THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
03/18/11 -- Vol. 29, No. 38, Whole Number 1641
Frick: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Frack: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
The History of Science Fiction
Golf Is an Unusual Sport (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
What Happened at Fukushima (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Still More SF TV to Consider (television reviews
by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
Hugo Nominations (letter of comment by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
RANGO and BARNEY'S VERSION (Ratings) (letter of comment
by Rob Mitchell)
TRUE GRIT, BLACKOUT, ALL CLEAR, and THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
(letter of comment by Kip Williams)
The Constitution (letters of comments by Dale L. Skran, Jr.,
and Rob Mitchell)
This Week's Reading (THE CARDINAL POINTS OF BORGES and
THE BUNTLINE SPECIAL) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: The History of Science Fiction
Charles Harris points out in the following:
The history of science fiction in one huge graphic (enlarge by
clicking on it): http://tinyurl.com/History-of-sf. [-csh]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Golf Is an Unusual Sport (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I was discussing golf with friends and something--just an
observation-- occurred to me. In most sports in which you compete
against yourself you try to push yourself to run faster or to swim
faster or just do more. Golf is there rare sport where you push
yourself to exercise less, at least over a single game. A perfect
game of golf would entail the least amount of walking possible and
just 18 swings. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: What Happened at Fukushima (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Years ago I used to debate with a friend about building nuclear
power plants. I was anti-nuclear and he was pro-nuclear. When we
got around to defining what we meant by our stances and where the
differences are, we discovered that he meant by being anti-nuclear
that we should be building nuclear power plants but we had to make
sure that we were not endangering the public. I, on the other
hand, thought that we had to make sure we were not endangering the
public, but when we had done that we should go ahead and build the
plants. Just defining where we stood ended the debate. But
looking back on it, there really was a difference in our positions.
If it turned out that there was even a tiny probability of an
accident happening, we actually were on opposite sides. We can
define safety measures to try to avert disasters, but just like the
nuclear reactors are fallible, so are the safety measures we set up
to prevent calamities. At Fukushima they did have a safety measure
to make sure that meltdown would not occur. And if that measure
failed they had a second safety measure. And if those two failed a
third measure was in place.
So what actually happened at Fukushima? The uranium in the fuel
rods are placed close enough together then there is enough
radiation to split enough atoms to start a chain reaction. Atoms
split and enough radiation is released to hit other atoms and split
them and soon you have a lot of radiation being released. That
energy takes the form of heat, which can boil water, which can run
turbines. That is nuclear power.
You can handle the rods individually if you keep them separate. Or
you can insulate them from each other with retractable control rods
and water. The combination of the control rods and the water are
enough completely to insulate the rods. Neither can do it without
the other. In a reactor fuel rods are placed in nice neat patterns
with water and retractable control rods separating, insulating, and
cooling them so that a chain reaction does not start. The
insulating control rods that can be raised into place and keep the
fuel rods from irradiating each other or they can be dropped when
you want to generate energy. Retract the control rods and the
water starts heating. Without the insulation the temperature would
go up to 1200 degrees. That is hot enough to melt the rods
together so that they cannot be separated. Then you have an out-
of-control nuclear reaction and disaster.
When the earthquake hit, the control rods did rise up and insulate
the fuel rods from each other. The reaction was stopped. But the
fuel rods were still hot. Water was needed to be pumped in to cool
the rods down to a safe temperature. But like a lot of things that
lost power in the quake, the water cooling systems had no power to
pump in the cool water.
But have no fear there is a mechanism designed for just this sort
of problem. There is a diesel-powered system to spray coolant onto
the rods in the event the first system fails. This system has its
own diesel fuel energy source and is intended for just such
problems as the quake disabling the first system. That worked for
an hour, but what happened then was the tsunami hit. It is not
certain that that is the cause, but the diesel-powered system
stopped. In the reactor the rods heated and the water turned to
steam.
There was a third system. If too much heat is created a system
takes the steam coming out, cools it, and returns it to the reactor
where it cools the fuel rods. It worked just fine. It did cool
the rods somewhat. And it added to the water in the reactor. But
it did not return water to the reactor as fast as the water was
boiling off. The water level in the reactor fell. The control
rods were still in place, but water was also needed for insulation.
Coolant was also supposed to be in the reactor, but it seems that
in the quake or the tsunami there was structural failure. It was
probably a leak, but the water and coolant leaked out of the
reactor.
Three safety systems had failed and a fourth procedure was
reluctantly used. Seawater was pumped into the reactor. This or a
similar scenario has happened a second reactor at the same site.
As of this writing there has been a partial meltdown of fuel rods.
That is going to make the reaction very hard to stop. Explosions
have taken place venting radioactive steam into the air. This
problem is at this point getting worse as time goes by and not any
better. So perhaps a discussion of what happened is premature.
My friend and I thought we were basically in agreement, but we
really were not. He would have said that a scenario like this is
extremely unlikely (though I thought that earthquakes and tsunamis
sort of went together). Some risk is inevitable and the energy
produced outweighs the risk. And he would have been wrong because
he was over-estimating the ability to plan. Eventually you will
get bitten by the risk and in the case of nuclear reactors you can
be bitten badly.
I would have insisted on guarantees that scenarios like this are
impossible and I would have been equally wrong. There are limits
to the amount of planning that can be done. You cannot stop
progress and stagnate because there is some danger involved.
My friend and I resolved nothing between us. But then nobody has
ever resolved this issue.
The description of the disaster is based (heavily) on a very good
CNN report that can be found at
http://tinyurl.com/leeper-cnn-fukushima.
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back (comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
It seems that whenever new technology comes along, it gives us new
capabilities--but also removes one or more capabilities that we
have come to like.
For example, our first VCR was the old type with mechanical buttons
("piano keys"). This meant we could use the programming timer on
it to turn it off in play mode at a specific time, just as one
could turn it off in record mode. Effectively, this was a sleep
timer--without it, a six-hour tape would play all the way to the
end after you fell asleep and then you would have to try to find
your place again. When VCRs switched to electronic buttons, this
capability disappeared.
We had an analog cable converter at one point that was
programmable--we could have it switch channels while we were away,
so we could record shows on different channels overnight or while
we were on vacation (e.g. PBS at midnight, then TCM at 4AM). Our
next cable box was digital (I think), but no longer programmable,
nor have any subsequent boxes been programmable.
We just bought a Blu-Ray DVD player. It will play Blu-Ray discs,
but it will not play VCDs (which our regular DVD player will). It
also does not have the ability to play DVDs at speeds between 0.6x
and 1.4x with synchronized sound (again, our old player does). And
it has problems with some DVDs that use the branching technology
(e.g. it cannot play the unrated director's cut on the regular DVD
release of the 2010 film THE WOLFMAN).
In addition, our regular DVD player has the ability to show "time
remaining" by chapter or film. The Blu-Ray player does not. The
best it can do is display both the total time and the elapsed time,
leaving the viewer to do the arithmetic.
Another loss of capability is the loss of location memory. Our old
DVD player would remember where we stopped a disc (up to a point--
if you played enough other DVDs after removing one, it will
forget). This is handy for multi-episode series, or if you want to
leave a film in the middle because it is late and you want to
sleep. But the Blu-Ray player will only remember it until you
remove the disc, or power off the player. So if you want it to
remember where you are overnight, you have to leave the player on
overnight, which in turn means bypassing the automatic shut-off
after a period of inactivity.
The Blu-ray player also has a very silly default setting. One has
a choice of saying that DVDs should be played with their original
aspect ratio, or that they should played to fill the screen of the
TV. The latter means that if you have a flat-screen HDTV (and one
might guess that most people buying a Blu-Ray DVD player do), then
everyone in an older movie done in 1.33:1 aspect ratio will seem
short and fat, because the picture will be stretched horizontally
to fill the screen. So which would you make the default setting?
Well, Sony makes the latter the default setting. Apparently the
same people who complained bitterly about black bars at the top and
bottom of their old TVs with widescreen movies now hate black bars
at the sides of their TVs with non-widescreen movies, and they seem
to rule the roost.
On the other hand, the Blu-Ray player lets us access a lot of
Internet content and display it on our TV, which is considerably
larger than our computer screen. It says something about how out
of touch I am with technology that I did not realize that Blu-Ray
players provided this capability. But even more, when I first
discovered this (which was when I saw on the box it was Netflix-
enabled) I did not realize that what content one can access is
dependent on the player. With a computer the entire Internet is
available, though I suppose it is also true that some sites require
special software to be downloaded. With the Blu-Ray player, the
software is controlled by the manufacturer, so only certain sites
are usable. And one minor limitation with Netflix is that you can
play only movies already on your Instant Queue. [-ecl]
[Every new system has its good points and its bad points. When we
used to bring up a new system at Lucent we would it was standard
that we would also release a report of "feature debt". Those are
features that people had learned to love that had gone away. New
systems are a mixed bag. They hopefully have a lot of overlapping
capabilities, but frequently it is not all. Japans nuclear power
plants produce electricity and under most conditions do not pollute
as much as coal-powered plants. However, they also have drawbacks.
-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: This documentary is by turns spectacular and moving. In
one Chilean desert astronomers look for the origins of the
universe, archeologist find preserved mummies from pre-Columbian
culture, and the survivors of the 1973 Chile coup look for the
remains of their loved ones. Do not expect a lot of scientific
knowledge, but the political message is strong and sincere.
Rating: +1 (-4 to +4) or 6/10
In NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT Patricio Guzman looks at three kids of
people who study the past in three very different ways. Their work
brings them together in the Atacama Desert of Chile, nearly two
miles above sea level. The unique conditions of this desert make
it a special place for looking at the past is three different
depths. One comes for the altitude, one for the dryness, and one
for the history of what happened here. It soon become apparent
that it is the political story that is the real reason for this
documentary.
The altitude of the desert makes it a particularly good place for
astronomical observatories. With less atmosphere above to distort
observations these observatories offer a much better view of the
starscape. Astronomers look at the cosmic light of the sky. The
light that they see may have been traveling from the nearest stars
for only a few years. Light from Proxima Centauri has traveled
only 4.2 years. And some light that they see may go back to the
beginnings of the universe. The light from the furthest light
sources has travelled to the Earth since shortly after the time of
the Big Bang.
The desert is the driest place on Earth because of the altitude.
This preserves pre-Columbian artifacts like mummified remains of
prehistoric peoples who passed this way. Archeologists come to
this desert to study and dig for the artifacts of Pre-Columbian
peoples.
But most importantly for director Guzman's purpose there is also
recent history to be dug up here. In 1973 army general Augusto
Pinochet took dictatorial control of the Chilean government after a
coup d'etat that removed from power President Salvador Allende.
There followed a reign of terror as Pinochet seized control and
crushed his opposition. In the Atacama Desert prisoners of the
Pinochet government were imprisoned in concentration camps and many
were tortured and murdered. Along with the bodies of pre-Columbian
dead out under the surface of the desert are the individual and
mass graves those who were murdered by the military government as
whose bodies were hidden.
This military coup has been the core of Patricio Guzman's films
since his 2001 film THE PINOCHET CASE and his 2004 SALVADOR
ALLENDE. Guzman begins by showing us the spectacular astronomical
photographs taken from the Atacama Observatory and also beautiful
desert photography. We are told that Atacama has the largest
telescopes in the world. (That is not quite true. See below.)
Interviews tell us of the work of the astronomers and their
backgrounds, but the focus shifts to the people--mostly women are
shown--who comb the desert looking for remnants of loved ones whom
the Pinochet government brought to the high desert and murdered.
Guzman's previous films tell the history of the coup in much more
detail. Here he just collects interviews, mostly from the women
searching for remains of husbands and children. But the
astronomers and archeologists also discuss the political history
and its implications.
Patricio Guzman shows his three communities of searchers, but from
early on there is never any doubt what the real purpose of this
film is. If you want to get a better understanding of space or
archeology, National Geographic has some very good documentaries.
If you want to better understand the Allende and Pinochet coup and
the damage it did, Guzman's documentary SALVADOR ALLENDE is a good
starting point, and I would assume his film THE PINOCHET CASE is
equally as good. NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT is more about the irony
of the three groups drawn to the same high desert. I rate
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or 6/110.
NOSTALGIA FOR THE LIGHT will get its US release March 18, 2011.
Film Credits: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1556190
What others are saying:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nostalgia_for_the_light/
List of Largest Telescopes:
http://astro.nineplanets.org/bigeyes.html
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Still More SF TV to Consider (television reviews by Dale
L. Skran, Jr.)
We truly live in the golden age of SF, fantasy, and comic book TV.
So far I have reviewed more than a half dozen shows, and new ones
keep cropping up. Today we take a look at THE CAPE and BEING
HUMAN, two shows that have started in the last few months.
THE CAPE has been running on NBC on Monday nights, and it appears
that due to low ratings, the finale of the ten-episode run will
appear in March on-line only. I am not totally surprised to hear
this, as THE CAPE is far from the most engaging superhero show on
TV right now, but it does have its moments.
The premise of THE CAPE is that a framed policeman left for dead is
rescued by a circus of crime and is transformed into an unlikely
crime fighter in return for some help in a few heists. He trains
in the martial arts, slack-wire skills, hypnotism, and stage magic.
Most importantly he is also gifted with "The Cape"--made of "spider
silk" that can do some pretty amazing stuff, like protect the
wearer from bullets and swing out to bop the bad guys. The cape is
nominally a mere gadget, but there are hints that others have worn
it before him, and that it may even have supernatural powers.
This sounds like a less than stellar premise, but it actually works
fairly well. You end up with a Batman type hero who is acutely
aware that he is *pretending* to be superhero. He soon finds a
partner in "Orwell" (played by Summer Glau), a mysterious woman who
functions something like Barbara Gordon/"Oracle" in the Batman
comic, providing data support, a cool car, and sometimes a bit of
physical backup.
The ads for the show say that great heroes require great villains,
but herein lies the weakness of the show - the villains are a Dick
Tracy rogues gallery with physical deformities--"The Litch" with a
scared face and zombie drugs, "Goggles" with immense eyes, "Scales"
with rough skin, and "Chess" with cat-like eyes and a split
personality. The only interesting villain is woman with mentat-
like abilities who can manipulate ordinary actions to commit crimes
via her ability to extrapolate events. The plots very from decent
pulp style adventure to hackneyed Dick Tracy crime stories. In
particular, I ended up fast-forwarding through a lot of the "Litch"
episodes which I found quite derivative.
The best parts of THE CAPE revolve around the Cape's relationship
with his family who believe his former identity, the policeman, to
be dead, but who he then starts to interact with as the Cape. The
circus of crime also works well by providing the backup that a real
life superhero would surely need, as well as a plausible training
experience.
The net result is that THE CAPE is far from the worst TV has to offer,
but clearly it has not found an audience, and it was pretty uneven.
This is the type of show I would not recommend to everyone, but
most comic fans will find it interesting.
BEING HUMAN is a far better and more engaging story than THE CAPE.
A SyFy remake of a BBC show of the same name, it is worth taking a
look at if you have any interest in speculative supernatural
stories. However, I warn you that the SyFy version is far better
than the BBC version. I have seen one hour of the BBC version, and
I found it an unwatchable hash of crude British humor populated by
boring British actors. The plot outlines of the BBC series
episodes on Wikipedia are more or less along the lines of the SyFy
show, but to my taste there is a vast gap between the two efforts,
and much to the disfavor of the BBC.
The story brings together a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost who
start by sharing an apartment and end up as a supernatural version
of "Friends" with less comedy and more drama. The setup is that as
magical beings, the vampire and the werewolf can see the ghost, but
normal humans cannot. There is a lot of plot here, with the
background of each character gradually and quite realistically
unfolding as each seeks in their own way to lead as "human" a life
as possible.
This is a violent show, with graphic sex [it is a cable show at
10 PM, after all], but the overall realism and seriousness of the
show makes it easy to watch. The characters are likeable and
engaging, and their struggles with their "conditions" inventive. A
recurring theme is that although they each are striving to maintain
as human a life as possible, at the core each is a monster, and
this cannot be papered over or forgotten.
You can catch BEING HUMAN on Monday nights with an encore on Friday
nights on SyFy.
To recap, THE CAPE is strictly for the serious comic fan, suggested
for teenagers and older. BEING HUMAN is at least as interesting as
VAMPRE DIARIES, and perhaps more so, but is suggested for older
teens [16 and up] or adults due to realistic treatment of sexual
themes and violence. [-dls]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Hugo Nominations (letter of comment by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
In response to Dan Kimmel's comments in the 03/04/11 issue on Dale
Skran's recommendations for Hugo nominations in the 02/25/11 issue,
Dale responds:
#1--My apologies for not mentioning INCEPTION. It turns out that
for a variety of reasons I have not yet seen it, but based on input
from those who have, including Mark Leeper and my son, Sam Skran,
it appears to be an excellent film well deserving of consideration
for the Hugo.
#2--I graciously accept your kind words relating to my position on
the short form dramatic Hugo. Now if only we could convince the
rest of fandom! [-dls]
==================================================================
TOPIC: RANGO and BARNEY'S VERSION (Ratings) (letter of comment by
Rob Mitchell)
In response to Mark's reviews of RANGO and BARNEY'S VERSION in the
03/11/11 issue of the MT VOID, Rob Mitchell writes:
I note you rated two movies as 8/10 (RANGO and BARNEY'S VERSION),
but the first you indicated was a high +2 and the second was a low
+3. Okay, I can see that different scales might mesh such that the
same point on one can map to two points on another, but it was a
little surprising, especially since the RANGO review didn't seem
that positive. (I guess that's why it was only a high +2 rather
than a low +3, eh?)" [-rlm]
Mark responds:
You are right about my rating system. I think in the -4 to +4
scale and then translate that to a 0 to 10 scale for those who are
more used to it:
+4 is 10/10
high +3 or +3 is 9/10
low +3 or high +2 is 8/10
+2 or low +2 is 7/10, etc.
You raise an interesting point about the rating seeming higher than
the wording. Roger Ebert and other critics say look at the words
and not the rating. I actually am the other way around. On my
reviews trust the number more than the words. Here's why. TITANIC
is an example of a film I rated highly and wrote a mostly negative
review. Why? Because I am not likely to be the only reviewer
someone will read. I could have talked about the same virtues that
every other review had or I could point out things like the water
was rising parallel to the ceiling where Jack was being held
prisoner while on deck there was a sizable tilt. That is
impossible in a (at that point) rigid boat. I at least try to
write what other people might not notice, but the rating expressed
what I really felt. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: TRUE GRIT, BLACKOUT, ALL CLEAR, and THE MAN WHO LAUGHS
(letter of comment by Kip Williams)
In response to Taras Wolansky's comments on TRUE GRIT in the
03/11/11 issue of the MT VOID, Kip Williams writes:
One night, Sarah went next door for a sleepover. Cathy and I
looked at each other and decided to nip out for dinner and a movie.
She doubted there were any good movies, but I mentioned TRUE GRIT
and she agreed. Having read the book long enough ago that it's
been replaced by the original movie in my mind, I couldn't say
where the Coen version is closer to it. I was, however, interested
at how many scenes seemed nearly identical in dialog and action.
I'm fairly sure the Coen's movie deviated from the book [SPOILER
warning] at the scene in a certain pit, when the first person
Mattie sees after she cries out is not who showed up in this
version. The harrowing ride at the end may well have been in the
book; I just don't remember any more. I should do something about
that. [end of SPOILER warning] [-kw]
Evelyn responds, "Yes on your first point, and the ride was in the
book." [-ecl]
Mark adds:
Also, the ending which told you what happened to the principal
characters in succeeding years was left out of the John Wayne
version. And that omission was much to the story's detriment even
if including it does leave the story on a sadder note. [-mrl]
In response to Evelyn's review of BLACKOUT and ALL CLEAR in the
same issue, Kip writes:
I enjoyed it, digressions and all. The length and some of the
criticized subplots Evelyn saw as padding served to put me into the
action (or inaction) in a way that conveyed the mounting
frustration of the time travelers, which in turn conveyed the
mounting frustration of those who experienced the war naturally.
By laying it on as she did, I think Willis makes it an immersive
experience.
I, too, would have appreciated a clearer indication that this was a
novel in two books. I knew it was, because Cathy knew, but I don't
think she got the information from the book itself. I wonder how
many people picked up the second book without knowing about the
first.
[SPOILER warning?] The final scenes remind me somewhat of the
ending of A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, which I loved. [end SPOILER
warning?] [-kw]
Kip adds:
Incidentally, I'm just now re-reading THE MAN WHO LAUGHS, by Victor
Hugo (thanks to Stephen Des Jardines and Distributed Proofreaders
for what is, so far, an immaculate Project Gutenberg e-text), and
if long digressions bothered me, I'd probably just go to the
"Classics Illustrated" version. (And this is not a slam on the
comic, which first made me want to read the book. Indeed, the
"Classics Illustrated" version of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME is
the only adaptation I've ever seen that didn't betray the author's
intent by changing characters into plaster saints and paper
villains.) [-kw]
Mark responds:
The version of NOTRE DAME D' PARIS that least betrays the author's
intent is the Anthony Quinn version. It leaves intact Hugo's
wrenching epilog. I saw it at age 6 or 7 and the ending stuck with
me ever after. When I read the book I realized it was the only
version that got the ending right. Incidentally, just renaming the
book THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME is a spoiler. It is not clear the
book is about Quasimodo until well into the story. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: The Constitution (letters of comments by Dale L. Skran, Jr.,
and Rob Mitchell)
In response to Evelyn's comments on liberals, conservatives, and
the Constitution in the 03/11/11 issue of the MT VOID, Dale
writes:
I consulted with my sister, who knows a bit about these things
(Rhodes Scholar, Oxford Ph.D., Professor of Government) and I net
out the following comments. Although I sympathize with the
original columnist's thesis that leftists are often led by great
leaders as opposed to documents, objectively this view is not well
supported by the historical record, the recent example of the
adulation of Obama notwithstanding. With regard to the view that
leftists do not refer back to a common set of great works, I
suggest (with kudos to my sister, who suggested the idea) that
American [and this is very important, as things elsewhere are quite
different] leftists do refer to a great document--the Constitution.
It is just different parts than American conservatives venerate.
For example, freedom of speech and freedom of religion are major
leftist themes, and leftists draw a lot of their energy from the
first amendment. The commerce clause (Article 1) is also an ur-
text used to justify a wide range of left-wing initiatives. Many
relatively recent amendments, including the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th,
and 19th could also be regarded as left-wing ur-texts. This should
not be taken to suggest that American leftists venerate the
Constitution in the same fashion as American conservatives--this is
untrue as the left will always hold slavery and the inequality of
women against the founding fathers. However, I do think that the
American left gets a great deal of energy and coherency from ideas
enshrined in the Constitution and various amendments thereof.
[-dls]
And Rob Mitchell writes:
Evelyn, it's your e-zine and you can put whatever you want in it,
of course. However, I felt the "Comments on Liberals,
Conservatives, and the Constitution" was out-of-place.
Politically, I'm on the anarchist end of the small-l libertarian
spectrum, so I found nothing to disagree with in the article you
wrote. However, I had two problems with it. One, although I
acknowledge you and Mark have occasionally made political
commentary in the MT VOID, it was usually in service of a larger
point in a broader article. Even so, I tend to skim through those
articles, because I read the MT VOID for the comments on books and
movies. To my taste, an article of purely political commentary has
no place in the MT VOID. The second problem was, no matter how
much I might agree with the content of your article, it seems
intellectually suspect to pull quotes from an article, set them up
as a straw man, and knock them down--without giving the reader even
a chance to see the whole article. It's like you were picking a
fight, and that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Evelyn responds:
I did give a link to the original article for those who wanted to
read it in its entirety. However, consensus seems to be that
politics is best left out of the MT VOID in the future. [-ecl]
And Mark adds:
Evelyn and I do not always agree on editorial decisions on the
VOID. I thought Evelyn's piece was not general enough to be an
editorial. It was basically a rebuttal to an editorial that the
readers had not seen. However, both Evelyn and you pointed out
that I do on occasion make political comments and it is hard to
draw the line between that and this. Then I not only acquiesced, I
added a comment of my own. But I think you pretty well nailed the
same objections I had. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I finally got a chance to read THE CARDINAL POINTS OF BORGES edited
by Lowell Dunbar and Ivar Ivask (ISBN 0-8061-0984-X). I had
requested it through inter-library loan last May, and it arrived a
couple of days into our trip to Arizona in February. (Luckily,
they held it until I got back.) It is primarily essays about Jorge
Luis Borges and his work but also includes a poem by Borges, three
poems in honor of Borges and a "complete bibliography of literary
criticism pertaining to Borges"--well, complete as of 1971, but now
of course woefully out of date.
The best article by far is "At Work with Borges" by Norman Thomas
di Giovanni. In it, di Giovanni describes the process of
translating Borges into English, both in general and then
specifically for the story "Pedro Salvadores". I will admit I am
not all that familiar with the literature about the process of
translating, but I would imagine this would be a very valuable and
basic work.
For example, di Giovanni writes, "We agree ... that a translation
should not sound like a translation. We agree that words having
Anglo-Saxon roots are preferable to words of Latin origin--or, to
put it another way, that the first English word suggested by the
Spanish should usually be avoided (for instance, for 'solitario,'
not 'solitary' but 'lonely'; for 'rigido,' not 'rigid' but 'stiff';
or, taking an illustration Borges likes to use, not 'obscure
habitation' but 'dark room')."
In the explanation of "Pedro Salvadores", di Giovanni talks about
how they overcame the problem of how to transmit to an American and
English audience the allusions that an Argentine audience would get
immediately. The Battle of Caseros, the "mazorca", the Unitarians,
and blue china are as meaningful to Argentinians as the Battle of
Bull Run, the Redlegs, the Unionists, and red, white, and blue
wallpaper would be to us, yet just as Argenineans would probably
not understand the allusions to these without help, we do not
understand Borges's allusions. One doesn't want just to drop
footnotes into the story, but neither does one want to add more
text than is necessary, since the entire story is eight paragraphs
long, less than two pages.
THE BUNTLINE SPECIAL: A WEIRD WEST TALE by Mike Resnick (ISBN
978-1-61614-249-0) is set in Tombstone in 1881. Our main
characters here are the Earps, the Clantons, Bat Masterson, Johnny
Ringo, Katie Elder, Curly Bill Brocius, Doc Holliday, Geronimo, Ned
Buntline, and Thomas Edison. In this steampunk version of the
tale, Indian magic works--or at least works well enough to keep the
United States bottled up east of the Mississippi. One wonders, of
course, why this Tombstone is so much like our Tombstone without
the United States taking the Southwest from Mexico and then
settling it, but I suppose one is not supposed to ask that
question. (The first rule of alternate history is, "When things
are different, things are different.")
Anyway, Bat Masterson runs afoul of Geronimo and his magic, while
Johnny Ringo is the recipient of another Indian leader's magic.
Edison is busy inventing very useful items for the locale
(including lightweight brass armor and robot prostitutes), and
Buntline builds them. (I get the feeling that these robots may not
have been programmed with Asimov's Three Laws.) All in all, it's a
lot of fun, even if the basic premise makes no sense. (I will say
that it will probably appeal more to fans of Western movies and
Western history than to the average science fiction reader, because
knowing who all the people are is really helpful.)
(Oh, and the Alexander Award listed in the "About the Author" part?
That was an award given by the science fiction group at Bell
Laboratories, and is named after Alexander Graham Bell.) [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
I feel that philosophy will never lead to important
discoveries. It's just a way of talking about
discoveries which have already been made.
--Paul Dirac