Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
04/24/20 -- Vol. 38, No. 43, Whole Number 2116
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, *mleeper@optonline.net *
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, *eleeper@optonline.net *
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An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at
*http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm
http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm*.
Topics:
*Important* COVID-19 Correction
Diminished Expectations (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in May (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
DRIFTWOOD by Marie Brennan (book review by Joe Karpierz)
Non-Fantasy "Twilight Zone" Episodes (letters of comment
by Daniel Kimmel and Steve Milton)
THE WIND ON THE MOON and the "Prix Hugo" Speech
(letters of comment by Paul Dormer, Kevin R,
and John Hertz)
Social Distancing, the Zombie Apocalypse, and OUTBREAK
(letter of comment by John Purcell)
MOBY-DICK and Great American Novels (letter of comment
by John Hertz)
This Week's Reading (THE DECAMERON [Introduction and Day 1])
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: *Important* COVID-19 Correction
In the 04/17/20 issue of the MT VOID, A YouTube video was
referenced which indicated that if you have no fever it's very
likely you also are not infected. One of the members sister, who
is a doctor, pointed out that, no, lots are asymptomatic. So a
lack of fever is not a good indicator. [Please note that the MT
VOID does not give medical advice. We get ourselves into enough
fiascos without telling people how to avoid the plague. -mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Diminished Expectations (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Life is just not as fun as it was a couple of months ago. It has
really started wearing on me. Just yesterday I told Evelyn that I
really needed to unwind a little. I wanted to go someplace fancy
for dinner ... like maybe the living room. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
Needless to say, everything here is tentative.
All Middletown meetings cancelled/postponed until further notice.
May 28, 2020: [almost definitely canceled/postponed: 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 May (comments by Mark
R. Leeper)
Actually I am composing and writing this in late March. My world
has changed a lot since the beginning of March and the odds suggest
that you might be in a very different world from the world I am
living in. How about a film that is about a dramatic world change.
In this case it is the third film in Andejrz Wajda's war trilogy,
the film ASHES AND DIAMONDS.
The setting is Poland, May 1945. Germans had very recently given
up the country to the control to the control of the Communists.
Andrezj and Maciek, two soldiers from the Homeguard, botch an
attempt to assassinate a certain Communist functionary. Their
superior orders them to complete their mission.
Wajda is an artist at creating claustrophobic settings. This is
his third film. His directly previous film was KANAL whose
compatriots are hiding the Nazis hiding in sewers.
[ASHES AND DIAMONDS, Monday, May 11, 3:45 AM]
There are also a couple of "festivals":
Friday, May 1:
8:00 PM Cocoon (1985)
10:15 PM It Came From Outer Space (1953)
11:45 PM Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
2:15 AM Maniac (1963)
3:45 AM Stop Me Before I Kill (1961)
Monday, May 18:
6:00 AM Devil Bat, The (1940)
7:15 AM Doctor X (1932)
8:45 AM Murder Of Dr. Harrigan, The (1936)
10:00 AM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
12:00 PM Brain That Wouldn't Die, The (1962)
2:00 PM Hands of a Stranger (1962)
4:15 PM Omega Man, The (1971)
6:00 PM Terminal Man, The (1974)
Friday, May 22:
8:00 PM Mad Monster Party (1967)
10:00 PM Daydreamer, The (1966)
12:00 AM Wacky World of Mother Goose, The (1967)
1:30 AM Nursery Rhyme Mysteries (1943)
4:00 AM Eraserhead (1977)
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: DRIFTWOOD by Marie Brennan (copyright 2020, Tachyon
Publications, $15.95 trade paperback (ISBN: 978-1-61696-346-0),
$9.99 digital formats (ISBN: 978-1-61696-347-7), 224pp) (book
review by Joe Karpierz)
Marie Brennan is an award-winning author whose work first garnered
award attention back in 2003. To me, however, she was unknown
until I read DRIFTWOOD. Driftwood is a setting, a set of short
fiction, and a novel. Driftwood a place is where worlds go to die,
described as a "post-apocalyptic realm where the apocalypse has not
ended". Worlds, towns, villages enter Driftwood at the mist, and
slowly but surely migrate inwards, fragment, shrinking, and dying
until they fall into the Crush, never to be seen or heard from
again (If science fiction is your thing, think of the Crush as the
center of a black hole and the shreds, mist, and everything else
around it the event horizon of the black hole. It might be a quite
accurate analogy, but it worked for me while I was reading it).
Brennan over the years has written several short works set in
Driftwood, and in the novel DRIFTWOOD brings them together with a
linking story to tell the tale not only of Driftwood itself, but of
one man, Last, who seems to be immortal. Yes, DRIFTWOOD is what we
would call a fix-up novel, and it's only fitting that a series of
stories about a fragmented world that is brought together by a
mythical man should be tied together by a storyline that
investigates whether that man is a hero or something else entirely.
The center of the story--that man named Last--has been around since
anyone can remember. His world fell into the Crush many years ago,
and by all rights he should be dead. But he isn't, and he has
spent his extended lifetime being guide, taking people to many and
various parts of the Shreds (the name for worlds that are
splintered and fragmented and heading toward the Crush) to help
with them hopes and dreams. But one question he cannot answer is
how to save a particular world from dying. He doesn't know why he's
still around, but since he is, he's doing the best he can to make
life better for people heading toward the Crush. Or is he?
The linking story, the bit that ties all the short pieces together,
is that there is a rumor that he has died. People come from all
over to pay respects, honor, and commemorate him, but the question
arises of what kind of man was he really?
The stories approach the topic from multiple angles. The title
story introduces the reader to the character of Last and the
concept of Driftwood. Last is a guide, a helper of people, but
there are some things he will not do, and some questions he does
not want to answer. Last is a "one-blood", not of mixed Drifter
ancestry. He is tracked down by Alsanit, also a one-blood who is
looking for a way to save her world. Last has fielded this
question before; his supplicants, if you will, believe that he must
know the answer because he's lived forever. He answers them, but
is always melancholy when all is said and done.
"A Heretic by Degrees" see a priest trying to save his dying king
anyway he can. He enlists the aid of Last, and they travel the
shreds far and wide looking for an answer. They don't save the
king, but that's not the point of the story; the solution that Last
provides is one that saves the priest's people, but makes those
listening to the story wonder what ramifications his solution
really had and what it meant about the kind of man Last was.
"Into the Wind" is a story of a Drifter trying to get something
that she left behind in her home. If she could only get it, there
may be a chance of saving the world, or so she thinks. The story
is not about saving the world, the story is about making a keeping
a promise. Last helps with that endeavor, although his ultimate
solution may be a bit different than what was expected.
"The Ascent of Unreason" is one of my favorite stories of the book.
The concept is simple. Tolyat wants to make a map of Driftwood,
and he wants Last to help him. Once again, the point of the story
isn't whether the map is actually made or not. For me the joy was
reading how Last, normally a very stoic and serious man, really got
caught up in the process, and the joy he experienced while helping
Tolyat.
"Remembering the Light" is probably the most poignant and touching
tale, as while Last is helping Noirin with her quest of
remembering, we finally see him considering forgetting what he
remembers about his own world. As he is the last of his people, if
he forgets, his world will be forgotten as well. His decision,
while the right one for him, is also a tough one.
"The God of Driftwood" is a new story for the novel. A mysterious
man saves a young man, Ctarl, from committing suicide by jumping
into the Crush. Ctarl is regularly beaten by his father, and he
wants out, he wants it to end. But he survives and ends up a long
way away from home, having been saved by the mysterious man, who he
believes is a god, but who in reality is last. Ctarl builds up a
cult around his belief of this god, and like most cults, things
don't go well and end up somewhere else entirely. It is another of
my favorites in the book.
"Smiling at the End of the World" is a piece of flash fiction that
really doesn't fit with the story of Last but certainly is a piece
of Driftwood myth and folklore.
I came into the novel not knowing what to expect other than what I
read in the summary for the book. I was pleasantly surprised at
what I got and am glad that I decided to give this one a go.
Driftwood is an interesting and fractured place, and the stories in
the novel DRIFTWOOD may be just the stories we need to get us
through these fractured and difficult times. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Non-Fantasy "Twilight Zone" Episodes (letters of comment by
Daniel Kimmel and Steve Milton)
In response to Mark's comments on non-fantasy "Twilight Zone"
episodes in the 04/17/20 issue of the MT VOID, Daniel Kimmel
writes:
"The Old Man in the Cave" comes to mind, as does "Time Enough at
Last." Of course, both are set in a post-apocalyptic world.
Steve Milton suggests:
"Time Enough at Last"
Mark replies:
I would say that post-apocalypse stories are in the world of
fantasy. Given another month or so that question may have to be
re-thought. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE WIND ON THE MOON and the "Prix Hugo" Speech (letters of
comment by Paul Dormer, Kevin R, and John Hertz)
In response to Evelyn's comments on the Hugo and Retro Hugo
finalists in the 04/17/20 issue of the MT VOID, Paul Dormer writes:
[Evelyn writes,] "One of the novels, Eric Linklater's THE WIND ON
THE MOON), is difficult/expensive to find."
Seems to have been republished--in the UK at least--in 2013 and is
available from Amazon UK as a paperback. Also available for Kindle
and from Kobo.
I remember reading that at primary school (ages 7-11). I found it
fun. My first thought on reading that title was, that's the one
where the two kids turn themselves into kangaroos. And I was
right. I wonder how it'll hold up after nearly sixty years. [-pd]
John Hertz writes:
Someone told me E had trouble finding THE WIND ON THE MOON (E.
Linklater, 1944), a fine book which reached this year's Retro-Hugo
ballot.
There is a 2017 reprint which Penguin Random House offers at its
Website *https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/101832/the-wind
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/101832/the-wind*-
on-the-moon-by-eric-linklater-illustrated-by-nicolas-bentley
saying it can also be found at Barnes & Noble, Books A Million, ,
Bookshop.org, Hudson Booksellers, IndieBound, Powell's, Target,
Wal-Mart, Amazon.
There are various E-Book, Kindle, and Nook versions.
The 1951 reprint is variously available. I found it at the L.A.
Public Library, see *http://file770.com/thanks-hampus
http://file770.com/thanks-hampus*; that
library has an E-book in its catalog; I don't know what public
libraries are convenient for E. [-jh]
Evelyn responds:
Yes, it turns out that one can get it in the US for about $6 total
from Amazon. However, since I'm not actually voting, I may pass on
ordering it. At this point, I'm trying to buy fewer books. And it
is not available either hard-copy or electronically from my library
consortium. (I remember checking earlier, but right now, the
catalog is down and hard copies are unavailable anyway.) [-ecl]
Kevin R writes:
If one hasn't read it, the "Prix Hugo" speech is on Kim Newman's
site.
*https://preview.tinyurl.com/PrixHugo2005
https://preview.tinyurl.com/PrixHugo2005*
*https://tinyurl.com/PrixHugo2005 https://tinyurl.com/PrixHugo2005*
*https://johnnyalucard.com/fiction/online-fiction/2005-hugo-award
https://johnnyalucard.com/fiction/online-fiction/2005-hugo-award*-
ceremony-script/
That has brightened my day! [-kr]
Paul notes:
I was backstage for that and I couldn't hear a word. Had to read
it afterwards. [-pd]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Social Distancing, the Zombie Apocalypse, and OUTBREAK
(letter of comment by John Purcell)
Good morning, Evelyn and Mark. I trust you are both well and safely
ensconced in your hidey-hole in New Jersey.
We are taking things a day at a time. Some times we try taking it
two days at a time. We accomplish while we can and keeping an eye
out for revenants.
Your survival experiences
All this reminds me of another movie besides CONTAGION (2011), one
that could have been a lot better, OUTBREAK.
Not a good film. It started by showing you how threatening the
situation was, but then made the villain Donald Sutherland. It was
like TITANIC was dramatic enough that it did not need a gunfight.
For some reason this reminds me of all sorts of "menace from outer
space" movies that use a viral infection or some malevolent alien
spore that lands on planet Earth that begins wreaking havoc before
the good guys win out over this "How can we do this? We're all
gonna die!" situation. Some year in the future, a Ron Howard clone
will direct a made-for-streaming digital movie of this year's viral
apocalypse. Then again, Howard's my age, so in ten years he'd only
be 76 and quite likely still be making movies, which means he could
very well do this one. Let's see how accurate my prognostication
works out, provided we are still around at that time.
Well, before I sign off I will just say that I have been doing a
lot of reading in addition to my online classes, which means I'm
keeping relatively current on the science fiction magazine scene.
There are some good stories being published, and I might write
about these in the next issue of my personalzine ASKEW. We shall
see. [-jp]
===================================================================
TOPIC: MOBY-DICK and Great American Novels (letter of comment by
John Hertz)
In response to Kevin R.'s comments on MOBY-DICK in the 01/17/20
issue of the MT VOID and John Purcell's in the 01/24/20 issue, John
Hertz writes:
Gosh, Kevin R. quotes me to prove he hasn't read what he quoted (MT
VOID 2102, vol. 38 no. 29, 17 Jan 20). I thank John Purcell (MT
VOID 2103, vol. 38 no. 30, 24 Jan) for applauding the language of
MOBY-DICK, and the details, which are vital; and for acknowledging
it as an astonishing literary achievement. The same issue quotes
James I of England and VI of Scotland, "Dr Donne's verses are like
the peace of God, they pass all understanding" (John Donne 1572-
1631). If this weren't so obviously meant as a witticism it might
recall the joke whose punch line is "Sir, Mozart is not on trial
here; you are."
Speaking of MOBY-DICK, people talk--and quarrel--about what might
be great American novels. Now and then some SF is included. What
about A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ (Miller, 1960)? A CONNECTICUT
YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT (Twain, 1889--a much misread book;
have you electronic people seen my note, which you can find at
File770.com? THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ (Baum, 1900)? ALAS,
BABYLON (Frank, 1959)? THE END OF ETERNITY (Asimov, 1955--see my
note on it too)? SPACE CADET (Heinlein, 1948)? [-jh]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE DECAMERON by Giovanni Boccaccio (translated by John Payne [*])
(Project Gutenberg) was written in 1353 and set during the Black
Death, the premise being that ten people take refuge in a villa
outside Florence, Italy, and entertain themselves by each telling
one story a day for ten days.
[*] Note: all the spellings and translations are from Payne's
translation, which is from 1886. I hope that those reading other
translations will be able to at least recognize the characters'
names. For example, "Jehannot" is "Giannotto" and "Melchizedek" is
"Melchisedech: in the translation "Classical Stuff You Should Know"
is using.
The "Classical Stuff You Should Know" (a.k.a. "Quarantine Stuff You
Should Know", a.k.a. QSYSK) is (was) an hour-long weekly podcast by
three teachers at a Classical Christian academy in Texas. However,
social distancing being what it is, they have switched to a new
format: one single podcaster, doing a twenty-minute (or so) daily
podcast on THE DECAMERON, one story per day. I had originally
thought that this column would not show up until mid-July, when the
book was done. But it would be ludicrously long by then, so I will
probably run it in sections (e.g., ten stories, or ten days' story-
telling, at a time). Actually, even this results in really long
columns--at least this first one! I realize this may also conflict
with the columns about the Retro Hugo nominees, which should finish
before the Hugo voting deadline, which is currently unknown, but
I'm guessing late June or early July. I may end up with two
columns in some issues.
The Introduction: Boccaccio writes, "On the following morning,
Wednesday to wit, ... departing Florence, [they] set out upon their
way; nor had they gone more than two short miles from the city,
when they came to the place fore-appointed of them..." Think about
that--they were fleeing the city because of the plague, and their
idea of how far they should travel was ... two miles! It turns out
that medieval villages tended to be only two or three miles apart
(cities were more distant from each other), so I guess two miles
was considered a safe distance.
"Master Ciappelletto (I-1)": Boccaccio works at making sure
Ciappelletto has broken all ten of the commandments and displayed
all seven of the deadly sins, and then some. He particularly
notes, "Of women he was as fond as dogs of the stick, but in the
contrary he delighted more than any filthy fellow alive." The
contrary to women being men, this is Boccaccio's roundabout way of
saying that Ciappelletto was a homosexual. But I find this most
interesting as having the seeds of some of what I see as part of
Protestantism and the Reformation, namely, the idea that a human
being (the priest) has the power to forgive all one's sins, and
indeed, promote the sainthood of someone who conceals their sins.
It is true that the Catholic Church says that intentionally
concealing (mortal) sins makes the absolution null and void, but
then one has to ask, why confess to a fallible human being at all?
"Abraham the Jew" (I-2): If the persistence of Christianity, even
with its leaders and clerics apparently trying their hardest to
destroy it, is enough reason for Abraham to believe in it and to
convert, why isn't the persistence of Judaism, even with everyone
trying their hardest to destroy it, enough reason for Jehannot to
believe in it and to convert? As we are reminded every year at
Passover in the Haggadah, "In each and every generation they rise
up against us to destroy us. And the Holy One, blessed be He,
rescues us from their hands." And indeed, though in 1353 Boccaccio
might write that Jehannot "fell to beseeching [Abraham] on friendly
wise leave the errors of the Jewish faith and turn to the Christian
verity, which he might see still wax and prosper, as being holy and
good, whereas his own faith, on the contrary, was manifestly on the
wane and dwindling to nought," yet now, 650 years later, Abraham's
faith has not dwindled to nought. But I have to say that it is
delightful to read a story of this period in which the Jew is not a
villain, and in fact is an honorable and good man--this is
certainly better than Chaucer's "Prioress's Tale" of Little Saint
Hugh of Lincoln.
"Melchizedek and the Three Rings" (I-3): Not only a story in which
the Jew is the hero, but a story of religious tolerance as well.
It is worth noting that the Pope at the time of the Black Death and
the writing of THE DECAMERON issued a papal bull condemning
violence against the Jews over the Plague, said it was the Devil
who convinced people that the Jews had caused the Plague, and
directed the clergy to protect the Jews. This may have affected
Boccaccio's favorable portrayal. Conversely, not Chaucer nor
anyone else in Chaucer's England had seen a Jew in a hundred years,
as they had been expelled by Edward I in 1290 and had been
massacred in York a hundred years before that, in 1190.
The idea of giving the ring (and his inheritance) to all three sons
seems to indicate that while the sons may have been worthy, the
father clearly was not the sharpest tool in the shed (as you
noted). It brings to mind Alexander saying he left his kingdom "to
the strongest"--yeah, no risk of problems there.
"The Monk and the Abbot" (I-4): There is not much to comment on
here--it's one of the standard tropes of the time, with a lustful
monk who manages to get what he wants without punishment because
the abbot is just as sinful. What seems to be noteworthy are the
variations in translation.
In the original Italian, for example, the abbot is concerned about
his weight and so has the girl on top and himself on the bottom.
(Thanks, Google Translate!) John Payne (1886) and J. M. Rigg
(1903) both refer to this, as does the translation used by QSYSK,
but John Florio's 1620 translation (the first one into English)
does not. However, Payne drops the pay-off, which is in the other
versions (even Florio's): the monk says that he had not realized
how monks were supposed to use women (i.e., which position to use),
but having seen the abbot, he now knows and will always follow that
example. Rigg is the only one to have both the set-up *and* the
pay-off, and hence the only one to really translate the whole joke
as a joke.
[At this point, I will comment that I would switch to Rigg, but
it's readable only on my desktop (individual HTML pages at
*https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb
https://www.brown.edu/Departments/Italian_Studies/dweb*, while
Payne is downloadable from Project Gutenberg. Florio is much
harder to read; it's Jacobean English without the modernized
spelling one finds in most works from then.]
"The Marchioness and the King of France" (I-5): The podcaster
seemed a bit confused by what the marchioness was trying to say
when she said, "... women, albeit in apparel and dignities they may
differ somewhat from others, are natheless all of the same fashion
here as elsewhere."
I think the meaning of the marchioness's statement is expressed by
the proverb "in the dark all cats are gray". Or as Benjamin
Franklin elaborated in his "Advice to a Young Man on the Choice of
a Mistress", (1745 June 25): "And as in the dark all Cats are grey,
the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least
equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice
capable of Improvement."
In other words, the marchioness is saying that just as no matter
how you "dress up" a hen (or as we would call it, a chicken), it
will still seem like chicken, and a lot like any other chicken, so
when it actually comes to physical love, the appearance of the
person will not make any difference.
("Chicken" refers to the species, composed of hens and roosters.
But my grandmother used to talk about how one made chicken soup
from a hen, which in the butcher shop parlance of her time meant an
older chicken. These are now called stewing chickens. The bottom
line of all this is when I read "hen", I think of someone/something
older, which actually ties in well with Franklin's statement.)
"An Honest Man and Hypocrisy" (I-6): When the inquisitor accuses
the good man by saying, "Then hast thou made Christ a wine-bibber
and curious in wines of choice, as if he were Cinciglione or what
not other of your drunken sots and tavern-haunters; and now thou
speakest lowly and wouldst feign this to be a very light matter!" I
was reminded of one of the many truly excellent speeches in the
play A CASE OF LIBEL by Henry Denker:
"You do not want to be called onto the witness stand to defend your
character. A good lawyer could destroy the character of Jesus
Christ Himself. 'Mr. Christ, isn't it true that you are frequently
seen in the company of known prostitutes and criminals? And
haven't you often been seen drinking? Oh, only wine? And only at
weddings? And didn't you cause a riot in the Temple, destroying
the property of law-abiding merchants?' If He fares that way, how
do you think you'll do?"
"Primasso and the Abbot of Cluny" (I-7): I don't have much to say
about the story, except the idea that the abbot would suddenly get
stingy towards this one person seems very contrived. I will
however note that more recent translations probably eschew the word
"niggardliness"; see also the next story. (Florio and Payne use
it; Rigg uses "avarice". Rigg apparently says "Courtesy" instead
of "Liberality" in #8 which strikes me as not the right thing at
all.)
"The Niggardliness of Ermino" (I-8): Lauretta voices the eternal
complaint of older people (even though she is not that old), saying
that something is "a sore and shameful reproach to the present age
and a manifest proof that the virtues have departed this lower
world and left us wretched mortals to wallow in the slough of the
vices." In other words, we were all virtuous and noble in the
past, but now are degraded and fallen. (And she is not referring
to Edenic times, but just a few generations earlier. Ah, for the
good old days!)
When Guglielmo offers to tell Ermino of something which he had
never yet beheld, and it turns out to be Liberality, it is like the
old Henny Youngman joke where he asks his wife where she wants to
go for their anniversary. "Somewhere I have never been," she
replies. "How about the kitchen?" he suggests.
"The King of Cyprus and a Gascon Lady" (I-9): The stories are
getting shorter, and a bit repetitive. In this one at least, the
fault that is corrected by a snappy line is not miserliness, but
more like sloth: the King refuses to respond to attacks on his
character, so a Gascon lady asks him to teach her how to ignore
insults as well, which makes him realize his fault. (It is not
entirely clear from either the original or any of the translation I
have access to whether the lady was actually raped or merely
accosted. Florio says "shee was villanously abused by certaine
base wretches"; Payne says "she was shamefully abused of certain
lewd fellows"; Rigg says "[she] met with brutal outrage at the
hands of certain ruffians." The Italian is "da alcuni scellerati
uomini villanamente fu oltraggiata", which Google translates as
"she was outraged by some villainous men". One can presume she was
raped, but the Italian does not use the specific word
"violentata".)
The lady was returning from a visit to the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, which is particularly topical, since the closure this
March of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was the first such
closure since 1349 and the Black Plague.
"Master Alberto and the Lady" (I-10): Boccaccio has Pampinea give
us a long speech about how the women of that time have given up
clever or intelligent conversation and replaced it with fancy
clothes and ornaments. It's quite sexist, and having it delivered
by a female character does not make it magically un-sexist--it's
clearly Boccaccio speaking. It is not unlike what Robert
A. Heinlein does in STARSHIP TROOPERS, in which he has a character
defend their political system of flogging for various offenses,
allowing only veterans to vote, etc., by pointing out how well it
works. Heinlein is hoping you don't notice it works that well
because he wrote it that way. Similarly, Boccaccio is hoping you
believe this speech about women because it is given by a woman,
without remembering that he (a man) wrote it that way.
Someone (I wish I could remember who) said that fiction is really
what George Orwell called "doublethink" in 1984: "holding two
contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting
both of them." We know that Elizabeth Bennett is imaginary, but as
we are reading PRIDE AND PREJUDICE we accept (at least at some
level) her reality.
After the tenth tale, the Queen for the next day is chosen and she
sets a theme for the stories to be told: reversals of fortune (from
bad to good).
To be continued (in two weeks or so). [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
When any organizational entity expands beyond 21 members,
the real power will be in some smaller body.
--C. Northcote Parkinson