THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
07/06/07 -- Vol. 26, No. 1, Whole Number 1448
El Presidente: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
The Power Behind El Pres: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
The Grey Man (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Chapter 3 (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The Joy of Self-Immolation--Chili Peppers
(Part 1) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The Nine Billion Names of God (comment by James Nicholl)
This Week's Reading (Science Fiction Museum and Hall of
Fame) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Grey Man (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Do you think you know H. G. Wells's THE TIME MACHINE? Apparently
there was a piece that Wells took out because it was too
depressing. It takes place where the Time Traveler escapes from
the Morlocks into the more distant future. Apparently what he saw
there was not so nice and Wells decided to spare the reader that
part of the story. It can be found at
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Grey_Man
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Chapter 3 (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
This comment is a Chapter Three. The third chapter of what you
may ask. Well it is not the third chapter of anything, it is just
a third chapter. That is its form. It was written listening to
the "1812 Overture" and some Chopin preludes. Nobody asked
Tchaikovsky what his music was an overture to. Nobody asked
Chopin what his preludes were preludes to. Okay, this editorial
this week is a third chapter. That is its form. But it is all
there is. That's Chapter 3. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Hot Topic: The Joy of Self-Immolation--Chili Peppers
(Part 1) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
There was an interesting posting on the Usenet recently. A
science fiction fan was in a restaurant in Denver and he ordered
fish and chips. Now his first mistake, at least in my opinion,
was by not insisting on using only malt vinegar to season the
fried food. I insist on it and really douse my fish as well as
the chips. He apparently was willing to settle for tartar sauce.
He got tartar sauce and in the light of the pub he did not happen
to notice that the tartar sauce he got was pink. Apparently this
particular tartar sauce was seasoned with chili pepper. In his
posting he talks like this is how most restaurants serve tartar
sauce. My first reaction was that I would like to try it and
second that it seemed odd that he thought it is so common to have
piquant tartar sauce. I looked up recipes for tartar sauce, and
none that I found mentioned chilis. If I looked up "chili tartar
sauce," on the other hand I was indeed able to find recipes,
though the concept was new to me. Apparently out west it is
much more common. He referred to the spread of spicy food as the
"Capsaicin Conspiracy." Capsaicin is the irritant in chili
peppers that makes them spicy.
Capsaicin shows up in my editorials a lot. The truth is that
capsaicin happens to be my drug of choice. I cannot stand
tobacco; I hate the taste of alcohol; I am too much of a chicken
to try illegal drugs. Under very rare circumstances I will use
caffeine, but I am not fond of coffee or tea, which burn my mouth
(from their high temperatures). No, my drug of choice is
capsaicin. Readers of this column may remember my recent mention
that it figures heavily in an apparent cure for diabetes. I also
have written about how it is used in products that promise to
make birdseed unpalatable for squirrels without bothering birds.
I have talked in the notice about how my tolerance for the really
spicy is my only really valid claim to extreme machismo. I have
even talked about my foolhardy assault on Gimpy's Wings of Fire,
defeating this dish at the expense of my weekend.
What can I say? I am a capsaicin fan.
I don't know if I ever explained about Scoville units. The
potency of chili peppers is measured in Scoville units, named for
chemist Wilbur Scoville who invented the test. The hotter a
pepper is the more units of sugar water are needed to dilute it
so that one can just barely taste the hotness. If one unit of
pepper in solution with 50 units of sugar water then the pepper
has 50 Scoville units of hotness. I suspect that plain water
could have been used also, but Scoville used the sugar water to
reward his guinea pigs who were risking life and taste buds to
test the hotness of peppers. These days the measurement of
Scoville units is done more accurately by machines that are
incapable of screaming. (Now that is a scary thought. I wonder
if they want to scream and just cannot? I wonder if I am going to
be sued by Harlan Ellison.)
The following is a table of the Scoville units of various peppers.
Units: Variety of Pepper
0-100: Bell/Sweet pepper varieties
500-1000: New Mexican peppers
1,000-1,500: Espanola peppers
1,000-2,000: Ancho & Pasilla peppers
1,000-2,500: Cascabel & Cherry peppers
2,500-5,000: Jalapeno & Mirasol peppers
5,000-15,000: Serrano peppers
15,000-30,000: Arbol peppers
30,000-50,000: Cayenne & Tabasco peppers
50,000-100,000: Chiltepin peppers
100,000-350,000: Scotch Bonnet & Thai peppers
200,000 to 300,000: Habanero peppers
Around 16,000,000: Pure Capsaicin
The record for the hottest chili pepper is the Bhut Jolokia, at
1,001,304 Scoville units. That is getting really near pure
capsaicin. May I never run into this pepper. I might be just
dumb enough to try it. In my younger stupider days I would spend
an afternoon at work taking tiny bites from a habanero pepper the
way other people would sip coffee, thinking that it will keep
them awake after a heavy lunch. Let me tell you these people
don't know what awake is until they have spent an afternoon at
work taking tiny bites from a habanero chili pepper. Whooo-eee!
Next week I will talk about the effects of eating hot chilis and
the changing beliefs about just how good an idea it is to burn
out your mouth with fiery chilis. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Nine Billion Names of God (comment by James Nicholl)
Posted to Usenet:
"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke: Cunning
Buddhists turn to modern technology to save some time in their
religious ceremonies. British entrepreneurs are only too happy
to sell the monks what they need. The monks succeed beyond the
dreams of their British allies.
This kind of thing is why environmental impact statements are so
important.
[-James Nicholl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
[This continues the description of the Science Fiction Museum and
Hall of Fame in Seattle.]
The next section was the Hall of Fame, begun at the Gunn Center
at the University of Kansas in 1996, but since transferred to the
Science Fiction Museum (whose full name is actually the "Science
Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame"). Current members include Brian
W. Aldiss; Poul Anderson; Isaac Asimov; Alfred Bester; James
Blish; Chesley Bonestell; Ray Bradbury; Edgar Rice Burroughs;
John W. Campbell, Jr.; Arthur C. Clarke; Hal Clement; Samuel R.
Delany; Philip K. Dick; Gordon R. Dickson; Frank Kelly Freas;
Hugo Gernsback; Harry Harrison; Ray Harryhausen; Robert A.
Heinlein; Frank Herbert; Damon Knight; Ursula K. LeGuin; Fritz
Leiber; George Lucas; Anne McCaffrey; A. E. Merritt; Michael
Moorcock; C. L. Moore; Andre Norton; Frederik Pohl; Eric Frank
Russell; Mary Shelley; Robert Silverberg; E. E. Smith; Steven
Spielberg; Theodore Sturgeon; Wilson Tucker; Jack Vance; Jules
Verne; A. E. Van Vogt; H. G. Wells; Kate Wilhelm; Jack
Williamson; and Donald A. Wollheim.
There were short films about the 2006 inductees (Freas, Herbert,
Lucas, and McCaffrey). We watched the one about Freas. In it,
David Gerrold said, "Just as Heinlein was the defining voice for
writers, Freas was the defining voice for artists." Though the
aspect ration on the artworks was fine, when they showed people
talking, they all looked tall and thin, which meant the aspect
ratio was off. There was also information on the Hall of Fame
members, all taken from John Clute and Peter Nicholls's
"Encyclopedia of Science Fiction", but it is not kept up to date.
For example, both Jack Williamson and Wilson Tucker still listed
as living.
One of the artifacts they had was the clapboard from David
Lynch's version of Frank Herbert's "Dune".
The rest of the displays in the "HOMEWORLD" room were divided
into the categories "Science Fiction Community", "Science Fiction
and Society", "Not So Weird Science", and "What If?"
"Science Fiction Community" included costumes, a section on
fandom today (including screen shots of "The Internet Review of
Science Fiction" and "Entertainment Geekly"), and representative
awards (a Hugo rocket, a Nebula, and so on). There were pictures
and letters from Forrest J. Ackerman, Isaac Asimov, and Ray
Bradbury in a section labeled "From Fan to Pro". There was a
1920 mimeo machine, and quite a few fanzines, convention
publications and materials, and letters.
There were then several thematic sections, with first editions of
representative books, and movie posters (or pictures of posters).
A section on the Cold War had "The Puppet Masters" by Robert A.
Heinlein, "Dr. Strangelove", "Deadline" by Cleve Cartmill, and a
pod from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers".
A section on Vietnam featured "The Healer's War" by Elizabeth
Moon, "The Forever War" by Joe Haldeman and "The Word for World
Is Forest" by Ursula K. LeGuin.
Gender was represented by James Tiptree, Jr.; Samuel R. Delany;
Ursula K. LeGuin, and Theodore Sturgeon.
The environment included "The Sheep Look Up" by John Brunner,
"Forty Signs of Rain" by Kim Stanley Robinson, "The Death of
Grass" by John Christopher, and "Make Room! Make Room!" by Harry
Harrison and the film made from it, "Soylent Green".
"BEMs and Babes" had covers of several pulp magazines.
Mutation included "Godzilla", "The Swamp Thing", "Mutant" by
Henry Kuttner, "The Chrysalids" by John Wyndham, "Food of the
Gods" by H. G. Wells, and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles".
Cyborgs had "Man Plus" by Frederik Pohl, "The Human Touch" by
Theodore Sturgeon, "Nova" by Samuel R. Delany, "Cybernetic
Samurai" by Victor Milan, "The Three Stigmata of Palmer
Eldritch" by Philip K. Dick, and many others.
Nanotech included "Slant" by Greg Bear, "The Diamond Age" by Neal
Stephenson, "Inherit the Earth" by Brian Stableford, "Fantastic
Voyage" by Isaac Asimov, and others. (I thought calling
"Fantastic Voyage" nanotech is a bit of a reach, but Mark said
that it was really a separate category called "Changes of
Scale".)
Genetics and cloning had "The Island of Dr. Moreau" by H. G.
Wells, "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang" by Kate Wilhelm, and
"Bladerunner"; artificial reproduction had "Brave New World" by
Aldous Huxley and "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley. There was also
a biotech section.
"What If Scenarios" (some of which I mentioned before) included
"The City of Truth" by James Morrow, "Eternal Sunshine of the
Spotless Mind", "Years of Rice and Salt" by Kim Stanley Robinson,
"The Language of Pao" by Jack Vance, "Kiln People" by David Brin,
the "Helliconia" series by Brian W. Aldiss, and "Nightfall" by
Isaac Asimov. Also on display were Neal Stephenson's hand-
written manuscript for his "Baroque Cycle", as well as the ink
cartridges and bottles he used to write it.
Uncategorized displays included the Jupiter 2 (from "Lost in
Space"), props for "Star Trek", and the T-rex motion direct input
device from "Jurassic Park". The "Lost in Space" display also
seemed to be running an entire episode (with headsets)--the
meteor storm was really fake-looking.
There was a spherical-surface screen with anamorphic images of
movie scenes (and a few book covers) projected on it in the
categories of "Fantastic Voyages", "Amazing Places", "Brave New
Worlds", and "Them! Them! Them! ..." ("Swastika Night" showed up
on this at well--is it really that important?) There was about a
fifteen-minute cycle.
One of the paintings hanging in this room was the famous
Emshwiller painting of Theodore Sturgeon used as the cover for
the special "Theodore Sturgeon" issue of "The Magazine of Fantasy
& Science Fiction".
The exitway from this room was "The Changing Face of Mars",
covering early scientists, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. G. Wells, the
pulps, Ray Bradbury, Kim Stanley Robinson, and so on. Shifts in
perception came about because of the Mars Mariners (1965),
Vikings (1976-1982), and Rovers (2003). This topic was covered
in great detail by the panel "Mars in Fiction" at L.A.con IV, see
http://fanac.org/worldcon/LA_Con/x06-rpt.html#marsfiction for
details.
The stairway leading down to the other displays had posters from
"Pitch Black", "City of Lost Children", "Ghost in the Shell",
"Johnny Mnemonic", "Inner Space", "Transformers", "The Empire
Strikes Back", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Titan A.E.",
"Independence Day", "Dune", "Escape from New York", and
"Metropolis".
"HOMEWORLD" took about an hour and a half.
[to be continued] [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon
in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned
how to live.
-- Lin Yutang