THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
01/15/16 -- Vol. 34, No. 29, Whole Number 1893
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
All material is copyrighted by author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for
inclusion unless otherwise noted.
To subscribe, send mail to mtvoid-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send mail to mtvoid-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
The latest issue is at http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm.
An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at
http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm.
Topics:
Quick "Star Wars" Quiz
Every Frame a Masterpiece (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The Pants Zipper Crisis (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Toleration (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
JERUZALEM (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
A BORROWED MAN by Gene Wolfe (book review by Joe Karpierz)
What I Read on My Winter Vacation (THE BONE LABYRINTH,
PERSONAL, HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT, THE BRAIN ELECTRIC,
HERO OF THE AIR) (book reviews by Dale L. Skran)
DURANT'S NEVER CLOSES (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Choices (letter of comment by Jim Susky)
SEVENEVES (letter of comment by Jim Susky)
TRUMBO, HE NAMED ME MALALA, ANOMALISA, and Last Week's Puzzle
(letter of comment by Kevin R)
THE MAN WHO COUNTED and Logic Puzzles (letter of comment
by Arthur T)
This Week's Reading (THE ANNALS OF IMPERIAL ROME and
SHE NAILED A STAKE THROUGH HIS HEAD)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Quick "Star Wars" Quiz
Without looking them up, give the full titles of the first three
"Star Wars" movies (the 1977-1983 series).
Now give the full titles of the three prequels (1999-2005).
How successful were you? [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Every Frame a Masterpiece (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS is two hours and sixteen minutes long.
That is 136 minutes long.
That is 8160 seconds long.
Celluloid theatrical film runs at 24 frames per second. STAR WARS:
THE FORCE AWAKENS is digital and I am not sure it runs at 24 frames
per second, but let us assume it is shot/created at that frame-
rate.
That is 195,840 frames in the film.
As of January 10, 2016, the film has earned $812,000,000.
Each frame has earned $4146.24.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Pants Zipper Crisis (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
It is said that anatomy is destiny. And Destiny has its good
aspects and bad aspects. We spend much of our lives trying to
avoid destinies that we cannot avert. But that is a discussion for
another day. It is true that anatomy offers each gender positive
and negative aspects that it does not offer the other gender. Men
tend to have more physical strength. On the other hand women tend
to live a longer lifespan. What I would like to discuss is a male
anatomical problem that females never have to face in the same way.
I would like to discuss it in the most tasteful way possible.
However, since it involves differences in male and female anatomy
it may be an attempted tasteful discussion of what is a vaguely
distasteful subject and I hope female readers will use discretion
on choosing to read on or not to read on. I shall assume that from
this point I have only readers of the male gender.
Hey, Bro. How 'bout them Jets? What say you grab yourself a
brewski and read on?
It seems that the clothing industry has committed an act of what I
hope is accidental negligence, but I am afraid that it was a matter
of policy. I suspect that the industry as a whole has decided to
economize on zippers for men's pants. In any case, conspiracy or
not, it would appear that there is some savings to be had making a
pants zipper an inch shorter than has been traditionally done. It
is not a big savings, I am sure, but there are a lot of pants made
each year for men worldwide and that is a lot of inches. Now a
pants zipper goes from the waist down a little way toward the
crotch.
[Okay, ladies, I am assuming you are long since gone. If you are
still reading you do so at your own peril.]
The problem is that the male thingee is attached at the bottom of
the crotch. Now a male porno star may never have this problem but
those of us of sub-porno-stature may have problems of making ends
meet, as it were. The problem is that at some time during the day
the average male will have to, well, return some moisture to
nature, so to speak. And the nearest point of departure for the
thingee may be an inch higher due to the new pants industry
standard of an inch shorter zipper. So now the pants wearer has to
decide what is to be done to free up the thingee. Don't forget
that it is hardly sufficient for the pointed end of the thingee to
reach fresh air. No. Don't forget that the cloth below the bottom
of the zipper will hold the thingee at an upright angle pointed in
what is entirely an inappropriate direction. Of course, the user
has some flexibility in the thingee that will help in aiming the
point. But even if the point is up to where it can get fresh air,
that is a sharp bend and part of it will be over the sharp teeth of
the bottom of the zipper. This is answering Nature's call in a
manner that Nature never intended. One is likely to temporarily
fireproof a large and not entirely or completely predictable field
in front of the pants wearer. This has the unpleasant side effect
of giving the environs sort of the smell of the ocean, and that
lasts longer than the fireproofing. Also, it is not recommended to
go to any high-level business meetings scheduled for later in the
day than the Nature visit.
Ok, so this is a form of warning. Should you be destined to buy
new pants, this is a concern about which you should be aware.
Okay, can someone let the girls back in? [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Toleration (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I am currently watching the Great Courses (a.k.a. Teaching Company)
"The Skeptic's Guide to American History" and the first lecture is
about the myth that the first settlers to what became the United
States came here to establish religious toleration. (We will
overlook for the moment that the first settlers in what became the
United States were Spaniards in Florida, California, and the
Southwest, and they certainly did not want to establish religious
toleration.)
Rather, Professor Mark A. Stoler points out that while early
English colonists came to escape religious persecution, their plan
(or plans, since there were several different religious groups) was
to establish a colony where *their* particular religion called the
shots, and anyone who disagreed was fined, punished, or banished.
(Actually, the much-vaunted Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 granted
toleration for all Trinitarian Christians, but decreed the death
sentence for anyone who denied the divinity of Jesus. Some
religious toleration!)
But Stoler's further point is to note that today we don't
understand how people then could feel that they were so absolutely
correct in their religion that they could deny all other the right
to be observed. However, we actually have a very similar attitude,
but toward government rather than religion. We (or at any rate,
many of us in the United States) feel that the only valid
government is a representative democracy, and all others--monarchy,
dictatorship, theocracy, Communism, even anarchy--are not valid and
should not be allowed. The argument here is not that all other
forms of government are equally valid, but that our attitude
towards them is not all that different from our predecessors'
attitude towards all other religions. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: JERUZALEM (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Footage presumably found in one of the holiest cities in
the world show how two young American tourists in Jerusalem see the
sights, including a few they never wanted to. Somehow they are
there when a gate to Hell opens. Out come demon-like zombies (or
is it zombie-like demons?). The Paz Brothers (Doron and Yoav)
write and direct an apocalyptic story taking place (and shot) in
the Old City of Jerusalem. Once the horror gets going most of the
action takes place in the dark. Unfortunately, one scene of people
screaming in the dark looks a lot like any other scene of people
screaming in the dark. Rating: 0 (-4 to +4) or 4/10
The Paz Brothers work in Israel mostly in television. They have
made JERUZALEM doubly on the cheap. JERUZALEM is a film obviously
designed to give a lot of punch on a meager budget. Since THE
BLAIR WITCH PROJECT, we have gotten a lot of films using the ultra-
economical style of "found footage." With consumer electronics as
low-cost as it has become it is a fairly cheap approach to making a
film and it can be effective in giving a feel of verisimilitude to
the action of a story. Unfortunately a lot of filmmakers jumped on
the bandwagon and made a lot of very similar films. Without a real
stylist designing a film visually there can be too much resemblance
from one found-footage outing to the next. That does become
tiresome. Beyond found-footage they have set their second film,
JERUZALEM, in Jerusalem where there are a lot of spectacular
backdrops available to be used cheaply. And in general zombie
films are economical to make. It is a clever plan to make a horror
film economically.
So it turns out that the city sacred to three major world religions
is actually a gate to Hell. Who knew? Who would have thought it?
And on the right day demons and monsters come out of a bottomless
pit. This is particularly inconvenient to two girlfriends, Rachel
and Sarah (Yael Grobglas and Danielle Jadelyn), visiting Israel.
Rachel is wearing smart glasses (Google glass in all but name)
which is convenient if you are going to film your whole trip. For
the first half of the film they sightsee, party, and flirt. On the
way they pick up a young archeologist. Yon Tumarkin plays Kevin,
who explains the historical basis for much of what they are seeing.
All religions have their demons, he tells them, and for Jews it is
the golem. [Sorry, Pazes, the golem is not demonic. It is more a
clay statue brought to animate life by the same process that God
used to create humans.] They are visiting the Old City looking
down on the Old and New cities from a rooftop and there is an
explosion, apparently from terrorists. This is part of what opens
the gate to Hell. Everywhere is chaos. The rest of the film is
trying to get to safety and fight off the demons who follow the
rules of zombies. The demons are visually the most innovative part
of the film. Don't expect a lot to be impressed by, but at least
it is an interesting touch.
Where the film is most out of the ordinary is in its showing of the
scenery of Jerusalem, but seeing the smart glasses in action is
probably the best feature of the film. Too bad the horror is so
unoriginal. The Paz Brothers apparently had some good ideas of
what to put into a horror film, but not much new in how to make
that film. I would rate JERUZALEM a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale or
4/10. The title if you missed it is of course "Jerusalem" with the
"s" replaced by a Z for zombie.
Film Credits:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4552524/combined
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jeruzalem/?search=jeruzalem
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: A BORROWED MAN by Gene Wolfe (copyright 2015, Tor, $25.99,
300pp, ISBN 978-0-7653-8114-9) (excerpt from the Duel Fish Codices:
a book review by Joe Karpierz)
This may come as a surprise, but I've never read a Gene Wolfe novel
all the way through. I picked up SHADOW OF THE TORTURER back in
the day, but found the writing to be too dense for my tastes. I
occasionally would pick up other Wolfe novels, but again, I could
not get through his writing style. I suspect that it was, in large
part, due to my immaturity as a reader at the time. It's quite
possible that I wasn't ready to read Wolfe's work. So, while the
critics praised his work, I resigned myself to never being able to
appreciate the novels he has given the field.
As 2015 started rolling to an end, Wolfe's new novel, A BORROWED
MAN, was published by Tor. The concept sounded interesting--a
society in which people were "re-cloned" and stored on a shelf in a
library, to be used as reference material or checked out, just like
a traditional library book. Recently I was wandering through the
dealers' room at a local convention, stopped by a bookseller, and
thumbed through a copy. It didn't look too imposing or
intimidating, so I figured "what the heck?", and bought it.
At its heart, A BORROWED MAN is a detective story/murder mystery.
Colette Coldbrook is a wealthy schoolteacher--yes, that is indeed
explained--who checks E. A. Smithe out of the local library.
Smithe is the author of a book called Murder on Mars, and Colette
feels that since Smithe is an author of murder mysteries, it would
be useful to check him out of the library to get his insights as to
what happened to her father who disappeared. The additional
connection is that a copy of Murder on Mars was found in her
father's safe, and it may contain the secret to the family's
immense wealth (see, the wealthy teacher angle is explained) as
well as to the father's disappearance. Things get even more
interesting when Colette's brother, Conrad Jr., is found dead after
getting the book out of Conrad Sr.'s safe and giving it to Colette.
As the story unfolds, it quickly becomes clear that whatever the
answer to the mystery truly is, it will be found in the Coldbrook
family mansion where Colette grew up. She doesn't live there any
more--she lives in Spice Grove, the location of the library from
which Smithe is checked out. But Smithe wants to investigate the
mansion, and so they do. In fact, for the most part, whatever
Smithe wants, Smithe gets. He is, after all, the expert on the
situation, and was checked out of the library for the express
purpose of being the detective who figures out the mystery.
I'm not quite sure what to make of A BORROWED MAN. It's clearly
science fictional, even dystopic. It takes place in what is
presumably a not too distant future, in which the world's
population is down to roughly 1 billion. Hints are dropped that
there is no more war, as while the world powers still possess the
knowledge to build highly destructive weapons, they no longer
possess the resources or the willpower to do so. There are hints
of a very oppressive society, with strict rules and regulations
regarding the re-clones and interactions with them. Re-clones are
not considered human beings, but possessions of a library. If a
re-clone is not checked out or referenced enough, they are
destroyed by burning, much like a library book might be burned (for
a moment my mind drifted to FAHRENHEIT 451, but the reasons for
burning are not similar). It's also a violent, corrupt, and
sometimes lawless society, where not even the police or government
agencies can be trusted. Wolfe reveals these bits of information
not in chunks of exposition, but in sentences casually dropped into
the middle of paragraphs when you're least expecting it.
I recently heard an interview with Wolfe in which he was asked how
he knew what the line was between describing too much and just
enough. His answer was, essentially, that you describe as much as
the characters need to drive the story. He's not interested in
pages and pages and pages of description of the world as that
description would have no bearing on the story itself. I do like
that answer, because it seems that too many books these days care
more about world building than the story itself. However, I feel
like that approach falls short in A BORROWED MAN. True, we get
just enough to get us through the story, but in this circumstance
it doesn't feel like quite enough. The characters know things that
it isn't clear they should know from the knowledge the reader is
given. And while once we accept that and move on from each time
that occurs, it's jarring enough to knock me out of my reading
experience. There is one scene, a quite important one, in which the
first thing that came to my head was "now how did he know THAT?",
but I really can't tell you any more about it because it's a major
plot point and the spoiler police will be on me in a heartbeat.
In the end, the question is this: did Wolfe want to explore a world
where there were re-clones that could be checked out of a library,
or did he want to tell a murder mystery and needed a science
fictional angle that was fresh and different? I'm not really sure,
but it really didn't work for me all that well. Once Smithe was
checked out of the library, although the fact that he was a re-
clone was mentioned from time to time, the conceit wasn't used all
that much. It's reminiscent of the gender-neutral aspect of Ann
Leckie's "Ancillary" series, wherein the story was set up with that
aspect but then that conceit was sent to the background as she got
on with the rest of the novel.
In the end, A BORROWED MAN is a well-written murder mystery with a
few nice twists, but really nothing to write home about. Maybe I'm
still not mature enough to read and appreciate a Gene Wolfe novel.
Maybe I never will be. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: What I Read on My Winter Vacation (THE BONE LABYRINTH,
PERSONAL, HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT, THE BRAIN ELECTRIC, HERO OF THE AIR)
(book reviews by Dale L. Skran)
Over my winter vacation I took along five books to read, and more
or less covered all of them. I started with the light stuff--THE
BONE LABYRINTH by James Rollins. Rollins seems to have picked up
the mantle of pulp-style techno-thrillers. There is an intrinsic
plausibility to his "Sigma Force"--the covert action arm of DARPA
that looks into the kind of odd science and lost race stuff that
Doc Savage used to deal with. Sigma Force combines former military
operators with scientific experts in its NATIONAL TREASURE style HQ
under the Smithsonian.
BONE LABYRINTH deals with a rogue Chinese group that is seeking to
use ancient DNA to create super-soldiers. Mayhem ensues with around
the world travel, lost races, bizarre monsters, and alternating
guns and fists in the best pulp style. Rollins always ends his
books with an annex where he discusses what parts of the book are
real and which are not--these can be fun to read. This is not a
great book, but if you enjoy pulp style action, you may like it.
Next I read PERSONAL by Lee Child, another Jack Reacher novel.
This tale is the second following A WANTED MAN which I reviewed in
the MTVOID recently. PERSONAL is different in tone than the other
Reacher novels I've read, with a lot of the feel of a Jason Bourne
story. Reacher is recruited by American intelligence to hunt down
a dangerous killer who he arrested in the past, but has now been
released from prison and appears to be on a vendetta to both kill
Reacher and create chaos by assassinating international leaders. As
usual, there is a lot of detective work on display as Reacher
gradually figures out the full dimensions of things. Reacher
novels have a standard structure with at least one female sidekick
and lots of slogging detective work, concluding with an apocalyptic
battle. This particular final conflict seemed better motivated and
plotted than those in the other Reacher novels I have read, and in
its inventive choice of villains reminded me of Modesty Blaise
tales.
This was followed by HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT: FROM MARS TO THE STARS by
Louis Friedman. I'm going to write a separate review of this book,
but it is both controversial and worth reading. I don't endorse the
message of the book--that we ought to settle Mars but go no
further--but Friedman deserves credit for advocating his viewpoint
in an interesting fashion.
We're getting into the heavier books now--THE BRAIN ELECTRIC: THE
DRAMATIC HIGH-TECH RACE TO MERGE MINDS AND MACHINES by Malcolm Gay.
I'm not going to say I read this entire book. I skimmed the first
third and speed read the second two thirds. Mainly I was attempting
to understand the state of the art in this field. DARPA has been
funding a series of projects to create thought-controlled
prosthetic arms. The book focuses both on the colorful scientists
leading competing projects and the brave paralyzed patients who
volunteer as lab rats. Being a lab rat here involves having a lot
of needles stuck in your brain, so it is nothing to scoff at. The
patents especially come off as real heroes, selflessly dedicating
the final period of their lives to experiments that will most
likely just be a stepping stone to the real solution.
The net here is that by about 2012 we have reached the point that a
patient can mentally control a robot arm through ten degrees of
freedom, a major achievement. However useful this may be, it
reveals a new set of issues about how the brain really works, and
what is needed to restore independence to paralyzed folks. For
example, it was found that the patient could pick things up while
not looking at them, but if they looked, they couldn't do it--at
first. This appears to be related in complex ways to the lack of
tactile feedback in the arm and what the brain expects when it
picks things up. Enormous progress has been made, and in time DAPRA
will succeed, to the benefit of millions. But mysteries remain--I
suggest reading the book to find out more about them.
Finally I started HERO OF THE AIR: GLENN CURTIS AND THE BIRTH OF
NAVAL AVIATION by William F. Trimble. Curtis operated out of
upstate New York near where my son worked last summer, and I had
the opportunity to visit the Curtis museum. Everybody knows about
the Wright brothers, and they were first, but Curtis may be the
person that contributed that most to making airplane travel a
commercial reality. He also has the distinction of being the real
person who may most resemble the original Tom Swift. There was a
rivalry between the Wrights and Curtis in aviation that might be
compared to the current battle between Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk in
rocketry.
A self-taught engineer who graduated from eighth grade, he started
out racing, fixing, and selling bicycles. From this he evolved to
building, selling, and racing motorcycles, and at one point held an
unofficial world motorcycle speed record. He then moved on to
building and flying his own aircraft, working as part of a team
with the legendary Alexander Graham Bell that might be described as
the first instantiation of "Bell Labs." In all of these endeavors
he was a bold competitor who won countless competitions while
developing himself advanced engines and related technologies.
Toward the close of his career he produced streamlined mobile
homes, another Tom Swift project. I'm not quite done with the book,
but so far I'm enjoying it.
The Tom Swift Books that Curtis covered in large part during his
wide-ranging career include MOTOR CYCLE, MOTOR BOAT, AIRSHIP, SKY
RACER, AIR GLIDER, AERIAL WARSHIP, AIR SCOUT, FLYING BOAT, AIRLINE
EXPRESS, CIRCLING THE GLOBE, HOUSE ON WHEELS, SKY TRAIN, and OCEAN
AIRPORT. [-dls]
===================================================================
TOPIC: DURANT'S NEVER CLOSES (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Spend some time with Jack Durant, the Phoenix steakhouse
owner who is anything but restrained. Durant is funny, violent,
and foul-mouthed, and probably has ties to the Mafia. DURANT'S
NEVER CLOSES introduces Phoenix restaurateur Durant, one of the
more legendary personalities of the Phoenix area. Rather than
having a plot, the film takes the form of a collection of vignettes
and short stories--not all believable--woven into a minimalist
account. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
Jack Durant (played by Tom Sizemore) was a real person, a least as
real as he allowed himself be. Tough guy Durant owned a bar and
restaurant in Phoenix called, appropriately enough "Durant's." [Or
"Durant's Steakhouse."] There were all kinds of stories about him
and no one knows which ones are true. In DRUANT'S NEVER CLOSES the
viewer can spend some time in the restaurant and see the man in
action, telling stories, getting in fights, making bets, and
swearing a red streak, and letting everybody know who is boss.
Durant knew the shiny side and the underside of Phoenix.
DURANT'S NEVER CLOSES recreates one of the more notorious figures
of 20th century Arizona. Mabel Leo wrote the book THE SAGA OF JACK
DURANT; Terry Earp turned it into a stage play; Travis Mills
adapted the play for the film and then directed the film.
The film is a little claustrophobic, having most of the action take
place in the restaurant. The production design is simple. When we
are in the restaurant, which we are through most of the film, most
everything in front of the camera is bright red. We have scarlet
furniture, scarlet wallpaper, and scarlet lighting turning people's
flesh to the same oppressive bright red. These are some of the
reddist scenery since MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH.
If the background turns white we are either in Durant's head or
having a flashback, or both. Durant thinks about his past and
talks about it. The stories come thick and fast, though after an
hour they seem less thick than fast. There are implications that
Durant suggested the value of Los Vegas to Bugsy Siegel and also
vaguely that he has something to do with Siegel's death. But
that's Durant's version of the story. All this we get through a
drowsy jazz score by Tyler Parkinson. There is some classical
music when need be to bring things to a higher plane.
If your thing is watching tough guys get drunk and pick fights,
browbeat the staff and even the customers, there is plenty of that
sort of action. If not, the film is a little more problematic.
The viewer cannot know if Tom Sizemore's impression of Durant is
accurate, but it is the film's strong suit. I rate DURAND'S NEVER
CLOSES a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/10. This film is not for
everyone or for anyone allergic to the color bright red.
Film Credits:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3717088/combined
Background information on Jack Durant:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/you-dont-know-jack-6397031
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Choices (letter of comment by Jim Susky)
In response to Evelyn's comments on choices in the 01/01/16 issue
of the MT VOID, Jim Susky writes:
It is refreshing to see a skeptical, perceptive view on food
certifications. For some time the informed consumer is obliged to
discover what is behind all those labels--else remain ignorant like
most of us.
In the Sixties my father subscribed to the two Rodale magazines:
PREVENTION and ORGANIC GARDENING AND FARMING (both had the same
format as READER'S DIGEST and ANALOG). Dad had a two-acre
vegetable garden as a "hobby" in addition to his day job. He was
not dogmatic--I remember helping him sow chemical fertilizer along
with potatoes at planting time.
Flash forward to the late Eighties at Enzyme Express where you
could get wheat grass juice along with fresh vegetable juice and
spirulina-enhanced smoothies (all of which I enjoyed from time to
time). Thanks to Dad, fresh carrot juice was by then twenty years
old in my personal history. Once a patron in line with me referred
to the "organic carrots" at this place. I was in a cynical mood so
I replied (knowing full well what she thought she meant):
"I can't even imagine an inorganic carrot."
I've often thought the "organic" label was unfortunate and
overbroad--"organic standards" ought to be called "purity
standards" or some such--but perhaps by the time Rodale published
his rags various food safety acts had already appropriated the term
"purity" and its variants.
Whenever I hear a vendor offer something "free" I hold my wallet
tight. Perhaps "fair" is another instance of this. My poorly-
informed cynicism makes me think that "fair trade" coffee means the
entire production/wholesaling/roasting/distribution/retailing chain
are all in the same club, which needs no "fairness" beyond ordinary
ethical business practices.
Some time ago my son decided he would not eat industrially-produced
fowl or flesh (a.k.a. factory-farmed). This has led me to seek out
bison (which will not submit to the same indignities as cattle) and
what I call "happy chickens" (which, by the time we get them, are
nonetheless just as inert as their un-happy fellows). Thus when
shopping at the Natural Pantry I see a 13-dollar chicken beside a
23-dollar chicken--the plain difference being that the 23-dollar
chicken is festooned by many more labels and certifications (and
now, like that poor Russian-expat, I feel the stirrings of my own
nervous breakdown).
Fish is relatively easy in Alaska. If one is willing to pay, fresh
or flash-frozen locally caught (aka "wild") salmon, halibut,
pollock, and cod are always available along with imported fish.
Costco offers "Atlantic" salmon along with the local stuff, but I
suspect it's not farmed, therefore not firm and dyed, so I have yet
to pull the trigger on that. [-js]
===================================================================
TOPIC: SEVENEVES (letter of comment by Jim Susky)
In response to Evelyn's review of SEVENEVES in the 01/01/16 issue
of the MT VOID, Jim Susky writes:
Having just read the first of two "books" (comprising about 60% of
the novel) I have to say that I am mightily impressed with
Stephenson's SEVENEVES so far.
Like Evelyn I did not try to carefully envision all the structures
(Cloud Ark and Izzy). That would have been too much work for me
who struggles with spatial imagery.
Not the only impressive part was that Stephenson seemed careful to
get the orbital mechanics right--the entirety of which amounted to
a wondrous tour-de-force.
(Dr. Benford may wish to comment on the latter.)
Also impressive, Stephenson did not ring my BS detectors as did the
thoroughly enjoyable film treatment of THE MARTIAN.
(I did not take notes, as I'm sure Mark did as a bona fide film
reviewer, but there were at least a half-dozen implausibilities in
the first hour--a list that grew somewhat to about ten by the end.
The Martian "wind" was only the most obvious of these.)
Perhaps if SEVENEVES wins a Hugo and sells well, someone will
attempt an illustrated edition--which I'd be happy to purchase.
Perhaps best of all was that the first book used only existing
technology--with the possible exception of those exquisite,
customized, and numerous robots.
Now, on to Book Two! [-js]
===================================================================
TOPIC: TRUMBO, HE NAMED ME MALALA, ANOMALISA, and Last Week's
Puzzle (letter of comment by Kevin R)
In response to Mark's comments on TRUMBO in the 01/08/16 issue of
the MT VOID, Kevin R writes:
Re TRUMBO: I deplore any involvement in any level of government in
promoting the Hollywood blacklist. I would have been fine with it,
had it been a completely private endeavor. That said, am sick and
tired of the hagiography of the likes of the real life Trumbo, who
was, actually an actual communist, which means he was trying to
destroy everything near and dear to me. See
http://preview.tinyurl.com/KengorTrumbo or
http://tinyurl.com/KengorTrumbo. [-kr]
Mark responds:
I find it hard to know exactly what someone wants to do based on
just the fact he is a Democrat or that he is a Republican. Judging
a Communist would be even harder for me. How do you know what you
are saying is true of Trumbo? Regardless of his beliefs, did he
ever take any actions beyond being a (much-needed, apparently)
gadfly? [-mrl]
Re HE NAMED ME MALALA: The media also downplay what a mouthpiece
she is for socialism, connected to an International Marxist
Tendency. I believed in some pretty stupid political ideas when I
was 17, so I will cut her some slack for that. I expect classical
liberalism isn't a very big political faction where she lives, and
you make common cause with who you can. [-kr]
Mark responds:
I think she has less of a chance than Trumbo did of affecting your
life in any negative way. Wouldn't it be better to judge people by
what they do rather than by what they think? It certainly would
economize on the number of judgments you would have to make.
[-mrl]
Re ANOMALISA:
As you know, Bob, Puppetoons were from the great SFF/sfx man,
George Pal. {WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE, etc.}
"Still, it would take a Steven Spielberg to make me feel sorry for
the plight of a puppet. [-mrl]"
Pal could do it. The New York City independent TV stations used to
show the Puppetoons on their kids shows into the 1960s, until
characters like Jasper became an embarrassment. L'il Kevrob
enjoyed them, not thinking them any worse than the Our Gang/Little
Rascal shorts. Besides, they were cartoons--everybody was a bit
ridiculous in 'toons.
I was actually touched by his "John Henry".
http://www.awn.com/heaven_and_hell/PAL/GP4.htm
Just seeing the trailers on TV, I think we have an Uncanny Valley
problem, as far as my eyeballs go. [-kr]
Mark responds:
Yup! Also Ray Harryhausen worked for a while on Puppetoons. Both
he and Pal are better known for their non-Puppetoon work, but each
called on their fund of knowledge from working on the Puppetoons.
"John Henry" is really a classic. [-mrl]
Re puzzle:
"I was going to say "raise up." [-kw]"
Except, when it is Passover, the bread doesn't rise!
Fathers and mothers blessing their children is all through the Old
Testament, and I have heard of Christians continuing the practice.
I'm not a parent, so I've never done it. But, I'm not religious,
anyway. [-kr]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE MAN WHO COUNTED and Logic Puzzles (letter of comment by
Arthur T)
In response to Evelyn's review of THE MAN WHO COUNTED in the
01/08/16 issue of the MT VOID, Arthur T writes:
I can't put my hands on it right now (to give you author, date,
exact quote, etc.), but there's a MENSA quiz book that gets a liars
and truth-tellers puzzle wrong. I've shown it to several people
who agree that I'm not just misreading it.
It was the usual island with the two tribes, and you had to ask one
question of the two natives in front of you to find the safe path.
But in this case, the MENSAn didn't specify that you somehow knew
that the two natives were from different tribes. He still gave the
standard answer (ask one which way the other would say is safe).
My thought was that after the MENSAn took the path they didn't
point to, the two truth-tellers looked at each other, shrugged, and
said, "Crazy tourist" (or the two liars shrugged and said, "Smart
tourist"). [-at]
Mark responds:
You need to ask only one question of one native. "If I asked you
if this is the safe path would you say it was?" Suppose it is the
safe path. The truth-teller would say yes and would say he would
say he would say yes. The lie-teller would say "no" but would not
admit he would say no, so he also would say yes. You just have to
use a double-negative. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE ANNALS OF IMPERIAL ROME by Tacitus (translated by Michael
Grant) (ISBN 978-0-14-044-60-7) is a (mostly) year-by-year account
of the period between the start of the Common Era and sometime
around the year 60 (Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and
Nero, though parts are lost, including all of Caligula's reign).
"Tacitus" means "silent", and while Tacitus was not silent, he is
known for his brevity and clarity.
Tacitus has this digression about fate versus chance (or looked at
another way, predestination versus free will):
"When I hear this and similar stories I feel uncertain whether
human affairs are directed by Fate's unalterable necessity--or by
chance. On this question the wisest ancient Thinkers and their
disciples differ. Many insist that heaven is unconcerned with our
births and deaths--is unconcerned, in fact, with human beings--so
that the good often suffer, and the wicked prosper. Others
disagree, maintaining that although things happen according to
fate, this depends not on astral movements but on the principles
and logic of natural causality. This school leaves us free to
choose our lives. But once the choice is made, they warn that the
future sequence of events is immutable. ... Most men, however,
find it natural to believe that lives are predestined from birth,
that the science of prophecy is verified by remarkable
testimonials, ancient and modern; and that unfulfilled predictions
are due merely to ignorant impostors who discredit."
What is interesting is that Tacitus expresses this as people
preferring predestination. Admittedly, one can argue that having
your fate guided by something/someone more powerful is better than
having your fate decided by chance. But it also seems (to me,
anyway) that having free will is more appealing than believing you
have no control over your fate.
While one understands the logic in the following, it still ends up
sounding completely insane:
"Next day, the townsmen of Upse sent envoys asking for the free
population to be spared but offering to hand over ten thousand
slaves. The victorious Romans rejected this proposal on the
grounds that it was barbarous to slaughter men who had surrendered,
but hard to provide guards for such large numbers--better that they
should be slain in normal warfare. So the soldiers, who had scaled
the defences on ladders, were given orders to kill; and the
inhabitants were exterminated."
In other words, we do not have enough guards to guard you if you
surrender, but neither can we kill you if you surrender, so we are
going to have what is basically a mock battle so that we can
pretend that we killed you in battle.
(This reminds me of someone's proposal that the South might have
been able to win the Civil War if all their wounded surrendered to
the North, thereby putting an enormous strain on the North's
resources. This might not have been a good idea, though, because
the South being overwhelmed with prisoners was what created prisons
such as Andersonville.)
The following aside got me to wondering about the geography of it:
"His colleague in Upper Germany, Lucius Antistius Vetus, planned to
build a Saone-Moselle canal. Goods arriving from the Mediterranean
up the Rhone and Saone would thus pass via the Moselle into the
Rhine, and so to the North Sea." Given that the Romans did not, to
the best of my knowledge, have canal locks, I would think that a
canal openly connecting two rivers would result in the flow of the
river at the upper end of the canal would redirect itself to the
canal and down the other river.
SHE NAILED A STAKE THROUGH HIS HEAD: TALES OF BIBLICAL TERROR
edited by Tim Lieder (ISBN 978-0-9766546-7-4) was a book I had been
looking for for a long time--and then I found it on the freebie
table at Philcon. (Actually, it's more a swap table--while
occasionally publishers may put out a few books, it is
overwhelmingly books, tapes, DVDs, and general miscellanea that
ordinary con-goers put out to get rid of. I highly recommend this
as something cons should plan for, in the sense of having some
extra table space next to their flyer racks and "official" freebie
tables, especially if a lot of people arrive by car. And, yes,
occasionally something I put out seems to appear on a dealer's
table the next day, but it's very few items, because most of the
good stuff gets picked up fairly quickly.)
Anyway, back to SHE NAILED A STAKE THROUGH HIS HEAD. I cannot
remember where I read about this, but I am guessing it was in the
Locus list of books received, with a very short description,
because I was expecting either a straight re-telling of the
Biblical stories, or something along the lines of James Morrow's
"Bible Stories for Adults". It is neither, but rather a series of
stories inspired by various Biblical stories.
"Whither Thou Goest" by Gerri Leen and "As if Favorites of their
God" by Christi Krug are the closest to what I was expecting. The
first is a , re-telling of the story of Ruth as a horror story.
(Who knew?) The second is that of Saul and the Witch of Endor.
"Babylon's Burning" by Daniel Kaysen is an updating of the story of
Daniel, but of the prophecy on the wall, not the lions as one might
expect in a "terror" anthology.
"Judgment at Naioth" by Elissa Macohn is a re-telling of the story
of Tamar and Absalom and Solomon and so on, but with motorcycles
and other modern accoutrements. "Jawbone of an Ass" by Lyda
Morehouse is the story of Samson set in recent Northern Ireland.
I am not sure what "Judith & Holofernes" by Romie Scott is, unless
it is some strange delusion of Judith's, but told in the third
person.
"Last Respects" by D. K. Thompson seems more based on the New
Testament (maybe the Book of Revelation?), but its closest
fictional relative seems to me to be Piers Anthony's "In the Barn".
And a couple are not from the Bible at all, unless there is an
extended version of which I am unaware. "Psalm of the Second Body"
by Catherynne Valente is from "Gilgamesh", and while "Swallowed!"
by Stephen M. Wilson does mention one Biblical character and
another character from Hebrew folklore, it is primarily inspired by
the Cthulhu mythos.
It is an interesting volume, but I found it disappointing. Oh, and
Jael never shows up at all. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Most people have never learned that one of the main
aims in life is to enjoy it.
--Samuel Butler