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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 09/17/99 -- Vol. 18, No. 12
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. It has been a while since we have had a film at a video meeting
at work. People seem to prefer those over reading and discussing
books. The problem is that we only have an hour at a time. So we
have to split the movie into two parts. But we have the facilities
here. So...
We will be showing in HO 1J-672:
Wednesday 10/6 GATTACA, Part 1
Thursday 10/7 GATTACA, Part 2
GATTACA is probably the best science fiction film of the 1990s. In
a world where one's DNA is ones destiny, where everybody's cast is
determined by what their DNA says about them, a genetic inferior
wants to be part of the space program. He hires a genetic non-
inferior to supply him with biological samples for tests.
It could have been done very poorly as a didactic anti-technology
film. Instead it is extremely intelligent. Apparently Andrew
Niccol had written THE TRUMAN SHOW and everyone in Hollywood wanted
to buy the script. His deal was that whoever made it had to let
him make and direct GATTACA, the film he really wanted to make.
Find out why. [-mrl]
2. I was talking recently with an astronomer and was reminded the
sun was made of gas from a star that had died long before. I asked
what were the age of the sun and the age of the universe. I
believe the answer was five billion years and something like ten to
twenty billion years. The age of the universe has come into severe
question over the last year. But the numbers say the sun is
between half and a quarter the age of the universe. And the sun
was made from the remnants of another star. Doesn't it seem
unlikely that all this is happening so close to the beginning? New
stars are forming all the time and will continue to form far into
the future. It seems to me a little odd that our sun formed so
early in the life of the universe. One might ask were we already
in the Milky Way galaxy when our sun formed how old was it already
formed when our sun was formed? I guess intuitively I would expect
the universe to be a hundred or maybe a thousand solar lifetimes
old. I didn't expect a number like two or even four. We just seem
to be an earlier player than I would have thought.
But some of these numbers are based on surprisingly tenuous logic.
Particularly a lot of our knowledge of far distant objects depends
very heavily on measurement by Doppler or red shifts. I could be
wrong about this but I think that we measure the distance and speed
of very far distant objects by the degree of red shift in their
spectra of light.
I assume most of you understand the concept, but suppose you have
an ice cream truck driving down the highway and the refrigeration
unit conks out and the sorbet starts to melt. Every second the
blueberry sorbet drops a drip onto the highway. Every ten seconds
a red raspberry sorbet droplet falls onto the highway. You are
following at a constant speed. You pass a blue droplet every
second and a red droplet every ten seconds.
Now the ice cream driver realizes that he has a problem and starts
to speed up. Blueberry still drops onto the highway at once a
second, raspberry once every ten, but now because of the faster
speed the droplets are further apart on the highway. You now pass
a blue droplet every 1.1 second and a red one every 11 seconds.
You can actually compute the rate at which the ice cream truck is
speeding up.
That is how light works and how we measure the speed at which very
distant objects move. Various common elements give off fixed
wavelengths of light when they burn. Light from distant objects
also has familiar wavelengths and we might expect to see the light
at those wavelengths but we see it at longer wavelengths. Then we
assume the object is moving away from us.
BUT: suppose light that travels very going distances has a
wavelength shift naturally. Suppose the ice cream truck is really
travelling at our speed and the heat of the day is making the
blacktop of the highway expand. You don't see this over short
distances because the effect is really, really tiny. But the drops
of sorbet are further apart when we see them than when they are
created. Blueberry is still appearing at a 10 to 1 ratio. We
would think the truck is speeding up and it would be just an effect
of the heat.
What if the same thing was happening to light from very distant
sources? From some principle that we do not yet understand light
waves that travel very long distances get an increased wavelength.
It is really tough to set up an experiment to demonstrate it since
all are measurements are affected by it more or less uniformly and
the affect is so tiny at any but huge distances. I don't know if
there was any way we could detect it. Where it could show up is it
would tell us the very far objects are accelerating away from us
faster and faster in spite of Newtonian physics telling us the
universe should be decelerating outward.
And there is the point. Because for the last several months
cosmologists have been trying to explain why their measurements say
that the universe is expanding faster and faster. They are
postulating a new repulsive force. It would be easy to explain if
this light starts out blue-shifted and as the result of its long
trip ends up red-shifted. Certainly at our end it is too red-
shifted and that is hard to explain. Could this effect be just a
trick of the light? [-mrl]
===================================================================
3. STIR OF ECHOES (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: This story is based on a lesser novel
by horror master Richard Matheson. It involves
ghosts and telepathy, is atmospheric, and told
with a great deal of tension. Unfortunately
the plot could have used a few twists and
surprises. The story is much too
straightforward for its own good. Rating: 6 (0
to 10), +1 (-4 to +4)
As I was sitting at the Toronto Film Festival last year waiting for
the screening of APT PUPIL I spoke to the woman next to me who
claimed to really love horror, especially Stephen King. I asked if
she was also a fan of Richard Matheson. "Who?" Richard Matheson
is one of the most important names in American horror fiction, TV,
and cinema. She pulled a copy of Steven King's DANSE MACABRE, a
study of American horror, from a bag she carried and found that
yes, there were references to Richard Matheson. I should hope so.
Matheson may not have the name recognition of a King or a Koontz,
but he has been behind everything important in horror and some
spilling over into fantasy and science fiction since the 50s. Both
King and Koontz freely admit large debts to Matheson. Matheson was
really the major force to move the setting of horror stories out of
castles in Eastern Europe and into American suburbia.
Matheson first got involved with film when his novel THE SHRINKING
MAN was adapted into the film THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. Only
Rod Serling provided more stories that were dramatized on THE
TWILIGHT ZONE. Matheson wrote most of Roger Corman's film
adaptations of Poe in the 60s. He scripted THE DEVIL RIDES OUT
(a.k.a. THE DEVIL'S BRIDE) one of the best films from Hammer Films.
Matheson adapted the novel THE NIGHT STALKER for TV. He wrote THE
LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE and SOMEWHERE IN TIME, based on his own
novels. He wrote DUEL based on his own story. DUEL was one of the
first films to bring serious attention to Stephen Spielberg. The
lady in Toronto entered the theater passing a large standup ad for
WHAT DREAMS MAY COME adapted from the novel by Richard Matheson.
That is about 45 years that Matheson has been a force to reckon
with in horror in the visual media. STIR OF ECHOES is based on the
novel A STIR OF ECHOES by Richard Matheson.
Tom Witzky (played by Kevin Bacon) is a sort of lower middle class
telephone lineman in an older suburb of Chicago. His main
entertainments involve beer and sports. Both he and his wife
Maggie (Kathryn Erbe) are vaguely dissatisfied with their downbeat
existence. Their son Jake (Zachary David Cope) seems to live in
his own world talking to an imaginary friend, Samantha. Maggie has
a male-hating sister Lisa (Illeana Douglas) who is in training to
be a hypno-therapist. One night at a party Tom makes fun of Lisa's
profession and Lisa suggests he allow her to hypnotize him. She
leaves him with a post-hypnotic suggestion to "leave his mind
open." The suggestion works too well. Tom's mind is open to more
than just a few new ideas; it is open to some forces in the
universe better left alone. He starts having disturbing and
graphic nightmares, continuations of visions he had under hypnosis,
and worse, now he sees Samantha himself. And she looks to him like
a walking corpse. Tom starts to associate this ghostly apparition
with a neighbor girl named Samantha who disappeared from the
neighborhood some months before. Slowly he becomes obsessed with
proving his visions of Samantha are real and that she must have
been murdered in his house.
David Koepp has been a writer on several big-ticket films of the
recent years including CARLITO'S WAY, JURASSIC PARK, THE SHADOW,
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, THE TRIGGER EFFECT (which he also directed),
THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK, and MEN IN BLACK. Here he both
writes and directs; though the film is based on a novel by Richard
Matheson. He does have a nice hand with mood as he keeps the
lighting subdued and sets the film in an older neighborhood to
create more atmosphere. The latter is a curious move on his part
having written the screenplay. The novel, written in 1958, is set
in a then modern suburb. The story could well have been set in the
neighborhood where POLTERGEIST was set instead of this old Chicago
neighborhood. But the script explicitly calls attention to the
fact that the house is new or at least that the Witzkys are the
first people who have ever lived in the house. The line makes no
sense in a house this old. I also note with pleasure a nod to
Richard Matheson in that a babysitter is reading his THE SHRINKING
MAN. (And given that it is an old edition and was probably
purchased in Chicago, the odds say she got it at the bookstore The
Stars Our Destination.) The setting does not always work and a
little doctoring of the script might have made the film make more
sense.
This is a tense and atmospheric film. Kevin Bacon does a
convincing job of playing the working class main character. But in
the final analysis there is not much new in the film. To be
memorable it would have to build up to something a little less
prosaic. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4 to
+4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
4. THE MUSE (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: A screenwriter who has lost his edge
meets a real muse, a spirit said to inspire
artists. The price of the muse's services is
to be constantly pampered in some of the most
exquisite ways possible. Albert Brooks once
had a great ear for how people talk and a great
eye for how they behave, but he himself may be
losing his edge. In spite of a few very clever
moments this is far from Brooks's best or his
most perceptive comedy. Rating: 5 (0 to 10),
low +1 (-4 to +4)
In his new film Albert Brooks plays a screenwriter who can still
write funny material but is losing his "edge." He does not know
what it means to be losing his edge, but he is losing it
nonetheless. Sadly, the script of THE MUSE itself is often very
funny, but Brooks seems to be losing his own edge. The Albert
Brooks edge was to be able to write dialog that is both funny and
true. In LOST IN AMERICA when his wife gambles away "the nest
egg," part of the punishment that Brooks thinks of on the spur of
the moment is she is no longer allowed to use the words "nest" or
"egg." She must order fried THINGS for breakfast. If she sees a
bird's home she must call it a round STICK. This is very funny
material because it is so ridiculous and at the same time so
possible. But that very real sort of humor is missing from THE
MUSE. In this film that kind of dialog is lost in all the sarcasm.
Stephen Phillips (Albert Brooks) is a Hollywood screenwriter who
may be just getting to be past his prime. When his latest script
is rejected he starts worrying about how to feed his family. He
goes to his friend, the fabulously successful screenwriter Jack
Warrick (Jeff Bridges). But who is this beautiful woman kissing
Jack good-bye? It isn't his wife. This is a side of Jack that
Stephen has not seen before. Eventually Jack admits reluctantly
that this woman is not his mistress but really his muse. Literally
she is a muse. She is one of the nine daughters of Zeus. If you
treat her like a queen she will inspire you to your most creative
ideas and your best work. Stephen decides that he has nothing to
lose and decides to make her his muse. Her name is Sarah.
Stephen starts seeing the Sarah (Sharon Stone) and taking up the
responsibility of keeping her happy. Things that appeal to her
tastes do not come cheaply. It costs tens of thousands of dollars
a week to keep her in the style to which she expects to live. But
she apparently is the real thing and Stephen starts getting story
ideas that may all be worth the effort of keeping the pampered,
spoiled, conscienceless brat happy at all hours of the night with
expensive snacks. He will indulge her even if it wrecks his
marriage. And it nearly does as his wife Laura (Andie MacDowell)
foolishly jumps to the conclusion her husband is having an affair
and then (surprise!) she very cleverly realizes that explanation
does not explain the strange behavior. Again the film parallel its
own story when Stephen complains that his new screenplay is lacking
a third act and then he chooses one that seems tacked on. The
ending is clearly the weakest part of the film. Brooks ties things
up, but not in at all a satisfying way.
Sharon Stone clearly is enjoying herself behaving pampered and
spoiled the way most people secretly would like to be. Brooks is
his usual irritable character, but he has played this character too
often before. He has also arranged an impressive lineup of
familiar film personalities to flesh out his story.
What is unfortunate about THE MUSE is that Brooks walked right by
the best use of his concept and he never even noticed it. The real
story is not the Muse's relationship with Stephen Phillips. The
story to tell is how does a Muse establish herself in a cynical
town like Hollywood. How does she make her first conquests? How
is her reputation established? This may be a story more in the
realm of Thorne Smith, but it is certainly where the interesting
ideas are. THE MUSE is rated PG-13 for language and a moment of
totally pointless gratuitous nudity that apparently is present only
to avoid a PG rating. Speaking of rating, I give THE MUSE a 5 on
the 0 to 10 scale and a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale. [-mrl]
===================================================================
5. INVERSIONS by Iain Banks (Pcoket Books, ISBN 0-671-03668-8,
US$23) (a book review by Dale Skran):
This is the latest volume of "space opera" set in the Culture
universe. However, Banks is so sneaky that you may get halfway
through the book before you start to suspect that the Culture is
involved. This book mainly involves medieval plotting and
counter-plotting, with a background of ethical debate over how far
an advanced culture should go in helping a more "primitive"
culture. This is not going to win any Hugos, but Banks is back on
target after the less than compelling EXCESSION.
For those who are not Banks readers, the following books are all in
the "Culture" universe and are worth reading:
- THE PLAYER OF GAMES: The first Culture story; the best game-
player in the Culture takes on an alien Empire.
- CONSIDER PHLEBAS: Grand scope space war; the Culture vs. the
Indirans, or, the USA/Europe vs. Iraq/Iran in the real world.
- USE OF WEAPONS: A more focused tale with a touch of horror.
- THE STATE OF THE ART: The Culture comes to 1977 Earth in this
collection of short stories
- EXCESSION: The Culture may have met its match. Great idea, but
execution is lacking.
- INVERSIONS: Medieval plotting and ethical conundrums.
The grand conceit of the Banksian vision is that he has projected
the salient features of Western Culture and most especially
American culture forward a few millenniums, creating something both
annoying and plausible. He is especially strong on how corrosive
ideas like wealth and freedom and equality can really be when
coupled to AI and starships as big as moons.
Related books by Banks that are also worth reading include AGAINST
A DARK BACKGROUND, which I would describe as a fun space opera.
Casual readers are warned that Banks is most comfortable as a
horror writer, and manages to always insert some really unpleasant
material. In INVERSIONS this material involves describing the
living conditions of the poor, and medical care in a torture
chamber. I cannot really say that these descriptions are
gratuitous, but they are certainly unpleasant.
Please note that Banks also writes horror under the name "Iain
Banks" so look for the initial "M" when buying to avoid a ghastly
surprise (unless you liked THE WASP FACTORY!!!). [-dls]
[This is currently in print in the UK. The publication information
given above is for the US edition, due out in November. -ecl]
===================================================================
6. THE SPIKE: ACCELERATING INTO THE UNIMAGINABLE FUTURE by Damien
Broderick (Reed Books Australia, ISBN 0-730-10497-4, 280pp,
A$19.95) (a book review by Dale Skran):
I am warning you right up front that this is not intended so much
as a review as a pointer. For those of you who are new to the
concept, out on the fringes of SF lies an idea, first described in
detail by Vernor Vinge in MAROONED IN REAL TIME, called the
"Singularity." It has various definitions, but for Vinge is
related to the lack of projectibility/understandability that occurs
once super-human artificial intelligences exist.
Without discussing these ideas at all, I note that Broderick, an
Australian SF writer, has written THE SPIKE to carry on a
conversation about the Singularity and related ideas. In many ways
this book is merely commentary on MAROONED IN REAL TIME and various
books by Hans Moravec, tied in with material culled from the Net.
Having said that, THE SPIKE is must reading for anyone who is
seriously interested in predictive SF, or in what might happen in
the real future we actually live in.
The book has two major weaknesses. One, as a non-scientist
Broderick offers little guidance as he takes us on a tour of
fantastic possibilities, and has apparently devoted not enough
thought to the economics involved in his future worlds (he isn't in
business either!). Two, although he correctly recognizes that
widespread AI will have huge effects on the economy and the labor
market, possibly creating a vast mass of unemployable human drones,
he suggests as a solution the negative income tax with rather
little discussion of this complex topic. I've recently read
several books in this area that you might consider before rushing
off with Broderick toward a simple minded solution to this real but
complex issue:
1. The Conservative Critique of the Welfare State
- LOSING GROUND by Charles Murray
- IN PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS AND GOOD GOVERNMENT by Charles Murray
- THE BELL CURVE by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray
- WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A LIBERTARIAN by Charles Murray
- MIGRATIONS AND CULTURES by Thomas Sowell
- WHO PROSPERS? by Lawrence E. Harrison
2. The Liberal Response
- DUBIOUS CONCEPTIONS: THE POLITICS OF TEENAGE PREGNANCY by
Kristin Luker
- THE BELL CURVE WARS edited by Steven Fraser
- THE WAY WE REALLY ARE by Stephanie Coontz
- AMERICA UNEQUAL by Sheldon Danziger and Peter Gottschalk
- THE UNDESERVING POOR: FROM THE WAR ON POVERTY TO THE WAR ON
WELFARE by Michael Katz
3. Alternative Critiques of the Welfare State
- RETHINKING SOCIAL POLICY: RACE, POVERTY, AND THE UNDERCLASS
by Christopher Jencks
- THE END OF EQUALITY by Mickey Kaus
Broderick also has a touching faith that that humans will deal well
with unlimited leisure time since he deals well with working as a
free-lance writer. In spite of these weaknesses, THE SPIKE is a
very interesting and well worth reading. It is an excellent one
stop shopping trip that covers AI, downloading, nanotech, cryonics,
and more, and supplies a useful reading list at the end. [-dls]
[Note: this is available in Australia and the UK, as well as on-
line bookstores based there. It is not in print in the US. -ecl]
===================================================================
7. STUCK IN FAST FORWARD by Damien Broderick and Rory Barnes (a
book review by Dale Skran):
In this Heinlein juvenile style story, Broderick and Barnes reprise
Vernor Vinge's MAROONED IN REAL TIME and H. G. Wells's TIME MACHINE
without repeating them in any significant way. Instead of the
"Bobble," we have a "vacuole" in space time that can jump forward
only in increasing steps. The result might be titled "Swiss Family
Robinson of the Singularity" as Mom, Dad, and two daughters plunge
ever onward through time, having various adventures at each stop as
things get weirder and weirder. Overall, the future is well thought
out, the action fast and interesting, and I look forward to reading
more from Broderick and Barnes. Fans of Stapledonian SF may also
enjoy this tale, as it covers the entire history of the universe.
This is "okay for all ages" material. [-dls]
[I have no idea where this is available. -ecl]
===================================================================
8. TWO HANDS (a film review by Mark R. Leeper):
Capsule: Pandemonium erupts when an amateur
criminal on an errand for a local hood loses
$10,000. The film certainly has its funny
moments and if this was the first film of its
type, this clever and inventive film could have
been a real standout. Unfortunately LOCK,
STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS came out first
and there is insufficient reason to see both.
There are just too many similar films being
made. Rating: 6 (0 to 10), +1 (-4 to +4)
Things are starting to go right in Jimmy's world. Until now Jimmy
(played by Heath Ledger) has been a street hawker for a second rate
Sydney strip club. But Jimmy has fallen in love with Alex (Rose
Byrne), a woman he has seen outside the club. And a local gangster
Pando (Bryan Brown) offers a small job as courier to Jimmy. What
Jimmy does not know is that Pando killed Jimmy's brother. Now
Pando wants to make things up to Jimmy and offers him a job that
could lead to bigger things if Jimmy does not screw up this first
job. Of course we would not have much of a story if something did
not go wrong. In a careless moment Jimmy loses $10,000. Now Jimmy
needs $10,000 to square things with Pando and a few of his friends
want to see Jimmy dead. Before the film PULP FICTION was made this
all could have been a fairly serious matter. But now we expect
crime films to have really strange dialog and really weird
interconnected plots with very strange twists and odd characters.
Heath Ledger is a good actor and carries his part well. Bryan
Brown is particularly enjoyable as a vicious hood by profession but
also a caring and loving family man at home. There are occasional
astonishing touches like the Narrator from Hell.
This is not a bad little film. One of the people in a Cairns
audience said it was the best Australian film he had seen in a long
time. I can believe it. The real problem is the timing. TWO
HANDS is just one more creative, violent, semi-comedic crime film
made in the wake of PULP FICTION. Its pacing and its plotting
remind one a lot of LOCK, STOCK, AND TWO SMOKING BARRELS. And in
the comparison it is nearly but not quite as good. My
recommendation for Showtime Australia is put this film in a vault
for five years and release it again when it will again be fresh and
a discovery. I rate it a 6 on the 0 to 10 scale and a +1 on the -4
to +4 scale. [-mrl]
Mark Leeper
HO 1K-644 732-817-5619
mleeper@lucent.com
If you could make everyone think alike, it would be
very much as if no one thought at all.
-- Phillips Brooks