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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 12/18/98 -- Vol. 17, No. 25
MT Chair/Librarian:
Mark Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-5619 mleeper@lucent.com
HO Chair: John Jetzt MT 2E-530 732-957-5087 jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 732-949-7076 njs@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist:
Rob Mitchell MT 2E-537 732-957-6330 robmitchell@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 3E-433 732-957-2070 eleeper@lucent.com
Back issues at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4824
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the
second Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call
201-447-3652 for details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society
meets irregularly; call 201-652-0534 for details, or check
http://www.interactive.net/~kat/njsfs.html. The Denver Area
Science Fiction Association meets 7:30 PM on the third Saturday of
every month at Southwest State Bank, 1380 S. Federal Blvd.
1. URL of the week: http://www.princeofegypt.com. This site
includes a "study guide" for the film. [-ecl]
===================================================================
2. Dear Sir or Madam,
I recently received a chain letter from you with a puerile feel-
good proto-prayer expressed as an incoherent thought surrogate. I
am so pleased that you thought of me, and I hope you are not overly
concerned about your possible upcoming martyrdom for your fatuous
beliefs. Let me explain in some detail what I mean. The following
facts have come to my attention.
-- Rudolf Hotze was on Death Row for the brutal dismemberment
murder and robbery of Robert Rowland. In what was to be his last
mail delivery he received a chain letter with some sentimental
claptrap. He made up copies and was about to send me one, when
decided it was not worth it. HE CHOSE NOT TO SEND ME A CHAIN
LETTER. Two hours later his execution was commuted to a prison
term. Last week due to DNA evidence he was released and now has a
lucrative job.
-- Carol Johnson, got a chain letter in the mail and immediately
thought of me. She made up a copy and crossed the street to MAIL
ME THE COPY. She was so excited she never saw the UPS truck coming
up the hill.
-- A man in Portland Oregon got a chain letter and immediately
threw it in the wastebasket. Two days later he won the Irish
Sweepstakes.
-- Robert Rowland got a copy of the same chain letter in the mail
and he SENT ME A COPY. A week later he had a misfortune and his
body was found in Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.
-- Scott Adams had the idea to send anti-chain-letter mail and
today he writes the fantastically successful DILBERT comic strip
making millions from what should be common knowledge.
-- A woman in Stowe, Vermont STARTED A CHAIN LETTER and one week
later was diagnosed with lymph cancer.
Remember, chance favors people who are not moronic superstitious
putzes. You already have made yourself a stupid jerk by giving me
a chain letter. A very bad fate may be waiting for you after what
you have already done. But there may still be time. Make ten
copies of this letter and pass it to the next ten people who give
you chain letters. I am doing this because in spite of the fact
that you have shown yourself to be dumb as a piece of string, I
still care for you and I am ready to forgive. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: In a relatively minor STAR TREK story,
the "Next Generation" crew stop a miscarriage
of justice against a group of six hundred
people living a sort of idyllic existence on a
magical planet. Beautiful special effects, but
a somewhat lackluster story. Rating: 5 (0 to
10), low +1 (-4 to +4)
New York Critics: 6 positive, 3 negative, 7
mixed
Maybe STAR TREK is growing up and what we are seeing with STAR
TREK: INSURRECTION is really a good thing. For once the Next
Generation crew are not out trying to save the universe from a mad
man trying to destroy it. The basic issue being discussed is one
that gets seen in American courtrooms every year. The issue is one
of eminent domain. Does the Federation have the right to relocate
a group of six hundred colonists from a planet and turn that planet
into a boon to the entire human race? Do the colonists have a
right to say they do not want to give up their planet at the
expense of the greater number of people? It is an important legal
point. Certainly there are examples in the past when relocating
people has been a great injustice. What is at stake are the
principles of the Federation. But do we really care, given that we
are living in a decade when many large institutions seem to be
betraying their founding principles? The idea that the Federation
of Planets may be no better than many of our own government
agencies is hardly shocking today.
This principle of possession is an odd basis for what is in large
part an action film. It certainly is a complex moral issue. Or it
could have been a complex moral issue if the writers had the
courage to leave it ambiguous. But not surprisingly they did not
have that courage. Rest assured that when the movie is over--and
in fact from very early in the film--the viewer will know who the
good guys are and who the bad guys are. And what is more--I doubt
that this is a spoiler--it is the pretty people who will be the
good guys and the ugly people who will be the bad guys. So if the
themes are a little more sophisticated than usual, the approach is
not.
The Ba'ku are an advanced race who have abandoned their advanced
technology and returned to a simple life in which they can do
simple, pleasant, creative tasks all day long. They have found
themselves a planetary Shangri-La that keeps them forever young.
It is the kind of non-technological utopia where everybody has nice
creative tasks like baking bread or making pottery and nobody
within range of the camera has to do laundry, scrub mildew stains,
or clean toilets. But another race, the Son'a, are plotting to get
control of the Ba'ku's planet so that the Federation can analyze
the magic of the planet. The Son'a people look like they were
inspired by the Katherine Helmond character of BRAZIL. They look
like they started human looking but have had too many facelifts so
the flesh is pulled too tightly over their skulls. It is a kind of
nightmare that people must have in affluent neighborhood of Los
Angeles. There is also something of The Shadow in them as they and
the Federation were able to build a large observation station
within yards of the Ba'ku encampment, all the while clouding Ba'ku
minds so they were never detected.
The Enterprise crew get involved on the side of the Ba'ku,
defending their right to monopolize the positive effects of their
planet. Curiously this film almost directly contradicts the theme
of STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN in which Spock tells us that the
needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.
The actors playing crew of the Enterprise do their standard
competent acting job. It may take a little while to get up to
speed remembering the personalities of each of the characters as
one viewer told me. But they step through their roles with
performances that are equally without flaw or excitement. Even the
former great Patrick Stewart is a competent but pedestrian starship
captain. Rejoining the crew is Michael Dorn as Worf who manages to
be assigned to the Enterprise or to Deep Space Nine, whichever this
agent prefers at the moment. F. Murray Abraham is the alpha Son'a,
but even he cannot put much passion into his role. The actors are
much upstaged by the usual exquisite Enterprise effects. Views of
the old starship tacking in and out of nebulae where this film
shows its real artistry.
The STAR TREK: INSURRECTION might make a decent episode or two of
the TV-series, but it has hardly the makings of a classic film. It
just is not sufficiently involving. I give it a 5 on the 0 to 10
scale and a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
4. MAXIMUM LIGHT by Nancy Kress (Tor, 1998, SFBC edition, 255pp,
ISBN 0-312-86535-X) (a book review by Joe Karpierz):
Within the science fiction field, Nancy Kress is well-known for her
genetic/biological oriented stories, and MAXIMUM LIGHT is no
exception. While not quite up to the caliber of her "Beggars"
trilogy, MAXIMUM LIGHT is satisfying enough, I suppose, but a
little disappointing.
MAXIMUM LIGHT chronicles the story surrounding the intersection of
the lives of three characters: Nick Clementi, a respected 75-year-
old physician; Shana Walders, a rebellious young woman attempting
to get into the Army; and Cameron Atuli, a blithe (yet another term
for gay) ballet dancer. The setting is Earth in the near future
where the birth rate is perilously low due to low sperm counts. As
a matter of fact, the birth rate is so low that parents will do
almost anything to have/get children, including getting babies on
the black market, or treating their pets as human children.
All this is due to the fact that genetic research is basically
illegal; the people have decided that we've screwed ourselves up
enough, therefore let's not risk anymore dangerous research that
might mess us up more. As a result, there is a great deal of
illegal research going on. One of the results of that research is
the modification of chimpanzees to give them the appearance of
human children by using a process known as vivifacture to graft
human faces and extremities on to the chimps.
So how do our characters fit in? Walders has seen chimps with
Atuli's face on them. Atuli's connection? Well, he may be blithe
(or gay, or whatever), but he's FERTILE. So he's been kidnapped,
and well, that's a little bit more than I want to say here.
Clementi? Well, he is a respected physician who is on an advisory
committee dealing with medical crises. And the fertility problem
IS a crisis, and he's trying to get to the cause of it all. He
sits in on a hearing wherein Shana discloses what she has seen.
The story is a decent one, I think, in the fact that it makes us
think a little bit about a potential fertility problem and what it
could do to our civilization. I'm sure the theme has been explored
before, but I've never seen it. Kress handles the science and the
story well (as she always does), but it seems to be missing
something. While thought provoking, the novel doesn't seem to have
the depth of the "Beggars" trilogy, or even some of her shorter
works. It's a straightforward narrative, easy to read, and won't
give you brain damage while you're trying to follow it. And even
though I think that's a good thing in general, it just doesn't do
anything for me this time.
Still, I'd say that you should go out and read it. At the very
least it's entertaining, and that's what you want from a book
anyway, isn't it? [-jak]
Mark Leeper
MT 3E-433 732-957-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
Mathematical proofs, like diamonds, are hard as well
as clear, and will be touched with nothing but strict
reasoning.
-- John Locke