THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
04/23/10 -- Vol. 28, No. 43, Whole Number 1594
C3PO: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
R2D2: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Counter-Offer (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
CITY ISLAND (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
THE GHOST WRITER (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
FINAL GIFTS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Brigadoon (letter of comment by Tim Yao)
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (letter of comment
by Morris M. Keesan)
Brigadoon, Finian's Rainbow, Mathematical Science Fiction,
and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (letter of comment
by Sam Long)
This Week's Reading (THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING 2001)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: Counter-Offer (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
It was being said that there was an anonymous note found in a high
place in government saying "Put thirty billion pounds in a paper
bag and leave it at the Icelandic Embassy, and we will turn the
Eyjafjallajokull volcano off."
It has come to my attention that several of the news services got
together to make a counter-offer. "We will give you five million
Euros if you will just rename the volcano to something easily
pronounceable." [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I recently got a piece of mail from Fred Lerner asking me what I
thought of the classic Hitchcock THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS and of the
2008 BBC adaptation of the same novel which more recently ran on
"Masterpiece Theater". I thought this was a good opportunity to do
a retrospective of the film adaptations to film.
First, some background. The book itself was written by John
Buchan. Who was Buchan? He actually was--get this: Lord
Tweedsmuir--a Scottish politician who in 1935 was to become
Governor General of Canada. Some twenty years earlier he was ill
with a duodenal ulcer and had to take to his bed. Out of sheer
boredom he decided to write an imaginative adventure story, very
much of the sort that Ian Fleming would years later write. It was
not high and literary, but just some exciting fun. The novel he
wrote was THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS. This was the first of five novels
he would writer about the resourceful Richard Hannay. In later
books Hannay would be a secret agent, but in the first novel he is
just a civilian who has lived for a while in Southern Africa and is
returning home to England. Then a stranger asks him for help. The
stranger turns out to be an eccentric master-spy who is trying to
stop the assassination of the Greek Premier. The spy is murdered
shortly thereafter and Hannay quickly becomes the prime suspect in
the investigation. He tries to flee to Scotland but is tracked
there. Hannay must try to evade the police and at the same time
foil the assassination. He falls into one dangerous situation
after another, but has the wits to find ways to save himself every
single time. One set piece intrinsic to the story is Hannay
impersonating a politician and having to do an impromptu speech for
some unknown political party. In the book he had some time to
prepare the speech, but I think the film versions all make it
impromptu.
There gave been four film adaptations of the book. Frankly, none
of the film versions follows the book with any fidelity. So which
is the best?
Well, the Gold Standard for the THIRTY-NINE STEPS is, of course,
the 1935 version directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Robert
Donat. Sadly, I am not on Gold Standard. Frankly, I thought all
of the comedy nearly spoiled the thriller aspect. Hitchcock seemed
more intent on making a romantic comedy than a nail-biting
thriller. Hannay is handcuffed to a woman who had tried to turn
him in to the police. They had escaped but have to run across
country with all the complications that the handcuffs cause. Along
the way the woman realizes that Hannay is not just innocent, but a
man with a desperate mission. I have to say that overall the
changes that Hitchcock made to the story made this just an okay
adventure story. The Thirty-Nine Steps itself turns out to be an
organization of spies.
It has been years since the 1959 version has been available
anywhere I could see it. I remember a lot of touches were borrowed
from Hitchcock and not Buchan. It was just a sort of lackluster
attempt to reuse the story as Hitchcock had made it. Redundant
remakes have been around for a while. It is a pity because I like
Kenneth More, but not as Hannay. I am not sure I see him as a man
of action. He nearly always plays "nice guy" roles like James
Stewart did or Morgan Freeman does. I don't exactly remember, but
they probably again had the Thirty-Nine Steps be the organization
of spies. This version has probably become unobtainable with time.
My personal favorite version of THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS was made in
1978 with Robert Powell as Hannay. It is not a whole lot more
faithful than any other version, but it worked as an action film.
It shows the influence of Hitchcock's action films. The finale has
Hannay hanging desperately onto the hands of Big Ben. Hitchcock
liked to have finales with heroes hanging off of famous landmarks.
Of course it cold also be borrowing from Harold Lloyd's SAFETY
LAST! Whether it was intended so at first or not, the film turned
out to be a pilot for a short TV series called "Hannay" with Powell
in the title role. It took smaller liberties with the plot, but I
thought it gave a lot of fun in return. The Thirty-Nine Steps are
in the tower leading up to Big Ben.
I once showed friends the 1978 version on a double feature with
NORTH BY NORTHWEST. I had not intended it this way, but they had a
lot of elements in common. NORTH BY NORTHWEST came off as almost a
remake of some version of Buchan story. Hitchcock reused a lot of
the elements in that film, THE SABOTEUR, and THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO
MUCH.
Now to the BBC version. Again, it had the basic story right when
viewed from a distance. If you get close up, there was not a lot
of the original. For that matter it is also a lot like the
Hitchcock. Rupert Penry-Jones was Richard Hannay who again gets
tied in with a woman. She at first thinks Hannay is a killer and
then is won over. The assassination attempt is to be made against
not the Greek Premier but the Archduke Ferdinand. This is actually
a poor touch. At the time Buchan wrote the novel it is unlikely he
would have even been aware that there was an Archduke Ferdinand.
Also the fact that we all know that the Archduke was assassinated
makes the effort to save him a little pointless. Although there is
an "I told you so" in there, since a lot more than anyone realized
did hang on the life of the Archduke. This was just okay as a
version. Actually, for my money it was probably a little better
than the Hitchcock. But Hitchcock got there first at a time when
getting there was a lot harder to do. Another plus is that the
Thirty-Nine Steps was a walkway down to wear spies were picked up
by boat. It was handled a little differently from Buchan's way,
but somebody knew what the 39 steps really were in the book.
For my taste the best of the adaptations is the Robert Powell, then
comes Hitchcock's version with Robert Donat. The BBC comes next.
And the least pleasing was the Kenneth More. Still, it might be
nice to see the BBC do an adaptation of GREENMANTLE, the second
Richard Hannay novel. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: CITY ISLAND (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This comedy-drama is a real joy. In an Italian-American
family living on an island off the Bronx, everyone has a secret or
two that he keeps from the others. These secrets and the
misunderstandings they cause become a major force in the family.
Writer/director Raymond De Felitta has an uncommon talent for
creating simple but compelling characters. Rating: high +2 (-4 to
+4) or 8/10
A few years ago I took a film that I had recorded off cable and
watched it in three parts while I was on an exercycle. I found
myself with the rare experience of looking forward to my next
exercise session so I could see more of the film. After the third
session and final session I got off the exercycle and immediately
ordered the DVD expressly to share the movie with other people.
The film was TWO FAMILY HOUSE, written and directed by Raymond De
Felitta. CITY ISLAND is also written and directed by De Felitta.
De Felitta has a penchant for creating flawed but likable
characters that the viewer cares about. I find myself at the
beginning of most sequences in the film just feeling it is good
that I am going to see more of these characters. Few writers have
that knack.
Living in the City Island, an island near the Bronx, the Rizzo
family outwardly seems to function fairly normally with a few minor
tensions. Perhaps that is part of the point of this film. But in
fact it is a house of secrets. "Corrections officer"--everyone
thinks "prison guard" when they hear that--Vince Rizzo (played by
Andy Garcia) is fascinated by Marlon Brando. Those nights when he
tells his wife Joyce (Julianna Margulies) he is playing poker he is
really taking acting lessons to be like Brando. Joyce is sure he
is not playing poker and draws her own conclusions. Vince's
daughter Vivian (Dominik Garcia-Lorido, Garcia's actual daughter)
left college when her scholarship was revoked and is working as a
pole dancer. Teenage Vinnie, Jr. (Ezra Miller), is obsessed with
feeding fat women, especially neighbors. These secrets could have
gone on, but Vincent has one more secret. Years ago, before he
knew Joyce he had a fling and fathered a child whom he abandoned.
Now one of the new inmates at the prison is almost certainly his
son. Only Vincent knows, but he arranges for the boy Tony (Steven
Strait) to be released into his custody for a month. This will
affect all the secrets.
Andy Garcia is not usually a comic actor. Here he seems a little
older and wiser than we would expect. He also is not as buff as he
used to be. Along for the ride are Alan Arkin (who seems to be
making a later career of off-beat comedies) and Emily Mortimer as
Vince's partner in acting class and later his confidant.
The characters are a major draw to this film, but in the end this
films feels a little much like the build-up to a Big Scene, very
likely the first scene written. As good as that scene is, it is
also contrived and the film feels a bit much like it is all in
service to creating that scene. Because TWO FAMILY HOUSE was based
on a true story it may have needed less contrivance.
De Felitta returns to some of his themes from TWO FAMILY HOUSE.
Vince, like the main character of his previous film, knows what he
wants and holds on when others tell him it is unrealistic. With
another returning theme the long-time residents of City Island, the
cliquish end of Bronx, look down on newcomers. They call the
newcomers "mussel-suckers." The families that go back for
generations are the "clam-diggers." The Rizzo family are proud to
be clam-diggers.
De Felitta makes rewarding comedies with real people. I rate this
film a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10. I wonder if the
inspiration for the policeman who wants to become an actor came
from Danny Aiello.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1174730/
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/city_island/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE GHOST WRITER (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A minor author is hired to ghostwrite an autobiography for
a former British Prime Minister. But he finds he is uncovering
information some people may not want dug up. Roman Polanski
directs a dark political thriller from a script by Robert Harris
based on his own novel. After a slow and deliberate start Polanski
pulls up the pace and pulls us into the action. Rating: +2 (-4 to
+4) or 7/10
Ewan McGregor plays a character identified only as "The Ghost".
That makes him sound dramatic, but he is anything but. This
anonymous man is a failing writer who has some minimal talent. He
is hired for what will probably be the biggest job of his life, if
he keeps it a secret. Former British Prime Minister Adam Lang
(played by Pierce Brosnan) is writing his memoirs against a
publishing deadline. Actually, he had a ghostwriter doing the real
writing. But in the opening sequence a previous ghostwriter
mysteriously disappears from a ferry, a probable suicide. Now Lang
needs a new ghostwriter and The Ghost is chosen for the well-paid
confidential job, if he can bring the book together in four weeks.
The problem is that the dead man put no more structure on the book
than Adam Lang did--very little--and the new ghost might have to
write nearly from scratch.
Complicating matters Lang lives in virtual exile on an American
island much like Martha's Vineyard. The Ghost goes there to work
with Lang. But he is so hamstrung by the rules of the former
P.M.'s house that he is making little progress. He controlled by
Lang's wife Ruth (Olivia Williams) and his secretary and possible
mistress Amelia Bly (Kim Cattrall). And there is a further
complication. Almost immediately after The Ghost's arrival the
world court accuses Lang of war crimes in rendering terrorism
suspects to the CIA. Every step forward he moves on the book he
takes two steps back. More and more The Ghost finds reasons to
suspect that he is not getting the whole story on Lang and on the
death of his predecessor, and that may be just the beginning.
There are some very complex relationships in Lang's house. Some
are explained to The Ghost and some slowly become inferred. Even
the setting seems oppressive. The island seems perpetually cloaked
in oppressive gray mist or rain giving the entire surroundings a
clammy feel. Polanski obviously could not film in Martha's
Vineyard, so he used an island off Germany as a stand-in. Somehow
the island just does not have the feel of being in the United
States Eastern seaboard.
The film is well cast with actors like Olivia Williams of AN
EDUCATION and THE POSTMAN. Williams can be counted on for an
intelligent performance. Of course Tom Wilkinson is good in a
smallish, but strong role. And it is a pleasure to see Eli Wallach
still acting at age 94.
Very clearly this film takes aim at the special relationship
between British and US Intelligence. Lang strongly resembles Tony
Blair, not just physically but also politically. We see analogs of
Condeleeza Rice and of Haliburton. But there are certainly secrets
in Lang's life that powerful people might not want released. For
Roman Polanski this may have been a special project. Lang is a
famous person who for legal reasons cannot return to his home much
like Polanski. And by placing the CIA in a negative light Polanski
can thumb his nose at the United States Government, which in the
real world is trying to extradite Polanski to the United States.
With all the problems in Polanski's life (perhaps not undeserved)
he can still turn out a gripping film. Reportedly he did some
editing at home while under house arrest. I rate his THE GHOST
WRITER a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139328/
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10012063-ghost_writer/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: FINAL GIFTS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Basically a filmed two-person stage play, this minimalist
production tells of two women who have seen some of the worst of
the 20th century and who meet after death and discuss atrocities to
which they had been witness. Juanita was a guerilla fighter and
leader in the civil war in El Salvador. Adina had been a doctor
caring for the children of the Warsaw Ghetto. FINAL GIFTS is a
powerful play with a simple message: we must stop the violence and
mayhem and particularly protect the children. Neil Selden writes
and directs as well as co-produces with his wife, Lee Selden. This
is their first film. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10. The rating is
based on style, not intent.
Somewhere in the afterlife two women meet in a black room. One
wants to talk and the other wants to sit in silence. In spite of
their different backgrounds, each fought for the innocent victims
of atrocities of two different wars. Juanita Gomez (played by
Columbian-born Ana Mercedes Torres) is exuberant and outgoing. She
had been a rebel leader in Salvador's Civil War. Adina (presumably
Adina B. Szwajger, played by Mary Tahmin) is withdrawn and sits in
silence. Adina had been a doctor in the Warsaw Ghetto at the time
that the Nazis liquidated it. Each had been witness to terrible
atrocities conducted by the military in the name of defense. As
they talk they delve into who they really are and how their
experiences--some positive, some nightmarish--have made them what
they are.
Juanita talks of how she lost her family and her village to the
death squads employed by the government. She talks in detail about
what she had seen and blames the United States, who under President
Reagan supported the repressive Salvador government. After the
death of her village she made herself a soldier and educated
herself in history and politics as well as how to be a guerilla
fighter. She had two daughters of her own. But mostly she
remembers the pain she had to live through and what it was like to
kill and what it was like to lose loved ones.
Adina was (or tried to be) a pediatrician in the ghetto. Daily she
saw children murdered for little more than sport. She talks of the
emotionally scarred children. Just as scarred herself and haunted
by terrible memories, Adina is disappointed that even after death
she still cannot escape her memories. The attempted genocide had
so twisted morality that one had at times to pick an unthinkable
evil to avoid a worse one. One experience traumatized beyond all
others that she withstood. Adina holds back and does not want to
talk about it, though for me at least it was obvious what she
hiding since part of the same incident had been dramatized in a
previous well-known film.
Selden gets a feeling of disembodied spirits speaking by dressing
his actors in the same black as the background. The set is
minimalist, just a table with some children's toys. A film like
this works or fails to work by how well the viewer is pulled into
and is carried by the performances. For almost all the film, the
acting is good and the viewer is going through the right emotions.
Perhaps the final part of the film tries a little too hard to make
its point. Just at the very end the script asks a little too much
of the actors. As Adina and Juanita clutch each other saying they
must work for a better world the film the spell breaks just for a
moment and seems affected. Luckily, the closing credits are only
seconds away. A Clifford Odets might have been able to make the
scene work, but Selden is asking a bit much from both the actors
and the viewer. The message is right but the expression seems
exaggerated.
This is a strong and moving and important film from two people who
are trying to get out an important message. I think filmmaking is
just one of many routes these remarkable people are using to get
out their important message. The imperfections are in style and
not intent. I rate this film +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
This film is currently playing at film festivals and is available
for sale over the Internet.
I am pleased to say the Seldens have pledged that 10% of the
profits from this film will be donated to the humanitarian
organization Doctors Without Borders. Few organizations could do
as much good with the donation.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1341722/
The film is available at: http://www.filmbaby.com/films/3739.
More information about Seldens and their work is at
http://www.wayhavenproductions.com/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Brigadoon (letter of comment by Tim Yao)
In response to Mark's and Evelyn's comments on Brigadoon in the
04/16/10 issue of the MT VOID, Tim Yao writes:
("Brigadoon is not the place for people who want to hold onto the
past, it is really for people who want to embrace the future. This
is not a place of stability; it is a place that I think is going to
have some real excitement as the world jets forward with time-
travel-like speeds.")
Ha! I hadn't thought of Brigadoon in that way, but I think you are
right. The poor folks of Brigadoon are about to experience the
effects of global warming in an accelerated way.
To be fair to the story, the little village was supposed to be
quite isolated geographically, so perhaps they won't get that many
visitors from outside.
("If *everyone* left Brigadoon, would that circumvent the curse
(that if anyone left, when the people remaining went to sleep, the
town would vanish permanently)?")
I think it would mitigate the effects of the curse on the people;
but imagine those poor souls stuck in the modern world without
their homes or any real money or skills of value.
("How are the people in Brigadoon going to feed themselves? Even
if they can cultivate crops, is the size of the village big enough
to support the entire population? And if they come back the same
day every hundred years, it better be in the summer or they have no
chance of growing anything.")
I imagined their day-of-the-year advancing normally for them across
the hundred years jump, so from their perspective the weather would
change seasonally. For such an isolated village, they should be
self-sustaining. A bigger worry in my mind would be the genetic
diversity within their small population.
("And the ending is a complete cheat!")
Well, since STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN (a.k.a. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH)
(1946, starring David Niven) is one of my favorite movies, I have
to side with the author's conceit that love can conquer all and
create miracles that overwrite existing rules (while you wouldn't
want every story ending that way, once in a while it is nice to see
a happy ending :-) ). [-ty]
Mark replies:
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH is one of those odd fantasies that I try
to get people to search out. It is just a tad anti-United-States,
however. The Yanks had just recently helped rescue Britain from a
tight spot when it was made and they got Canadian Raymond Massey to
play a disagreeable archetype of an American. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (letter of comment by Morris M.
Keesan)
In response to Mark's review of HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON in the
04/16/10 issue of the MT VOID, Morris Keesan writes, "It's somewhat
unfair to knock HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON for similarity to AVATAR,
when their target audience is mostly unlikely to have seen AVATAR,
with its PG-13 rating. When I saw HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (at a
free sneak preview), pretty much the entire audience was kids under
13 and their parents. My only real complaint about the film was
the total illogic of Vikings speaking with bad fake Scottish
accents (so much so that I didn't even notice, until the credits,
that one of the actors is an actual Scot)." [-mmk]
Mark replies, "I am not knocking HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON for
similarity to AVATAR. I said that there was probably no cross-
pollination. It is just that the plot has been done *many* times
before. I compared it to AVATAR just because it is likely to be
fresh in the reader's mind. Putting it in the +2 range is being
fairly positive about it." [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Brigadoon, Finian's Rainbow, Mathematical Science Fiction,
and HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (letter of comment by Sam Long)
In response to Mark's comments in the 04/16/10 issue of the MT
VOID, Sam Long writes:
Strange things happen in fairy tales like Brigadoon. Sure, it
doesn't make good sense, but it's still an enjoyable movie.
Consider the logical holes in many operas. Or Greek tragedies.
Bean stalks grow tall, but not to the sky. Glass slippers would be
excessively uncomfortable. But to return to Scotland, I have to
say, I've wondered myself about the spell--is it a blessing or a
curse?--on Brigadoon, and the logical problems with the story, so
you're not alone. (I've seen only the film, not the stage play.)
But you mentioned Finnian's Rainbow, which is also, you might say,
a fairy tale, and which I've also seen only the film, not the play.
I did some checking up: there is no village called Glocca Morra in
Ireland, though there is supposedly a Glockamara, pronounced the
same, near Mitchelstown in Co. Cork. Apparently Glocca Morra isn't
even good Irish; but then it was made up out of the whole cloth by
the lyricist. The song, however, has been translated into Irish;
see http://www.irishpage.com/songs/glocmora.htm. There's no
village called Innisfree (as in THE QUIET MAN) either. The
village of Cong, Co. Mayo, did duty for it in the film--and gets
considerable tourist traffic as a result. There is an Inishfree
(Inis Fraoigh) island in Donegal, well to the north, and not
otherwise connected to the movie. Anyway, as a meteorologist I can
tell you whether it was a dark and stormy night, but I can't tell
you how things were in Glocca Morra.
Mathematical SF: there's a fair amount of it about. Back in the
early '60s, Clifton Fadiman edited two collections, Fantasia
Mathematica and The Mathematical Magpie (they were reprinted a
decade or so ago), which are delightful, even though the premises
on which some of the stories were built have been disproved. For
example, the 4-color problem, and Fermat's Last Theorem have been
solved, the one by mathematicians at the University of Illinois
(they had a special postal cancellation made up saying "Four Colors
Suffice" to celebrate the success), and the other by an
acquaintance of my ex-wife. Back in the '70s she was a secretary
at the Oxford University's Faculty of Theology. The Regius
Professor of Theology at that time was the Rev Dr Wiles, who was,
by virtue of that position, the senior professor at the senior
university in England. Dr Wiles' son--a teenager at the time my ex
met him through his father--went on to be a mathematician, and it
was the son who proved the Fermat theorem. (I met the Rev Dr
Wiles once, but not the son.)
Of course, finance is in its way a branch of mathematics, and I've
wondered from time to time whether there's any financial science
fiction about. I can think of two examples. One is a story called
"John Jones's Dollar", by H. S. Keeler (1927) which is available on
the Net (http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/26867) and in one of the
Fadiman anthologies, in which a man deposits a dollar in a bank, to
be given, along with accumulated interest, to his descendant forty
generations hence--which, in the story, turns out to be about 1,000
years from now. When the 39th-generation descendent dies without
issue, compound interest has grown the dollar to be greater than
the entire value of the solar system; and it all escheats to the
government! The other is a chapter or two in Heinlein's TIME
ENOUGH FOR LOVE, in which Lazarus Long (no kin) explains
(Heinlein's version of) the philosophy and practice of banking on
the frontier planet where he lived at the time. And while we're on
the subject of mathematics,
There once was a young man of Trinity
Tried to take the square root of infinity.
He was seized with the fidgets
While counting the digits,
Dropped science and took up divinity.
Your description of the film HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON brings to my
mind one of Gordy Dickson's stories, "The Dragon and the George"
(1976), a very chuckleworthy tale. It's available on line too.
Keep those MT Voids coming! [-sl]
Mark replies:
The problem with "Brigadoon" is that it actually tells you the
rules. Then at the ending, to make the end work, they simply break
their own rule. And rules are much more important in fantasy than
the real world. If anything can happen then there is no reason to
wonder what can happen next. In this play the main character has
made the irrevocable choice to return to the real world and never
see Brigadoon again. That is dramatic. The author to says then
that if what you have is true love, of course you can come back.
That cheats the audience of the drama.
And I second your commendation of FANTASIA MATHEMATICA and THE
MATHEMATICAL MAGPIE. Two books that I greatly enjoyed when I was
growing up.
There was one financial science fiction film. You never hear about
it in spite of the fact that it would have real resonance in the
current financial crisis. It is Alan J. Pakula's ROLLOVER (1981).
I don't think it sold very well.
Thanks for writing.
Evelyn adds:
Wikipedia reveals, "In a television interview late in his life,
[E. Y.] Harburg revealed that the name 'Glocca Morra' was made up
by composer [Burton] Lane...."
When we were in Ireland in 2001, we sailed on Lough Gill, which
contained the Isle of Innisfree, so they seem to have adopted that
spelling at some point. Possibly the Irish spelling reform in 1957
made some changes. In addition, Yeats spelled what was then
Inisfree as "Innisfree" and that probably had an effect:
"I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes
dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket
sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core."
--"The Lake Isle of Innisfree," William Butler Yeats
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TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Selected essays from THE BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE WRITING 2001
(ISBN-13 978-0-06-093648-8) was this month's topic in our general
book discussion group. Why this book? Well, it was the only
volume of the series that had more than one copy in our library
system. And why just selections? Because at 330 pages, the book
was longer than our usual limit. In addition, by choosing articles
that were also available on-line it made it easier for people to
read them.
The first question that occurs to me is, "Why were these essays
chosen for this volume?" What makes them the best? The best-
written from a literary aspect? The most ground-breaking in terms
of science? The most effective in terms of informing, or
influencing, the public? What? It turns out that Timothy Ferris
addresses this in his introduction, saying, "[We] elected to
concentrate on science *writing*--on the best writing out there,
regardless of its subject."
Certainly Natalie Angier's "In Mandrill Society, Life Is a Girl
Thing" is written with a definite eye towards style, such as saying
when describing the mandrill:
its lozenge-shaped muzzle
of red and blue
more like what you
would expect on a bird
than on the furred.
Except of course, that it appears as a simple sentence, not a poem.
And Angier ends by asking, "Can mandrills find safety in numbers
should human hunters come to call? Don't bet a buffalo nickel on
it."
(Why does mandrill society--with hundreds of females in the group,
but males only during breeding season--sound like the society in
Sheri Tepper's THE GATE TO WOMEN'S COUNTRY?)
On the other hand, James Schwartz's "Death of an Altruist" (a brief
biography of George Price, sociobiologist, atheist turned
fundamentalist, and extreme altruist) seems more like a first
draft, in the sense that it jumps around in time in a way that
makes it more difficult to follow. (For example, the word
"meanwhile" appears four times in this fairly short article.) And
while it covers the facts of Price's "tumultuous story" (as
Schwartz calls it), it does not do much to analyze the reasons
behind it and one leaves not understanding Price any better than
one started.
John Archibald Wheeler's "How Come the Quantum?" is more Wheeler's
musings on quantum theory than a coherent essay written for the
layperson. For example, at some point he switches from a
discussion of quanta to something which sounds like the double-slit
experiment and the particle-wave dichotomy. (If it weren't, then
this would just reinforce my feeling that Wheeler is not writing
very clearly, but others in the discussion agreed that this was
what he meant.)
Another article was Stephen S. Hall's "The Recycled Generation",
about creating stem cells from cow embryos and human DNA.
According to one of the scientists interviewed, this would result
in all sorts of therapeutic processes in about ten years. However,
this was in 2001 and it all seems to have fizzled by now.
John Terborgh's "In the Company of Humans" is about why some
animals like to hang around humans, but the reasons seemed pretty
obvious. And the last three--Ernst Mayr's "Darwin's Influence on
Modern Thought", Richard Preston's "The Genome Warrior", and
Malcolm Gladwell's "John Rock's Error"--just did not seem all that
well-written.
Some of this is undoubtedly a function of where the piece was
originally published. Angier was writing for the "New York Times",
while Schwartz was writing for "Lingua Franca". And several of us
seemed less than thrilled with the "New Yorker" style of writing,
as in the Preston and the Gladwell. [-ecl]
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Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
To save a man from the consequences of his folly
is to breed a nation of fools.
-- Herbert Spencer