Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
03/27/20 -- Vol. 38, No. 39, Whole Number 2112
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, *mleeper@optonline.net *
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, *eleeper@optonline.net *
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Topics:
Gmail "Clipping" (letter of comment by David Goldfarb)
Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in April (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
SALVATION LOST by Peter F. Hamilton (book review
by Joe Karpierz)
Retro Hugo Awards (letter of comment by Jack Bohn)
This Week's Reading (THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF C. S. LEWIS,
THE LAST BATTLE) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Gmail "Clipping" (letter of comment by David Goldfarb)
In response to Kip Williams's comments on Gmail "clipping" the end
of the MT VOID in the 03/13/20 issue of the MT VOID, David
Goldfarb writes:
Kip Williams notes that his MT VOIDs are sometimes clipped in
gmail. I also subscribe in gmail, and haven't noticed that with
you, but I do sometimes see it with other newsletters. Down at the
bottom where it says "Message clipped", for me there's always a
link I can click on labeled "View entire message" that opens the
email in a new window, *not* clipped. Kip should look for that.
[-dg]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
Needless to say, everything here is tentative.
April 9, 2020: All Middletown meetings cancelled/postponed until
further notice
May 28, 2020: THE DARK FOREST by Cixin Liu, Old Bridge Public
Library, 7PM
July 23, 2020: CLIPPER OF THE CLOUDS by Jules Verne (a.k.a.
ROBUR THE CONQUEROR, [Fr. title ROBUR LE CONQUERANT],
published by Ace in 1961 in an omnibus titled MASTER OF THE
WORLD, which is the title of the sequel), Old Bridge Public
Library, 7PM
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3808
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3808*
September 24, 2020: TBD from Europe/Latin America,
Old Bridge Public Library, 7PM
November 19, 2020: Rudyard Kipling:
"A Matter of Fact" (1892)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16578
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16578*
"The Ship That Found Herself" (1895)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2569
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2569*
".007" (1897)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2569
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2569*
"Wireless" (1902)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9790
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9790*
"With the Night Mail [Aerial Board of Control 1]" (1905)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29135
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29135*
"As Easy as A.B.C. [Aerial Board of Control 2]" (1912)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13085
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13085*
"In the Same Boat" (1911)
*https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13085
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13085*
Old Bridge Public Library, 7PM
Northern New Jersey events are listed at:
*http://www.sfsnnj.com/news.html http://www.sfsnnj.com/news.html*
===================================================================
TOPIC: My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in April (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
When I choose films for this column I try to pick films that match
my tastes. I realize not everyone has my taste in films. This
month I decided to pick something that is likely to be of better
than average interest to most readers. I cannot go too far wrong
with a Neil Simon comedy.
THE GOODBYE GIRL is one of Neil Simon's best romantic comedies.
Paula McFaddden is having what could be the worst day of her life.
She does not get a dancing job she desperately needed. She gets
home to her apartment and to her precocious ten-year-old daughter
only to find her boyfriend has subleased their apartment rented and
moved away. Thus begins war words between the two people claiming
possession of the same apartment. Central to the story are Eliot's
winning over of Paula's daughter Lucy. Together Paula and Lucy
make a separate peace.
Neil Simon likes to people his stories with quirky characters and
then lead them into ironic conflicts that seem even weirder the
closer you get. His most popular play, THE ODD COUPLE introduced
two quirky characters, his popular Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison.
[THE GOODBYE GIRL, Thursday, April 23, 10:00 PM]
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: SALVATION LOST by Peter F. Hamilton (copyright 2019, Del
Rey, 494pp, ASIN B07NCRHWPM) (book review by Joe Karpierz)
SALVATION LOST is the second book in British writer Peter
F. Hamilton's "Salvation Sequence". To review just a bit,
SALVATION, the first book in the series, shows a utopian human
society all over the galaxy. Essentially instantaneous
transportation between star systems. Prosperity. Peace. Yes,
there's still crime, there's still greed, because no society is
perfect (as we find out about this one). But if there's one thing
that's true, it's that the setting of the Salvation Sequence is a
true post-scarcity society. But more about that later.
SALVATION introduced a race of beings called the Olyix. They were
benevolent, friendly. They traded technology--specifically k-
cells, a sort of medical swiss army knife--in exchange for having
some of their needs filled so they could continue on their journey
to ... whereever they were going. At the end of SALVATION, we
learned a dark secret about the Olyix; they weren't who they seemed
to be.
It turns out that the Olyix were the bad guys in this story. They
are on a religious pilgrimage to the end of the universe to meet
their god, and they are intent on taking every race they can find
with them. And thus, SALVATION LOST turns into one heck of an
alien invasion story, a story of how the human race is brought to
its knees but is still fighting back in every way it knows how.
And it's losing the battle.
SALVATION LOST is a very typical Hamilton book. Grand in scope.
Cosmic ideas. Alien threats. Heroes. Villains. Grand
consequences for the characters and for humanity. The stakes get
higher and higher as the danger gets higher and higher. I love this
kind of stuff. This is the kind of stuff that I grew up on. Yet,
Hamilton updates the story for the 21st century, because he knows
his readers have more sophisticated and updated tastes than those
from the 40s and 50s. His ability to merge the old with the new
make his novels interesting and exciting. As is also usual with a
Hamilton novel, the story involved multiple characters in multiple
locations with multiple timelines, and yet he is able to tie them
all together so that the reader can see how everything fits.
If there is a beef with Hamilton's novels--and it's not one of my
beefs, certainly--is the lack of what we might call realism in the
sense that a post-scarcity society might be a bit difficult to
envision. Readers may like the idea of that kind of society, but
it's not something we're likely to encounter. At least one
character is so wealthy and spoiled that it's hard to believe that
she exists. And while there are characters that are taking on
dubious jobs to gain cash, one never gets the impression that
they're that hard up for cash.
Still, there is a segment of the reading population that lives for
this kind of stuff, and I'm one of them. I've yet to read a
Hamilton book that I don't like, and I include this one. I'm
looking forward to the conclusion of the story, SAINTS OF
SALVATION, later in 2020. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Retro Hugo Awards (letter of comment by Jack Bohn)
In response to Evelyn's comments on films eligible for the Retro
Hugo Awards this year in the 03/06/20 issue of the MT VOID, Jack
Bohn writes:
Of the Oscar-nominated shorts, I'd recommend the George Pal
Puppetoon "And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street." There's also
an overlooked Raggedy Ann cartoon "Suddenly It's Spring."
[BETWEEN TWO WORLDS] One of the ones I was thinking of. I've seen
it and 1930's OUTWARD BOUND, of which it is a remake. I suppose I
should see THEY CAME TO A CITY and HALFWAY HOUSE for a complete
comparison.
[THE CANTERVILLE GHOST] The other one I was thinking of. I'm
surprised to see this came out before MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, the
character Margaret O'Brien plays here seems a slightly toned down
version of the sorta Wednesday Addams prototype she played there.
I wonder why this isn't better known. Perhaps it would be better
if the full price of an act of bravery had been paid. We have the
one ghost, and there's a time in the celebration at the end where
Robert Young's character could realize he's become one, too. But,
as wartime propaganda, perhaps they don't want to point out that
soldiers are likely to die.
[THE PHANTOM] Is this the serial? You have it as a short form.
I notice you haven't listed THE MUMMY'S GHOST and THE MUMMY'S
CURSE, not that they'd be nominated.
Evelyn responds:
Yes, THE PHANTOM is the serial; it somehow got misplaced. And I
have no idea how THE MUMMY'S GHOST and THE MUMMY'S CURSE fell off
the list--those are probably the two I am most familiar with,
having seen each probably a dozen times in the last two decades.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I have been listening to THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF C. S. LEWIS from
the Great Courses (lecturer Louis Markos), and my one warning about
this course would be that Markos is clearly a "true believer" who
seems to think that all of Lewis's theology/philosophy is not just
true, but *obviously* true.
For example, he talks about how many people think that Lewis is a
misogynist in not seeing women as equal, but really Lewis is a
proto-feminist in seeing men and women as complementary. Of
course, he also thinks this complementarity should occur in a
hierarchical society, by which he means a patriarchal society.
Basically, Lewis's hierarchy (in THAT HIDEOUS STRENGTH) works for
the same reason Robert A. Heinlein's society in STARSHIP TROOPERS
works--because he wrote it that way. (Lewis's N.I.C.E., which
fails for the same reason, seems patterned a bit after
H. G. Wells's "Wings Over the World", though it is possible that
this is more a common trope than a direct homage.)
Markos also seems okay with the idea that Ransom can kill Weston in
PERELANDRA, even though Ransom is a Christian and is not supposed
to kill, because Weston has become pure evil and so is not really
human anymore (or alternatively has been taken over by a demon and
is not really human anymore). I hope anyone who has seen the film
"The Eternal Jew" sees immediately where this can lead. (The 1940
film pre-dates Lewis's 1943 book, but in fairness to Lewis, he
probably had not seen the film, and knowledge of the true situation
under the Nazis was not widely known in 1943.)
A couple of Markos's comments on THE LAST BATTLE were particularly
interesting.
Lewis writes talks about how Aslan judged everyone who came before
him, sending them either to Aslan's left (into darkness) or Aslan's
right (into light). Markos says this is a reference to Matthew
25:33-34: "And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the
goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right
hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world." However, this
separation reminded me of the selection at Auschwitz, which
(ironically?) was the reverse: with the guards' right being death
and their left being life. (Obviously, left and right were
reversed from the point of view of the prisoners, which is how it
is usually expressed, with left as death and right as life.)
At one point, our heroes go through a door into a stable, but find
themselves in the outside of another world. They say, "It seems
then, ... that the Stable seen from within and the Stable seen from
without are two different places. ... Its inside is bigger than
its outside. ... In our world too, a Stable once had something
inside it that was bigger than our whole world." This was written
in 1956, and may have provided the original inspiration for the
Tardis in "Doctor Who", which began broadcasting in 1963.
And when I read THE LAST BATTLE to look into these, I came across
another couple of things to mention. Lewis writes the following'
"If the Beasts asked night after night to see Aslan, and no Aslan
was brought out, surely even the simplest of them would get
suspicious." This would certainly seem to argue against faith in
the unseen (and unseeable), though it is hard to believe that Lewis
intended this.
At the end of Narnia, a horn is blown and Lewis writes, "Immediately
the sky became full of shooting stars. Even one shooting star is a
fine thing to see; but these were dozens, and then scores, and then
hundreds, till it was like silver rain: and it went on and on."
Contrast this with Arthur C. Clarke's description of the end:
"Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out." ["The Nine
Billion Names of God"]
Lewis also has Emeth relate, "But the Glorious One bent down his
golden head and touched my forehead with his tongue and said, Son,
thou art welcome. But I said, Alas, Lord, I am no son of thine but
the servant of Tash. He answered, Child, all the service thou hast
done to Tash, I account as service done to me. Then by reasons of
my great desire for wisdom and understanding, I overcame my fear
and questioned the Glorious One and said, Lord, is it then true, as
the Ape said, that thou and Tash are one? The Lion growled so that
the earth shook (but his wrath was not against me) and said, It is
false. Not because he and I are one, but because we are opposites,
I take to me the services which thou hast done to him. For I and
he are of such different kinds that no service which is vile can be
done to me, and none which is not vile can be done to him.
Therefore if any man swear by Tash and keep his oath for the oath's
sake, it is by me that he has truly sworn, though he know it not,
and it is I who reward him."
This would seem to endorse the Catholic theology of salvation by
works, rather than the Protestant salvation by grace, yet the
Narnia books are much loved by Protestants, and particularly by
evangelicals. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
People freaking out about a week of at-home quarantine
is why generation ships to the stars aren't the slam
dunk some people think they are.
--John Scalzi