THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
08/17/01 -- Vol. 20, No. 7
Big Cheese: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Little Cheese: Evelyn Leeper, evelyn.leeper@excite.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/evelynleeper
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
To subscribe, send mail to mtvoid-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send mail to mtvoid-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Topics:
Mathematical Science Fiction (comments)
THE OTHERS (film review)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mathematical Science Fiction
Last week I talked about mathematics and why it has such an
appeal. This was not what I had planned to run this week, but it
this week's article goes well with that one. I am preparing for a
related panel at this year's Worldcon. When I found out I was
going to be on a panel discussing mathematical science fiction I
had that moment of panic. I have loved mathematics since I was an
early teen, and science fiction since I was about six, but I have
no special knowledge about the convergence of the two. As long as
I have to think out the subject, I might as well share my thought
with the VOID readers
Mathematics is a subject that most science fiction avoids, or when
it does use it gets it wrong. For example, I was always a little
galled when comic books and now film make the chronic mistake of
using the word "dimension" when what they mean is "parallel
universe." It is only a small rearrangement of the universe as we
know it to say there is another universe parallel to ours. I am
not even sure what it would mean to say there is another dimension
with a different set of people living in it.
As I grew up I savored TV science fiction that dealt with
mathematical ideas more for their rarity than their quality.
TWILIGHT ZONE had one episode, an adaptation of Richard Matheson's
"Little Girl Lost," in which a little girl had rolled over in bed
and fallen into an intersecting (hence not quite parallel)
universe. Two OUTER LIMITS episodes dealt with intersecting
universes, "The Borderland" and "The Production and Decay of
Strange Particles."
I know of five anthologies of mathematical stories. These are all
anthologies of stories about mathematics, and containing science
fiction stories. I do not guarantee every story is science
fiction.
1953--SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES IN DIMENSION, edited by Groff
Conklin. Any 1950s collection of science fiction edited by Groff
Conklin is going to be a great book to read. Add to it
mathematical subject matter and you have a real find.
Unfortunately it is mostly time travel and/or alternate universe
stories. It could have more diversity.
1958--FANTASIA MATHEMATICA, edited by Clifton Fadiman. This is a
mix of science fiction, poetry, and essays on a mathematical
theme.and is *the classic* anthology of mathematical science
fiction. Nobody talks about mathematical science fiction without
mentioning it. Seen today the stories may be a little simplistic,
but everything is fun. Fadiman gives everything a playful
approach.
1962--THE MATHEMATICAL MAGPIE, edited by Clifton Fadiman. Fadiman
followed up his classic anthology with a second joyous helping.
Again it is mostly stories (many of which are science fiction)
with essays and poetry mixed in. It is just slightly less of a
classic than FANTASIA MATHEMATICA.
1987--THE MATHENAUTS, edited by Rudy Rucker. Rucker gets a good
six sentences into the book before mentioning the two Fadiman
anthologies. His book is all science fiction stories. Basically it
is a collection of the best mathematics science fiction stories
from the intervening quarter century. It is not as playful as the
Fadiman books, but it has the goods.
1999--IMAGINARY NUMBERS, edited by William Frucht. This is
apparently much closer to the spirit of the Fadiman anthologies
with a collection of stories, poems, and essays.
While I am listing related books with mathematical science
fiction, I should point out that there is a classic fiction work
of science fiction with several authors following up on it. In
1884 Edwin A. Abbott published FLATLAND: A ROMANCE OF MANY
DIMENSIONS. This rather unique book envisioned a two-dimensional
world encountering our world of three dimensions. In the process
it tells by analogy what it would be like for us to become aware
of a world of four dimensions. There have been several follow-up
stories by other authors. Three of book length have been
SPHERELAND (1965) by Dionys Burger, PLANIVERSE (1984) by A. K.
Dewdney, and FLATTERLAND (2001) by Ian Stewart. Rudy Rucker's
anthology MATHENAUTS contains his own short story "Message Found
in a Copy of FLATLAND."
In addition to the above, among the most popular mathematical
science fiction works I know of are:
-- PI, a film by Darren Aronofsky
-- "The Feeling of Power" by Isaac Asimov
-- FOUNDATION by Isaac Asimov (mostly just for the invention of
psychohistory)
-- "Nine Billion Names Of God" by Arthur C. Clarke
-- "And He Built a Crooked House" by Robert Heinlein
-- "Convergent Series" by Larry Niven
-- CONTACT by Carl Sagan (ideas in the book that did not make it
to the movie)
-- CRYPTONOMICON by Neal Stephenson
-- GULLIVER'S TRAVELS by Jonathan Swift (Island of Laputa)
-- "The Plattner Story" by H. G. Wells
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE OTHERS (film review by Mark R. Leeper):
CAPSULE: This is a ghost story with surprises, atmosphere,
and authentic gooseflesh. Nicole Kidman stars as an
over-protective, neurotic mother in a house that must be
kept dark to protect the children. The Channel Islands
make for a perfect dismal setting for a suspenseful
well-written ghost story. The film was written, directed,
and even scored by Chilean-born Alejandro Amenabar.
Rating: 7 (0 to 10), +2 (-4 to +4). This review written
with intent avoiding spoilers; in general it is recommended
that the viewer avoid reading too much about the film before
seeing it.
It is difficult to think of something new to do with a ghost
story. Just creating atmosphere is really not enough. Once the
ghosts start throwing things around and doing physical damage, as
they did in POLTERGEIST, a ghost story no longer is a ghost story
as much as it is a monster movie. On the other hand just leaving
around clues that something from beyond is around, maybe the
sound of a woman crying or bloody footprints on the carpet, very
quickly becomes tiresome. Even some of the best ghost stories
diversify. They function as a ghost story and something else.
Frequently it is a ghost story and a simple murder mystery as was
done with THE UNINVITED, THE CHANGELING, and THE LADY IN WHITE.
WHAT LIES BENEATH was a ghost story that turned into a murder
mystery that turned into a stalker movie. (And none of them was
very good.) Some of the best just mix character portraits with
ghost story. THE INNOCENTS and the original THE HAUNTING do
that nicely. Into the latter category comes THE OTHERS. This is
a very good ghost story with some very tricky things going on.
Watching it I think I must have come up with about eight
different theories to explain what I was seeing. In the end I
gave myself about one-third credit for having solved part of the
puzzle.
It is late 1945 and Grace (played by Nicole Kidman) lives on one
of the Channel Islands that the Germans occupied during the war
that so recently ended. On this island good weather is just a
thick gray cloud cover, but sometimes the fog is so thick it
seeps into the house and seemingly into Grace's soul. Grace
lives in a brooding mansion with her two children, both allergic
to light. The Germans cut off the electricity and, partially
for the sake of the children, Grace never restored it.
To protect the children from light, Grace has very strict rules
about keeping all but very faint light out of rooms. This is a
house that has befriended the darkness and shuns the light.
These inflexible rules have to be explained in detail to the
newly arrived hired help. The old hired help just disappeared
one day not long ago. Adding to the mystery is that one of the
children has been hearing a crying boy at night. That is just
the set-up for this story written as well as directed and
musically scored by Alejandro Amenabar. And the story he has
created is tightly written. Amenabar leaves a lot of details to
be explained in this puzzle of a script and every mystery is
explained by the denouement.
This is a film that in large part is built around the Kidman
performance. From the beginning she plays it as an authoritarian
with many idiosyncratic rules of how to run her house. Meanwhile
she traumatizes her children with her matter-of-fact, hellfire-
and-brimstone religious interpretations. Amenabar has her made
up to look very much the way Alfred Hitchcock would have made up
Grace Kelly, whom she even seems to resemble in this film.
This is a film sculpted from darkness. Interior shots are nearly
almost always half-dark, obscuring part of the picture. The
lighting frequently gives the effect of being solely from
candles. Exteriors are little brighter with figures receding
into the thick fog. The visuals and the story line remain half-
hidden and enigmatic to the viewer. The characters are uniformly
dressed in dark colors or in black.
THE OTHERS is a stylistically well-controlled and effective ghost
story. It relies on mood rather than special effects and
succeeds admirably. I rate it a 7 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +2
on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Randomness scares people. Religion is a way to explain
randomness.
--Fran Lebowitz
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
mtvoid-unsubscribe@egroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/