THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
09/07/18 -- Vol. 37, No. 10, Whole Number 2031
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
The Beloit Mindset List (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
The Dubious Wisdom of Mark Leeper (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
INFINITY'S END edited by Jonathan Strahan (book review
by Joe Karpierz)
RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
A NIGHT IN OLD MEXICO (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Andre Norton (letter of comment by Peter Rubinstein)
Rufus Lee King (letters of comment by Paul Dormer,
Tim Merrigan, and Dorothy J. Heydt)
This Week's Reading (John W. Campbell, Jr., Award winners)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Beloit Mindset List (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
On this year's Beloit College Mindset List, my favorite entries (or
entries requiring comments) are:
1. They are the first class born in the new millennium, escaping
the dreaded label of "Millennial", though their new designation--
iGen, GenZ, etc.--has not yet been agreed upon by them.
2. Outer space has never been without human habitation.
3. They have always been able to refer to Wikipedia.
6. Calcutta has always been Kolkata.
10. When filling out forms, they are not surprised to find more
than two gender categories to choose from.
14. They've grown up with stories about where their grandparents
were on 11/22/63 and where their parents were on 9/11.
[And possibly where their great-grandparents were 12/07/41.]
22. They never used a spit bowl in a dentist's office.
[This may mean they never go to a dentist's office, because mine
still has a spit bowl.]
35. Lightbulbs have always been shatterproof.
[This is not true. For example, CFLs are certainly not
shatterproof.]
49. Chernobyl has never produced any power in their lifetimes.
[I didn't think it had produced any power since 1986, well before
they were born, but it turns out that the three unaffected reactors
were kept running, the last being shut down in 2000.]
The full list is at:
TOPIC: The Dubious Wisdom of Mark Leeper (comments by Mark R.
Leeper)
I have been asked by a reader that I publish some of my aphorisms
and pithy comments I have made over the years. Well, perhaps they
are not so pithy, but these are the quotes I have collected over
the years and have put on my homepage.
I would be greatly obliged to anyone who can remind me of others.
On the war on terrorism: the liberals don't know that the house has
radon gas, and the conservatives do but are trying to punch it.
-- Live TV died in the late 1950s, electronic bulletin boards came
along in the mid-1980s, meaning there was about a 25-year gap when
it was difficult to put your foot in your mouth and have people all
across the country know about it.
-- Oh what tangled webs we weave when first we practice to deceive.
So if deception doth attract us we must have a lot a practice.
-- These days the news media feels comfortable only when they are
covering a major trial. That is because it is exciting to some, it
sits in one place, and there only too rarely is shooting.
-- When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child,
I thought as a child: and when I was a man I decided how foolish it
would be to give all that up.
-- They say that life begins when the kids go away to school and
the dog dies. But no man whose wife believes that can rest easily.
-- Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day. Teach him how
to fish and you have fed him for life. Give a fish a vote and he
will say to give the man just the one fish, preferably one that is
already dead.
-- The problem with turning 50 is that dying is about the only
thing left that people can be surprised that you did so young.
-- The greatest political opportunist of all time has to be God.
Somehow He always manages to say just exactly what His audience is
predisposed to believe.
-- Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. Those who
trust history are condemned to be misled by it. Nothing happens
the same way twice.
-- [On hearing Freeman Dyson speak...] A sufficiently visionary
scientist is indistinguishable from a crackpot.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: INFINITY'S END edited by Jonathan Strahan (copyright 2018,
Solaris, $14.99 trade paperback, 349pp, ISBN 978-1-78108-575-2)
(book review by Joe Karpierz)
All good things must come to an end, and thus it is with Jonathan
Strahan's Infinity Project. The Infinity Project was (because it
is now complete) a series of (relatively) hard science fiction
themed anthologies, roughly following the human race from the
cradle of Earth out to the edge of the Solar System and beyond.
The penultimate volume, INFINITY WARS, told tales of military
conflict, although those stories were told with a very humanistic
viewpoint in mind. Sure, it was military science fiction, but not
the kind you may be used to reading.
The titles of the books in Infinity Project were meant to give the
reader some hint as to what was contained in that volume.
INFINITY'S END does not, as the title might lead the reader to
believe, contain stories about the end of the universe. Instead,
it is self-referential with regard to the Infinity Project. It is
saying essentially, yep, this is it. We're done. To get an idea
of what might be in this volume, Strahan says this is his
Introduction: "I asked the writers creating new stories for this
book to try to open up the solar system, to look again at its
vastness, its incredible scale, and at how humanity in different
ways might fit successfully and happily into its nooks and
crannies."
To that end, the stories in this volume vary greatly in the way
they meet Strahan's objective. No two stories are alike in subject
matter, tone, characters, or anything else you might think of. In
getting that variety, Strahan succeeded. However, I feel that the
quality of the stories in the volume is uneven. While any original
themed anthology (or, I suppose collection of stories from a
particular author) will have some stories that are better than
others, the best stories in INFINITY'S END (in my opinion--
remember, I'm a reviewer, not a critic--so your mileage may vary)
are head and shoulders above the rest (I want to say "worst"
stories, but there are no bad stories in this book, so worst is not
the right word by any stretch of the imagination).
It should come as no surprise to anyone that among my favorite
stories in this volume is Alastair Reynold's "Death's Door". It
is, at its most basic, a tale of two friends trying to convince a
third not to check out of this life. They attempt to do so by
taking him on a tour of the solar system's most stunning and
spectacular wonders. It as if Reynolds looked at Strahan's request
and said, okay, I'll make this story a Grand Tour of the wonders of
the solar system; now I'd better put a plot around it. For someone
that likes big scale sense of wonder stories, I ate this one up.
Stories regarding the manipulation of time have always fascinated
me. Yes, I like time travel stories and all the weird things those
can entail, but playing with time itself is an interesting topic to
me. Fran Wilde's "The Synchronist" tells the story of Beneficence
Sand, the "kit kid" of Galen Sand, a trader who seems to have a
special relationship with time and who leaves his daughter behind
with her mother while he goes on the run from The Consistency, time
police of a sort. Beneficence enters a contest called the
Synchronist's Challenge and makes some fascinating discoveries.
It's not an easy story to explain, but a fun one to read.
I love the work of Peter Watts. It's dark, fascinating, and
compelling. When I read BLINDSIGHT many years ago, I know that I
wasn't really sure what I was reading, but I loved it nonetheless.
"Kindred" is a story like that. I can sit here and tell you about
the story, but I'd be scratching my head the whole time. I loved
it.
In Naomi Kritzer's "Prophet of the Roads", the Solar System is in
tatters. When it wasn't in tatters, it was run by the Engineer,
which at some cataclysmic point was broken into pieces. Now the
Engineer is trying to orchestrate the reunification of its
fragments; the funny thing is that most people don't want to the
Engineer to return. This is more a story of two people who are
carrying fragments of the Engineer and how they relate to each
other rather than a "let's find all the fragments and put them
together story". I think the story we get is much better than that
latter one.
In Nick Wolven's "Cloudsong", the inner Solar System is seriously
lacking water. Anander Flyte is headed to the outer portion of the
system to talk to the Darklings, a race of beings who have agreed
to help out with Project Snowflake, which is designed to send water
to the inner system. Only now the Darklings are saying that the
project cannot be done. The reason for that, and how the problem
is solved, is fascinating.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "Once in a Blue Moon" is a well-written
tale of pirates trying to steal a weapon off a space ship and of a
precocious girl who is being sent to Earth to a "school that can
handle her" that foils the plan. Nothing particularly outstanding,
but a solid story.
Seanan McGuire's "Swear Not by the Moon" is another solid story
about a young girl from a wealthy and connected family who is
kidnapped. The story is a tale of wealth, influence, and bored
people who do things just because they have the money and can do
them, even though those projects shouldn't succeed. It is also a
tale of a family that, despite it's wealth, influence, and
privilege, is still a family that loves each other, a family that
is protective of each other, a family just like many others.
Other stories that I recommend are "Intervention" by Kelly Robson;
"Nothing Ever Happens on Oberon", by Paul McAuley (a story in his
Quiet War universe which while not extraordinary makes me want to
read the Quiet War books); "Longing for Earth" by Linda Nagata; and
"Talking to the Ghost at the Edge of the World" by Lavie Tidhar. I
don't believe any of these stories are going to win awards, but
they are good, solid, core science fiction.
Stories that I felt didn't quite live up to my expectations were
"Foxy and Tiggs", by Justina Robson (oddly enough the lead off
story in the anthology--since it's typical that the first story is
supposed to be one of the better ones that reach out and grab the
reader, I must be missing something); "Last Small Step" by Stephen
Baxter (which seems like one long infodump, and certainly not up to
the standards of much of his other work); and "A Portrait of Salai"
by Hannu Rajaniemi (in which I was lost from the beginning, which
in turn may have something to do with all the time I was spending
reading in the car during our drive to and from San Jose for
Worldcon 76).
Again, as you read this book your mileage may vary. Overall, I
didn't think the collection of stories in this volume matched the
quality of stories in the other volumes I have read in the series
(while preparing this review, I discovered much to my chagrin that
I have not read two of the seven volumes--I think I'd better get on
that as soon as I can). Still, I also don't believe you can go
wrong with this book; there's likely something here for everyone
that enjoys these kind of stories. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This is a documentary about nutrias. Nutrias are the
world's third-largest rodents, weighing in the range of 20 to 30
pounds or more. They began invading southern Louisiana swamps
about 1958. They have driven out aquatic wildlife in that area.
The issue of what to be done about them is controversial. Animal
protection and fashion sources benefit from the presence of the
nutrias. The trappers in the swamp want to be free to trap them to
help preserve their lifestyle. RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE looks at
the nutria, its biology, its behavior, and its history in the
United States. It also looks at different cultures in the area and
how they interact with it. Directors: Quinn Costello, Chris
Metzler, Jeff Springer. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
In the film THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987), based on the novel by
William Goldman, Westley must travel though the fire swamp to save
his true love, Princess Buttercup. The danger of the Fire Swamp is
that it is ruled by the R.O.U.S., the Rodents Of Unusual Size. In
the film these are ridiculous looking small monsters that look like
20-pound rats. Could creatures like that really exist? If you can
ask that question you need to see this documentary. Looking no
less ridiculous are nutrias, the world's third-largest rodents,
somewhere in the range of 20-inches long not counting the tail,
which just adds to the resemblance of the nutrias bears to a rat.
Nutrias are equally happy on land or in water. They invaded the
southern coastland of Louisiana in 1958. In the 1970s trappers
could make good money for their meat and fur. And today they are
the dominant mammal species in Southern Louisiana.
The nutria is well suited for semi-aquatic life. It has teeth like
a beaver. That might not bother most people, but the nutria's
teeth are also sharp like a beaver's, but for one difference.
Nutrias' two front are red-orange. It looks like two carrots
protruding out from under its upper lip. But they give it an
uncanny look.
Nutrias started showing up in the United States some time around
1958. They had come north breeding with muskrats. At first this
new strange animal was considered to be good fortune for the people
of the marshlands. After all, it was a great source for saleable
fur. And one animal had a lot of fur. But just about that time
animal rights advocates campaigned to awaken people to the cruelty
inflicted on animals. The demand for genuine animal fur dropped
off. With the profit dropping off nutrias escaped or were released
into the swamp with little thought how well they would survive. It
turned out that they were well-suited to the swamps. With webbed
feet they were agile in the swamps. They out-competed the
muskrats.
The nutria is a rapacious eater. It eats water plants down to near
the ground. Meanwhile it attacks the roots of plants up from their
burrows. With no roots the plants are washed away by rain and
stream.
A nutria destroys the habitats of other aquatic species. It will
have four litters a year. Its breasts are situated toward its back
so it may feed pups while swimming.
The nutria has enflamed various conflicts in Louisiana. The film
looks at a golf club operator who wants to kill the nutria because
of the damage it does to the turf. We also get a picture of the
lifestyle of the Cajun trappers who at once are developing a taste
for nutria meat, others who see the nutria as a threat to their
livelihood, and others who are learning to like the meat who live
in the knowledge they has little protection from nutrias and from
storms.
This animal is looked at in this film from cultural, biological,
and historical perspectives. I rate the film +2 on the -4 to +4
scale or 8/10.
RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE will open in Los Angeles on September 14.
Film Credits:
What others are saying:
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: A NIGHT IN OLD MEXICO (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Robert Duvall plays a curmudgeonly Texas rancher who loses
his house and land after a period of drought. His estranged
grandson visits him. The rancher, never enjoyable to be around,
takes his newfound grandson across the border to raise hell in a
Mexican bar and brothel. He is funding this trip with literally
found money. And the owner is willing to kill to get it back. It
seems that the other side of the border is a very different place,
easy to appreciate and harder to survive in. Where the script goes
wrong is the story is driven forward by far too many coincidences.
Director: Emilio Aragon. Writer: William D. Wittliff. Stars:
Robert Duvall, Jeremy Irvine, Angie Cepeda. Rating: high +1 (-4 to
+4) or 6/10
I came away from A NIGHT IN OLD MEXICO liking it a lot but not
respecting it much at all. The plot is awkwardly constructed with
far too many coincidences happening at one time and driving the
action. Very early in the story the Robert Duvall character, Red,
meets his grandson Gally Bovie and neither much has any use for the
other. (Do you care to guess where this relationship is going?)
The film is built on ready-made pieces that will be familiar and
that fit together in a comfortable and likeable if predictable
package. The plot is the cinema equivalent of comfort food.
None of the fault here falls on the shoulders of Duvall, who
remains one of our country's best actors. Here he sounds a lot
like Gus McCrae from LONESOME DOVE. Some nice style comes from
sending the main characters into Mexico on the Day of the Dead. If
it is not as stylish as the Day of the Dead celebration in SPECTRE,
at least it is much more believable. Border towns are usually
dangerous places to be any night, and this not an ordinary night.
This is the night of the fiesta of the Day of The Dead (another
coincidence). And along the way Red just happened to get himself a
sack of mob money. Whenever the plot slows down a coincidence
seems to come along and drive the plot forward. That is
unfortunate because the best moments of the film are when the plot
slows down enough for the viewer to get to know the characters.
There is a likeable prostitute oddly named Patty Wafers (Angie
Cepeda). Even the crooks seem to have a decent side. And the
Mexican border town is enthralling even if it is a good place to
get shot.
Supposedly Duvall has wanted to play a character like Red for some
time. And it may be easy to see why. The film's major virtues are
not the originality of the plot. It is not so much a thriller as a
character piece. And it is not so much a character peace as a part
that Duvall could take and run with. At 87 Duvall is still creating
memorable characters. He still has a gift of creating
memorable people on the screen and that is probably more important
to him than being in someone else's flashy production.
I rate A NIGHT IN OLD MEXICO a high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or
/10.
Film Credits:
What others are saying:
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Andre Norton (letter of comment by Peter Rubinstein)
Last week, Evelyn wrote:
What characteristic do Andre Norton's books have that is not
possessed by those of any other science fiction author? [-ecl]
In response, Peter Rubinstein writes:
Might it be that the titles span the alphabet? My background is
not as comprehensive as yours, so I don't know of any others in SF.
There are several in other fields, though. [-pr]
Evelyn responds:
Correct. However, I was wrong--there is (at least) one other
science fiction author whose works span the alphabet. (I heard the
Norton trivia long ago.) Who is it? [-ecl]
[When Peter was asked who they were, he replied,] "Admittedly,
Grafton leapt to mind, although she died before getting to Z. I
thought there was another, but I can't seem to recall the name.
Every time I try, Theodor Geisel rhymes obliterate my cognitive
processes." [-pr]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Rufus Lee King (letters of comment by Paul Dormer, Tim
Merrigan, and Dorothy J. Heydt)
In response to Mark's comments on Rufus Lee King in the 08/31/18
issue of the MT VOID, Paul Dormer writes:
A favourite story I heard on the radio many years ago was about an
Englishman who was at some sort of banquet in the US. He noticed
the wait staff going round the table asking everyone a question.
When they got to him, they asked, "How do you like your flaming
yonkurt?"
He was totally flummoxed by this, wondering if this was some exotic
cuisine he wasn't aware of. Yonkurt sounded Turkish, and he knew
there were dishes that were served at the table in flames.
Finally, someone took pity on him and translated: "How do you like
your filet mignon cooked?"
And in a similar culinary vein, at Denvention 2 back in 1981, a
group of us went out to a Mexican restaurant. I was asked a
question that sounded to my ears as, "Do you want [some name]'s
mother?" This, I finally discovered, was "Do you want your tacos
smothered?" but as I had never had Mexican food before, I had no
idea what I should answer. [-pd]
Tim Merrigan responds:
I wouldn't have either, and I've been eating (American) Mexican
food all my life, I've never heard of smothered tacos--burritos,
yeah, but tacos? [-tm]
Dorothy Heydt replies:
Me neither, so I googled and got:
"A smothered burrito is basically a burrito that has been smothered
and covered in a red enchilada sauce and melted cheese. It's also
called a wet burrito. In the case of this particular recipe the
burrito is loaded up with rice, beans, ground beef taco meat, and
cheese. Topped with lettuce, tomato, and cilantro."
Sounds tasty, actually. [-djh]
Paul responds:
Well, this was nearly forty years ago, so I may be mis-remembering
what it was that was being smothered. [-pd]
Tim replies to Dorothy:
One of my favorites, made with a chili Verde burrito, though I try
to get them to substitute chili Verde salsa for the enchilada
salsa, and, as I've seen, and had, them served, add cheese and sour
cream to the toppings. And sometimes, there's rice pilaf and
refried beans on the side. [-tm]
Mark adds:
Another such story involved two men sharing a limousine to the
airport. The driver asked one of the men where he was headed. He
said "I'm going to see the rabbits." The other man thought this
was a very strange pronouncement. Later he got a chance to ask the
driver what it was all about. The driver said, "he said he was
going to Cedar Rapids." [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
The latest winner of the John W. Campbell, Jr., Award for the best
new writer (an the first Native American winner) made me curious to
go back over past winners and runners-up and see which winners
never seemed to "take off" and which runners-up ended up more
popular than the winners in their years, recognizing that
popularity is not necessarily the best measure of the "right"
winner. And the ballots did not necessarily include authors who
went little-noticed their first two years, and then took off. (See
my note at the end.)
The award started in 1973. Jerry Pournelle won. Some guy named
George R. R. Martin was a runner-up. Octavia Butler never even
made the ballot. In 1974 Spider Robinson and Lisa Tuttle tied.
In 1975, both John Varley and Suze McKee Charnass placed below
P. J. Plauger. In 1976, Varley again lost, along with Joan D.
Vinge. The winner was Tom Reamy, who unfortunately died the next
year. His work showed a lot of promise, and it is impossible to
judge the 1976 outcome by what the authors produced later.
In 1977, C. J. Cherryh won and indeed went on to a stellar and
long-lasting career. In 1978, the winner was Orson Scott Card,
another worthy choice (on the basis of his work), even though it
meant Bruce Sterling was a runner-up. In 1979, the winner was
Stephen R. Donaldson, continuing the "predictive" streak.
In 1980, Barry B. Longyear won, but in retrospect runner-up Diane
Duane might have been a better choice. In 1981, Duane was again
runner-up, this time to Somtow Sucharitkul (the first winner of
non-European descent). In 1982, Alexis A. Gilliland won; Michael
Swanwick was a runner-up.
In 1983, Paul O. Williams won, but one might argue that runner-up
Lisa Goldstein has had a longer and more illustrious career. In
1984 Goldstein lost again (along with Sheri S. Tepper), though
R. A. MacAvoy was a worthy winner. In 1985, Lucius Shepard was a
good choice.
In 1986, both Guy Gavriel Kay and Karen Joy Fowler lost to Melissa
Scott, but Fowler won in 1987, making Lois McMaster Bujold and
Robert Reed runners-up.
In 1988 Judith Moffett won, with no particularly outstanding
runners-up (which is not to say they were not good authors, but
none stand out as "how could the voters have missed this one?).
One could argue that in 1989, Kristine Kathryn Rusch would have
been a better choice than Michaela Roessner, but Rusch won in 1990,
leaving Allen Steele as a runner-up.
In 1991, Julia Ecklar won. In 1992, the voters were spot-on (IMHO)
with Ted Chiang. Then began a string of years when none of the
nominees seemed to become superstars. I have to believe that some
major figures started writing during that period, but the winners,
while worthy, never achieved the status of a Cherryh or a Chiang.
For the record, they were Laura Resnick (1993), Amy Thomson (1994),
Jeff Noon (1995), David Feintuch (1996).
In 1997, Michael A. Burstein won, and in 1998, Mary Doria Russell,
on the very strong basis of THE SPARROW. However, though she did
she did write a few more novels, she never reached those heights
again.
In 1999, Nalo Hopkinson became the first black writer to win and
became an important writer in the field. (Note: Not African-
American; she was born in Jamaica.) The 2202 winner, Cory
Doctorow, has also fulfilled his promise.
For the winners since 2000, it may be too soon to tell. It is
certainly too soon for the last few years, but frankly, I seem to
be unfamiliar with most of the names since 2000, which means either
none of the choices was particularly perceptive, or I am just out
of touch.
I will note that N. K. Jemisin, who just won her record-breaking
third consecutive Hugo Awar dfor Best Novel, was never even
nominated. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be
anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be
sufficient for the day.
--Samuel Butler