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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 9/10/99 -- Vol. 18, No. 11
Chair/Librarian: Mark Leeper, 732-817-5619, mleeper@lucent.com
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper, 732-332-6218, eleeper@lucent.com
Distinguished Heinlein Apologist: Rob Mitchell, robmitchell@lucent.com
HO Chair Emeritus: John Jetzt, jetzt@lucent.com
HO Librarian Emeritus: Nick Sauer, njs@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 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. The Hugo winners are listed at the end of this notice. [-ecl]
===================================================================
2. There are those among us, myself included, who felt that the
fall of the Soviet Union would be a marvelous defeat of the forces
of tyranny in the world. Indeed many of us thought that the New
World Order might well spell the beginning of an end to oppression
altogether. But we may have been wrong to count out dictatorships
and tyrannies. Oppressive governments around the world are moving
into the 21st century with greater skill and stealth than we
imagined. The forces of oppression have a greater fighting spirit
and are more willing to do what needs to be done to win the game
than the forces opposing them.
I think that among the people who have underestimated the forces of
tyranny are the East Timorese. Many of them went ahead and voted
with total impunity for independence from Indonesia. What we are
seeing in East Timor is that tyranny is showing a new vigor and
vitality--a determination to win at all costs. It is doing the
right sort of things to maintain power. It is the UN forces that
are being made to look foolish as they back out of the area leaving
it to the terrorist militias. The forces employing the terrorist
militias are playing a smart game and may well be the winners. I
think that other tyrannies around the world owe the Indonesian
government a debt of admiration and gratitude. The lessons of East
Timor will not be lost on voters around the world who are
considering issues of freedom. [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. Recently I saw a documentary on propaganda cartoons from the
American film industry during World War II. One interesting fact
having little to do with their main topic is that Warner Brothers
Cartoons from the likes of Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett consider
themselves to be very secondary to Disney Studios. They thought
their material was second class and that Disney was the first class
animated film studio. They saw a Disney cartoon where Mickey Mouse
talked to the audience--breaking "the fourth wall" as it is called.
Well they thought, we can do it too. I don't know what cartoon
Disney did it with but it became almost a Warner Brothers
trademark. But, and here's the point, there are only a relative
few fans left of the cartoons they were copying. Disney feature
films are remembered, but few of his short cartoons have nearly so
effectively engrained themselves on the public conscious. Now
there is more than one reason for that. Disney Studios still keeps
tight hold on their product as their nest egg. But how many of us
really want to see old Mickey Mouse cartoons? They were just not
creative enough. On the other hand Warner Brothers cartoons with
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are the classics that we remember today.
Chuck Jones is really remembered as THE comic genius of cartoons.
Yet he always thought his stuff was second rate. Kids today grow
up with his cartoons that were already old when their parents grew
up with them. There may still be a market for 40s and 50s Donald
duck and Mickey Mouse cartoons, but not much of one. But the cheap
imitation has turned out to be the classic.
Until late in his life Buster Keaton thought of himself as a
failure. He had made some comedies in the silent days and for a
while felt pretty good about them but when sound film came in he
went out. His style of comedy did not go very well with sound.
James Mason bought a house that was once owned by Keaton and found
a whole trove of Keaton's old films rotting in an old shed. He
asked Keaton if he wanted them and Keaton decided he did. Late in
his life Keaton was asked to go to the Venice Film Festival to talk
about his films. He could not imagine anybody would know much more
than who he was. Instead he got the loudest and longest applause
that anyone ever had gotten at the film festival.
Something very similar happened with film director Jack Arnold. He
spent some time working for Universal Studios in the 1950s. They
gave him the choice of working on Westerns or on science fiction.
He picked science fiction because he did not know anything about
handling horses. He made a handful of low-budget B-pictures before
he moved on to other work elsewhere. The science fiction stuff was
not even what he thought of first when he thought of the films he
made. Late in life he discovered that there were people out there
who talked admiringly about "the Jack Arnold science fiction film."
His films like IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE, TARANTULA, THE INCREDIBLE
SHRINKING MAN, and THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON were
considered to be classics.
I guess there is no special point except that when you do something
due to constraints on you that you think is second-rate, very often
other people may not perceive it that way. [-mrl]
===================================================================
4. FLASHFORWARD by Robert J. Sawyer (1999, Tor, 319 pp, HC, $23.95,
ISBN 0-312-86712-3) (a book review by Joe Karpierz):
So, what would you do if you caught a two-minute glimpse of your
life 21 years into the future? It depends, doesn't it? Are you
still married to the person you are now? Did you see the stock
market prices for that day? Are you even still alive? How is your
family? Your company? Did you invent something new?
No, I didn't think of these things myself. I'm not that smart.
Rob Sawyer thought of these things. I just read them. The
question I asked at the top of the review is the central theme of
Sawyer's newest novel, FLASHFORWARD. The setting is the CERN
research facility in Switzerland, and researchers there are
attempting to find the Higgs Boson particle. Well, the high energy
experiment which was supposed to produce the particle had a very
weird and unexpected side-effect: humanity dipped into
unconsciousness for something close to two minutes, during which
people caught a glimpse of themselves 21 years in the future. Of
course, the other side effect was that many folks were killed or
injured during the flashforward, because, for instance, if you're
driving a car at high speeds and go unconscious for 2 minutes ...
well, you get the idea.
The rest of the novel is spent exploring the question of what would
happen if humanity knew its future. We of course have our two main
characters, Lloyd Simcoe and Theo Procopides, whose visions cause
them great consternation, to say the least. The novel spends a
great deal of time following the paths that those two take. And
while those are interesting, the more interesting things about the
novel are the various ideas that Sawyer proposes as a result of
seeing the future. Start with the list of questions in the first
paragraph, and keep thinking. You'll be amazed at stuff you never
thought of before. While you're letting your mind wander, think
about politics and religion, because both of those have a stake in
this too.
But as with any other Sawyer novel, eventually the Big Ideas kick
in. Is the future fixed, thus rendering the concept of free will
meaningless? How is consciousness related to quantum physics? And
what does Schroedinger's Cat have to do with any of this (think
about *that* one for awhile)? FLASHFORWARD certainly isn't as
densely packed with ideas the way that FACTORING HUMANITY was, but
it'll do quite nicely.
As usual, Sawyer has also written a novel that's not going to take
up all your time, energy, and strength to read. It's a compelling
read without being the world's largest novel-doorstop. And yet,
it's very straightforward and enjoyable. Your head may hurt after
the idea dump (as with any other Sawyer novel), but it's a good
hurt.
I've always said that the best SF novels deal with the effect of
technology on humanity, and how humanity deals with technology.
FLASHFORWARD is a perfect example. I highly recommend it. [-jak]
===================================================================
5. Hugo Awards (1999):
Best Novel: TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG, Connie Willis
Best Novella: "Oceanic", Greg Egan (ASIMOV'S, Aug 1998)
Best Novelette: "Taklamakan", Bruce Sterling (ASIMOV'S,
Oct/Nov 1998)
Best Short Story: "The Very Pulse of the Machine",
Michael Swanwick (ASIMOV'S, Feb 1998)
Best Related Book: THE DREAMS OUR STUFF IS MADE OF:
HOW SCIENCE FICTION CONQUERED THE WORLD,
Thomas M. Disch
Best Dramatic Presentation: THE TRUMAN SHOW
Best Professional Editor: Gardner Dozois
Best Professional Artist: Bob Eggleton
Best Semiprozine: LOCUS, Charles N. Brown, ed.
Best Fanzine: "Ansible", Dave Langford, ed.
Best Fan Writer: Dave Langford
Best Fan Artist: Ian Gunn
John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer:
Nalo Hopkinson
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com