Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
04/02/21 -- Vol. 39, No. 40, Whole Number 2165
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, *mleeper@optonline.net *
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, *eleeper@optonline.net *
Sending Address: *evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
*
All material is the opinion of the author and is copyrighted by the
author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for
inclusion unless otherwise noted.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to *eleeper@optonline.net
*
The latest issue is at *http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm
http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm*.
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:
The Neverending Year of the Animals (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
A New Generation of Congressional Representatives (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Ezra Klein Interviews Ted Chiang (pointer from Richie Bielak)
Mini Reviews, Part 11 (OLIVER SACKS--HIS OWN LIFE, SOME KIND
OF HEAVEN, THE DONUT KING) (film reviews
by Mark R. Leeper)
"Decolonizing Zombies!" (Part 2) (film comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Classics, Hero, and Jorge Luis Borges and Sufism
(letter of comment by John Hertz)
This Week's Reading (PROJECT HAIL MARY) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Neverending Year of the Animals (comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
CNN reports:
"Record-breaking floods in southeastern Australia have caused a
mass animal exodus to higher ground, with spiders in particular
surging onto people's land and into their homes. ... Spiders
aren't the only animals seeking refuge from the water, [Matt]
Lovenfosse added. 'The trees are full of snakes,' he said. 'If you
take the boat out over the paddock they swim towards it trying to
get on something dry, same with the spiders.'"
The article includes pictures.
*https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/22/australia/spider-exodus-australia
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/22/australia/spider-exodus-australia*-
scli-intl/index.html
===================================================================
TOPIC: A New Generation of Congressional Representatives (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Representative Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) tweeted last Monday
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1376581779893710852?shttps://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1376581779893710852?shttps://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1376581779893710852?s<*https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1376581779893710852?s">https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1376581779893710852?s">https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1376581779893710852?s<*https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1376581779893710852?s
https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1376581779893710852?s*]:
"'The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living
to do so for them.' - Lois McMaster Bujold."
There was a time when Congressional Representatives would not even
admit to knowing who an author like Lois McMaster Bujold was, and
now they're quoting her. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Ezra Klein Interviews Ted Chiang (pointer from Richie
Bielak)
Richie Bielak notes:
The latest episode of the Ezra Klein podcast is a conversation with
Ted Chiang. Check it out!
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-tedhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-tedhttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ted<*https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ted">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ted">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ted<*https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ted
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ted*-
chiang.html
[-rb]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 11 (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper)
Here is the eleventh batch of mini-reviews, three more
documentaries, including one running on PBS next week.
OLIVER SACKS--HIS OWN LIFE: This is a biographical documentary by
Ric Burns telling the life of Oliver Sacks in Sacks's own words.
We find out that Sacks's parents' and the British government's
attitude toward homosexuality drove him into exile in the United
States but also sent him even deeper into his research. In
addition to his scientific exploits, he also devoted himself to
body building, motorcycles, drugs, and understanding his
homosexuality. All these elements, scientific or not, combine to
give us an unexpected view of the whole man. The sections where
when the film goes in the details of how Sacks worked his clinical
material into books is the least interesting and could have been
excised. Released 09/23/20; running on PBS April 9. Rating:
+1 (-4 to +4)
SOME KIND OF HEAVEN: "The Villages" in Florida is the world's
largest retirement community and was in the news this year when
President Trump visited it and tweeted a video of his visit, only
for people to discover that the video included a resident riding by
in a golf cart shouting, "White Power!" The Villages is 98.3%
white, and overwhelmingly Republican, but this look at life in a
retirement community does not deal with the politics, but more with
the retirement community lifestyle, with a look at some of the
residents' back stories. The film does seem to have a heavy
infusion of religion, however. Throughout, people seem to be
telling themselves that this is an ideal place to live but the
residents are often living in denial. Has played at several
(virtual) film festivals, but as yet has no general release.
Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4)
THE DONUT KING: This story of how a Cambodian refugee ended up
starting an empire of donut shops in southern California actually
tells two stories, one of the donut business and one of Cambodia
under the Khmer Rouge; the non-sequential nature of the film may be
confusing to some. Various refugees talk about their experiences
in Cambodia, and having to steal or starve even in America until
they were started in the donut business by Ted Ngoy. Various
illustrations are clips from pro-American films, etc. Released
10/30/20; available on Amazon Prime streaming. Rating: 0 (-4 to
+4)
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: "Decolonizing Zombies!" (Part 2) (film comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
As promised, here is part 2 of my comments on the Middlebury
College course "Decolonizing Zombies!".
LADRONAS DE ALMAS (INSURGENTES MALDITOS) (SOUL ROBBERS) (2015)
takes place during the 1815 Mexican Revolution against Spain. A
group of thieves/treasure hunters posing as insurgents come to an
isolated estate. There is a young daughter, Camila, who does not
talk, similar to Lydia in THE OTHERS (to be discussed in the
article about the "Hispanic Horror Cinema" course). There is also
fog around the house as in THE OTHERS, but this may be using a
common trope rather than specific reference. The zombies are of
the traditional sort, the dead brought back as slaves. The owner
of the estate was opposed to this, but apparently when workmen were
scarce, he resorted to it anyway. One can see in this the
filmmaker's commentary on how the upper classes (and colonizers)
may profess concern for their servants and slaves, but ultimately
take advantage of their power and privilege.
HALLEY (2012) (Mexico) is not available.
DESCENDENTS (SOLOS) (2008) (Chile) may be included simply because
of the coda, because on the whole it is very slow-paced, with not
enough plot for a feature-length film. It is sort of "zombie
apocalypse meets 'Lord of the Flies'", although the children do not
go feral. (Indeed, it is the adults who are the savages. And how
well-known is LORD OF THE FLIES in Chile, anyway?) The film begins
with children's drawings and hand-held footage, and thought it
changes to a more standard approach, albeit with washed-out color
(but not black-and-white, and the flashbacks are tinted green).
One observation: the Chilean army are as poor shots as any other
army in movies--they have clear shots at the children, but always
miss. Other than that, not much happens. The ending is bizarre
but the groundwork for it was laid earlier, and there is also a
long coda in the middle of the credits showing the start of the
infection which includes a fairly pointed slam at the United
States, with Mexico ("The Aztec Nation") talking about how they
have to restrict immigration from the United States because of the
danger of infected people getting in.
REC (2007) (Spain) is one of those "found footage" films that
became so popular after THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) grossed 4000
times its budget. (CLOVERFIELD is perhaps the best known of
these.) In REC, a television crew is following a group of
firefighters on the night shift when they are called to an
emergency in an apartment building which turns out to be an
outbreak of zombies. Chaos ensues, the government barricades them
in, and more chaos ensues. The "found footage" element gives it a
sense of reality that more formally staged films lacks.
It was remade as an American film in 2008 titled QUARANTINE.
"I'll See You in My Dreams" (2003) (Portugal) is a short film (20
minutes) which is in Portugese even though the title is in English.
Luckily, it was subtitled on YouTube
*https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qVZCU5RWqc4
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qVZCU5RWqc4*; unluckily (somewhat)
it was subtitled in Spanish. Luckily the dialogue was minimal and
basic, so I could actually follow it. We see a zombie hunter at
the beginning, walking through a forest complaining about "sh*tty
zombies". Then we get his back story: he caught his wife with
another man, so he killed the man and threw her outside to the
zombies. Now he has somewhat repented and keeps her in a cage,
feeding her food with his blood on it. He rescues a girl in a bar,
takes her home and has sex with her. His wife sees, then escapes,
and she and other zombies attack the pair. Ultimately, the hunter
throws the girl to the zombies, but is killed by his wife. The
last scene repeats the first, including his monologue, except now
he is a zombie and it is "sh*tty humans." I'm not sure where the
colonization comes in, but there is male chauvinism (or patriarchy,
if you prefer) aplenty in the hunter's attitudes towards his wife
and the girl from the bar. Stylistically, there are a lot of
creative visual effects: rays of light through walls, zombies
silhouetted in fog, strangely filtered zombie point-of-view shots.
THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS (2016) (United Kingdom) has echoes of
DESCENDENTS. In both, the focus is on the children, the next
generation after the "zombie apocalypse." In both, the next
generation is immune to/ignored by the zombies, and represents the
next stage of evolution. In this they are both "descendents" of
THE LAST MAN ON EARTH, based on Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND,
which has a similar theme, though without the specificity of
children. (Miss Justineau is black in the book, but played by a
white actress. However, one cannot quite accuse the film of white-
washing, because in the book Melanie is white, but in the film she
is played by a black actress.)
TRAIN TO BUSAN (Korea) is set in the present day urban South Korea,
so everything is much more modern-looking than in many of the other
films. Many of the other films are set after the "zombie
apocalypse" when everything is destroyed or broken down (e.g., JUAN
DE LOS MUERTOS), in rural settings (e.g., NIGHT OF THE LIVING
DEAD), or in historical settings (e.g., LADRONAS DE ALMAS). TRAIN
TO BUSAN attributes the zombification to a chemical leak at a
factory, replacing the magic of many earlier films but still
implying colonization, albeit by a large corporation rather than by
another country.
THE EMPIRE OF CORPSES [SHISHA NO TEIKOKU] (2015) (Japan) is
available on DVD and Bluray, but not from Netflix. As noted above,
I am too cheap to buy this.
VERSUS (2000) (Japan) is also available on DVD and Bluray, but not
from Netflix, and again, I'm not going to buy it.
So that's it. I'm sure the class would provide deeper insights
into "issues of neoliberalism, cannibalism, genocide, diaspora,
virus spread, and political criticism," but this is the best I can
do on my own.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Classics, Hero, and Jorge Luis Borges and Sufism (letter of
comment by John Hertz)
In response to Evelyn's comments on I, ROBOT in the 02/05/21 issue
of the MT VOID (probably), John Hertz writes:
The classics are still classics. "I know of nothing before I was
born" isn't just self-centered, it's the road to boredom. Also, as
I keep saying, cross-cultural contact is homework--oops, there went
half my readers--I'll speak to the other one--for SF. Indeed we
have to expand our minds--you should pardon the expression--to take
in something from another place or time. Look how much trouble we
have now with Hari Seldon's father in Asimov's "Foundation" books
being a tobacco grower. Eewww, dated! What would happen if we met
real aliens?
In response to the comments on heroes in the 02/12/21 and 02/19/21
issues, John writes:
I tell people the first Hero was a woman--whom Leander swam the
Hellespont for.
In response to Evelyn's comments on Borges and Sufism in the
03/05/21 issue , John writes:
E's comment [MT VOID 2161] about Borges and Sufism reminds me of
the anecdote--told by B himself, if I recall correctly-- that
someone reading B's story "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim" was so
enchanted as to order from a bookshop the 1934 edition of THE
CONVERSATION WITHIN THE MAN CALLED AL-MU'TASIM--published by
Gollancz--with a preface by Dorothy L. Sayers! [-jh]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mexican-Americans in THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (letter of
comment by Dorothy J. Heydt)
In response to Evelyn's comments on the ethnicity of one of the
characters in THE WAR OF THE WORLDS (1953) in the 01/22/21 issue of
the MT VOID, Dorothy J. Heydt writes:
We see more Mexican-Americans when Forrester goes to look in
churches for what's-her-name. In one of them we see a priest
leading a group of frightened children in the Rosary. [-djh]
Evelyn replies:
True. My point was more specifically, though, about Salvador and
his attitudes towards invaders showing up in his land. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir (Ballantine, ISBN 978-0-593-13520-4)
is the third book from Weir, the first two being the wildly popular
THE MARTIAN and the less popular ARTEMIS. He has returned to a
white male science nerd as his protagonist, a wise choice, given
that his female Muslim smuggler in ARTEMIS was less than totally
convincing. Write what you know, they say. And on the whole this
is more successful than ARTEMIS, though (inevitably) not as good as
THE MARTIAN.
It is, however, much in the mode of THE MARTIAN, with Ryland Grace
in a desperate attempt to save not just himself, but all humanity.
Without giving too much away, he is faced by one problem after
another, requiring that he "science the sh*t" out of them.
And here is the real problem, for me anyway. If you recall, in
February I complained that Kim Stanley Robinson's THE MINISTRY FOR
THE FUTURE had too much infodump. Well, the quantity in PROJECT
HAIL MARY is not necessarily too much, but the level of detail is
excessive. While Mark Watney felt that he was speaking to an
audience at least partially comprising non-scientists, Ryland Grace
has no such scruples and goes into detailed and at times
incomprehensible explanations of what he is doing. (I also think
that there is a definite bit of hand-waving to get the story going,
not unlike the impossible sandstorm in THE MARTIAN. Again, I'm not
saying what.)
But clearly there is an audience for this sort of thing. Greg Egan
is an obvious example; he is known for putting detailed
mathematical descriptions of the physics of his stories on his
website. Weir just skips the middle step. And if I skimmed the
parts that were too detailed, the plot was engaging. I would
definitely recommend this for fans of the Robinson and Egan
"diamond-hard SF", but even if you are not, if you skim
judiciously, this is an enjoyable book.
I do have a criticism about the book's cover, though. The title
has the words "HAIL MARY" and Weir's name in letters nine times the
size of those of "PROJECT" (three times as high, three times as
wide). Looking at the cover on a small screen, I was constantly
reading it as just "HAIL MARY". Who thought this was a good
design? [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
There is no such source of error as the pursuit
of truth.
--Samuel Butler