Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
09/17/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 12, Whole Number 2189
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, *mleeper@optonline.net *
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Topics:
Bond Songs (Part 4) (THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, MOONRAKER,
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
THE SAVIOR GENERALS by Victor Davis Hanson (book review
by Gregory Frederick)
THE FALL OF ROME (letters of comment by Fred Lerner,
Paul Dormer, Keith F. Lynch, and Gary McGath)
This Week's Reading (THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES)
(book and television comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Bond Songs (Part 4) (THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, MOONRAKER, FOR
YOUR EYES ONLY) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I hardly know what to tell you about THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, the next
song in Bond song order. It is apparently from the point of view
of a spy at the end of his career and likely the end of his life.
Once his lover has advertised that she in turn has a lover who is a
spy, any hopes for discretion are dashed. In the "Diamonds" film
she apparently knows who James Bond is and expects other people to
know, the spy is dead. With no explanation she says over the
phone, "You just killed JAMES BOND!" It is too easy to--with
little effort--to put a bullet in Bond's head.
Nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest.
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, you're the best.
{When she says nobody does it better or half as good, what
kind of metric is she using? Who researched it? Was it fun?
Maybe they held some kind of Sex Olympics?}
I wasn't lookin' but somehow you found me
I tried to hide from your love light
{What is he? A firefly?}
But like heaven above me
The spy who loved me
Is keepin' all my secrets safe tonight.
{A word to the wise: they may not be all that safe. My
suggestion would be not to invest so widely in a
monoculture.}
And nobody does it better
Though sometimes I wish someone could
Nobody does it quite the way you do
Why'd you have to be so good?
The way that you hold me
Whenever you hold me
There's some kind of magic inside you
That keeps me from runnin'
But just keep it comin'
How'd you learn to do the things you do?
{Learn? Are there courses in this stuff? Is that legal?}
Oh, and nobody does it better
Makes me feel sad for the rest
Nobody does it half as good as you
Baby, baby, darlin', you're the best
{"baby,baby, darlin?"}
Baby you're the best
Darlin', you're the best
Baby you're the best
Oh, oh, oh...
Oh.
Next comes MOONRAKER, one of the worst Bond films in living memory.
Bond gets himself shot into outer space and defends Britain with
laser blasters. He is an astronaut and a spy at the same time. I
wonder how many CIA agents have had missions that took them into
space. I bet it hasn't been many.
Where are you? Why do you hide?
{I have a feeling we are going to find out.}
Where is that moonlight trail that leads to your side?
{Did he leave a trail of breadcrumbs?}
Just like the moonraker goes in search of his dream of gold,
{The only definition for "moonraker" in the dictionary is a
small triangular sail that flies at the top of the tallest
mast on a sailing ship.}
I search for love, for someone to have and hold.
{She doesn't want a lover. She wants a puppy. (I don't
blame her actually.)}
I've seen your smile in a thousand dreams,
Felt your touch and it always seems
You love me,
You love me.
{She is entirely lacking an imagination apparently.
She has seen her lover so many times and still doesn't know
what he looks like?}
Where are you? When will we meet?
Take my unfinished life and make it complete.
Just like the Moonraker knows his dream will come true someday,
I know that you are only a kiss away.
I've seen your smile in a thousand dreams,
Felt your touch and it always seems
You love me,
You love me.
{It seems to me she has invested a lot of time in a very
dodgy proposition.}
And then comes FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.
For your eyes only, can see me through the night
{Has she tried a good flashlight?}
For your eyes only, I never need to hide
{It is saying she does not have to hide for her lover's
eyes.}
You can see so much in me, so much in me that's new
I never felt until I looked at you
{I guess they must be playing some kind of silly Hide and
Seek game.}
For your eyes only, only for you
You'll see what no one else can see, and now I'm breaking free
For your eyes only, only for you
The love I know you need in me, the fantasy you've freed in me
Only for you, only for you
For your eyes only, the nights are never cold
{If it gets a bit chilly just throw a couple of eyeballs on
the fire.}
You really know me, that's all I need to know
Maybe I'm an open book because I know you're mine
But you won't need to read between the lines
For your eyes only, only for you
You see what no one else can see, and now I'm breaking free
For your eyes only, only for you
The passions that collide in me, the wild abandoned side of me
Only for you, for your eyes only
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE SAVIOR GENERALS: HOW FIVE GREAT COMMANDERS SAVED WARS
THAT WERE LOST-FROM ANCIENT GREECE TO IRAQ by Victor Davis Hanson
(book review by Gregory Frederick)
This is my second book from Victor Hanson. The author selected
five generals to discuss in detail for this history book. He chose
as subjects three Americans and two ancient generals. Many
American readers maybe familiar with David H. Petraeus and William
T. Sherman and some may have heard of Matthew B. Ridgway.
Themistocles of Athens and Belisarius of the Byzantine Empire are
not names known by many today, but they make for excellent
additions to this group of military leaders who saved the day for
their state.
Petraeus's move to push for a surge in US forces in Iraq in 2007
helped to quell the increasing violence and allowed the US to
greatly reduce their military presence in Iraq. Sherman's actions
in capturing Atlanta helped to reshape the results of the Civil War
and aided Lincoln in his re-election bid for a second term which he
got. Ridgeway turned the impending defeat from the huge Communist
Chinese army that entered the Korean War into a route of the
Chinese and then forced a stalemate at the 38th parallel. The
Chinese entered the Korean War due to General MacArthur's ill
advised drive into the far northern areas of North Korea which was
too close to the Chinese border. Themistocles from ancient Athens
defeated the Persians in the naval battle at Salamis causing the
eventual triumph of the Greeks over the Persians. Belisarius was
Emperor Justinian's most successful general in expanding the empire
in an effort to regain the lost territories of the fallen Western
Roman Empire. The Byzantine Empire was actually the Eastern Roman
Empire. Belisarius's army was typically undermanned and not
supported enough financially but he still won many battles. Victor
Hanson is a great author of military history and his books are
filled with fascinating facts and details. [gf]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE FALL OF ROME (letters of comment by Fred Lerner, Paul
Dormer, Keith F. Lynch, and Gary McGath)
In response to comments on R. A. Lafferty's THE FALL OF ROME in the
09/10/21 issue of the MT VOID, Fred Lerner sent a PDF of his
(Fred's) article in the 25 February 1972 issue of the Science
Fiction Research Association Newsletter (Vol. 2, No. 2). The
article, entitled "The Curious Case of THE FALL OF ROME", reports
that Lafferty himself repeatedly claimed it was a novel (and
includes a letter from Lafferty that says he is surprised that
people don't recognize that it is a novel). However, Fred notes,"
neither the galleys ... nor the published book itself lay claim to
be other than straight fiction. So it has been reviewed, and so
the librarians have classified it. My own reading of the volume
leaves me no grounds for disagreement with this decision, except
that I have a bias toward accepting an author's own classification
of his work." Fred ultimately calls it a "quasi-novel". [-ecl/fl]
Paul Dormer responds to the line between history and fiction with:
Co-incidentally, I've just been reading a biography of the last
Shogun of Japan. You could have a similar discussion about that.
In the introduction, it is suggested it is a similar work to Shelby
Foote's Civil War history. [-pd]
Keith F. Lynch adds:
I'm reminded of Alex Haley's best-selling _Roots_, and the
miniseries based on it. At the time I'm pretty sure it was
described and marketed at non-fiction, but today it's universally
described as fiction. [-kfl]
Gary McGath notes:
Haley was sued for plagiarizing from a novel called THE AFRICAN. He
admitted that "various materials from THE AFRICAN by Harold
Courtlander found their way into his book ROOTS." The matter was
settled for an undisclosed sum rumored to be in the 6-digit range.
You need to watch those manuscripts of yours carefully, or things
you didn't write might "find their way" in while you're sleeping.
[-gmg]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book and television comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
In conjunction with the book RICHARD MATHESON ON THE SCREEN by
Matthew R. Bradley, we have been watching all of Richard Matheson's
film and television works, and I just finished the mini-series, THE
MARTIAN CHRONICLES.
This starts with "based on the novel" but THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES is
not a novel. (Or maybe it is in the sense that we talk about a
"fix-up novel"--after all, we talk about the "Foundation Trilogy"
as three novels, but none of the books is a novel.)
Presumably we would have scouted the area before choosing a landing
spot, and seen the city.
The second mission suggests the first mission built the town, but
doesn't ask why there is grass, or trees, any other macro Earth
life that wasn't noticed in survey missions.
The second mission recognizes that the air is too thin, which sort
of makes sense--you could be hypnotized to think you are seeing or
hearing things, but you couldn't be hypnotized to survive in a
vacuum (for example). But the thin air barely affects them--this
is definitely "Old Mars" in the sense of having the environment
science fiction gave it pre-1976: air a little thin, but breathable
(maybe with some supplemental oxygen), temperature maybe a little
chilly but nothing that people couldn't survive, and of course,
Martians. This is clear from the very beginning of the movie: the
view of Mars they show has clouds in the Martian sky.
Based on the interiors shown in "The Settlers", weight did not seem
to be a consideration for what they could bring from Earth--not
just knick-knacks and decorative objects, but large pieces of
furniture were apparently transported. This is doubly strange, as
we never see a ship large enough to have carried enough for even
one house, let alone an entire settlement.
I know Bradbury wrote "The Fire Balloons" before it, but I was
getting a whole "Canticle for Leibowitz" vibe from its version in
"The Settlers". It's probably the monks in the desolate desert
setting and everything.
The phone book seems awfully thick for the level of colonization on
Mars, even if it is for the entire planet.
I realize asking about scientific realism in a Bradbury story is
foolish, but in the last segment, what does the Rock Hudson think
he and his family are going to eat? (He seems to be planning not
to return when he tells his family to take only what they can't do
without. Only after his kids and wife object does he agree to go
back until they're ready.)
Is burning the books at the end of the series supposed to be
reminiscent of FAHRENHEIT 451? He says, "Burning what's behind us,
burning a way of life." True, but is he burning civilization in
exchange for primitivism?
The mini-series was in three parts; the primary stories adapted
were:
"The Expeditions":
- "Ylla"
- "The Third Expedition"/"Mars Is Heaven"
"The Settlers":
- "The Locusts"
- "The Fire Balloons"
- "The Off Season"
"The Martians":
- "The Silent Towns"
- "The Long Years"
- "Night Meeting"
- "The Million-Year Picnic"
(However, some elements of other stories were also included.)
[-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
*mleeper@optonline.net *
Some of my best leading men have been dogs and horses.
--Elizabeth Taylor