THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
07/04/08 -- Vol. 27, No. 1, Whole Number 1500
El Honcho Grande: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
La Honcha Bonita: 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:
Issue 1500 (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The Man of the Future (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Part of US Is THEM (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Decisions (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
WALL-E (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
THE INCREDIBLE HULK (letter of comment
by Douglas E. Milliken)
This Week's Reading (THE DRAGON'S NINE SONS)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Issue 1500 (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I guess I should say something. It is hard to believe. 1500.
This is our 1500th issue. Let this be a warning to aspiring
fanzine writers. Have a good idea when you start a fanzine, how
long you expect it to go and how you are going to bring it to an
end. Starting the MT VOID was a whole lot like starting to sing a
song before you have memorized the ending. How can we stop the
insanity? How many fanzines can say they have gone for 1500
issues? And we are working on 1501. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Man of the Future (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
A memory of the past has come back to me. The weekend I got my
first palmtop pocket computer was back in 1992. Evelyn was in
Virginia for a class and I took the train to Washington to meet
her for the weekend and to see some museums. I spent the train
trip learning about my HP 95LX. So there I was walking around
the Quadrangle. As we walked between museums I would have my
palmtop out and be typing on it as I walked. Evelyn was
downright embarrassed. It looked very strange to be walking
around and typing on a keyboard at the same time. Flash forward
to the present. People are interacting with electronic devices
when they walk, when they drive, when they are watching movies.
Talking on cell phones is now illegal in my State because so many
people do it. Evelyn pulls out a palmtop and types on it when
she is stopped at traffic lights. This woman who found my typing
on keyboards while I walked is the same Evelyn and not the same.
I was just a long, long way ahead of my time. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Part of US Is THEM (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Carl Sagan said that we are all star-stuff. All the matter you
see about you was originally created in a star. So yes we are
star stuff. It is true, but perhaps not very interesting. We
are star stuff, but so are rocks and water and the contents of
your town dump. But it seems now like we might actually be star
stuff in a somewhat more personal way--a way that rocks and water
are not. It now looks like there is a better case that the first
life on earth might have partially come here from space.
It has been known for some time that some of the building blocks
of RNA and DNA can be seen on meteor fragments. This gives some
support for the Panspermia theory. That is this theory that
suggests that life or the building blocks of life on earth did
not originate on this planet but were brought here by meteorites
or by some other means. The chemicals fell in the primordial
soup and joined with terrestrial chemicals that are not at all
rare. Together they formed the first primitive life. But what
is intriguing about this theory is that if the really key
molecules came to Earth hitchhiking on meteors, they could have
also fallen on other planets. There they could have combined
with the same common chemicals. This might mean that earth-like
life might be more common in the universe than we might think.
This probably does not mean that life forms that came from the
same seed would look like a lot like us. In "Star Trek", aliens
might look like humans with horseshoe crabs on their foreheads,
for example. In real life that would require way too much very
parallel evolution. But it is not nearly so farfetched that
other planets would have microbes that are a lot like our
microbes. We could easily have viruses in common. (And isn't
that a scary thought?) Also--I am guessing here--their sugars
might curl the same way ours do and have other similarities. It
might mean that there are more habitable planets out there than
there would be otherwise. But that is speculation. A couple
weeks ago this was something of a pipe dream. Now it seems to be
a little less of a pipe dream. What changed the facts? A
meteorite was found in Australia that contained two nucleobases.
Okay, first, what are nucleobases? They are molecules of
chemicals. The most familiar ones are cytosine, guanine,
adenine, and thymine. These are the building blocks of DNA. But
other nucleobases include uracil, a base in RNA. Xanthine and
hypoxanthine are not actually RNA bases but participate in the
same chemical reactions. Nucleobases are the basis of life and
reproduction and are the building blocks that all life on Earth
depend on. The Australian meteorite contains uracil and
xanthine. Some of the pieces of the first living organisms may
have come from space in the then recent past.
Where were they likely to have come from? Well, we found them on
Planet Earth, today that is the Planet of the DNA and RNA. If a
meteorite were found with signs of coffee on it you would assume
that it came in contact with the coffee on Earth and it would not
provoke much interest. If you could prove it picked up the
coffee when the meteorite was formed that would provoke a lot
more interest. Well if a meteorite contains the molecules of
nucleobases that is interesting all by itself, but we would just
assume that they got spilled on the meteorite after it arrived on
Earth. If you could demonstrate that the nucleobases actually
hitched a ride on the meteorite and came here from outer space,
that is a much more impressive fact. They could have chemically
formed or they could have come off of something interesting. Who
knows?
Zita Martins, a researcher at Imperial College London, is the
lead of a team that has proven that the uracil and xanthine on a
meteorite found in Australia was in the meteorite, not splashed
on after it arrived.
http://tinyurl.com/5lu9zy
When the Earth was covered with the primordial soup that first
spawned life, the atmosphere intercepted fewer meteorites and
there were meteor storms in which extraterrestrial rocks fell
from the sky. Chemicals from Earth and what appear now to be
chemicals from space came together in some reaction we are still
a long way from explaining and created life.
So at the risk of getting all Quatermassy on you I have to inform
you that it now looks like the odds are good that you are part
extraterrestrial. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Decisions (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Decisions, decisions. Consider eating lunch at the local
fishery:
- Should I drive to a favorite restaurant or walk to a closer one
I don't like as much?
- Does the restaurant employ illegal workers?
- Are they using recyclable materials? (And are they recycling
them?)
- Is the water safe to drink?
- Is the lemon slice in the water contaminated?
- Will a soda be bad for me sugar-wise? What about the
high-fructose corn syrup in it?
- If I choose a diet soda instead, is the artificial sweetener in
the soda poisonous?
- Is the fish I want to order one of the ones fished/farmed in a
sustainable, environmentally friendly fashion?
- Is the fish fresh?
- Is there mercury or other pollution in the fish?
- Are there trans fats in the oil they use for frying?
- Which are healthier, French fries, rice, or sweet potato?
- Are there dangerous additives in the food?
- Are the foods served genetically modified?
- Are the vegetables bought locally?
- Is there too much sodium in all this?
- Is the coffee fair-traded?
- Can I afford all this in today's economy?
And as Mark commented, "If all this gives you a headache, make
sure that the headache remedy bottle came sealed." [-ecl]
[We toured a WWII battleship now open to the public. In the
galley they showed what a typical meal was. It was surprisingly
large considering that they were at sea. But if you somehow could
remove all the cholesterol there would not be very much left.
Today a diet like that would be considered almost as dangerous as
the enemy bullets. -mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: WALL-E (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Pixar Animation is known for making good kids' films
that even adults can enjoy. But now they really have crossed
over the line to make an adult film that even kids can enjoy.
WALL-E is a light fun comedy set against a very grim background.
This film has a lot more message than just "have a good time."
It is all about some serious problems our world is facing. Under
the laughs and the humanized robots this is a serious science
fiction film and well above average for the genre. Rating: high
+2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
Spoiler Warning: There are minor plot spoilers in this review.
Pixar makes great, cute animated films. Their process does not
lend itself to making realistic human images so they tell stories
about toys, and insects, and fish. And these are good family
films in the sense that they are aimed at the kids, but the
adults really will have a good time also. With WALL-E for the
first time I think they started making good family films in the
sense that it is aimed at the adults, but the children can enjoy
it also. WALL-E has nice robots with real personalities that
kids and adults will respond well to. But rather than the little
morals to the stories that their previous films have had for
those looking for morals, this film has serious messages. The
messages are wrapped in a nice animated film, but they can hardly
be missed. And they are a dark core to this pleasant film.
The main character is WALL-E. He is a servo-mechanism that was
left behind to clean up the environment when all (surviving)
humans left the earth to go to a utopian resort ship. This ship
looks like it will give the humans an ideal hedonistic life while
back on Earth machines try to make the destroyed world livable
again. It should be noted that now, seven hundred years later,
the entire surviving human race is just a few thousand people.
The film glosses over what happened to billions of other humans,
but it is suspected they all died from something very nasty on
Earth. The affable robots distract the viewer from asking what
really happened to create this hellish future Earth. We are led
to assume that the giant corporations like the fictional
WalMart-like Buy & Large ended up owning and destroying our
planet. Meanwhile the remaining humans are pampered on the
Axiom, a ship deep in space that has become dangerously
comfortable. Humans have become fleshy eating machines, obtuse
and obese, who have as a race voluntarily given up the ability to
walk. They get their nutrition from what look like 7-Eleven
cups. But that is the back-story. We see little of it and its
grimness is not where the emphasis lies.
We focus on WALL-E, a likable earthbound clean-up robot whose
usually wordless antics echo the antics of silent screen humor.
He runs about his little home area picking up trash, compacting
it into building blocks, and building what looks like a large
pavilion out of them. In his spare time he watches and loves one
old human movie, HELLO DOLLY! His only friend is a sociable
cockroach.
Then one day a spaceship lands and drops off an egg-like robotic
pod. Like Robinson Crusoe surveying the cannibals on his island,
WALL-E cautiously spies on the pod. After a somewhat shaky start
in which the pod tried to destroy WALL-E multiple times, the two
become friends. WALL-E has not had a friend larger than an
insect in hundreds of years. The two become fast friends--"fast"
in the sense of "over too quickly." Eva, as the pod is named,
has found something important and has to return to her point of
origin. WALL-E stows a ride and finds himself on the resort ship
Axiom where in spite of the original plan it is really the robots
that have all the power. A fair chunk of the film--too much
really--is just chase around the charming but sinister starship
Axiom.
Science fiction fans will find the film is informed by a good
knowledge of the genre. I found myself reminded not just of
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (though there are obvious allusions to that
film) there are echoes of the writings of Clifford Simak and
Robert Heinlein. There are also echoes of the film TITANIC,
though physically they do not make sense. In written form WALL-E
would have made a very decent 1950s science fiction story. It
may be the best new science fiction film of 2008. I will not go
into detail but the end-credits are one more very creative aspect
of the film.
Pixar gives a light treatment to some very heavy ideas and has
made a film that the adults should appreciate even more than the
kids who see it do. While the kids have a good time, the adults
may find that this is a film with several serious messages. It
is ironic that Pixar has made a film warning us about large
corporations, and it is being released by industry giant Walt
Disney Pictures. I rate WALL-E a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale
or 8/10.
Film Credits: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/
While I am talking about good fantasy films from Pixar, PRESTO (a
short animated film that runs with WALL-E) is both very funny and
a film with a fun fantasy premise, expanding around an idea that
would have been a quick gag in Looney Tunes. Together WALL-E and
PRESTO make a package that returns a lot for the price of
admission. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE INCREDIBLE HULK (letter of comment by Douglas
E. Milliken)
In response to Mark's review of THE INCREDIBLE HULK in the 06/27/08
issue of the MT VOID, Douglas Millken writes (about why no one
noticed the Hulk crossing several borders), "Tell your wife he
jumped. This character is one who can leap miles straight up and
run at about 300 mph and is therefore harder to spot traveling thru
town than one might think, since if he cares to do so he can leap
*over* many a major city. Unfortunately only we fanboys young and
old would know this, and to those who have lived actual lives it
would appear to be a hole in the plot." [-dem]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
[I had hoped to finish my comments on the short fiction Hugo
nominees but that won't happen until next week.]
THE DRAGON'S NINE SONS by Chris Roberson (ISBN-13
978-1-84415-404-6, ISBN-10 1-84415-404-X) is set in the same
"Celestial Empire" alternate history universe as many of
Roberson's other stories (including the Sidewise Award winner, "O
One"). This universe supposes that the Chinese did not curtail
their exploration in the 15th century, but went on to reach and
colonize North America, and eventually expand to control almost
the entire world. This story is set after Mexica has
successfully broken away from the Han Empire, and during a space
race/war between the two. It is sort of a "Dirty Dozen" in space
(though with nine rather than twelve soldiers)--a band of misfits
under death sentences sent on a suicide mission.
As the first novel Roberson has written in the series, THE
DRAGON'S NINE SONS suffers from some problems that one would not
have in short stories. For example, there is (to my mind) far
too much fore-shadowing at the ends of chapters (e.g., "That was
the intention, at any rate. As with so many things, though, the
reality fell far short of the ideal."). I also have a quibble
with the method required to start the Mexic engines. (Without
saying too much, let me just say that while it sounds plausible
in theory, the exigencies of battle might cause problems if a
ship is understaffed.) Given this method, however, the
"practical joke" one Han character plays is so clearly stupid
that one is reminded of Damon Knight's term, "idiot plot".
Indeed, there seems to be a fair amount of coincidence and
contrivance in the story. The most egregious, is how the
characters justify the killing of women and children in a Mexic
stronghold in their plan. Perhaps the idea is that the reader
should *not* agree with them and should see it as an example of
how the military rationalizes all its actions, however immoral
they may seem. (On the other hand, one character explicitly
condemns an action that directly copies a decision from World War
II that most people accept as necessary--and no, it's not the
atomic bomb.) And one final minor complaint: the copy editor at
Solaris does not seem to know the difference between "flout" and
"flaunt".
The story itself has more of straight military science fiction
and less of the "Celestial Empire" background than Roberson's
short stories, and as such is a reasonably enjoyable read, even
if not as "pure" an alternate history. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Those who would give up a little freedom to get
a little security shall soon have neither.
-- Benjamin Franklin