Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
12/25/20 -- Vol. 39, No. 26, Whole Number 2151
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, *mleeper@optonline.net *
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, *eleeper@optonline.net *
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Topics:
Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in January (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
WORLD WITHOUT END, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, TIME's
100 Best Fantasy Books, GALILEO AND THE SCIENCE DENIERS,
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Convicts and Television,
and THE MEN WHO UNITED THE STATES (letter of comment
by Taras Wolansky)
This Week's Reading (THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN) (book and
film comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
Reminder: Now that all the meetings are Zoomed, you don't have to
be in Old Bridge or Middletown or even New Jersey to participate.
So if we are discussing one of your favorites, contact me at
*eleeper@optonline.net * for Zoom information.
Both the Old Bridge and Middletown groups have (temporarily, we
hope) switched to Zoom meetings. For Middletown meetings,
participants need to watch the film on their own ahead of time as
well as reading the book.
January 7, 2021 (MTPL), 7:30PM: 1984 (1984) & novel
by George Orwell
*https://tinyurl.com/1984-IntArchive
https://tinyurl.com/1984-IntArchive*
*https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/12248757
https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/12248757*
*https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/12097121
https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/12097121*
January 28, 2021 (OBPL), 7:00PM: I, ROBOT by Isaac Asimov
February 4, 2021 (MTPL), 7:30PM: THE PRESTIGE (2006) & novel
by Christopher Priest
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHijGNsQ6TI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHijGNsQ6TI*
rental: *https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B003QS67F0/
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B003QS67F0/*
*https://tinyurl.com/Priest-The-Prestige-1995
https://tinyurl.com/Priest-The-Prestige-1995*
===================================================================
TOPIC: My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in January (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
The political thriller seems in large part to have been created in
the early Sixties and had its heyday at that time, but remains with
us. This January it is represented on TCM by THE MANCHURIAN
CANDIDATE. This is part of the "package" of what I consider to be
the two best, each with a great script and a great cast, and each
directed by John Frankenheimer.
THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962) features a deliciously convoluted
and clever plot. Pulled from circulation for many years, its re-
release was considered a major cinematic event. Bennett Marco
(Frank Sinatra) recently returned from the Korean War is having odd
and violent nightmares concerning his war buddies and particularly
Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), winner of the Congressional Medal
of Honor. While he knows Shaw was hated by everyone, Marco finds
he has a strong mental block against saying anything negative about
Shaw. George Axelrod adapted Richard Condon's novel. Janet Leigh,
Angela Lansbury, and Henry Silva co-star.
[THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE, January 29, 8:00 PM]
If you are looking for its "partner", you will have to find it on
your own; TCM does not have it scheduled at this time. For SEVEN
DAYS IN MAY Rod Serling adapted the novel by Fletcher Knebel and
Charles Bailey. There is something fishy going on behind closed
doors at the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff. An odd pool on the
Preakness, a lie here, a rumor of an unfamiliar military base
there. Something is going on and the Director of the Joint Chiefs,
Jiggs Casey (Kirk Douglas), wants to know more. His superior, a
charismatic James Matoon Scott (Burt Lancaster) seems to be at the
core of the mystery. Fredric March, Ava Gardner, Martin Balsam,
Edmond O'Brien, George Macready, and John Houseman co-star.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: WORLD WITHOUT END, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN, TIME's 100
Best Fantasy Books, GALILEO AND THE SCIENCE DENIERS, Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, Convicts and Television, and THE MEN WHO UNITED THE
STATES (letter of comment by Taras Wolansky)
In response to various comments in various issues of the MT VOID,
Taras Wolansky writes:
Some comments on recent--well, recentish--issues of MT VOID:
#2147: The review of WORLD WITHOUT END reminded me of Philip Jose
Farmer's joyfully risque novel, FLESH (1960), in which the belated
astronauts discover a world dominated by a fertility cult: the
capital now has two domes (and the less said about Washington
Monument, the better).
#2145: The 50-Foot Woman makes another memorable appearance,
voiced by Reese Witherspoon in the 2009 animated hit, MONSTERS
VS. ALIENS, a love letter to several classic cinematic monsters.
Reduced to normal size by an invading alien overlord, she chooses
to become giant again to help defeat the invasion; introducing a
poignant subtext the kids didn't get, as she gives up any chance of
a normal life.
#2144: Darrell Schweitzer and I discussed TIME's 100 best
fantasies during Virtual Capclave. We were both rather dismissive-
-no Apuleius? Nothing from the Middle Ages? No E. R. Eddison?--
and suspected its "presentist" bias had to do with identity
politics. Darrell said Neil Gaiman had given the editors an
erudite list of suggestions, including Hope Mirrlies' classic LUD-
IN-THE-MIST, but they had ignored it.
#2143: The review of GALILEO AND THE SCIENCE DENIERS reminded me
of a comment I made to James Morrow at the last "real" Capclave.
How odd it is, I said, that we are constantly reminded of Galileo
being put under house arrest 400 years ago; yet we never hear about
Darwinists persecuted to death in the Soviet Union, less than 80
years ago. The Soviet government (rightly!) considered natural
selection incompatible with Marxism.
Thus, I was gratified when the latest series of COSMOS devoted a
one-hour episode to biologist Nikolai Vavilov, who achieved quite a
lot before he died in a Soviet prison. Can't help but wonder if
James Morrow saw the program and, if he did, remembered our
conversation.
#2141: Evelyn remarks on "the Jews" in Conan Doyle's original
Sherlock Holmes stories. In at least one of Anthony Trollope's
novels, an improvident character goes to "the Jews" to borrow
money; but when we meet the "Jew", he is named McPherson or
MacDonald. Just as "Bach" became a synonym for "musician" in parts
of 18th century Germany, in 19th century England Jew became a
synonym for moneylender.
#2140: Forcing convicts to read, instead of watching cable TV,
sounds like a good idea. They would come out of prison better
readers than when they came in, and thus more employable.
A few years back, Editrix Extraordinaire Sheila Williams was the
speaker at a North Jersey SF group. She told us prisoners used to
be avid readers of porn Westerns, a genre I had not known existed.
The review of Simon Winchester's THE MEN WHO UNITED THE STATES
moved me to look up what I had posted on Amazon. I concluded that
where in his previous books he had made dull topics interesting,
here he made an interesting topic dull. Possibly as a Brit he did
not realize how familiar and old hat some of his subjects are to
every American schoolchild.
Evidently mistaking National Public Radio to be the American
equivalent of the BBC, Winchester ranks it as one of the things
"uniting the States". In reality the growth of television had
rendered radio a backwater long before NPR was founded, even if its
distinctly left-liberal slant had not been off-putting to a mass
audience.
The book is at its best when it tells the story of that Magnificent
Man in His Flying Machine, Calbraith Perry Rodgers, who was first
to fly (mostly crash) his way from New York to California in 49
days in 1911. And then died during a routine demonstration just
days later. He deserves to be remembered.
#2139: I don't think I agree with Mark's criticism of Conan
Doyle's "The Speckled Band".
In extremis, people will say the strangest things. When I broke my
foot while walking to the PATH station one morning, many years ago,
to my own astonishment I blurted out, "GO-O-O-OD'S DEATH!"
People of a certain age will remember Glenda Jackson as ELIZABETH
R. This was one of Queen Liz's favorite oaths; but why it surfaced
in my mind at that particular moment I cannot explain.
Also, the murder victim in Conan Doyle's story may not have
understood what killed her, or even that she was being killed, just
that what she thought a speckled band of cloth had moved in a
horrifically unnatural way.
Many thanks for many great issues! [-tw]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Many years ago I reviewed THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN by Simon
Winchester (Harper Perennial, ISBN 978-0-060-83978-9), about the
creation of the Oxford English Dictionary and its greatest
volunteer, but also about the history of dictionaries, the American
Civil War, and a variety of other digressions. The professor is
James Murray, the editor of the project. The madman is
Dr. W. C. Minor, who contributed thousands of quotations for the
project--while confined in Broadmoor Asylum for having committed a
murder while insane. Having just seen the movie I will reprint
that review, as well as commenting on the film.
There are a few unexpected lessons to be learned. While Murray
started the project, he estimated it would take two years to
produce the first volume; it took twenty. All his other estimates
were equally off. But the fact is, if anyone had realized how long
the project would take, they never would have undertaken it.
And Murray also helped, merely by thinking about the process. The
editor had volunteers reading from a list of books, sending in
quotations for whatever words they thought worthwhile. Copying the
quotations in a standard format took a long time, and often words
were skipped that would have been useful. Murray took a two-step
approach. He *indexed* each book in a booklet, jotting down all
the words that might be of use, along with the page number, and did
this in such a way that it was in alphabetical order. When he had
a few of these, he wrote Murray, explaining his method, and asking
what words Murray could use quotations for right away. Then he
needed merely to look them up and copy those quotations. This
meant he was not wasting his time copying quotations for words that
would not be worked on for years, while Murray struggled with other
words than he could help out with.
There are a couple of more things I want to mention. First, this
was an early example of distributed processing, with people all
over the world doing the same task with different books, and then a
team bringing together the results. Also, the decision to make the
Dictionary descriptive rather than prescriptive was crucial. In
general, English-language dictionaries are descriptive, while
French-language dictionaries are prescriptive.
I recommended this book for anyone who is interested in either the
English language, or managing large projects.
The film is a fairly accurate recounting of the book, though it
gets some details wrong. (Murray was never confused about Minor
position at Broadmoor, for example.) The plot is somewhat obscured
by being related in thick accents, making it hard to follow, and
the dark lighting seems to put most scenes into shade. But viewers
with an interest in things literary should definitely catch this
one. Released 03/27/20; available on Netflix streaming and Amazon
Prime. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
I'd never been in play long enough for the flowers
to die in the dressing room.
--Mercedes McCambridge