vehicles are practically
outlawed, and air travel has become prohibitively expensive.
There are toxic gases ready to blow underneath the poles,
threatening to cause a planetary extinction event.
Alia is a human descendent, born on the starship Nord 500,000
years in the future. Children of her time are charged with
"Witnessing" one life from the past as part of a grand scheme
concocted by the Transcendents (more about that in a bit). Her
subject is, you guessed it, Michael Poole. The Transcendents are
a group mind, if you will, best described as trans-human or
super-human, and they are guiding the path of humanity toward a
destiny that will fulfill their own purposes. Alia is a
Transcendent-elect; it is not a destiny that she has chosen for
herself. She spends a good portion of the novel going through
what amounts to training for the job. The training include
learning what the Transcendence (as the group mind is called) is
planning, and it disturbs her greatly.
So. Michael is in the middle of a project to save the earth from
the extinction event, but Morag continues to appear to him. He
is disturbed by the whole thing, and so is most of the rest of
his family, which also includes his brother John, who has some
shocking revelations for him during the project concerning Morag.
Michael eventually goes to Spain, to visit his aunt Rosa--yeah,
*that* Rosa from COALESCENT. It seems that Rosa was kicked out
of the Order, and is now a Catholic priest (given that this story
takes place in 2047, it's probably one of the more outlandish
predictions in the book, and that's saying a lot, given what else
Baxter posits. To think that the Catholic Church will become
that enlightened in the next forty years is fairly ridiculous.
Oh yes, I'm a Catholic, in case you're wondering). Rosa is
interested in the Morag sightings, and once she sees Morag for
herself, well, she jumps in with both feet to find out what's
going on.
Back a half a million years in the future, Alia is finding out
that the Transcendence is approaching their own kind of
Singularity which, after they cross it, will make them into a
godlike creature. But before they can become a god, they must
atone for all the suffering of the past, otherwise how can they
live with themselves? They path they are headed down results in
a confrontation between Alia and the Transcendence that will
involve Michael Poole, whose apparent destiny is to be a central
figure in the future of mankind.
This book is extremely vast in scope and story. Not too put too
much exaggeration into it, but it really is difficult to
summarize everything that's going on here. It deals with
ecological issues in the near future, and huge philosophical and
theological issues in both the near and far future. It handles
all of those issues extremely well. It's apparent that Baxter
loves the grand scope and cosmic stuff of the far future, and is
able to relate it back to our present time when it's relevant.
If the book has a flaw for me, it's the ending. I expected much
more of a grand climax than what Baxter presented, and the final
scene, while touching, left me wanting a bit more.
Still, all in all, TRANSCENDENT is a fine novel, and a reasonable
conclusion to the series. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE DEATH OF MR LAZARESCU (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is a film not so much about death as about the
experience of dying in modern society. It is a realistic look at
the last hours of a dying man as he goes through the wheels of
the medical bureaucracy of Romania--probably not too different
from our own. The film feels very real and not a little scary
since the viewer knows that he is very likely to eventually
likely to share Lazarescu's fate. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
With the steady diet of violent films we see in our theaters we
see death all the time. But we rarely see dying the way it
happens to most people. The plot of THE DEATH OF MR LAZARESCU is
really very simple. While I hate to spoil the ending, it is a
chronicle of just what it says it is: the death of a man. The
film is set in Romania and in what is for long stretches real
time, it shows what is perhaps the typical death of a typical
Romanian.
Mr. Lazarescu has a headache and has felt bad all day. He lives
by himself with only the three pet cats upon whom he dotes. His
apartment is cluttered and he sports a two-day growth of beard.
When his symptoms become severe enough, he gets help first from
neighbors and then from the Romanian health care system. That
system is very much like ours and what Lazarescu goes through in
the next few hours is much like an American would. (Perhaps in
Romania there is less emphasis on his healthcare coverage and how
he is going to pay for the medical care that he gets.) The
Romanian medical facilities are much like ours in technological
advancement, but the buildings and facilities seem of a little
lower budget. A continuing theme is that everybody who sees
Lazarescu first suggests that he has just been drinking too much,
though it turns out that has nothing to do with his medical
problems.
We see varying degrees of emotional involvement and proficiency
by the various people who Lazarescu sees. Many of the
professionals are less than professional and are thinking more of
their personal lives. A few take a real interest in Lazarescu.
The ambulance assistant who is one of the first to see Lazarescu
takes the greatest personal interest and follows Lazarescu
through the system. The fact that the patient has a stranger who
takes such an interest in him probably makes this case atypical
and means that he is much better off than a person in his
position would be likely to be. Certainly Romania seems to have
its own medical bureaucracy. Lazarescu is shunted from one
hospital to another. He is in four hospitals before anybody
gives him any real treatment beyond a few diagnostics. As his
evening wears on, more and more dignity is stripped from
Lazarescu who slips first into incoherence and then
unconsciousness. Perhaps the rapidity of his decline is another
way in which Lazarescu is lucky. If these events went on for
months rather than just an evening it would have been a much less
comfortable death.
The film was directed by Cristi Puiu, who also co-authored the
screenplay with Razvan Radulescu. They chose a style that is
realistic and almost like a documentary. The film is shot with a
handheld camera. The version I saw on DVD had good readable
subtitles, though with my knowledge of medicine much was still
incomprehensible. Because so much of the film is in real-time
and the wheels of the medical machine run slowly, the film is
slow-paced and drags a little during its 150-minute length. Nor
does the title leave much room for suspense. We feel a little
sympathetic for the main character, though less so when he lies
about his condition to people who are trying to help him. But
the real sympathy for him is that what he is going through is at
once terrifying and common to just about everybody.
This film has already won several international film awards and
is likely to be an Academy Award contender. I rate THE DEATH OF
MR LAZARESCU +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: PAPER CHASE (letters of comment by Taras Wolansky and
Carbone17)
In Mark's comments on THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA in the 12/29/06 issue
of the MT VOID, he wrote, "In THE PAPER CHASE the tyrant is
Kingsford (played by John Houseman)."
Taras Wolansky writes, "On THE PAPER CHASE, it's not Prof.
Kingford, but 'Kingsfi-i-i-e-e-eld!!!', as Timothy Bottoms yells,
finally driven to rebellion."
And "Carbone17" writes, "Kingsfield, not Kingsford. Charles
W. Kingsfield, Jr." and adds, "I've been hoping for years that
the show would show up on DVD, or in reruns. I created a TiVo
wishlist for it, but all captured were the movie itself, and
various TV show episodes of that title."
Mark replies, "Kingsfield???? My gosh. I was thinking of the
charcoal briquette."
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Bay of Pigs (letters of comment by Steve Spinosa and
Taras Wolansky)
In response to Mark's comments on the Bay of Pigs in his review
of THE GOOD SHEPHERD in the 12/29/06 issue of the MT VOID, Steve
Spinosa wrote:
I would like to discuss Mark Leeper's review of THE GOOD
SHEPHERD, starring MATT Damon as ex-Yalie/CIA Agent Edward
Wilson, which was directed by Robert DeNiro. Mark, you've done
an excellent job of describing the four main threads of the
movie. My brother Jim and I saw and we thought that, in addition
to it not working well as fiction, as a history it's a melange of
disinformation. Consider the following:
1) In the first thread, DeNiro attempts to establish that another
CIA agent(which was Wilson's son)supposedly compromised the
"Bay of Pigs" invasion by having sex with a Hispanic African-
American woman in the Congo (?) who theoretically tips off
Castro. NONE of the books that I've ever read about the CIA &
the "Bay of Pigs" ever hints of that as a plausible reason for
the Invasion's failure. What's more likely is that one of the
Cuban exiles trained by the CIA got cold feet and tipped off
Castro. In truth there were members of both the Eisenhower &
Kennedy administrations, as well as the Army's Joint Chiefs of
Staff & the CIA's Division of Plans/Operations who had doubts
about the mission.
2) It's true that the OSS/CIA recruited many of it's key figures
from Yale during the early years (Allen Dulles, Tracy Barnes,
Desmond Fitzgerald, Richard Bissell & Richard Helms come to
mind). As to whether or not it's actually James Angelton that
the story is based on, I'm not convinced of that. Jim will have
more to say on this later. [-ss]
And Taras Wolansky suggests, "On BoP, I would suspect the root
cause was the drug-induced mood swings of somebody who was far
too ill to be President. Up: "Invade Cuba? Yeah!" Down: "Uh,
air support?" The Cubans could scarcely believe their tiny air
force had air supremacy! (And the Soviets became convinced JFK
was a pushover, thus the Cuban Missile Crisis a few years later.)
One of the CIA guys in charge, who had swallowed the blame for
years, finally came out and told the story a few years ago. I
also recently learned Ike chewed JFK a new one but, following the
rule that former Presidents don't publicly attack their
successors, he did it privately." [-tw]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Stephen Hawking and THE SONG OF ROLAND (letter of comment
by Taras Wolansky)
In response to Mark's comments on Stephen Hawking in his article
on Alfred Hitchcock in the 12/29/06 issue of the MT VOID, Taras
Wolansky writes, "Reading Hawking's book, I assumed that if time
was running backward during the (hypothetical) contraction of the
universe, it would look exactly the same--to creatures embedded
in its 4D globe like insects in amber--as it did during the
expansion. Well, it made sense to me at the time...." [-tw]
Mark responds, "I am not sure I follow your reasoning on Hawkings
model." [-mrl]
And in response to Evelyn's review of THE SONG OF ROLAND in the
same issue, Taras writes, "Years ago, I read W. S. Merwin's
translation of The Song of Roland. As I recall from his
introduction, Merwin believes that the heavy death toll among the
Frankish leadership, plus other hints in ancient chronicles,
indicates that it was not a rear-guard action at all (an early
example of 'spin'). Rather, the Frankish forces, strung out
among mountain passes, had to fight their way through, unit by
unit. Think Teutoberg Forest but not as disastrous." [-tw]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE SATAN BUG (letter of comment by Carbone17)
In response to Mark's reference to John Sturges's THE SATAN BUG
(1965) in his article on Alfred Hitchcock in the 12/29/06 issue of
the MT VOID, Carbone 17 says, "My first thought was "But THE SATAN
BUG was written by Alistair MacLean!" Then I realized you meant
the movie, not the book. The book is much better, for what it's
worth."
Mark responds, "I read THE SATAN BUG by Ian Stuart when the film
came out. It was later that the book came out under the more
familiar Alistair MacLean. The book was better, but there were a
few touches I did not care for. However the "saltspoon" speech
was very impressive. Very scary stuff. (I also had a book by
MacLean called THE BLACK SHRIKE which had been published under
the name Ian Stuart.)"
Mark adds this passage from THE SATAN BUG:
"Let me put it this way. In its present form the Satan Bug is an
extremely refined powder. I take a saltspoon of this powder, go
outside into the grounds of Mordon and turn the saltspoon upside
down. What happens? Every person in Mordon would be dead within
the hour, the whole of Wiltshire would be an open tomb by dawn.
In a week, ten days, all life would have ceased to exist in
Britain. I mean all life. The Plague, the Black Death--as
nothing compared with this. Long before the last man died in
agony, ships or planes or birds or just the waters of the North
Sea would have carried the Satan Bug to Europe. We can conceive
of no obstacle that can stop its eventual world-wide spread. Two
months, I would say two months at the very most.... The Lapp in
the far north of Sweden. The Chinese peasant tilling his rice
fields in the Yangtze valley. The cattle rancher on his station
in the Australian outback, the shopper on Fifth Avenue, the
primitive in Tierra del Fuego. All dead. Because I turned a
saltspoon upside down.... Who would be the last to go? I cannot
say. Perhaps the great albatross forever winging its way round
the bottom of the world. Perhaps a handful of Eskimos deep in
the Arctic basin. But the seas travel the world over, and so
also do the winds; one day, one day soon, they too would die."
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I would like to share James Nichols's recent comment on THE
UNSLEEPING EYE by D. G. Compton (ISBN 0-671-83077-5): "I believe
this is the one where an evil bastard reporter follows a
terminally ill woman around to gather material for the
entertainment of TV viewers everywhere. I cannot fathom why this
idea has not yet become a reality show."
HIS MAJESTY'S DRAGON by Naomi Novik (ISBN 0-345-48128-3) has been
described as "Hornblower with dragons", and that is reasonably
accurate. The only difference is that Novik seems to be aiming
at a slightly younger audience--there is more emphasis on the
younger characters (though not making them the main characters).
The main character starts out as a naval captain and becomes an
aviator. However, the training and battle scenes (of which there
are several) seem like a cross between nautical and aerial
battles, so in some sense he is still a Hornblower stand-in.
What there is not is any substantive change for our world's
history. The American colonies apparently got tired of taxation
without representation, threw tea in the harbor, and gained
independence; Napoleon did pretty much what he did in our world,
and so on. Somehow you expect more change to the world than
that. This book and its sequels (THRONE OF JADE and BLACK
POWDER WAR) are recommended if you are looking for "Hornblower
with dragons", but not as an alternate history.
Everyone knows the 1939 version of THE WIZARD OF OZ, but there
were several others before that. (Yes, I realize these aren't
books, but there is at least a literary connection.) I just
watched a 1925 version, excerpts from a 1910 version, and a 1933
cartoon version. The 1925 version, co-authored by L. Frank
Baum's eldest son, had Oliver Hardy before he teamed up with Stan
Laurel. It also had some extremely racist views of blacks. (The
mildest shows a black character eating watermelon in a field.) It
also has an odd view of Kansas, with the Kansas fields surrounded
by cactus! The 1925 version has very interesting set design,
obviously influenced by expressionism, and heavy use of colored
filters. Neither is particularly true to the story--for example,
the 1910 version has Dorothy discovering on her 18th birthday that
she is actually a princess from Oz left with Auntie Em and Uncle
Henry as a foundling to protect her from evil-doers in Oz. The
1933 cartoon version is probably the most accurate of the lot.
(The less said about THE WIZ, the better.) [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
By the time a man realizes that maybe
his father was right, he usually has
a son who thinks he's wrong.
-- Charles Wadsworth