Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
03/05/21 -- Vol. 39, No. 36, Whole Number 2161
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, *mleeper@optonline.net *
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, *eleeper@optonline.net *
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Topics:
Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction (pointer from Denise Moy)
The Better Films I Saw in 2020 (film comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
THE ELEVENTH GATE by Nancy Kress (audio book review
by Joe Karpierz)
THE VIGIL, M. C. ESCHER: JOURNEY TO INFINITY, THE OPPENHEIMER
ALTERNATIVE, THE GREAT GATSBY, and the MT VOID
(letter of comment by Guy Lillian III)
This Week's Reading (WHAT TO THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK,
STATION ELEVEN, JORGE LUIS BORGES: SOURCES AND
ILLUMINATION) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction (pointer from
Denise Moy)
Denise Moy points out the following of interest:
*https://sfdictionary.com/ https://sfdictionary.com/*
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Better Films I Saw in 2020 (film comments by Mark
R. Leeper)
(Almost) every year the film industry makes a load of high-profile
movies, many of them films of quality. Some are not so hot. I
will see many and write reviews of some. I take the best films I
have seen and write short reviews and then write a list of mini-
reviews of those I consider are the ten best. That is the usual
(unimaginative) routine. This year the circumstances are quite
different, as I am sure the reader is aware. I have seen far fewer
films and of those I have seen few belong on top ten lists. Some
may have been really good, but not all were "top-ten-worthy." Here
in my opinion are among the best I saw.
A CALL TO SPY: (no review written) Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4)
THE PAINTED BIRD: Based on the Jerzy Kosinski novel, this film
shows a boy traveling across Eastern Europe in shortly before World
War II and seeing the cruelty of the peasants for one another.
Filmed in black and white in a naturalistic style, it has long,
slow, contemplative stretches. The title comes from a form of
entertainment of the peasants: they paint a bird with bright colors
and release it back into its flock, where the other birds peck it
to death. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4)
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN: In this thriller, a 20-something woman looks
to find revenge on acquaintances (and others) from her past for
incident years before. At times the music overpowers the dialogue,
but the twists and turns will keep you involved. Released
12/25/20. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4)
RESISTANCE: This biopic about a little-known period in Marcel
Marceau's life concentrates on moral decisions such as weighing the
importance of saving Jews versus killing Nazis. It has nice art
design for a low-budget film, as well as some striking camerawork.
Jesse Eisenberg (as Marceau) and Clemence Poesy (of IN BRUGES) give
outstanding performances. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4)
TOTALLY UNDER CONTROL: This documentary takes a comprehensive and
convincing look at COVID-19 from its scientific underpinnings to
its political ramifications. Controversies are covered in detail,
and there is a strong political dimension in the narrative. I will
not say whether I agree or disagree (but somebody sure said
something right). It did not waste time but came to the point and
explained it. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4)
AN ACCIDENTAL STUDIO--HANDMADE FILMS (2019 film seen in 2020): (no
review written) While George Harrison was performing for the
Beatles he was also managing a movie film studio, Handmade Films.
This is the story of Handmade Films. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
ALL IN: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY: This film is a documentary looking
at vote suppression in the last century. Your attitude toward its
arguments may vary. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
APOCALYPSE '45: This documentary looks like it uses colorized
newsreel footage, but it is actually restored color footage.
(There probably was some overlap between this film and the
television series "World War II in Color".) It is a look from the
beginning of the Pacific War to the end. Among other things, the
film examines the motives of the people dropping bombs on
civilians: are the victims evil because of what their government
was doing or had them do? The largest segment of the film is saved
for Okinawa, although Hiroshima was also covered at length.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
DA 5 BLOODS: This Spike Lee action and adventure film of four
Vietnam vets returning to Vietnam in a sort of "Treasure Island"
story seems to drag on a long time for a two-and-a-half hour film.
It does have many clever film allusions. Overall, a large-scale
production with gritty views of Vietnam people and countryside.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH--A LIFE ON OUR PLANET: Sir David Attenborough is
94 years old and has been traveling--and exploring--for 66 years.
This "witness statement" (his term) has a lot of beautiful and
familiar nature photography--familiar because it uses archival
footage from his films from those 66 years. Attenborough fits his
whole career into this framework, tracing the disappearance of
wilderness (and species) over that time. It has essentially a very
downbeat message; even his suggestions at the end fail to provide
much uplift. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
DESERT ONE: This tells of the major event of the Carter presidency,
the Iran hostage crisis. The film uses comic-book style
illustrations to recount the events. It has a fairly standard
documentary style, but at times the incidents are genuinely moving.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
FORD VS. FERRARI (2019--seen in 2020): This is a surprisingly
engaging story of the competition of a designer from each car
company. American car designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken
Miles comete in a race that will be determined at Le Mans.
Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
.
HILLBILLY ELEGY: Directed by Ron Howard, this is based on the best-
selling novel of the same name. It keeps the viewer guessing about
where the story is going, in part because it is not told in
chronological order. Glenn Close plays the matriarch of the family
and completely disappears in the role. The theme is summed up by
one of her epigrams: "Family's the only thing that means a good
goddam." Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
NEWS OF THE WORLD: Tom Hanks is working his way through all the
filmgenres, and this is his first Western (playing a cowboy in the
"Toy Story" series doesn't count). One thing noted immediately is
that the clothing wardrobe is very different from what one usually
sees in Westerns. We see the chaos of a Southern (Texan) town
getting "civilized," but without the usual saloon fights. Hanks as
a traveling news reader serving those who have no time to read the
news, or are illiterate, is an occupation rarely or never seen in
Western films. (It is reminiscent of that of lector in Cuban cigar
factories.) The stories are less the major world or national
events, but more human interest or entertainment stories of the
sort in David Mamet's "The Water Machine". Hanks's character finds
ten-year-old Johanna (played by Helena Zengel), who had been
kidnapped by Kiowas six years earlier. After the Kiowas were
killed, she is on her own and Hanks agrees to take her to her
German relatives several hundred miles away. There are echoes of
THE SEARCHERS, TRUE GRIT, OUTLAW JOSEY WALES, and even MATEWAN in
this film, which is not necessarily a bad thing. (Note: Texas was
re-admitted to the Union in March 1870, so this must take place in
January or February.) Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7: The title tells it all and it is in
narrative form. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4)
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE ELEVENTH GATE by Nancy Kress (copyright 2020, Blackstone
Publishing, 13 hours, ASIN: B082WLXVKV, narrated by Braden Wright)
(audio book review by Joe Karpierz)
Nancy Kress has been busy, with two books out in 2020, starting
with novella "Sea Change" from Tachyon Publications and then THE
ELEVENTH GATE from Baen Books and Blackstone Publishing. THE
ELEVENTH GATE is a different book from "Sea Change", being a space
opera full of all the things one expects from a space opera, while
"Sea Change" was grounded on Earth. Still, both books bear the
unmistakable mark of being books by Nancy Kress, as we'll see
shortly.
Humanity has spread to the stars via ten gates that provide access
to eight habitable worlds. Eager to leave the home planet behind,
as it has been destroyed by war and ecological disasters, the
colonists and their descendants form three distinct political and
economic factions: the Peregoy Corporation is as it sounds, run by
an autocratic CEO named Sloan; the Landry Libertarian Alliance, and
Polyglot, which most resembles earth with its individual nations
and economies and no one ruling body.
That's the background. The story really begins when Tara Landry,
granddaughter of the head of the LLA (for short), discovers an
eleventh gate. Tara hatches a plan to bring peace to the Eight
Worlds, but instead ends up starting a war between LLA and the
Peregoy Corporation. Complicating matters is one Philip Anderson,
a physicist and philosopher--there's a combination I'm not sure we
see all that often any more--whom Tara is infatuated with and who
doesn't return the feelings. He's interested in a higher level of
consciousness, one that no one has reached before. Anderson's
disappearance after he passes through the Eleventh Gate and lands
on the planet behind it drives Tara to the brink. What happens to
Anderson is the land of spoilers; suffice it to say that he plays a
large part of the story ahead.
Both Landry and Peregoy have family problems within the power
structures of their respective worlds. Rachel Landry, leader of
the LLA, not only has to deal with Tara, but her granddaughter Jane
who is hell bent on bringing the war to an end with a biological
weapon that could wipe out most of civilization, while Sloan has to
deal with his own daughter who is taking the corporation right out
from underneath him with some policies that are very unlike the
ones Sloan believes in.
Maybe policies isn't the right word. Maybe philosophies is a
better word. All three factions believe in their own way of
thinking more than anything else, with no room for compromise.
The Landries and the Peregoys are constantly critical of the other,
wondering how "those people" could survive in the world they do.
And while Sloan does eventually try to change his way of thinking,
his daughter Sofia goes on with the way things have always been.
This novel has all the classic things you'd expect in a Kress
novel: family politics, biological science--in this case the bio
warfare that is being waged by Jane Landry, and how it all affects
humanity. There are space battles, peace conferences, and
politics, all the things you'd expect in a space opera. Yes, there
are aliens, and they play a very subtle but powerful role in the
story, and they're not there for very long--blink and you miss
them. All in all, THE ELEVENTH GATE is a very solid and enjoyable
effort from Kress, and one that I believe is worthy your time.
Braden Wright is like a good umpire in a major league baseball
game. You don't notice that he's there until he does something
wrong. And that's good enough. Wright does nothing to make his
narration stand out, nor does he do anything jarring to take the
listener out of the story. He does the job he was brought in to
do, and he does it well enough. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE VIGIL, M. C. ESCHER: JOURNEY TO INFINITY, THE
OPPENHEIMER ALTERNATIVE, THE GREAT GATSBY, and the MT VOID (letter
of comment by Guy Lillian III)
In response to the MT VOID in general and various specific reviews
in the 02/26/21 issue of the MT VOID and earlier in particular, Guy
Lillian writes in ZINE DUMP #51:
Every week MT VOID pops up in one's e-mail inbox, indefatigable,
with sharp essays on ... well, you name it. This issue, films,
with a mention of an unfamiliar flick I now must see, THE VIGIL.
In an earlier number, a film about Escher; in yes another [sic].
Lest one think that reading is given short shrift here, another
previous issue praises THE OPPENHEIMER ALTERNATIVE by Robert
Sawyer, which I bet ends up on the Hugo ballot. Evelyn even
comments on THE GREAT GATSBY, whose presence on the Hugo lists is
questionable. Good fun. [-gl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
My reading of WHAT TO THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK edited by
John Brockman (Harper Perennial, ISBN 978-0-06-242565-2) is
proceeding. My latest comment is on "Manipulators and Manipulanda"
by Josh Bongard, who writes, "We counsel one another not to 'look
back' in anger because, based on our bias to walk in the direction
of our forward-facing eyes, past events tend to literally be behind
us." Well, if by "we" he means English-speakers, then he is
correct, but if by "we" he means humans, he is wrong: many
languages posit that the future is in back of us, because it is
that which we cannot see, while the past lies in front of us,
because we can see it.
STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John Mandel (Vintage, ISBN 978-0-804-
17244-8) is about a plague, a very contagious and deadly form of
flu. It's reminiscent of EARTH ABIDES and other plague novels in
that the main characters all seem to avoid dealing with the actual
mass dying and the millions of corpses that would be around. The
TV series WORLD AFTER PEOPLE does this by just hand-waving the
disappearance of all the people, but generally books at least try
to justify it. In some, the characters are hiking up in the back-
country, in others they fall ill and are unconscious for several
days, but don't die. Here the main character manages to stockpile
food and water and just stays in his brother's apartment for enough
time for the dying to end--which is not very long, given how fast
the virus acts. There is a traveling theatrical/musical company,
and the usual cliche of the town taken over by a cult, but
thankfully no zombies. :-)
This is either just what you want to read now, or just what you
want to avoid. I've been reading true accounts of plagues;
fictional ones are actually a bit of a relief. Ultimately you have
to decide.
It's evidence I am getting deep in Jorge Luis Borges criticism when
I am reading a book tracing the parallels between Borges's writings
and Sufi philosophy. But that is what JORGE LUIS BORGES: SOURCES
AND ILLUMINATION by Professor Giovanna de Garayalde (Octogon Books,
ISBN 0-900-860-61-8) is. One problem is that many of the
commonalities are common in other philosophies as well: time is
relative, multi-level narratives can be used to covey ideas, what
appears to be bad luck may turn out to be good luck (see my comment
about Sven and Olaf in TITANIC in the MT VOID a couple of weeks
ago), and so on. Another problem is that unless you are already
familiar with Sufi literature, many of the references will be
obscure or unintelligible. (The reverse is also true--
unfamiliarity with Borges's writings would be problematic--but I'm
assuming that most readers of this book would be familiar with
them.) All things considered, this is a book with a limited target
audience. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
A good place to meet a man is at the dry cleaner.
These men usually have jobs and bathe.
--Rita Rudner