THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
05/04/07 -- Vol. 25, No. 44, Whole Number 1439
El Presidente: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
The Power Behind El Pres: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
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Topics:
Administrivia
A Joke Revisited (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Lies My Jedi Told Me (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
ROLLBACK by Robert J. Sawyer (book review by Joe Karpierz)
Indiana Jones, Gothic Horror, Science Fiction and Fanzine
Collection at Texas A&M, and Jorge Luis Borges
(letter of comment by John Purcell)
This Week's Reading (THE SPACE MACHINE, EMPEROR,
and Shambhala Pocket Classics and Penguins 60s)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Administrivia
Thanks to Rob Mitchell and Steve Goldsmith for keeping the MT VOID
going out during our recent vacation. (We went to Washington and
Oregon, and trips logs will be produced. In particular, I will
have an article--actually, probably several--on the Science
Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame in Seattle, and one on Powell's
Books in Portland.) As a result of the trip, however, letters of
comment and other correspondence are running a little late. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: A Joke Revisited (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Last week's MT VOID had a joke that was a bit obscure and
probably requires some explaining or perhaps should have been an
entire editorial. There have been arguments that Global Warming
is either not real or not actually the result of human activity.
I was poking fun at those same arguments by applying them to a
familiar sequence in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. The piece was
wholly fictional and intended whimsically.
For those wondering here is the joke:
Apparently there was trouble at the International Conference on
Global Warming, but for once it was not about Global Warming
itself. It seems for evening recreation they showed the film
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK. The film had to be interrupted when an
argument broke out in the audience as to whether the temple that
turns into a death trap did so because Indiana Jones stole the
idol. There was a contingent who claimed that we did not see
enough to know if the temple was really different before and
after Indy took the idol. Perhaps it was a trick of the camera.
And even if it was different, it is not clear that the activating
of the death traps was actually caused in any way by Indy's
action. There was a delay of at least two seconds before any
apparent activation took place. There is, they say, obviously a
politically correct contingent who would like to blame Indiana
Jones's problems in the deathtraps of the temple on Jones
himself, but there is no proof in the film that this is the case
or that he needs to change his behavior. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Lies My Jedi Told Me (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I have to admit to being in some respects somewhat slower than
the general population. That is only in some respects. Most
people in our society learn the cold, hard facts of life when
they find out that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny are really
mythical and do not literally exist. Being Jewish I never had
such illusions and so I never had to face being disabused of
these illusions. You know Jewish kids don't get brought up on
many myths. Certainly not myths that anyone becomes really
attached to. Someone says Egypt's first born didn't die in a
single night??? It makes it a better story--there's less guilt.
Oil lamps don't miraculously become more fuel-efficient??? Have
it your way--so they skimped on the oil.
No, disillusionment came late to me. I maintained my innocence a
relatively long time. I got my introduction to the Cold Hard
Facts of Life when I was thirty. That was when the film STAR
WARS: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was released and I found out the
first of what was to be the whole sordid story of Luke
Skywalker's parentage. Even that story would not have bothered
me. The Grand Disillusionment came when I realized that that I,
along with Luke Skywalker, had been misled and--yes, I'll use the
word--betrayed by Obi Wan Kenobi. After seeing THE EMPRIE
STRIKES BACK I went into a period of inconsolable depression. If
one cannot trust the Obi Wan Kenobis of this world (okay, of
*that* world), just whom can you trust? And Obi Wan had been
played by Alec Guinness, too. That was the worst part. Alec
Guinness for Chrissakes. It would have been one thing if he had
been played by Michael Ironside. Nobody trusts a Michael
Ironside character. Or if you do, you deserve what you get.
Arthur Kennedy would have been okay too. But if an Alec Guinness
character can lie with a straight face, and he does have a *very*
straight face, who is there left to believe in? What is there
left to believe in? What is going to come next? Morgan Freeman
pitching for the Psychic Network? I mean, come on.
What does Obi Wan actually tell Luke? He says, "A young Jedi
named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to
evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights.
He betrayed and murdered your father. Now the Jedi are all but
extinct. Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force."
Those are his words, not mine.
Now the obvious question is whether Obi Wan was telling the truth
when he said that Darth Vader betrayed and murdered Luke's
father. The obvious answer on first thought is no. But on
reflection it becomes "no, dammit." What does Obi Wan say in his
own defense? I had to wait another three years to find out, but
I got it. I was sitting there in the theater with my heart in my
hand (and my candy in my other hand) waiting to find out the
Truth. It wasn't worth the wait.
Luke: Why didn't you tell me? You told me Vader betrayed and
murdered my father.
Obi-Wan: Your father . . . was seduced by the Dark Side of the
Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader.
When that happened, the good man who was your father was
destroyed. So what I told you was true . . . from a certain
point of view.
Luke: A certain point of view?
Obi-Wan: Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we
cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.
Oh, so that makes it okay. What a load of duck tires. And Luke,
who up to this point I respected, just stands there with an "oh,
yeah, a certain point of view" look on his face.
A change of heart on Anakin/Vader's part means that his new self
betrayed and murdered his own self from *a certain point of
view*??? What point of view is that? It sure wasn't an overhead
shot. It would take more than that. Who does he think he is?
Tevye the Milkman disowning his daughter? He is saying "your
father is dead to me and, by the way, he is dead to you too."
What he is saying is that if his pupil chooses the wrong side of
the Force he is a dead man. He is worse than being a dead man.
And he is not just dead to Obi Wan, he is dead to his own son,
whether his son would agree or not. His son does not even get a
choice. I guess it is only fair that Lars tells Luke that Obi
Wan is dead. Everybody on the whole dang planet seems to adopt a
certain point of view and then lies through his teeth. Hey, you
know I own the Brooklyn Bridge from a certain point of view. You
want to buy it from me?
That is not all the claims that Obi Wan makes that are no longer
operative after seeing Episode III. There is the issue of
Anakin's legacy light saber. Obi Wan tells Luke that Anakin
wanted Luke to have his light saber. It seems that Anakin does
not want to give up his light saber till the very end of his
fight with Obi Wan. Now it is possible that he had told Obi Wan
before that he would leave his light saber to his son, but there
is no evidence of this. It seems more likely that Obi Wan is
just trying to manipulate Luke with the romance of being a Jedi.
The wise old Kenobi says that he has not gone by the name Obi Wan
since before Luke was born. Actually we see him called Obi Wan
by Padme just before she dies and after Luke is born. But
perhaps he does not count Luke as being born until he can stand
on his own. That would mean his claim is right from *a certain
point of view*. I don't suppose that it has occurred to old
Benny the Dip that nobody can have any sort of discussion if
nobody is telling the truth and instead everybody is talking from
a certain point of view.
Well, that was the message that a whole generation got from
watching STAR WARS. They grew up and many went into politics.
And everybody told the truth from a certain point of view. And
that explains the mess we are in right now. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: ROLLBACK by Robert J. Sawyer (copyright 2007, TOR, $24.95,
320pp, ISBN 0-765-31108-9) (book review by Joe Karpierz)
I'm going to be lazy--I'm going to swipe a sentence from the
first paragraph from my review of Robert J. Sawyer's previous
novel, MINDSCAN:
I've said that the best science fiction is not about the gadgets
or the technology, but about how the gadgets or technology affect
the lives of the characters in the story.
It was true of MINDSCAN, and it's even *more* true of Sawyer's
latest novel, ROLLBACK. So, let me ask you this: If you had your
adult life to live over again, how would you approach it? How
would you handle the fact that you are now younger than your
children; that you're virtually unemployable because your skills
are out of date (oh wait, that happens today); that you have more
sexual energy and drive than you've had in 60 years, but the
woman you're interested in is about 60 years (give or take) your
junior; or that your wife is 87 but you're a man of 25?
Interested yet?
Sarah Halifax had a brief moment of fame in her youth by being
the first person to decode the meaning of a message received from
aliens. Her ability to understand what the aliens were talking
about allowed humanity to compose an intelligent reply--and now
that Sarah is in her eighties, the aliens have replied to our
reply. She may be the only one that can figure out how to read
the encrypted reply, but she may not live long enough to do so.
This is important enough that a wealthy business man offers to
pay for a rollback--a procedure that turns back the clock, that
can make the recipient 25 again. Sarah agrees, but only if her
husband is given the same offer. The business man reluctantly
agrees, and both Sarah and Don Halifax receive the rollback
treatment. It works astoundingly well on Don.
It fails on Sarah.
So, Don is essentially 25, and Sarah is 87. What follows is an
engaging and interesting story of how they handle their lives in
the face of the unfortunate circumstances that has left Sarah an
old woman nearing death.
What's interesting to note, first off, is that this novel doesn't
focus on the rollback itself--rather, it deals with characters
who have to figure out how to deal with this stuff. And, even
more interesting is the fact that the story, in my mind, is more
"Don-centric", if you will. You might think that the story would
center around Sarah and the transmissions. Those issues do play
a large part of the story, but only as they contribute to the
overall theme of morals, ethics, rejuvenation, and human emotion.
The novel is full of bits and pieces that we can all relate to.
Chapter 6 centers around a wonderful discussion that Don and
Sarah are having at an expensive restaurant, courtesy of our
wealthy guy, about whether they should go through with the
rollback. The final sentence really hits the mark. Chapter 17
deals with Don trying to find a job at his old employer, but they
have no place for him. Chapter 25 has a fascinating conversation
about the nature of God and computer simulations. Of course,
interlaced throughout is Don's relationship with a woman who is
significantly younger than he is. Let's also not forget the
angle of having to care for elderly relatives.
Oh, there's *just* enough here for the geek in all of us. We've
got robotics, we've got lots of discussion about the messages
from the aliens--both content and meaning. We've got medicine,
of course, in the sense that we get a little dabbling into the
rollback process. So, there's something for everyone.
This is probably Sawyer's most character-driven story to date,
and it doesn't take away from the free flow of thoughts and ideas
that we've come to expect from a Sawyer novel. This is a
terrific and worthy entry in the Sawyer catalog. I strongly
recommend you get out to your local bookseller and buy this
immediately--before it's too late. I enjoyed it immensely--I
hope you will too.
-------
Okay, after a little break catching up on some things around
here, I'll be starting my annual reviews of Hugo-nominated works.
The novel category looks full of interesting stuff, so I can't
wait to get started. Until then... [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Indiana Jones, Gothic Horror, Science Fiction and Fanzine
Collection at Texas A&M, and Jorge Luis Borges (letter of comment
by John Purcell)
In response to the 04/27/07 issue of the MT VOID, John Purcell
writes:
Your opening anecdote about trouble at the International
Conference on Global Warming is both funny and sad. It's funny
because of the incongruity of all these intelligent, scientific
attendees having an argument over one incident in an Indiana
Jones movie, and sad for the same reason. Haven't these people
ever heard about this thing called "entertainment"? Sounds like
they were taking things a bit too seriously and got carried away
with their nit-picking. [-jp]
[Indiana Jones is a joke that failed. See the explanation above.
-mrl]
Say, it sounds like I just described what happens sometimes at a
Science Fiction convention. Heavens to Betsy, apparently we're
not as unique as we've always thought we were. Oh, well.
Welcome to the party, members of the ICGW. The con suite's on
the 13th floor. I wonder what their name badge art looks like...
Very interesting article about the history of the Gothic Horror
Movie genre. I had never really thought about this particular
subject, but always assumed that horror movies had always been
popular. Film-makers do follow trends and copy each other a lot,
it is true. However, I did not know that THE CURSE OF
FRANKENSTEIN was released by Hammer Films on May 3, 1957. I like
that film a lot. In fact, I like a lot of the Hammer Film
catalog; they produced some really good movies in the science
fiction, fantasy, and horror milieu. Even before Hammer hit
stride with Curse, their production was pretty good; I have
always liked THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT, and think that movie is
one of their finer efforts.
[I have become somewhat notorious in fandom for my enthusiasm for
their QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (a.k.a. FIVE MILLION YEARS TO
EARTH). I consider that my favorite film of all time and the best
science fiction film I have ever seen. -mrl]
Yeah, this was a very informative and entertaining article. What
is even more amazing is that Christopher Lee is still with us and
acting. It will be a sad day when he's gone. Lee is one of the
genre's most durable character actors; I never knew he was that
tall, either. Thank you, Mark, for writing this.
On a related note, Hal Hall, the curator of the Science Fiction
and Fanzine Collection at the Cushing Library of Special
Collections at Texas A&M University, informed me that he's begun
a blog for the SF Collection. The first entry was about
FRANKENSTEIN, noting that the Cushing houses a copy of the 1835
edition, the first illustrated version of this novel. If you're
interested in checking this out, here's the URL:
http://blogs.tamu.edu/halhall. By the way, I think it's kinda
neat that a science fiction and fantasy collection is housed in a
building named Cushing. That is rather apropos, don't you agree?
[Perhaps horror would be more so, but yes, it is a pleasant
coincidence. As popular as Peter Cushing was, I have always
considered him still underrated. His films are a fondly
remembered part of my past. -mrl]
I have not read any Jorge Luis Borges before, so Evelyn's
contribution here didn't generate much of a response out of me.
On the other hand, she did make me want to check into Borges,
since I had no idea that he wrote what could be termed Alternate
Histories. This bears some research. Thank you, Evelyn, for at
least piquing my interest
And that, as they say in the film industry, is a wrap. Many
thanks for the issue, and keep them coming. [-jp]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE SPACE MACHINE by Christopher Priest (no ISBN) is a much more
straightforward novel than just about any other Pries novel.
This is probably because it is an homage of sorts to H. G. Wells,
a combination "coquel" of sorts to both THE TIME MACHINE and THE
WAR OF THE WORLDS. It is written in a much more Victorian style,
with Victorian sensibilities, and should appeal to fans of Wells
even more than to fans of Priest.
EMPEROR by Stephen Baxter (ISBN-13 978-0-441-01466-8) is "Time's
Tapestry Book One". It consists of several sections--we get
about a hundred pages of someone's story, then the book skips
forward a few generations and we get another story, perhaps of
that person's descendent, perhaps of someone else connected to
the main thread. The first time I saw this technique--and still
my favorite--was James Michener's book, THE SOURCE. However, I
will note that in spite of Baxter's book being subtitled "An
Alternate History Epic" and having S. M. Stirling say, "Baxter
produces something new and subtly different in the time travel
genre," there is no alternate history or time travel in this
volume. There is a hint at the end that someone from the book's
future is sending back messages to the past trying to divert
history from our own timeline, but so far they have not been
successful. (A friend who has seen the next two novels and
spoken to the series's editor has said that it does eventually
become alternate history, but if that is what you are interested
in, I would certainly wait for the entire series to finish.)
When traveling, bringing books has always been a problem. Let's
face it, books are heavy, and bulky. A lot of my problem has
gone away, though, since I now have a 512MB memory card in my
palmtop. My "literature" directory is chock-a-block with reading
material, including the complete works of Shakespeare, Doyle's
Sherlock Holmes stories, and the entire Bible (with Apocrypha).
(The Bible is not as necessary, since most hotel rooms have a
copy handy.)
[UPenn.edu's digital library
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/ is a very good source
for on-line literature. They either have or keep track of, among
other things, some science fiction and they get better year by
year. Some of their science fiction is current, but there is a
fair amount of the foundations of science fiction. For example, I
notice they recently have included in their offerings five novels
by E. E. Smith including SKYLARK OF SPACE and TRIPLANETARY. They
have fairly good collections of Wells, Doyle, and Verne. But it
does not hurt to look up later authors. There is a fair amount of
Andre Norton. I frequently check their new listings at
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/new.html. -mrl]
But for those times when you want an actual book (such as when
your plane is taking off or landing), small volumes are handy. On
my recent trip to Seattle, I took four books from Shambhala
Publications: Thomas Cleary's THE SPIRIT OF TAO, Thomas Merton's
THE WAY OF CHUANG TZU, Ralph Waldo Emerson's NATURE, and Balthasar
Gracian's THE ART OF WORLDLY WISDOM. These are all "Shambhala
Pocket Classics", about 3" by 4.5" (75mm x 115mm) and less than 1"
(20mm) thick.
Now obviously one problem is that one does not get a wide
variation in subject matter from this publisher. (They do not
publish much science fiction, for example. :-) ) In fact, even
the Emerson and the Gracian are somewhat afield from their main
focus, Eastern and New Age philosophies. There are some other
general-interest titles: THE ART OF WAR by Sun Tzu, SAILING ALONE
AROUND THE WORLD by Captain Joshua Slocum, THE PORTABLE RUMI
READER, and the ever-popular FLATLAND by Edwin A. Abbott.
(Another problem is that none of this series is light escape
reading.)
But the books really are pocket-sized, even more so than the
Penguin 60s of a few years ago. And the subject matter is such
that a couple of hundred pages, even in this small format, gives
you much more to think about than a six-hundred-page mid-series
alternate Civil War volume.
(The Penguin 60s, which sold for 60p in Britain and 95 cents in
the United States, were 4" by 5.5", but had only 60 to 100 pages
with wide margins. The Shambhala Pocket Classics have 200 to 250
pages with narrow margins, but cost $6.95 each. Penguin 60s was
a gimmick; Shambhala Pocket Classics is a permanent line.
Shambhala's paper is acid-free, and in general the production
values are higher. I have no idea if Shambhala publishes any
"non-Pocket-Classics".) [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
The fool wonders, the wise man asks.
-- Benjamin Disraeli