THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
MT VOID 02/23/07 -- Vol. 25, No. 34, Whole Number 1429
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.
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Topics:
L.A.con IV Con Report Available (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Film Summary (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The Upside of Brain Damage (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
C.S.A.: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (film review
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
CHASM CITY by Alastair Reynolds (book review
by Joe Karpierz)
NOTES ON A SCANDAL (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE HIDDEN YEARS,
THE BLACK SPHINX, BABBITT, KIM, and
IS HEATHCLIFF A MURDERER?) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: L.A.con IV Con Report Available (comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
My L.A.con IV report is *finally* done, and available at:
http://fanac.org/worldcon/LA_Con/x06-rpt.html
There are three minor corrections in the "Overrated Films and
Overlooked Movies" section:
There is a missing closing parenthesis after "not as scary
flesh-eating monsters but just annoyances".
In "Last Night", the world is going to end, not "en".
It was "The Jetsons", not "The Flintstones", that had food pills.
(I must have been thinking of the vitamins!) [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Film Summary (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL: Loose bots jam watts. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Upside of Brain Damage (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
In 2004, what many of us thought was the best science fiction
film of the year was Michel Gondry's THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE
SPOTLESS MIND. The concept of the film was that someone who was
deeply in love with a woman but with whom a relationship did not
work out could have his memories and more specifically his need
for this particular woman surgically removed from his brain. Much
of the film goes on in Joel's mind as he is remembering his lover
even as the memories are being surgically removed. Jim Carey
plays Joel. The film puts the viewer right in the middle of
memories as they are being erased. Details of the memories are
disappearing even as Joel is remembering. In a flashback when
Joel is investigating the procedure and considering having it done
he asks cautiously, "Is there any risk of brain damage?"
Dr. Mierzwiak, played by Tom Wilkinson, tells him candidly " Well,
technically speaking, the operation is brain damage, but on a par
with a night of heavy drinking. Nothing you'll miss." Just like
some toxins like botulinus can be used for a positive effect, it
is the premise of this film that some forms of brain damage can
actually help a person, particularly in addictive behaviors.
My memories of the film have not dimmed and are coming back to as
I read a story about the possibility of actually surgically
removing a smoking addict's addiction. It seems that a patient
identified in the literature only as N had been an addicted
cigarette smoker from the age of 14. The no doubt led to his
stroke at the age of 28. He recovered from the stroke, but he
never smoked again. Well, that part may be impressive, but it is
not surprising. Obviously for heath reasons he might not want to
smoke again. What seemed interesting was that he never even
wanted to smoke again. As he described it to his doctors, "my
body forgot the urge to smoke." His brain damage might have had
had a positive effect. That was certainly an intriguing
possibility. Perhaps the right sort of brain damage might help
someone give up on something that until that point was a physical
or psychological need. At least that concept was what
neuroscientist Antoine Bechara wanted to investigate.
N's damage has been in the insula, a part deep in the cerebral
cortex. So the next thing to investigate was were there other
smokers who had had strokes. There were 69 they identified, and
19 of them had insula damage. How many of them had given up
smoking after the stroke? It turned out it was all of them.
Damage to other parts of the brain did not seem to ease the
difficulty of giving up smoking. What is more while this finding
might make sense, it does not make complete sense.
The insula or the insula cortex seems to be involved in the
bodies "gut reactions" to food and other substances. Sniff some
month-old milk and you are liable to feel nauseated. That is a
small part of the brain the size of a prune that is telling your
body "no way". That is the insula. It seems to control only
acquired tastes. People who have acquired a taste for the
nicotine in smoke are feeling the reaction on their insula
cortexes. Damage the insula cortex and the addiction goes away.
However, people who have had this damage have not lost their urge
to eat food. That is not an acquired taste but a very natural
one. That must be controlled by some other part of the brain.
But this is a different function.
Now there are questions that come to mind. One is how effective
would this technique be against other forms of addiction. It has
been shown to be no good for over-eating. What about drug
addiction? Would it work on someone who had a cocaine addiction
or, say, a heroin addiction? But there is another important
question. Who is going to administer such a cure? Dr. Mierzwiak
of THE ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND seems perfectly
comfortable about administering brain damage to heal a broken
heart. But the brain is a delicate organ. Are people going to
want their brains fiddled with for promised good results? In
SLEEPER Woody Allen's Miles Monroe does not want anyone tampering
with his brain. He laments, "My brain! It's my second favorite
organ!" A condition would have to be fairly drastic before most
people would allow anybody to go in and tamper. And will there
even be doctors like Dr. Mierzwiak who would be willing
intentionally damage brains for a positive effect? [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: C.S.A.: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (film review by
Evelyn C. Leeper)
I've written in various places about C.S.A.: THE CONFEDERATE
STATES OF AMERICA, notably in my Hugo recommendations, but I have
never written an actual commentary on the film. SPOILER WARNING:
I will be talking in some detail about parts of the film that are
best experienced "fresh", so this article is intended more for
people who have seen the film already, or who do not want to be
surprised.
C.S.A. is a pseudo-documentary, or rather an alternate history
documentary. Done in the style of a Ken Burns documentary, it
tells the story of the origins and history of the Confederate
States of America, from around 1860 to the present day. It is
supposedly made by the "British Broadcasting Service", and so is
able to discuss slavery from an external viewpoint. (The experts
presented are primarily non-Confederates.)
In addition to filmed interviews with these experts, C.S.A. also
has silent films, archival photographs, and archival film footage
(including a speech by an exiled Lincoln in 1905)--all created
just for this film. It also used existing photographs, footage,
etc., but puts them in a new context. (For example, the painting
of the surrender at Appomattox is described as Grant surrendering
to Lee.) Interspersed are commercials for products, services,
television shows, and so forth, all true to the alternate history
described. I noted only one possible mistake: assuming one says
that Jefferson Davis's term started in 1861, there would not have
been a Presidential election in the CSA in 1880, because the
Presidential term specified in the C.S.A. Constitution was six
years. However, it is not clear whether that clause was intended
to be implemented from the beginning or only after the "War of
Northern Aggression" was over. (According to a friend, Davis was
named "provisional president" by the Confederate constitutional
assembly in February 1861, but elected to the presidency in
November 1861, and inaugurated in February 1862. That still
makes 1880 the wrong year for an election.)
What I find most notable about this film is that writer-director
Kevin Wilmott has created a whole world. Most alternate
histories create an altered political and/or social history. The
written ones may have a few comments about an advertisement that
is subtly (or not so subtly) similar to one from our world (e.g.,
"Fred got on the elevator, where his ears were assaulted by the
Burger Emperor jingle. "Have it any way you want", indeed, he
thought!) Even visual alternate histories rely on a few quick
gimmicks--red and green traffic lights reversed, a "Sushi Hut"
franchise, or whatever. But Wilmott has taken all this to a new
level. *Everything* here is different. Because it is presented
as a documentary, there are no long stretches of people sitting
around dealing with inter-personal relationships, or travelers
from our world talking about what is different and how it got
that way.
The most creative parts, I think, were the commercials. These
are actually of two types. One type are the obviously alternate
history ones, such as the opening commercial, for "Confederate
Family Insurance Co.". It talks about the viewer's role as
"husband, father, master of the house", all while showing happy
1950s-sort of family scenes. It finishes with "For over 100
years, serving a people" [scene of happy family] "and their
property" [pan to smiling black man weeding the flower garden].
The other type are commercials for products with derogatory names
and or images of black people, such as "N****rhair Cigarettes".
These did not seem as creative as the first kind, but ironically,
these are all based on real products sold in the twentieth
century. "Coon Chicken Inn" may not sound familiar, but Sambo's
was around the final quarter of the century. A section right
before the end credits tells the history of all the real
products. But the commercials that will stick in your mind are
the completely original ones: the Confederate Family Insurance
Company, along with ones for The Shackle, Better Homes and
Plantations, and the Slave Shopping Network.
There is also a recurring idea of "freedom illnesses" (which
cause slaves to think they are unhappy and would be happier if
they ran away to freedom). This is based on actual theories,
which proves, I suppose, that people can make up the most amazing
rationalizations.
There is one aspect that does not work too well, and that is
trying to come up with a Presidential scandal in the present that
would parallel Clinton's problems. Wilmott uses racial identity
rather than sexual impropriety, but frankly, this story line
seems strained.
Wilmott does not just cover the differences in United States (and
Confederate States) history, but looks at world history as it
might have been different. The C.S.A. becomes the imperialist
power, but with slavery as an institution at home, their attitude
toward other nations is even more oppressive.
I consider this a gem of alternate history. Yes, the scene of an
Apollo rocket with a C.S.A. flag instead of a U.S.A. flag is
contrived and done more to be "clever", and the Presidential
scandal seem like it came out of a different movie, but overall
this is a must see for fans of alternate history (or of Ken
Burns), as well as anyone interested in "racial politics". [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: CHASM CITY by Alastair Reynolds (copyright 2001, Gollancz,
$11.99, paperback, 616pp, ISBN 0-575-07365-9) (book review by Joe
Karpierz)
The problem with having so many books on my to read stack is that
time gets away from me. For example, in my review of Reynolds'
REVELATION SPACE I basically said that I'd be looking forward to
reading more of his books. The implication was that I would read
them soon.
That was in January of 2004.
So yep, it took me three years to read his next novel, CHASM
CITY. I wish I hadn't waited.
CHASM CITY is set in the same universe as REVELATION SPACE, but
is not a direct sequel. Since I'd read REVELATION SPACE three
years ago, I did some research on the Internet to discover that
most of CHASM CITY takes place before REVELATION SPACE. Some of
the characters and races from the previous novel are mentioned in
CHASM CITY, but in reality this book stands very well on its own.
Our main character is one Tanner Mirabel, a personal security
specialist who fouled up--a woman in his care by the name of
Gitta was killed during an attack by Argent Reivich. Reivich has
a vendetta against Gitta's husband Cahuella, who dealt in some
illegal arms that were stolen and eventually used to kill some of
Reivich's family. Mirabel pursues Reivich to the planet
Yellowstone in the Epsilon Eridani system, where he descends into
Chasm City, a domed settlement. Chasm City has fallen victim to
the melding plague, a nano-virus which has corrupted all the
nano-machines in both humans and the buildings. The result is
some gothic-like setting that has regressed to a technology from
the time before the plague.
Let's back up a bit. Mirabel is from the planet Sky's Edge.
Sky's Edge was settled by humans who traveled there via
generation starship from Earth. The planet is named after Sky
Haussmann, the captain of the ship that landed ahead of the other
ships in the original flotilla. Sky is considered both a hero
and a villain; he's considered a hero for making the first
landing, but he's considered evil and a villain because of the
nefarious methods he used to get there first.
Tanner follows Reivich up a space elevator type transport in an
effort to finish off the job. During the trip he encounters
Vadim and Quirrenbach. Vadim is trying to sell him protection
for his trip, which is summarily turned down. Quirrenback gets
the same offer, and Vadim and Quirrenbach end up in a fight,
which is broken up by Mirabel, who along with Quirrenbach later
raid Vadim's room. In that room Mirabel swipes a coat, some
"experientials" (a program where the viewer can experience what
someone else did), and some red fluid--which turns out to be
Dream Fuel.
Tanner travels to Yellowstone on an Ultra ship in a sort of
cryogenic freeze, and wakes up with temporary amnesia, a standard
effect of the freeze process. He is tended to by the Mendicant
Amelia, who tells him about his amnesia and is concerned for him.
Back on Sky's Edge, before he left, Mirabel was inflicted with a
virus that gives him two things: an affliction suffered by Sky
Haussmann, in this case an open, bleeding wound on one hand,
similar to the one Sky suffered during his crucifixion for his
crimes; and access to memories of Sky Haussmann's life, which you
can imagine disturb him to no end, as not only do the public
records of Sky's life don't match what Mirabel is seeing, but he
is also seeing things that no one ever has.
Okay, now it gets complicated. :-)
Tanner begins recovering his memories and starts to realize that
he isn't who he thinks he is--in fact, he may be more than one
person, as the memories of his life, Cahuella's, and Sky
Haussmann's come crashing together all at once. In fact, no one
is really who we think they are.
And therein lies the fun in this book. You really don't know who
is who when, and what's going to happen. Once the story starts
moving, it moves at a breakneck pace so fast that your head
spins--and you don't know where you're going to end up. If I
have any complaints, it's that the setup is too long, much like
Revelation Space, and the book itself could probably be shorter.
But it's a great book, and once again I look forward to the next
book from Reynolds. I just hope it doesn't take me three years
to get to it. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: NOTES ON A SCANDAL (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: 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
her puppet without Sheba ever realizing it. This is a real
departure for both actresses, each giving a furious performance.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
I am writing this review just nine days after the death of Ian
Richardson. Perhaps his best performance and perhaps his best
known, particularly to the British, was in HOUSE OF CARDS and its
two sequels, TO PLAY THE KING and THE FINAL CUT. In these films
he played Francis Urquhart, a statesman who made a study of
looking innocent but all the while fighting as dirty as necessary
for power. In these series he break the fourth wall, making the
viewer his confidant as he gives a little course in how to be
incredibly unscrupulous struggling his way to being the most
powerful man in Britain. I am reminded of the HOUSE OF CARDS
films when I see NOTES ON A SCANDAL. Judi Dench plays an elderly
schoolteacher whose goals are less ambitious, but who is cut from
the same cloth as Francis Urquhart. And Dench narrates her
strategies, not by talking to the camera, but by writing a diary
and we hear the words she writes, not unlike what was done in
BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY, but the woman Dench plays is no Bridget
Jones.
Dench plays Barbara Covett, apparently the point of stability and
reason in the staff of a public school. She herself is an
institution as the moral standard and a woman who makes clear she
will brook no nonsense, from students, faculty, or
administration. At least that is how she appears. As we hear
her private thoughts, her dignity hides a very hate-filled and
judgmental woman. Her judgement falls on all. Her attitude
toward her profession: "One soon learns that teaching is crowd
control." There are daggers in her smiles. As the film begins
she is judging the new bohemian art teacher, Sheba (short for
Bathsheba) Hart (Cate Blanchett). Sheba is 35-ish, attractive
and willowy--an instant favorite with the teachers and students.
Sheba has a husband and two children while Barbara goes home to
an elderly cat. Barbara is instantly jealous and before long is
hatching plans to destroy Sheba by first working her way into
Sheba's confidence. When she discovers that Sheba is having a
dalliance one of the students she knows she has the lever she
needs to destroy Sheba and make the resulting wreck her puppet.
Blanchett is excellent, but in the early parts of the film
Dench's acting dwarfs hers. Fear not, Blanchett will come into
her own later in the film. Judi Dench is not really a glamour
actress, but this role she seems to play with a minimum of
makeup. She looks very much the role of a 70-ish schoolteacher.
She seethes with rage and it takes a while for Blanchett to match
her. The film also features Bill Nighy, a longtime staple of
British drama, tough many Americans did not notice him until his
standout performance, really the best feature of LOVE ACTUALLY.
Director Richard Eyre most recently gave us STAGE BEAUTY, but has
directed as well several award-winning productions at the Royal
National Theatre. It shows what a fine director can do with two
great actresses. The film was written by Patrick Marber based on
the aptly titled novel WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?: NOTES ON A SCANDAL
by Zoë Heller. Philip Glass's score seems to mirror the
intricacies of Barbara's machinations. (It should be noted that
Dench and Blanchett are both nominated for Best Actress Academy
Awards. Glass's score is nominated for best score. Marber's
screenplay is nominated as best adapted screenplay.)
This is a strong drama that simmers its way to a boil by the end
of the film. It falters only at the very end, in which the story
falls back on a cliché. Somehow the British seem to do better
with their school films. Perhaps they have a different
relationship with schools than we do in the United States. We
did have Evan Hunter's BLACKBOARD JUNGLE and then dozens of
imitation. We seem to like to cast the teachers as heroes
against the students or vice versa. But we have little to match
the drama of films like THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE or NOTES ON
A SCANDAL. I rate NOTES ON A SCANDAL a high +2 on the -4 to +4
scale or 8/10. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE HIDDEN YEARS edited by Michael Kurland
(ISBN-10 0-312-31513-9, ISBN-13 978-0-312-31513-9) is a
collection of eleven stories set during the years when Sherlock
Holmes was presumed dead, that is, between the events at
Reichenbach Falls ("The Final Problem", 1891) and those of "The
Adventure of the Empty House" (1894). In the latter, Holmes
gives a brief account of his travels during that time, and
several of the authors here have used that as a basis for their
stories. For example, Michael Mallory's "The Beast of Guangming
Peak" is rooted in the notion of Sigerson, the Norwegian explorer
in the Himalayas. Carolyn Wheat's "Water from the Moon" has him
in Siam, and while Peter Beagle's "Mr. Sigerson" puts him in
Europe and Linda Robertson's "The Mystery of Dr. Thorvald
Sigerson" in Alaska, Holmes is still Sigerson. (No one can seem
to agree on his alter ego's first name, of course.) Other
authors move him to locations not mentioned in the Canon: Bill
Pronzini's "The Bughouse Caper" puts him is San Francisco and
Carole Bugge's "The Strange Case of the Voodoo Priestess" in New
Orleans. A couple of them (Wheat's story and Rhys Bowen's "The
Case of the Lugubrious Manservant") use the trick of Holmes
having (temporarily) lost his memory. Michael Collins's "Cross
of Gold" delves into politics. But all of these have a similar
problem--the basic appeal of the original stories is that of
Watson chronicling Holmes's cases. (The two stories not narrated
by Watson--"The Adventure of the Lion's Mane" and "His Last Bow")
are generally considered among the weakest of the Canon.) But
since these stories occur during the period that Watson presumes
Holmes to be dead, they are of necessity narrated either by an
omniscient third-person voice, or by another character in the
case, who usually focuses on his own role rather than that of
Holmes.
A few avoid this snare. Michael Kurland's "Reichenbach" manages
to use the constraints in an ingenious way into the basis of the
plot. Gary Lovisi's "The Adventure of the Missing Detective" is
an alternate history. Richard Lupoff's "God of the Naked
Unicorn" is so far out I cannot begin to categorize it.
THE BLACK SPHINX by Matt Hart (ISBN-10 0-552-55421-9, ISBN-13
978-0-552-55421-3) is a young adult novel from Britain. The
premise is some sort of alternate history, where London is a
small village, and Wolveston is the big metropolis. Except for
that, there is little alternate history aspect, and it is more a
straight fantasy novel with Dickensian influences. (I guess I
was hoping for a world in which the Egyptian dynasties and
religion survived.) However, as a fantasy it is pretty good.
The cover illustration, by David Richards, is reminiscent of
Edward Gorey. (The back cover, however, is rather hideous, as
someone apparently decided to maximize the number of fonts used;
I think there were fifteen, but it was hard to tell.) And to
give the young readers something to do besides just read the
book, each page has a couple of words from the Black Sphinx's
curse, done as a substitution code with heiroglyphs for letters.
I did not bother to decode 294 pages of these, but someone might.
BABBITT by Sinclair Lewis (ISBN-10 0-553-21486-1, ISBN-13
978-0-553-21486-4) is a classic that is still relevant almost a
century later. It is not just the theme of a man who is the
ultimate conformist, a man who will justify whatever path is most
convenient. It is all the fine details. It is about people who
want an easy path to success: Babbitt's son believes all the
"learn-by-mail" offers he sees. "We teach boxing and self-
defense by mail. Many people have written saying that after a
few lessons they've outboxed bigger and heavier opponents. The
lessons start with simple movement practised before your
mirror...." When Babbitt says, "But I thought they taught boxing
in the school gymnasium," his son answers, "That's different.
They stick you up there and some big stiff amuses himself
pounding the stuffin's out of you before you have a chance to
learn." In other words, he wanted to *have learned* boxing, not
to learn boxing, without realizing that the latter is a
requirement for the former. This desire for a quick path dates
back at least as far as Ptolemy I (who was told 2300 years ago by
Euclid, "There is no royal road to geometry") and up to the
present day, though now it seems more focused on entrepeneurial
ventures and less on learning by mail (or learning in any form,
alas).
Babbitt is completely self-delusional. He says things such as,
"We ought to get together and show the black man, yes, and the
yellow man, his place. Now, I haven't got one particle of race-
prejudice. I'm the first to be glad when a n***** succeeds--so
long as he stays where he belongs and doesn't try to usurp the
rightful authority and business ability of the white man." [my
asterisks]
Another classic element is Babbitt's speech on how wonderful
their city of Zenith is because of "the finest school-ventilating
systems in the country" and "the second highest business building
in any inland city in the entire country."
I put BABBITT on my reading list because everyone says it is a
classic, and because I kept seeing allusions to it, but I kept
reading it because it was a great book.
KIM by Rudyard Kipling (ISBN-10 0-140-18352-3, ISBN-13
978-0-140-18352-8) was this month's discussion book. It seems to
be catalogued at the library as a juvenile book, but I think
that it would be a rare juvenile today who could read Kipling's
elaborate prose interlaced with Hindi, Arabic, and other
languages. (amazon.com says "age 9-12".)
John Sutherland is a professor of literature who writes short
pieces on "puzzlements" in literature. For example, can Jane
Eyre be happy? Henry V, war criminal? Is Heathcliff a murderer?
Where was Rebecca shot? Who betrays Elizabeth Bennett? (Indeed,
these are the titles of the various collections of his essays.)
And one of his essays in IS HEATHCLIFF A MURDERER? (ISBN-10 0-
192-83468-1, ISBN-13 978-0-192-83468-3) is "How Old Is Kim?" The
only problem is that it is pretty clear how old Kim is, and even
Sutherland basically admits this. At the beginning, Kim is
thirteen; at the end, seventeen. The confusion Sutherland
addresses is more that Kipling has Kim a specific age, and then
ignores that whenever he feels like it. In specific, Kim's
behavior at the start of the novel is too childish for a
thirteen-year-old, particularly one who has been living on his
own in India for years.
And in one of those instances of synchronicity that are becoming
more and more common ("Year of the Jackpot", anyone?), the day
before the meeting, Fred Lerner's fanzine LOFGEORNOST arrived in
the mail. (This was actually doubly synchronicitous, because we
had just watched BEOWULF & GRENDEL two days ago.) And the lead
article was "The Tragedy of Rudyard Kipling", which Lerner sums
up as "Rudyard Kipling came to discard the liberal sentiments
that informed his youthful vision of empire. He became a
reactionary and a racist an a vicious antisemite...." Lerner
notes that the Kipling who wrote KIM was someone who appreciated
the diversity of India, and respects the many cultures. But at
some point, Kipling became a misanthrope, hating just about every
group. Luckily, we are able to read his earlier work in all its
glory without his later personality intruding.
However, while I enjoyed KIM, the rest of the group gave it a
"thumbs-down": language too convoluted, too much use of words in
the vernacular, and so on. People were unhappy with the use of
non-English words which were not translated, but also with non-
English words which were used (and translated) once, then never
used again. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Sir, I say that justice is truth in action.
-- Benjamin Disraeli