THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
01/25/13 -- Vol. 31, No. 30, Whole Number 1738
F. Scott Fitzgerald: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Zelda: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Green Leaves (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Is the Earliest Science Fiction in the Talmud?
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in February (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
KOCH (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (ebooks) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Green Leaves (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
We were listening to the old song "The Green Leaves of Summer" from
THE ALAMO. The lyric goes, "Now the green leaves of summer are
calling my name." I asked Evelyn what she thought the singer's
name was. She had no idea. I told her it was obvious. His name
must have been Russell. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Is the Earliest Science Fiction in the Talmud?
James F. McGrath reports, "Anthony Le Donne suggested on his blog
(and in a recent conference paper) that a story in the Babylonian
Talmud, in b. Menahoth 29b, might be the first science fiction
story. In it, Moses time travels to Rabbi Akiba's time. But is
time travel enough to make a story science fiction?"
McGrath's column is at http://tinyurl.com/void-mcgrath. Le
Donne's blog is at http://tinyurl.com/void-ledonne.
===================================================================
TOPIC: My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in February (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
Once again I am recommending obscure films coming up on Turner
Classic Movies. These are films that hopefully readers might not
have otherwise known were worth catching. (And I love it when
someone writes to say they second my recommendation.)
I recognize that not all my readers have access to TCM. I could
instead be making picks from NetFlix Instant streaming. But I
think fewer readers have access to that and it costs more than
subscribing to TCM. TCM is the source I have that is shared by the
greatest number of my readers. However, every year February is the
hardest month to cover. Why? Well, first of all it is the
shortest so there is a smaller set of films to choose from. March
will have 31 days of movies while February has only 28. But also
February is the month of "31 Days of Oscar" each year. (I assume
they are having it in February because the Academy Awards are being
made this month. Does that mean that it will be "28 Days of
Oscar?") Most of the TCM schedule is taken up with films that have
won or been nominated for Academy Awards. So there are far fewer
obscure films. That makes my job harder if I am trying to ferret
out films the reader might not know and that I can recommend. I do
not consider PORTRAIT OF JENNIE to be a particularly obscure film.
If you have not seen it, by all means watch it. It is a haunting
fantasy, but it is hardly unknown. So cut me a little bit of slack
on the obscurity of the films I am recommending.
If you are a fan of fantasy and of older films you almost certainly
have already seen the 1940 THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, produced by Zoltan
Korda though Ludwig Berger directed it. You probably saw it
decades ago. In the meantime your video technology has been
upgraded several times. You maybe now have a high-definition large
screen. If that is the case... give it another try. TCM has a
print with the exceptionally vivid colors of a restored original.
And you may now have better technology to reproduce the quality of
that print at home. Actually the same goes for Zoltan Korda's 1942
THE JUNGLE BOOK. I saw a little bit of JUNGLE BOOK and was pretty
much astounded by how different the film is now that it is being
shown properly. I cannot claim to be a big fan of Sabu films, but
these two films are really improved when seen properly. JUNGLE
BOOK is being shown at 1:45 PM (East Coast Time) on Wednesday,
2/27. Then just a few hours later THE THIEF OF BAGDAD is being
shown Thursday, 2/28 at 2:00 AM. Between the two is being shown
Zoltan Korda's THE FOUR FEATHERS (1939). I have not seen that in
years, but I am assuming that it would also be much improved with
good color. (8:00 PM on Wednesday, 2/27). I keep using Zoltan's
full name so he is not confused with his brother Alexander Korda
who produced all these films. Incidentally, history buffs might
find of interest that THE FOUR FEATHERS is about the Mahdist
Revolt, the aftermath of the events dramatized in the film
KHARTOUM, in which Charleton Heston played Charles George Gordon.
Speaking of what the new technology makes possible, sort of, TCM
will be repeating the film THIS IS CINERAMA (1952). The film gets
a little dull quickly, but it is sort of a demonstration of the
curve-screen Cinerama process where the screen wraps around the
audience and gives a sort of a 3D effect. But of course you
probably do not have a television with a wide wraparound screen.
They actually give you a sort of simulation of a wraparound screen
by showing the film in what is called "Smilebox." Smilebox shows
the film widescreen with the center squeezed down so it sort of
gives the effect of the picture wrapping around. I would rather
they repeated CINERAMA ADVENTURE (2002) which tells a lot of
interesting history of the process. But still using Smilebox this
film does give some of the feel of the original Cinerama.
Incidentally, THIS IS CINERAMA had four directors including Michael
Todd Jr., Merian C. Cooper, and Ernest B. Schoedsack.
You can see a sample of Smilebox at:
http://tinyurl.com/mrl-cinerama
To get the full effect, you might try putting your nose up to the
screen. But afterward don't forget to wipe off the grease mark.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: KOCH (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: The tumultuous years of the term of the controversial Ed
Koch as mayor of New York are the subject of Neil Barsky's premier
film as director. With documentary footage, interviews, and just
about any film showing Koch in action, we get a portrait of the
former Mayor and with it some of his history and background and a
look at the man today. While the structure and style of the film
are not particularly inventive, the film is a good background on
the issues that faced the city and the country in general during
those twelve years in which New York City turned around. Rating:
high +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
KOCH is Neil Barsky's documentary portrait of Ed Koch, mayor of New
York City from 1978 to 1989. The main stream of the film is a
history of those twelve-plus years from Koch campaigning for mayor
in 1977 to his leaving office the last day of 1989. There is a
diversion to tell about his origins and youth and at the end we see
him more as he is today. Throughout his career Koch was the center
of controversy and met it head-on. The occasion of this look at
Koch is the renaming of the Queensboro Bridge as the Ed Koch
Queensboro Bridge.
Barsky's biography gives us a history of Koch's first campaign for
mayor against Mario Cuomo and then the issue of the three terms
that he served. There is plenty of footage around from that time
so we can see Ed Koch in action. Along the way there are on-camera
interviews with people who worked with (and against) the mayor
giving their perspective on the man and the issues. Koch himself
gives some insight into his administration. Along the way there is
a retrospective with a rather rushed outline of Koch's earlier
life. Toward the end we see what he is doing today in what we
would conventionally think of as a lonely life, having no immediate
family. Koch never married so has no really close family. New
York City is his family.
When Koch first was running for mayor the city was in bad
disrepair. There had recently been a power blackout that was the
occasion for looting and other lawlessness. Barsky uses as many
images as possible to show graffiti on walls and trains. The Son
of Sam killer was on a murder spree. And contributing to all was
the near bankruptcy of the city. And New York City elected this
funny-looking little Jewish man with a funny voice and a constant
wit. Koch arguably presided over the transformation of a
metropolis in deep dysfunction to a city that did not just work--it
prospered.
The blunt but winning Koch gives people the impression that he
likes what he is doing, but he wants constant feedback. He
persistently stops strangers with the same question that became his
trademark, "How'm I doing?" This led to twelve years of this man
running the city. Issues Barksy covers include:
-- The city's financial crisis
-- The closing of the black neighborhood Sydenham Hospital
-- The Municipal transit strike
-- Rising crime and disrespect for the law
-- Homelessness
-- AIDS
From his first campaign when he ran against Mario Cuomo there was
some deception on Koch's part. When Koch was smeared by a campaign
accusing him of being gay--a big deal in those times--Koch brought
in his friend Bess Myerson, the first Jewish Miss America, to
campaign with him and frequently stand with him and hold his hand.
Then there was a claim that the two of them were having an illicit
relationship. Koch is very private about his personal life. His
love was New York City. The film does not even come to conclusions
as to whether Koch was left or right wing. Some members of the
black community brand him as racist. Opponents on his housing
policy call him a liberal. He seems to be left of center, but in
general he was just a pragmatist.
This film and the issues it presents may be of more interest in the
Northeast than elsewhere in the country. But the entire country is
now facing many of the issues that Koch met and defeated for his
city. Ed Koch's successes should be an inspiration. I rate KOCH a
high +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2237822/
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/koch_2012/
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Several months ago I bought Mark a Kindle Touch as a birthday
present. Somehow, however, I ended up using it as least as much as
he did, and I figure I would give my impressions.
The primary reason I chose the Kindle Touch was because it came
with a browser--an experimental browser, but a browser nonetheless.
Mark had often said he would like to have more Internet access when
we were not at home, but we did not want to have to pay for a data
plan on an iPhone or whatever. (We have no Smart Phones, or as I
prefer to say, we have only Stupid Phones.) The Kindle Touch
relies on available WiFi hotspots, which are pretty common near us
for people using Optimum as their ISP.
The main problem with the browser (other than its distressing
tendency to hang and require that the Kindle be rebooted), is that
there is no easy way to scroll. Stroking the screen is fine for
short pages, but longer pages require far too many strokes, and to
return to the top requires just as many--there is no convenient way
to go to the top or bottom of a page.
[There is also no convenient way to search for a given text string
in a page. -mrl]
The primary purpose of a Kindle is to read books (and other works).
On the positive side:
- The reading itself is fine--the contrast is good, the adjustable
fonts convenient.
- The Kindle is certainly more ecologically sound (and cheaper) for
reading articles than printing them out on paper, and more portable
than trying to read them on your home computer. You just have to
do regular manual cleanup. (See below for details.)
- In general, navigation on a Kindle has advantages that the book
does not--except that I have spent sixty years using the book
methodology and have spent only a few months (part time) using the
Kindle methodology. And I find myself wondering if the methodology
differs from e-reader to e-reader. So, for example, if you lose
your place in a book, you use the physicality of the book. For
example, if the book slips out of your hand and shuts, chances are
if you grab it quickly, it will re-open to the point where you
were. On the Kindle, you have the advantage of being able to
search--assuming you can remember a distinctive word or phrase. I
suspect that if I used the Kindle more, I would find it easier to
use. So we shall see if after being "Kindle-only" on a couple of
upcoming vacations, I come to like it more. But even if I do, I
suspect I will never stop preferring the feel of a real book in my
hands.
But there are negatives as well:.
- The page-turning leaves something to be desired; often when I want
to go back I find myself going forward instead. And I recently
discovered that trying to use a Kindle in a bouncing vehicle has
problems, since the bouncing seems to signal it to turn the pages.
- There is no way to flip back and forth--if you want to look at an
earlier page, you lose your current place. (I think there may be
a way for the book to display a "percentage complete" bar at the
bottom. At any rate I thought I had seen this once, but cannot
manage to re-create it. I suspect it has to be built into the book
itself rather than merely being a Kindle option--and hardly anyone
seems to do it.)
- There is no way to tell how close to the end of the chapter you
are without losing your place. The same obviously applies to the
various stories or essays in an anthology.
- For that matter, there is nothing to tell you how long a work is.
Am I starting something the length of OF MICE AND MEN, or is it
more like WAR AND PEACE? After you open it and page forward, you
can see what percentage you have gone and get some idea, but
looking at a list of works gives you no idea of their lengths.
You might think that you could see the end location count on the
Kindle and convert that to something meaningful (like pages). THE
RAPTURE OF THE NERDS is 3886 locations and 352 pages, or about 11:1
ratio. But MOBY DICK is 8378 locations, so that would be 762
pages, and no modern editions of MOBY DICK are that long. (The
most popular edition seems to be 458 pages.)
- There is nothing to remind you that you have things you want to
read. With a physical book, it is sitting there on my nightstand.
But with the Kindle, it's sitting there somewhere behind the
screen. I have actually come up with a solution: Take a bunch of
books and make jackets for them with the names of all the pending
books on the Kindle, then stack *them* up on my nightstand. I have
not yet implemented this, however. (There's a thought--with each
ebook purchase, you get a jpeg you can print as a fake book
jacket.) I suppose I could make a collection called "Must Read" on
the Kindle, but then I would have to remember to look at that. A
stack of books on my shelf is much more obvious.
- The titles all truncate after about fifty characters. While you
can name works you add manually, purchases from Amazon come with
fixed names. This would be okay if they thought about this, but
their naming scheme for Gibbon's THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE comes in six parts and the distinguishing
character ["1" through "6"] is somewhere past where the line
truncates. (In addition, they seem to have a couple of different
versions, with inconsistent formats such that actually getting the
entire work is problematic.)
- You cannot re-sell a book when you are finished with it, or lend
it to a friend. (Well, Amazon apparently has implemented some sort
of temporary license transfer, but your friend still has to also
have a Kindle.) This is not a major issue for me; so far I have
gotten only get free books.
- The price for ebooks is not that much cheaper than the price for
"dead-tree" books. I understand all the reasons given, but the net
result is that I do not find ebooks to be worth the cost. The fact
that I can get several lifetime's worth of reading free from
Project Gutenberg makes a difference, of course.
The latter brings us to the acquisition aspect.
There are two ways to obtain contain content for the Kindle.
Purchase it (through Amazon and other sites) or create basic text
files from free web content (including Project Gutenberg). On the
plus side:
- Trees do not die.
- You do not have to pay to ship heavy books around the country (or
the world).
- You do save storage space, which of course leads to the ever-
popular observation that ebooks are great for travelers, though you
still cannot read them during airplane take-offs and landings.
(Apparently they are working on changing this.)
However, there are negatives as well:
- My experience with "purchasing" free Kindle editions from Amazon
is that you are often better off with Project Gutenberg and other
sources where you can see what you are getting. I had thought at
first that the Amazon free Kindle edition of MOBY DICK omitted all
the introductory etymology and quotations, but in fact it "just"
moved it to the end.
- It is next to impossible to get a complete free edition of THE
DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE from Amazon, since there seem
to be competing editions which break the volumes at different
points, and even has at least one volume which has no text, just a
table of contents.
- Also, as I said, the Kindle truncates titles at about forty
characters, and the Gibbon are titled in such a way that the volume
numbers are cut off, meaning the titles for all the volumes look
the same. (These may be "growing pains", and they do say you get
what you pay for. But at least with Project Gutenberg, you can see
what you're getting before you put it on the Kindle.)
- There are persistent issues about what it means to "purchase" a
book for the Kindle. Just Google the names Justin Gawronski and
Linn Nygaard for examples of how buying a book for the Kindle is
different than buying a book at your local bookstore.
- There is also the "manual cleanup" problem I mentioned earlier.
Every work you put on the Kindle has a directory associated with it
with data files that remember where you left off, etc. I use the
Kindle for reading articles from the Web (such as articles from
magazines and other sources) by putting the content into a ".txt"
file and manually copying it to the Kindle. But when I delete such
a work using the Kindle's "delete" function, the directory stays
around. If you use the Kindle to read a lot of articles and then
remove them, eventually you will end up taking up a lot of space on
the Kindle with orphaned directories. The only way to remove them
is using your PC or Mac to manually remove them. (Yes, you can
leave them there, but even though they are small, if you are
creating dozens a week, they will eventually take over the Kindle.)
[After writing this, I heard a podcast about ebooks which raised a
couple of issues about the acquisition process that I had not seen
commented on before. The first was that ebooks allow dynamic
pricing by the publisher in a way that a physical book with a price
printed on it and sent to a bookstore does not. And the other was
that no one has yet figured out how to make ebooks gift items. Oh,
you can give someone an Amazon or a Barnes & Noble gift
certificate, but there is no way to give someone a specific book.
First, you need to know what sort of ereader they have, to make
sure the format is the correct one. And if the file has digital
rights management (DRM) turned on, when you buy it, it's yours and
can't be transferred. You can give all the free stuff from Project
Gutenberg et al that you want, but that is not what people think of
when they think about gifts.] [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Her journalism, like a diamond, will sparkle
more if it is cut.
--Raymond Mortimer (of Susan Sontag)