Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
07/23/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 4, Whole Number 2181
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, *mleeper@optonline.net *
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, *eleeper@optonline.net *
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*http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm
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Topics:
Bond Songs (Part 1) (DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE,
GOLDFINGER) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Labels and Alphabetizing (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Mini-Reviews, Series, and Psychohistory (letter of comment
by John Hertz)
SUPERNOVA ERA, the Ata Boys, and Sea Level Rise
(letters of comment by Kevin R, Scott Dorsey,
Keith F. Lynch, and Peter Trei)
STAR TREK and the Venus Drug (letters of comment
by Gary McGath, Dorothy J. Heydt, Tim Merrigan)
This Week's Reading (THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Bond Songs (Part 1) (DR. NO, FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE,
GOLDFINGER) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Back when I was newly-retired an old friend from my college days
and I were discussing James Bond films and I mentioned that somehow
the viewing public never noticed how weak so many of the Bond title
sequences. They were really sappy and not up to the quality of
other aspects of the productions.
One of the disadvantages of not having children is that you
cheat yourself of having a second childhood, at least as far as
entertainment goes. Well, for small children it would not do you
much good anyway. Who wants to watch Barney with their very young
children? Not many, I admit. But when the children start getting
older you take them to see the Disney animated films. And you tell
people you are just going to watch the kids, but after a few
minutes it is "Daddy, I wanna go home." "Sh-sh-sh-sh, Daddy's
watching the movie. Wow, look at that dragon the witch turned
into! That is SO COOL!"
But not having children Evelyn and I missed all that. I think we
also carelessly passed up having mid-life crises, which we really
were entitled to even without children. In my case it was because
I have always been mathematical and knew years in advance about
when mid-life would likely be. It did not catch me unawares and so
we didn't suddenly feel we had to act like 20-year-olds. Or
perhaps we have been acting like 20-year-olds all along (minus the
beer and the hang-gliding, of course). But I do admit that with
the advent of DVD players we have been revisiting the adventures of
my teenage hero, James Bond. When I finally acquired YOU ONLY LIVE
TWICE, I finally realized it should really be YOU LIVE ONLY TWICE.
But that is an example of what has been happening. I expect to be
drawn into these films and I can see why I liked them, but I also
see flaws I missed when I first saw them.
One of the things I am looking at is the song lyrics. To
the best of my knowledge nobody really has done an appraisal of the
songs of the James Bond films. I might as well do it, albeit
superficially. I used to love the Bond songs. I would sing them
to myself when I was mowing the lawn. Now I look at them and see
how silly they were.
Take the title song from FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. (I will take the
songs in order but will skip over DR. NO. It did not really have
a title song. For the title music it used the wordless James Bond
theme and a calypso version of "Three Blind Mice.") The lyric of
the second Bond film goes:
From Russia with love I fly to you,
Much wiser since my goodbye to you.
I've traveled the world to learn,
I must return from Russia with love.
I've seen places, faces and smiled for a moment,
But oh, you haunted me so.
Still my tongue-tied young pride,
Would not let my love for you show
In case you'd say no.
To Russia I flew but there and then,
I suddenly knew you'd care again.
My running around is through,
I fly to you from Russia with love.
First of all it loses points because it has nothing whatsoever to
do with the plot of the film. This guy singing is no James Bond.
Barney Fife is a bit closer. It is a song written by someone
returning from Russia to his previous girlfriend. He has been a
world traveler but all it has taught him is that he should return
to his girlfriend. But it must be returning from the right place.
It won't work if he is returning from someplace like a dull Belgium
or Denmark. Warm countries are right out. Apparently his girl
wants to be returned to from Russia. Why, we never find out. Now
the plot thickens. He has been traveling around since they split
up, but he keeps remembering her and wishing he had been more
romantic with her. He really did love her but the fear that she
would reject him so unhinged his fragile little mind that he could
not speak up. This guy's not ready to cross a street much less
journey around the world. Well then he took a plane to Russia.
Here he is sightseeing and in the middle he has a sartorial
experience. Something like, "The Kremlin, onion domes, the snow
and ice, fur hats, borscht. Hey wait. OF COURSE she'll love me
again." Now there is an air of mystery added. Apparently she
loved him at one time and stopped. Why? We never know. But that
is why he is afraid to say that he loves her in case she rejects
him a second time after once loving him. Now this wimp suddenly
knows that he can make her love him again because he is returning
from *just the right country.* This guy is too diffident to be any
sort of lover. My advice? Lose him. And I hope he remembers to
bring her one of those little nested dolls.
I mean after I listened to what this guy was really saying in his
love song I find myself shaken and not stirred.
Well, let's move on to GOLDFINGER. A piece of this lyric goes:
Golden words he will pour in your ear,
But his lies can't disguise what you fear,
For a golden girl knows when he's kissed her,
It's the kiss of death from Mister Goldfinger.
Pretty girl beware of this heart of gold
This heart is cold.
This song was clearly "written to spec" by someone who had not seen
the film. It tries to be about the character in the film, but
misses by a mile. I mean the words describe Goldfinger sweet-
talking a lady. I tell you that Gert Frobe really looks like one
hell of a lover, doesn't he? So here he is whispering sweet
nothings into some lady's ear. But he isn't fooling her. Why not?
Because she has already been painted gold and is dying of skin
suffocation. I cannot say much for his tastes. At this point no
amount of sweet-kissy-face is going to win her, no matter how cute
Frobe/Goldfinger is. Well, leave us face it. She had to be after
his money from the beginning.
So, those were the title songs from the early days of the Bond
films, when they were still deciding just what to do with the
character and the series. They were creating the Bond formula,
songs and all. Next time I will talk about what the filmmakers did
from that point on. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Labels and Alphabetizing (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Last week I complained about DVD packaging, and this week I am
going to complain about DVD labeling. It's the same complaint I
mentioned about PROJECT HAIL MARY a few weeks ago. Two DVDs we
bought recently were THE RISE AND FALL OF MARGARET THATCHER and
WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS. But in both cases, the company decided
to put the leading words in much smaller type, so the spines (and
in some cases the fronts) read "MARGARET THATCHER" and "RED FERN
GROWS".
Okay, I know that in some sense this is common. Gibbon's work is
THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, but
everyone calls it just "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire".
Adam Smith's work is AN INQUIRY INTO THE NATURE AND CAUSES OF THE
WEALTH OF NATIONS, but everyone calls it "The Wealth of Nations".
And THE PERSONAL HISTORY, ADVENTURES, EXPERIENCE AND OBSERVATION OF
DAVID COPPERFIELD THE YOUNGER OF BLUNDERSTONE ROOKERY (WHICH HE
NEVER MEANT TO PUBLISH ON ANY ACCOUNT) is better known as just
plain old "David Copperfield".
But while one might apply this to THE RISE AND FALL OF MARGARET
THATCHER, WHERE THE RED FERN GROWS is *not* known as "Red Fern
Grows"; that doesn't even make sense as a title. And it is
annoying when one goes to organize one's DVDs (or books)
alphabetically, and even more so when two people are organizing
DVDs (or books) alphabetically, because one person will shelve THE
RISE AND FALL OF MARGARET THATCHER under "R" and the other will
look for it under "M".
And don't even get me started on "Dr." versus "Doctor", or numbers.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mini-Reviews, Series, and Psychohistory (letter of comment
by John Hertz)
In response to Mark's reviews in the 05/07/21 issue of the MT VOID,
John Hertz writes:
Mark's Mini-Review #15 titles ([issue] 2170) could be read
together. "Black Bear, I'm thinking of ending things, she dies
tomorrow."
In response to Evelyn's comments on series in the same issue, John
writes:
Seems to me that series fail ([issue] 2170), not at any particular
length, but when authors keep writing after they cease creating.
Frank Baum wrote fourteen Oz books. Patrick O'Brien wrote twenty
Aubrey & Maturin books. Isaac Asimov should not have written a
fourth Foundation book--on another tentacle, THE END OF ETERNITY
(1955) came after SECOND FOUNDATION (1953) and may be his best, and
I like "gold" (1991)--which he might have called APOLOGIA PRO VITA
SUA except the allusion to Cardinal Newman's book might have
confused people who rejoiced that Asimov was an atheist but
couldn't follow his jokes.
And in response to the quote in the 06/11/21 issue of the MT VOID,
John Hertz writes:
No sooner do I comment about Asimov's Foundation books than I find
you quoting Astolphe-Louis-Leonor, Narquis de Custine ([issue]
2175), "The circumstances of human society are too complicated."
Of course he lived several millennia before Hari Seldon. [-jh
===================================================================
TOPIC: SUPERNOVA ERA, the Ata Boys, and Sea Level Rise (letters of
comment by Kevin R, Scott Dorsey, Keith F. Lynch, and Peter Trei)
In response to Evelyn's review of SUPERNOVA ERA in the 07/16/21
issue of the MT VOID, Kevin R writes:
There was a recent documentary on the Ata boys:
*http://paradise.docastaway.com/six-tongan-castaways-ata-island
http://paradise.docastaway.com/six-tongan-castaways-ata-island*-
shipwreck-1965/
Trailers embedded there:
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaMwgCbelGc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaMwgCbelGc*
*https://youtu.be/88noN4PoJqc https://youtu.be/88noN4PoJqc*
CBS-TV did a feature on this, which, if the ad on FACE THE NATION
was accurate, will re-air on 60 MINUTES tonight.
*https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shipwreck-deserted-island-south
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/shipwreck-deserted-island-south*-
pacific-survivors-60-minutes-2021-04-04/
In the notes at the bottom of this page are links to older stories,
some from Australian TV.
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan_castaways
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongan_castaways*
[Evelyn wrote,] "Another error is having New York City and Shanghai
flooded like Venice, but action going on in and around the White
House, which sits on the District of Columbia flood plain and would
also be submerged. Both of these are probably because the original
copy editing was done in China, and so these were not caught
there."
Did they get KAMANDI comics in China?
*https://www.comics.org/issue/25510/cover/4/
https://www.comics.org/issue/25510/cover/4/*
*https://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1122/2015/
https://a.disquscdn.com/uploads/mediaembed/images/1122/2015/*
original.jpg
[-kr]
Scott Dorsey writes:
Fred Pohl's take on this in STARBURST involves a lot of sandbags
and much of the government moving to a Holiday Inn in Roslyn as I
recall. [-sd]
Keith F. Lynch replies:
Rosslyn is just as low-lying as DC. (I used to live in Rosslyn.)
Kevin notes:
1-S Roslyn is on Long Island, NY. Only 91 feet/30 metres of
elevation in that village on Long Island Sound. Neighboring
villages may have some hills up to 150 feet. LI North Shore towns
tend to have bluffs ringing their harbors.
Keith answers:
I apologize. I haven't read STARBURST since shortly after it was
published 39 years ago. So when you mentioned the government
moving to Roslyn, I mistakenly assumed you were misspelling
Rosslyn, Virginia, which is just across the river from DC. Iconic
photos that show the Lincoln Memorial in the foreground and the
Washington Monument and Capitol building behind it are all taken
from Rosslyn. [-kfl]
Scott responds:
It was in fact Rossyln, VA. And no, it's not very much higher
ground. The Science Advisor points out that von Knefhausen's cell
is below water level and that he'll be drowned if the generator is
shut off, as I recall. [-sd]
Keith also replies:
New York City and Shanghai are both on coasts. DC is inland. It
would be a simple matter to build a dam on the Potomac, downstream
of DC, with a built-in nuclear reactor dedicated to powering pumps
to keep the upstream Potomac's water level what it is today. This
project probably wouldn't cost more than a few billion dollars, a
negligible increase to the federal budget. [-kfl]
Evelyn responds:
However, the events in SUPERNOVA ERA take place in a time frame
that would not (IMHO) really allow for such a project. [-ecl]
Peter Trei notes:
In reality, the government would have moved to The Greenbriar, in
WV, but its existence was not public until 1992, just a bit too
late. [-pt]
And Scott responds:
Good point, although that may have been enemy territory by that
point. The United States was a good bit less united by that time
in Pohl's world. [-sd]
===================================================================
TOPIC: STAR TREK and the Venus Drug (letters of comment by Gary
McGath, Dorothy J. Heydt, Tim Merrigan)
In response to Evelyn's comments on STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES
in the 07/16/21 issue of the MT VOID, Gary McGath writes:
The Venus Drug fixed the women's hairdos. I never understood how it
did that. [-gmg]
Dorothy J. Heydt adds:
And gave them a new coat of makeup. [-djh]
Tim Merrigan suggests:
It's secondary chemical mind control (of the men), through the
pheromones the women produce, along with a direct psychotropic
effect on the women taking it/to whom it's given, without their
knowledge, which boosts their self confidence.
The improved image of the women who have taken it, shown in the
show, is through the eyes, and minds, of the men effected by it.
It should improve the images of any women in the area, but improve
it more for the women who've taken it. [-tm]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book and film comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES by Alix E. Harrow (Redhook, ISBN 978-0-
316-42204-8) is an alternate history of America where magic was/is
real, but was supposedly burned out along with (Old) Salem during
the witch trials. But bits of it have survived, and now three
witch sisters are trying to use it for the suffragette movement, as
well as bring back as much magic into the world as they can.
On the whole the story was engaging, but many of the points it was
trying to make about attitudes, politics, and religion seemed
rather obvious. Harrow also uses a common trick in alternate
histories--mapping names and people from our world to the
alternate. So we have the Square Shirtwaist Factory fire, and
folklorists Charlotte Perrault, the Sisters Grimm, and Andrea Lang.
(It has only now occurred to me that having the "founder" (in some
sense) of Shangri-La named Father Perrault may have been intended
by James Hilton as a reference to Charles Perrault and a hint that
the story of LOST HORIZON and Shangri-La is really a modern fairy
tale.)
It is not clear what the change point of our world was with the
alternate. The destruction of Salem and a stronger reaction to
witchcraft would have changed subsequent United States history, but
its occurrence in 1693 could not change Charles Perrault into
Charlotte before the 1697 publication of their folktales. One
could argue that the change was that magic was real, but there
seems to be little indication that this has a noticeable historic
impact in the alternate world.
[slight spoilers]
A more fundamental problem I have is the implication that
witchcraft is necessary in order to accomplish social change.
Assuming one does not believe witchcraft was used in our world's
social movements (e.g. the suffrage movement), this is clearly
false in our world. One can argue, I suppose, that since it turns
out that the "anti-witchcraft" politicians are also using
witchcraft, its use by the reformers may be more necessary in the
alternate world. But the message it sends is that working for
social change is futile without witchcraft, or prayer, or some
supernatural assistance.
I wouldn't stop this from my recommending the book, but it did
strike me as a unfortunate subtext. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
People do not believe that mathematics is simple,
it is only because they do not realize how complicated
life is.
--John von Neumann