THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
06/20/14 -- Vol. 32, No. 51, Whole Number 1811
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Commentary on Commercial Space Crew Competition
and Space Policy
Godzilla Franchise
The Nature of Science (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Logic and Fantasy (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
PARASITE by Mira Grant (book reviews by Joe Karpierz
and Gwendolyn Karpierz)
RIGOR MORTIS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
THE MOON'S SHADOW by Catherine Asaro (audiobook review
by Joe Karpierz)
ANTHEM (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
Costco in Marlboro, NJ (letter of comment by Steve Milton)
This Week's Reading (Retro Hugos (novelettes and short
Stories): "Dead Knowledge", "Hollywood on the Moon",
"Rule 18", "Werewoman", "The Faithful","Helen O'Loy",
"Hollerbochen's Dilemma","How We Went to Mars",
"Hyperpilosity") (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: Commentary on Commercial Space Crew Competition and Space
Policy
Dale Skran co-authored an op-ed on commercial crews in the May 12th
issue of SPACE NEWS, available at
http://tinyurl.com/void-commercial-crew.
Dale also has an article on space policy and the NRC's report
"Pathways to Exploration" available at
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2535/1.
==================================================================
TOPIC: Godzilla Franchise
Nick Sauer has written a brief history of the "Godzilla" franchise,
available at http://tinyurl.com/void-godzilla.
==================================================================
TOPIC: The Nature of Science (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Just when I have come to terms with knowing all humankind has
existed for just a cosmic second I learn that all along it has
actually been a cosmic third. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Logic and Fantasy (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I was discussing fantasy with a college friend, discussing horror
literature. He mentioned that vampires are killed by sunlight. I
told him that it was obviously not true. It is just a silly
superstition that sunlight kills vampires. It obviously does not
work. Why not, he wanted to know. With a smirk I responded
because there are no vampires for sunlight to kill.
Dave said, I think, that he agreed that when talking about a world
with vampires and werewolves in a story that it is a mistake to
apply logic to a story. I think he was saying that stories with
vampires and werewolves depend less than logic than stories that
happen in our world.
I had to give that some thought. Somehow that bothered me a bit.
I am often irritated when fantasy stories have things that happen
that are completely in contradiction to the logic that had been
followed previously. We approach any story expecting a certain
logic, even if the story is a fantasy.
In my opinion, good fantasy and horror stories depend very heavily
on having strict rules for the world of the story. If a story
takes place in a world where just anything can happen, it is not
very interesting whatever does happen. It is no more than the hand
of the writer that shapes what happens.
In the novel DRACULA, Van Helsing carefully lays down the rules
that vampires must follow. The story really depends such rules.
Logic and rules is much more important in fantasy than in
mainstream literature. Why? Suppose in the final confrontation
Dracula is fighting Van Helsing when he sees Van Helsing is wearing
a pink carnation in his buttonhole. Van Helsing tells the others
in the hunting party "Oh, I forgot to mention pink carnations kill
vampires." I know I would consider that a cheat because I, as a
reader, have not been told this rule before. If just anything can
happen in a story, what happens is much less interesting. The
fantasy author makes a pact with the reader that such and such are
the rules we will play by. Adding rules along the way seems like
cheating.
Now even in some highly regarded fantasy stories do we have rules
just added when they seem convenient for the viewer. In SUPERMAN:
THE MOVIE we discover that Superman has the power to reverse time
and undo something that has been done. So why has Superman never
used this power up to this time? Why doesn't he go back and undo
the murders of Batman's parents? But even if the author had
thought of such problems, it simply is not fair to the viewer to
add a new power to Superman just because it is convenient for the
writer.
There is the same problem with the popular STAR TREK II: THE WRATH
OF KHAN. In the middle of a battle we are suddenly told that Kirk
on the Enterprise has the power to shut down the shields another
Federation ship. Never mind how stupid and dangerous such a thing
would be. Again it is a complete surprise.
On the other hand in, say, SPARTACUS when Marcus Lucinius Crassus
(Laurence Olivier) is being bathed by Antoninus (Tony Curtis) we
find out that Crassus has a homosexual streak. We accept that as
just another facet of his personality. I do not complain that we
have not been told this before. In realistic writing you can
introduce new rules, but in fantasy it is a cheat.
Actually the idea that sunlight kills vampires, the rule I referred
to above, was never in the book. It was invented by German
director F. W. Murnau for his film NOSFERATU. That film really
does cheat the viewer by changing the rules of how to kill a
vampire at the very moment the story needed it. I would call that
bad writing, but the world seems to have taken that rule as a
given. I guess people like the film enough that they will take its
rules and make then canon.
That bothers me a little bit also. If people like the film enough
it does not matter if it does not make sense. In the book THE
WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ, L. Frank Baum has Dorothy in captivity and
in a real pickle when by chance in a pique she throws of bucket of
water on the Wicked Witch. (It is a little better motivated in the
1939 film with Dorothy putting out a fire.) Of course, Dorothy did
not know it, but the witch was water-soluble and getting wet not
only kills her, it also melts the body. This never did make any
sense to me because it is pure literary device. The Dorothy did
just the right thing without knowing it would work. (Many of the
James Bond films seem to work the same way. James Bond throws one
punch during Doctor No's launch and it just happens to be just the
right punch so the whole evil facility is destroyed.) But people
love the WIZARD OF OZ so much they do not mind that this rule was
just thrown in out of plot necessity. In STAR TREK II Kirk uses
Reliant's "prefix code" to remotely lower its shields. This was
apparently a new capability invented to get the Enterprise out of
trouble.
Not all fantasies set forward the rules that they are playing with,
obviously, but failure to do so is just bad writing. Sometimes
even a popular story can have bad writing. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: PARASITE by Mira Grant (copyright 2013, Orbit, 504pp, ebook,
ISBN 978-0-316-21893-1) (an excerpt from the Duel Fish Codices: a
book review by Joe Karpierz)
There are two things that appear to be true about Mira Grant:
first, she's making a home for herself on the Hugo ballot, and
second, well, she's twisted.
With regard to the first item, all three of her previous books,
those in the "Newsflesh" trilogy, were Hugo nominees, as is her
most recent outing, and the subject of this review, PARASITE, the
first book in what is apparently called "Parasitology". I don't
quite know how many books that's going to end up being, and I'm a
bit too lazy to look it up, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's
another trilogy[*]. With regard to the second item, since Mira
Grant is really Seanan McGuire, I mean really, didn't we know that
already? The "Newsflesh" trilogy dealt with zombies, although I
really wouldn't call them zombie books. I think the zombies were
there to help tell a bigger and more frightening story. PARASITE
is about, well, parasites, and in particular tapeworms. Tapeworms
that reside in your intestinal system and help you be healthy.
Really? You don't think that's a bit twisted?
The tapeworm in question is called the Intestinal Bodyguard,
developed by a company named SymboGen. The process is simple. You
swallow a pill. For lack of a better term, the pill hatches. It
develops into a tapeworm that resides in your intestines. And as I
said before, it keeps you healthy. Very healthy. No more doctors
as we know them, no more medications, no more, well, anything--at
least near as I can tell. The Intestinal Bodyguard is good for
humanity, to hear the folks at SymboGen tell it. Things will be
good from now on.
Oh, come on, really? This is Mira Grant.
Our protagonist is one Sally Mitchell, whose car was hit by a bus.
She was dead. Clinically brain dead. She was on life support, and
her doctor wanted to take her off life support and maybe help other
people by harvesting her organs for transplants. And then
something weird happened. She woke up. Alive, and fully
functional.
Well, sort of. She'd lost her memories of the time before the
accident. She had to be retrained to function as a human being
again; you know, things like, walk, talk, eat, handle bodily
functions, etc. She also had to learn how to make decisions and
act as a rational human being. But the key was that she was a
completely different person than she was before the accident.
And my, oh my, doesn't SymboGen have something to study now.
Meanwhile, weird things are beginning to happen to folks. Random,
scattered people at first, and then in more and more incidents
involving more and more people--well, the folks are coming down
with a sleeping or sleepwalking sickness (Grant uses more than one
term for it that does make things a bit aggravating) that causes
them to act somewhat like...zombies, I guess is the best way to put
it. No one *seems* to know what's going on.
Oh come on, really? This is Mira Grant (weird deja vu music can be
heard playing in the background).
As you might guess, SymboGen is really interested in what's going
on. So are a couple of other parties, two of which are Sal's (as
she wants to be called now that she is no longer anything like
Sally) father and sister, who work for a government lab. Another
is Sal's boyfriend, who has his own reasons for being involved,
which only partly have to do with the fact that Sal is his
girlfriend.
Grant has given us yet another engaging techno-thriller involving
government, corrupt corporations, science, conspiracies, and icky
things. There's enough going on here to keep the reader involved
from beginning to end. I certainly did not want to put the book
down, and since I read the majority of it either in a car to and
from Gwen's (you remember her, the other contributor to the Duel
Fish Codices (and points go to the first one to figure out, if you
all haven't already, what the Fish is all about)) graduation from
college and on a plane to Reno, I didn't have to. I thoroughly
enjoyed the book and read it more quickly than I read most books.
I did have a couple of nitpicks, and I'm not sure which one is more
annoying and which one is well, potentially more deadly, and so may
not be a nitpick. The first is that one of the three scientists
that was involved in the development of the Intestinal Bodyguard
disappeared sometime prior to the beginning of the story and has
not been tracked down. This story takes place a few years in our
future, and I have a hard time believing that with all the tracking
that can be done *right now* this scientist could not be found.
One Google search (by the scientist, thus leaving tracks in the
interwebs, ought to do it). Second, and I'm going to give Grant
the benefit of the doubt and call this a plot point that either
folks haven't picked up on or I'm reading too much into, we learn
that the Intestinal Bodyguard dispenses with the need for birth
control. Wait, what? Is it automatic, or can a person turn it on
and off? If it's automatic, doesn't that mean that there will be
no more births? Hmmm.
One thing that wasn't a nitpick so much as a "come on, you can do
better than that", I pretty much saw the big reveal coming a long
time before the novel told us about it. I shouldn't be able to see
things coming like that.
I really liked this book. Is it Hugo quality? I don't think so.
Other than introducing a tapeworm that is good for you, I don't
think Grant has broken any new ground in a spectacular way. Most
of the rest of the stuff in this book is good, traditional thriller
stuff with cool science thrown in. Now, not all Hugo winners break
new ground--like NEUROMANCER did, for example--but I don't think
this book is *that* good. It's a good, fast, interesting read. I
don't think we'll be talking about PARASITE thirty years from now
like we just might be talking about ANCILLARY JUSTICE and/or
NEPTUNE's BROOD, and we might not even be talking about those
thirty years from now either. [-jak]
[*] Actually, "Parasitology" is currently described as a duology,
with the second volume, SYMBIONT, due out in November. [-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: PARASITE by Mira Grant (copyright 2013, Orbit, $20.00
hardcover, 512pp., ISBN 978-0-316-21895-5) (excerpt from the Duel
Fish Codices: a book review by Gwendolyn Karpierz)
I /love/ Seanan McGuire. And since--spoiler alert--Mira Grant is
actually Seanan McGuire, it was a little bit inevitable that I pick
this book up. I did not originally intend to, since the plot
sounded ... entirely not my style--but then, so did zombie-hunting
bloggers, and FEED was one of the greatest things ever. Plus,
Seanan talked at MileHiCon about having a real tapeworm as research
for this book, and I thought, "Wait, why did I think I could get
away with not reading something Seanan wrote?" So (way back in
December--consequently, forgive a somewhat lackluster review here)
I read it ... despite my reservations, I suppose.
PARASITE is about a near-future society in which tapeworms have
been developed to inhabit your intestines in a beneficial way,
protecting everybody from disease, dirt, germs, babies, and other
undesirable things. Unfortunately, such Intestinal Bodyguards
(TM!) develop their own consciousness and start taking over the
bodies they inhabit.
I'd yell "SURPRISE! Spoiled it!" but I'm pretty sure that's on the
book flap. Alas, none of the main characters read the book flap,
so the first way-too-much of this novel follows them trying to
figure out what we already know. Even if it wasn't part of the
blurb, it was still pretty obvious.
This book claimed to be a "CONTAGIOUS thriller!" but it really
wasn't that thrilling. There was a lot of talking and driving and
some screaming, and all the action scenes were ... pretty much the
same. If it had been about half as long, I expect it would've been
much better. I whipped through the first two or three hundred
pages, and after that, I just sort of ... wanted it to be over,
but still had two or three more hundred pages to go. For once,
Seanan didn't manage to make me fall in love with any of her
characters (how is this possible? what is this madness??), and I
had a lot of trouble investing in them or the plot. It certainly
wasn't a bad book, but I have a lot of high expectations for
Seanan, and this didn't live up to them.
...also, /how many fictional diseases/ are called 'the sleeping
sickness'? Why. /Why/. Why could you not have picked /anything
else/, especially since this 'illness' was pretty much in no way
characterized by sleeping? 'The sleepwalking sickness' made sense.
'The sleeping sickness'? /NO/. [-gmk]
==================================================================
TOPIC: RIGOR MORTIS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A victory of visual images over plotting, this is Hong
Kong director Juno Mak's premier film and a tribute to Hong Kong
horror films from the 1980s. An actor rents a room in a supremely
ugly concrete apartment block. His plan is to commit suicide, but
the supernatural world is not through with him. This is a film for
the eye and not for the mind. The plot is minimal but the visual
effects have been lavished on this film enough to smother the plot.
Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
There was a time when a special effects movie would be written one
way. It would start our with a story and then say, "At this point
the monster is born." That part would be given to the visual
effects staff and they would create the effect. Later it might
say, "At this point the monster is hit by a steam shovel." And the
effects people would be given that image to create for the film.
Of course, some of Ray Harryhausen's films would have the set of
effects he wanted to create worked into the story. But the story
would not have to be greatly modified and the plot of the film
would still be paramount and the effects would have to follow it.
RIGOR MORTIS feels like it was not created that way and I suspect
it was not. I think how it was made was that the effects people
started by creating a collection of disturbing, violent, kinetic,
and bloody images, as horrifying as they could manage. And they do
show a great deal of imagination. The images were then sorted so
that the strongest ones would be toward the end of the film. Then
a story was written to tie the images together is a very loose
plot. What does not quite fit the plot might be explained, but
even that is not really necessary. The viewer leaves the theater
with not a good feel for the story they just saw, but with
hopefully indelible memories of the images.
Siu Ho wanted to be a movie star, but after a short career he finds
himself out of luck and ready to give up on this life for the next
one. He is also giving up on his wife and his young son. With
only pocket change he rents a room in a surprisingly ugly apartment
block. What it does have is a ceiling fixture from which he hangs
a rope, and from the rope he hangs himself. But there are strange
supernatural forces in the building and they have other plans for
Siu Ho. They do not want to let him die so soon. They have other
plans for him. Siu Ho gets to know the other tenants who have
consigned themselves to living in this hellishly ugly concrete
building which houses demonic ghosts--bloody and violent. The
violent visuals have gallons of splashing blood and surreal
imagination. It is hard for a Westerner not steeped in Asian
supernatural tradition to know if the rules that the characters are
following are real folklore or are mythology created ad hoc. They
are more distraction from the plot than they are enhancements of
it.
This film is a tribute to the 1980s series called "Mr. Vampire" in
the West. Many of the actors from that series are used again here.
Creatures are called "vampires" here also, though they are not
vampires at all but Chinese hopping ghosts. This is a film that is
constantly fiddling with the camera. It does enhance the weirdness
of scenes artificially, but we are given images with the camera
corkscrewing or looks up at characters from ankle level, all for no
apparent reason. They just seem to want to upset the viewer.
RIGOR MORTIS is visceral but not intelligent. This is the kind of
film for which you turn off your mind and let the scenery overwhelm
you. And it will without benefit of drugs. I rate RIGOR MORTIS a
+1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10. It was released June 6, 2014, on
Amazon and Xbox.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2771800/combined
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rigor_mortis_2013/
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE MOON'S SHADOW by Catherine Asaro (copyright 2003, Tor,
audiobook copyright 2008, Audible Studios, 12 Hours, 40 minutes,
narrated by Dennis Holland and Catherine Asaro) (an excerpt from
the Duel Fish Codices: an audiobook review by Joe Karpierz)
As I was thinking about what I was going to write in this review of
THE MOON'S SHADOW by Catherine Asaro, I realized that the saga of
the Skolian Empire is, for me a lot like reading Miles Vorkosigan
books by Lois McMaster Bujold. They're fun to read (or listen to,
I suppose), they have characters that we know and care about, and,
most of all, they're almost like comfort food. We go back each
time because we feel good being there, pretty much know what to
expect from the book and the author, and we have a nice feeling
each time we complete on of the books.
And yet, of course, they're different. We may like the characters,
but in the Skolian Empire stories, characters, even our favorites,
die. The word Empire suggests war and conflict. And indeed there
is much war and conflict in the Skolian Empire stories, and war
involves death. And while characters have died in the Vorkosigan
books, rarely are they characters that we have grown attached to.
I suspect that's one of the strengths of the Skolian Saga books:
Asaro makes us care about the characters, and then at times that
are appropriate, she does the necessary--she kills them off. While
the characters are very important parts of the stories, they don't
rule the stories. The plot and storyline are still very important,
and if the storyline says, "XYX character must die", then character
XYZ dies.
That was a long way to go to get us to THE MOON'S SHADOW, which
doesn't have heartstring-tugging deaths in it. What's different
about SHADOW is that for the first time in the series, we get told
a story from the Eubian side of the conflict. It's a refreshing
change of pace which provided an interesting insight into how Asaro
views the Eubian Concord.
THE MOON'S SHADOW is the fourth book of a group that simultaneously
covers much of the same ground but from differing viewpoints, the
others being THE QUANTUM ROSE, ASCENDANT SUN, and SPHERICAL
HARMONIC. These four, as I've noted before, explore the aftermath
of the Radiance War, wherein one of my favorite characters, Soz
Valdoria, is killed. Our main character is Jabriol Qox III, son of
Soz and Jabriol Qox (my fingers just do not want to type a Q that
is NOT followed by a U) II. The children of that pairing were left
on earth while Soz went off and started the Radiance War. A trader
was engineered that returned Jabriol III to the Traders (as they
are known), and, at age 17, he immediately ascended to the
Carnelian Throne.
So, this is the story of young Jabriol growing in and growing up in
his job. Jabriol must learn to rule an empire that he does not
understand and which has a way of life, way of thinking, and a
morality that he does not understand. He must deal with
backstabbing politics, a wife much older than him, trying to broker
a peace with the Skolian Empire, all the while trying, in his own
way, to change the way the Eubian Concord operates. He must avoid
assassination attempts and scheming relatives. On top of all that,
he must hide who and what he really is--a telepath, a person that
the rest of the Concord would consider a provider, a pleasure slave
for the Aristo class.
Yeah, I'm glad I didn't have such problems when I was 17.
This story has a lot of good stuff going for it. As is usual with
the Skolian books, we get a lot of great character interaction and
development, and we come to care for the characters, even some of
the Eubians. We get to see a 17-year-old boy grow up before our
eyes as a man, and emperor, and a caring human being. We get to
see relationships change and grow. And really, it *is* fun reading
a book from the point of view of the other side of the fence, as it
were.
One of the things that we've learned throughout the series is that
the Eubians have a different way of communicating, especially at
the highest levels of their class system. While Skolians and Earth
folks speak directly, the Eubians speak in a roundabout manner,
always talking around the point while getting to the point. In
fact, depending on who is speaking to whom, speaking directly is
considered offensive. It's interesting and fun to see Jabriol get
frustrated with this communication method and at the same time grow
to learn it.
The only thing I found frustrating (at first) about the recording
is that we have yet another new narrator, Dennis Holland. So, not
only have we changed narrators, but we've gone from female to male.
I can't pretend to know how all the contracts and other legalities
enter into the decision about who narrates a book, but I find the
changes frustrating. Still, Holland grew on me as the book
progressed, and I only found a few of his pronunciations of certain
words grating. I could get used to him if he stays on the job
(yes, I realize they've been recorded already, but "stays" seems a
better word here).
All in all, another enjoyable entry in the Skolian Saga. [-jak]
==================================================================
TOPIC: ANTHEM (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
In response to Evelyn's comments on the nominated novellas in the
06/13/14 issue of the MT VOID, Kip Williams writes:
I appreciate that you put "Anthem" dead last in your rankings, and
made sure to include No Award before it. I might have put No Award
in twice before it, or left it off the list entirely. I'm boggled
that it was even nominated.
I've read THE FOUNTAINHEAD twice and ATLAS SHRUGGED three or four
times*--they can be read for enjoyment, as an exercise in
temporarily swallowing a premise--but no power on earth will make
me revisit that pretentious toxic brain sludge. Reading it was
like being subjected to a dose of the solvent fumes from the alley
behind a dry cleaning shop. Never again: I'm free.
[*I skipped through The Insulting Monologue at least once, so an
exact count is tricky.]
[-kw]
Evelyn replies:
I was not surprised to see that it got nominated. It is certainly
probably the best-known science fiction novella of 1938 among the
general population, and is still in print, and Rand does have a
large following. Large political followings seem to be de rigeuer
this year for nominees in the regular Hugo categories, so I'm not
surprised to see it nominated in the Retros. I would be curious
how its nomination count compared with, for example, "Who Goes
There?" [-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Costco in Marlboro, NJ (letter of comment by Steve Milton)
In response to Mark's comments about Costco in the 06/13/14 issue
of the MT VOID, Steve Milton writes:
The space previously occupied by the movie theater is the back
parking lot for CostCo. Someplace that only gets cars when the
store is ultra-busy. [-smm]
Mark responds:
I assume there is some requirement that they be able to have enough
parking at all times. It does not seem to me they would buy the
land if they did not need it for some reason. [-mrl]
And Evelyn adds:
There are also other stores using that same parking lot. I suspect
the land is actually leased rather than bought. [-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Over the last three weeks I covered the nominees for the Retro
Hugos for Best Novel and Best Novella of 1938; this week I will
cover the nominees for Best Novelette and Best Short Story.
Best Novelette (80 nominating ballots)
The novelette category is the most problematic of the fiction
categories (and indeed had the fewest nominating ballots) because,
of the five stories, three are pretty much unavailable now, having
either no reprints, or a single reprint in something almost as
unobtainable as its original 1938 publication. One wonders how the
nominators chose them. Given that when I scanned the list of
stories eligible from 1938 in this category it was a pretty obscure
lot, my suspicion is that they were chosen on the basis of the
author's reputation rather than the story itself.
"Dead Knowledge", Don A. Stuart [John W. Campbell] (Astounding
Stories, January 1938; John W. Campbell's WHO GOES THERE? [Hyperion
Press]): While "Who Goes There?" has been reprinted all over the
place, this Don A. Stuart story is almost impossible to find. I
was able to read it because I noticed a friend had a copy of the
Hyperion Press collection WHO GOES THERE? on her shelf and when I
mentioned I would like to read a story from it, she offered to lend
it to me.
"Dead Knowledge" has a three-man team, which made me think of the
Arcot, Wade, and Morey stories that were my introduction to
Campbell (THE BLACK STAR PASSES, ISLANDS OF SPACE, and INVADERS
FROM THE INFINITE), but other than this trope there is little
similarity. There is, however, a resemblance to "Who Goes There?"
in the notion of a menace that is not a being like ourselves, but
rather a more inchoate, insubstantial, amorphous/polymorphous
being.
[One quibble: The story keeps referring to the sun setting in the
east on this distant planet. I would expect that east and west
would be defined on other planets by how the sun rose and set, or
rather, east would be the direction of rotation, and west would be
the opposite.]
"Hollywood on the Moon", Henry Kuttner (Thrilling Wonder Stories,
April 1938; PDF at varietysf.org): This is available, but
apparently only as a hard-to-read PDF of the original, and one that
cannot even be downloaded to a Kindle. This is also apparently
part of a series, though of short stories, not of novels. It is
pretty lightweight stuff, the sort of thing that one saw in many
"madcap" comedy films in the 1930s, with wise-cracking film
producers, a stowaway actress, a telepathic kangaroo, and so on. I
suspect it is the Kuttner name and the sparseness of the novelette
field in general for 1938 that put this on the ballot.
"Pigeons From Hell", Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, May 1938;
Robert E. Howard's PIGEONS FROM HELL): You can tell from this that
Howard was a wordsmith; it is not an "oak door," but an "oaken
door." One thing that might make this less popular with the voters
is the repeated use of the N-word. But this would be a mistake,
because though it is used repeatedly, it is the Southern sheriff
who says it. The narrative voice uses the word "negro", which was
the polite term at the time. I would not use this to postulate any
special progressiveness towards race on Howard's part, but to note
that his language here is not a reason to reject the story.
The descriptions of the pigeons make me wonder if Daphne du Maurier
was partially inspired by it, though I admit it is unlikely. One
definite influence is the term "zuvembie", invented by Howard and
used in comic books from 1954 to 1989 instead of "zombie", because
the Comics Code Authority forbade the use of that word. But the
story is a fine example of Southern Gothic even without any
influences it may have had.
"Rule 18", Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science-Fiction, July
1938): unavailable
"Werewoman", C. L. Moore (Leaves #2, Winter 1938; Robert Hoskins,
THE EDGE OF NEVER): The initial publication of this story was in a
small-press magazine--so small, in fact, that only sixty copies
were printed! True, that would have been more than enough for
everyone at the 1939 Worldcon to get a copy, but I am sure that did
not happen, and this is another example of a story that would not
have been nominated if regular Hugos had been given out in its
eligibility year. Does that mean one should not vote for it
because one is voting as if it were that year? I don't think so,
and the existence of the electronic Hugo packet is evidence that
availability should not be considered a factor.
Be that as it may, "Werewoman" is one of C. L. Moore's "Northwest
Smith" stories. I have a quibble with the title: the prefix "were-
" comes from the Old English "wer", or "man", so a "werewoman"
would be a man who turns into a woman. This is not what is
happening in the story. But apparently this is a term widely used
to signify a woman who shape-shifts rather than a man. "Werewoman"
is strong on atmosphere, but a bit weak on plot.
My ranking: "Pigeons from Hell", "Dead Knowledge", no award,
"Werewoman", "Hollywood on the Moon". (I am not including the
novelette I have not read. If I were actually voting, this would
effectively place it *below* "Hollywood on the Moon", but since I
am not actually voting, it does not matter. On the other hand,
somewhere in the back of mind is the thought that if it was any
good at all, it would have been reprinted more widely in the last
75 years.)
Best Short Story (108 nominating ballots)
It is interesting that they managed to have five nominees in this
category, since three times in the last four years the regular
Hugos have had fewer, due to the rule requiring any nominee to be
on 5% of the nominating ballots. However, this is just a function
of the vastly larger number of short stories published in 2013 than
in 1938.
This category, more than any other, is an example of the above-
mentioned problem with the Retro Hugos: people nominate on the
basis of name recognition rather than actual knowledge of the works
themselves. (This is also true of the Simak novelette and R.U.R.)
They are all very early stories (often the first story) of authors
who went on to become major names in the field. So how could you
nominate something else? But in 1939, I bet a lot of science
fiction fans would have chosen an entirely different slate of short
stories.
(And what is it with the letter 'H'? Four of the five nominees
start with an 'H'.)
"The Faithful", Lester del Rey (Astounding Science-Fiction, April
1938; THE EARLY DEL REY): This was del Rey's first story, and may
well have served as inspiration for Clifford Simak's "City"
stories, being a story of men and dogs in the far future.
"How We Went to Mars", Arthur C. Clarke (Amateur Science Stories,
March 1938; COLLECTED STORIES OF ARTHUR C. CLARKE): This was
Clarke's third published story, and nominated either because it was
an Arthur C. Clarke story that was eligible, or because the British
convention members have a different sense of humor than I do. By
that I mean that the humor in it seems distinctly British, and the
problem I have is that there is just too much of it. What was
funny for a page or two wore a bit thin after seven pages. Then
again, the British like Benny Hill. The story is written in that
"we are all buffoons, but we don't know it" style. (I am reminded
of a Bertie Wooster, only more so.)
"Helen O'Loy", Lester del Rey (Astounding Science-Fiction, December
1938; Robert Silverberg's SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME): This was
del Rey's second story, and one much imitated by subsequent authors.
The best-known would probably be the "Twilight Zone" episode "The
Lonely", written by Rod Serling. This, more than most of the other
stories, is still effective and is the most readable of the batch.
Yes, the gender roles in it are dated, but that is part of the the
point--they are to a great extent created by the then-current pop
culture images of them.
"Hollerbochen's Dilemma", Ray Bradbury (Imagination!, January
1938; Sam Moskowitz's HORRORS UNSEEN): This was Ray Bradbury's
first published story, and at under a thousand words, the shortest
story on the ballot. (Indeed, Moskowitz's introduction is over
half the length of the story itself.) It is one-third shorter than
Kij Johnson's "Ponies", previously the all-time shortest Hugo
nominee. At this length, it is "flash fiction" and so short that
it can be little more than a gimmick story, but well-done. Whether
something this flimsy should win a Hugo is the question, of course.
I mean, "The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a
knock on the door," is the ultimate catchy flash fiction, but I
don't think most people would give it a Hugo either. (Frederic
Brown's "Knock", in case you are wondering.)
"Hyperpilosity", L. Sprague de Camp (Astounding Science-Fiction,
April 1938; Groff Conklin's OMNIBUS OF SCIENCE FICTION): Conklin at
least gives you a footnote that says, "The original opening of this
story has been eliminated, with the permission of the author, since
it seemed to weaken its impact somewhat." That is a refreshing
change from editors that do not tell you when a story has been
changed, but it also means that yet another Retro nominee is not
really available in its 1938 form. This is the problem people have
often claimed occurs in the artist, fancast, and other categories--
votes are cast based on something other than the works from the
year in question. People listen to the latest 2014 "Jovian
Overlords Training Sessions" podcast and then rank the 2013 nominee
on the basis of that.
I read "Hyperpilosity" without noticing where it was first printed,
and found myself thinking, "Typical ANALOG story." Sure enough, it
was first published in ASTOUNDING. It is nothing extraordinary,
but a good, competent story of the sort one found then.
My ranking: "Helen O'Loy", "Hyperpilosity", "The Faithful", no award,
"Hollerbochen's Dilemma", "How We Went to Mars"
(Though if you ask me tomorrow, I might swap "Hyperpilosity" and "The
Faithful".)
So there it is--my comments and rankings for the Retro Hugos. The
good news is that these will almost definitely be given out. The
bad news is that for the regular Hugos, things are not as certain.
The "25% rule" says that any category not voted on by at least 25%
of the ballots will not be awarded. The thousand new members for
Loncon 3 since the nominees were announced were almost definitely
due to interest in the Novel category (and in wanting to get the
entire "Wheel of Time" series in the Hugo Packet). It is not
unlikely that most of those people, if they vote, will vote only in
the Novel category and possibly the Dramatic Presentation
categories. Normally low-drawing categories such as Semiprozine,
Fancast, and Fan Artist could easily fail to get enough votes to be
awarded at all this year. Many people were talking about wanting
to expand the Hugo voting base, and this may well be an example of
"Be careful what you wish for." [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Beware of a silent dog and still water.
--Latin Proverb