THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
08/24/12 -- Vol. 31, No. 8, Whole Number 1716
James Bond: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Goldfinger: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
R.U.R. Dramatization (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
Two Times Three Skeleton Key (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
A Thought on Turkeys, Science, and Religion (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
Not a Mash-Up (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
My Fifteen Best Hammer SF/Horror/Fantasy Films, Part 3
(comments by Mark R. Leeper)
TRUEBLOOD (Seasons 1-4) (DVD review by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
TRIGGERS by Robert J. Sawyer (book review by Joe Karpierz)
THE BOURNE LEGACY (letter of comment by Mark Brader)
This Week's Reading (CASTRO'S BOMB, WAKE UP AND DREAM,
"Romanitas" trilogy) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
==================================================================
TOPIC: R.U.R. Dramatization (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
We got the word "robot" from the Czech word for "worker." It
became known to the world from a play written by Karel Capek in
1920. The play was entitled R.U.R., which an abbreviation for the
name of a corporation in the play, Rossum's Universal Robots. The
corporation built mindless robots that looked like humans, but felt
no pain, had no desires and were prefect slaves. Then people
started fooling around with their formula...
The Columbia Workshop dramatized R.U.R. on the radio in 1937. The
Relic Radio website has made a recording of this play available at
http://tinyurl.com/void-rur
This is an interesting piece of science fiction history.
Read about the history of the play here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.U.R.
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Two Times Three Skeleton Key (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
We do not hear much about George G. Toudouze's horror story "Three
Skeleton Key" today, but it was quite popular in the 1940s and
1950s. It was produced as a radio play three times on Escape and
twice on Suspense. People could not get enough of it. Three of
the five productions starred Vincent Price as the main character.
Wikipedia has a page for the story, and it has links to recordings
of all five radio productions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Skeleton_Key
The August 10, 2012 podcast from the Tales to Terrify web site
offers the story in two different forms. First there is a dramatic
reading of Toudouze's original story--read very nicely I think.
Then it continues with a link to the second broadcast of the story.
This was the first time it was produced with Vincent Price.
http://tinyurl.com/void-skeleton-key
The story involves three men in a lighthouse who encounter a ghost
ship containing something deadly. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: A Thought on Turkeys, Science, and Religion (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
In a documentary about Benjamin Franklin they say that he
investigated whether he could kill an animal with an electric
shock. I notice that the science of his day was more ready to tell
him that he could than the religion of his day was to tell him that
he shouldn't. Today I think that science would be quicker to tell
him that the shock really could kill the animal and so the
experiment need not be performed. And religion would still dither
about whether or not to tell him he shouldn't. To science capacity
to change is a strength. To religion change is generally
considered a failing. [-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: Not a Mash-Up (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I recently mentioned the book JANE'S WEAPON SYSTEM in a mailing
list I'm on and someone asked, "Is this a science fiction book or
some kind of military catalog?"
My response:
I know it sounds like one of those new mash-ups, a sequel to SENSE
& SENSIBILITY & SEA MONSTERS, a "Jane Austen at Entebbe" sort of
thing, but, no, it's a military catalog. Jane's Information Group
(often referred to as Jane's) is a British publishing company
specializing in transportation and military topics. I assume it was
named for someone whose last name was Jane.
[Can anyone here further enlighten me?]
[-ecl]
Mark replies:
As is so often the case, I can. It says in Wikipedia under "Jane's
Information Group" that "Jane's was founded by Fred T. Jane in 1898
who had begun by sketching ships as an enthusiast, and this
gradually developed into an encyclopaedic knowledge, culminating in
the publishing of All the World's Fighting Ships (1898)." [-mrl]
Evelyn adds:
I looked in Wikipedia, but must have missed that paragraph. [-ecl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: My Fifteen Best Hammer SF/Horror/Fantasy Films, Part 3
(comments by Mark R. Leeper)
And here we are at the last of my listings of the best of Hammer
Films. Hammer was, of course known for a certain style of gothic
horror. It may be my personal taste, but there is only one of the
their gothic horror films here. THE DEVIL RIDES OUT is one of
their best horror films, of course, but it is not in the style of
most of the rest of their films.
The name Quatermass shows up in the titles of three of the films.
For people who know my taste for the Quatermass series this will
come as no surprise. This science fiction series is about a
British rocket scientist who discovers three attempts to invade the
planet Earth by three different alien species. The series
represents for me some of the best of Hammer films. The one
question I have is if there were three attempt to invade the Earth
on Quatermass's watch (actually there were four since there was a
later Quatermass thriller) what did we ever do before Quatermass
came along?
But let us start with the film that really made Hammer famous
worldwide.
5. DRACULA (aka HORROR OF DRACULA) (1958)
Directed by Terence Fisher. Starring Peter Cushing, Christopher
Lee.
This was Hammer's first really well-constructed gothic horror film.
And they never matched it again. A lot of the point of this film
was to show blood in color. No vampire film had ever done that and
of course blood is central to the concept of vampirism. The story
was a really cut down and rearranged version of the Bram Stoker
novel. But one way that this film was different from the previous
Hammer gothic, THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, is that Christopher Lee's
naked face was allowed to hang out. The man clearly had some sex
appeal. The film is arguably better paced than the book. The
makers wanted to show off the blood--and for a nobleman Dracula is
a surprisingly messy eater. The climax, with parts improvised on
set, while not really horrific is one of the most exciting action
sequences in any horror film.
4. THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (a.k.a. THE CREEPING UNKNOWN) (1955)
Directed by Val Guest. Starring Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner.
Quatermass has sent three men into space in a rocket, and in a way
only one comes back. In a way all three come back. But in either
case an alien intelligence comes with them. American actor Brian
Donlevy plays Bernard Quatermass who imbues his role with what one
might call controlled hysteria as he realizes the degree of the
threat he has brought to Earth. This is based on the first of four
Quatermass TV plays written by Nigel Kneale, three of which were
adapted from BBC television plays into Hammer Films. Kneale was
very unhappy about the choice of Donlevy to play Quatermass and
about changes to the story. Especially bothersome is the change
of the means of defeating the invader from finesse to brute force.
Indeed the play is better than the film, but the film is still very
good with a nice tense atmosphere and much of the intelligence of
the TV play is intact.
3. QUATERMASS II (ENEMY FROM SPACE) (1957)
Directed by Val Guest. Starring Brian Donlevy, John Longden, Sid
James.
Quatermass is planning a colony that will support humans on the
moon. Then he is diverted into investigating a hyper-secret
government project out in a nowhere place called Winnerden Flats on
the English countryside. What bothers him most is that the
installation looks a lot like his space colony. What bothers him
more is that the project seems to be the target of nightly meteor
falls and that people who get too close to the meteors seem to be
somehow enslaved. Quatermass thinks that Winnerden Flats needs a
government investigation, but much of the government seems to be
allied in efforts to keep things running as they have been at the
project. Quatermass decides he has to get inside the installation
to see what is happening there. Again Hammer cast Brian Donlevy as
Quatermass and again they changed the ending. But the gritty
realism of THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT returns.
2. THE DEVIL RIDES OUT (THE DEVIL'S BRIDE)
Directed by Terence Fisher. Starring Christopher Lee, Charles
Gray.
This is a period piece, set in the 1920s, but somehow it is not
really gothic horror. Hammer adapted two of Dennis Wheatley's
"Black Magic" novels, and made fairly good thrillers out of each of
them. This was the first. For once Christopher Lee plays the hero
of the film. Lee is the worldly Duc de Richleau who discovers with
horror that one of his friends is playing around with black magic
under the leadership of Mocata (Charles Gray), an adept in Black
Magic. The friend is also interested in Tanith, an inductee into
the rites of black magic. Trying to rescue them both brings the Duc
in close contact to the actual Devil in the form of the Goat of
Mendes. To cut corners they have no special effect auras or
blurring around the image. (Compare it to how the Devil is
portrayed in ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968).) It should not work, but it
is a startling image. Once can almost smell the sweat. The ending
is tricky.
1. QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (FIVE MILLION YEARS TO EARTH)
Directed by Roy Ward Baker. Starring Andrew Keir and James Donald.
This is the third and generally considered to be the best of the
Quatermass films. I freely admit this is not just my favorite
Hammer film; it is my favorite film of all time. Nigel Kneale hit
on a terrific idea that in one fell swoop explains paranormal
phenomena, different cultures having similar myths, race prejudice,
and a great deal more in one compact science fiction thriller, very
well paced and with very good dialog. The "pit" is really being
dug for a new underground stop. While they are digging they find
bones. These turn out to be fossils of man from five million years
ago. They also find a mysterious cylinder, possibly a German V-
weapon, but fossil evidence indicates that it might also be five
million years old. If this were not odd enough, the area has long
been known as the location of haunted houses and paranormal
phenomena. They all must tie together, but how? And what are the
implications? This film was at one time very little known in the
United States. It now is known and well respected in the United
States and Britain.
[-mrl]
==================================================================
TOPIC: TRUEBLOOD (Seasons 1-4) (DVD review by Dale L. Skran, Jr.)
For a very long time Kate Pott, an old friend, has been
recommending HBO's TRUEBLOOD. Recently I saw the first season on a
DVD for sale cheap, so I jumped at the opportunity. Of course,
once I watched the first season, I had to watch the rest, and so
ended up watching all four seasons. As a non-HBO subscriber, I
know that a fifth season is underway that I have not seen yet.
Based on "The Southern Vampire Mysteries" by Charlaine Harris,
TRUEBLOOD has become popular enough for repeated renewal--it has
been renewed for a 6th season, and according to the wiki article is
the most watched HBO show since THE SOPRANOS. I've never read any
of the many books, and so will not comment on the book/film
relationship. To a large degree TRUEBLOOD is an Anna Paquin
vehicle, as she has the starring role as Sookie Stackhouse, a
waitress who is telepathic. Paquin started her career with a bang,
winning the Academy Award in 1994 at the age of eleven for best
supporting actress in THE PIANO. Later she became known to SF fans
as Rogue in the "X-Men" trilogy, and more recently (2008) she has
been nominated for a Golden Globe for her role as Sookie.
TRUEBLOOD has a complex plot, with an over-arching villain for each
season. The first season deals with a human serial killer. The
second season features two villainous forces, a human vampire
hunter leading a religious army called "The Fellowship of the Sun",
and Maryann, a maenad. The third season opposition is provided by
Russell Edgington, an ancient and powerful vampire king with a
werewolf army fueled by vampire blood. In season four, the ghost
of a long-ago witch-necromancer named Antonia killed by vampires
possesses the body of a local Wiccan practitioner who has turned to
necromancy and provides a power boost that allows the Wiccan to
wage a war on the vampires.
TRUEBLOOD is sufficiently complex that the above summary of plot
arcs is as far as I am going to go in describing what happens from
a storyline perspective. The show follows several major threads as
it winds through all the action. Firstly, there is the Sookie
Stackhouse/Bill Compton (vampire)/Eric Northman (vampire) love
triangle with Alcide Herveaux (werewolf) making it a bit more
complicated in season four. Another thread is the relationships
between Sookie and her best friend Tara Thornton, Tara's cousin
Lafayette (gay/medium), her boss Sam Merlotte (shapeshifter),
fellow waitress Arlene Fowler, and Sookie's brother, Jason
Stackhouse (football player turned vampire hunter turned vampire
blood addict turned ...). Vampire family life is a theme, focusing
on the Godric/Northman, the Northman/Pam Beaufort, and the Bill
Compton/Jessica Hambly siring relationships.
As it completely obvious from the first episode, vampirism is an
analogue to the gay/lesbian lifestyle. TRUEBLOOD makes this clear
by using phrases like "coming out of the coffin" and placing the
action in the context of a vampire rights movement. Previously
I've said that THE VAMPIRE DIARIES (on CW) offers a lot of the fun
of comics like the Justice League or the Avengers as we follow a
motley crew of intrepid heroes as they struggle to defeat the
current "big bad". There is certainly an element of this in
TRUEBLOOD, with Sookie, Alcide, and Sam sometimes aiding frenemies
Bill/Eric and their spawn as they battle various menaces. However,
TRUEBLOOD is more fluid and family focused, often with two, three,
or even four rings in the circus.
For some reason, it has been decided that Canadian Anna is good at
playing a southern belle, which is why she has appeared as Rogue in
X-Men, and as Sookie in TRUEBLOOD. I was not a fan of Paquin's
Rogue, partially because I never found her that convincing as a
southerner, and partially because I don't like the story where
Rogue gives up her powers. In the comic books Rogue takes on the
Avengers all by herself, and fights them to a standstill--a far cry
from the timid girl that appeared in the X-Men trilogy. I like
Paquin better as Sookie than as Rogue, probably because I have no
preconceived idea of what Sookie is supposed to be like. I've been
a bit vague her about Sookie's role other than to say that she is
telepathic. It should not come as a complete surprise that Sookie
turns out to be more than a little supernatural herself, which
drives a lot of the story lines. Sookie, who has struggled all her
life to conceal her telepathy and avoid dealing with her powers,
reluctantly finds herself involved in repeated supernatural
battles, culminating in a season four blow-out between the vampires
and their allies, including Sookie, and the Wiccans, led by re-
embodied necromancer Antonia, in which Sookie is shot and seriously
wounded.
TRUEBLOOD is a hard R-rated cable show, with lots of frontal
nudity, sex, blood, drugs, rape, torture, violence, etc., etc. The
Emmy-nominated title sequence is disturbing all by itself. Having
said that, I'm not sure that any of the above is gratuitous in the
sense that sex scenes in THE GAME OF THRONES sometimes appear to be
pasted in only to titillate. There is an underlying message that
waking up after the orgy/drugs/violence etc. can be an education.
Characters' actions have plausible consequences, which is what I'm
looking for in a watchable show. I also suspect that real
Southerners might find TRUEBLOOD's portrayal of the South
offensive, what with the inbred tribes of were-panthers dealing
drugs, the bigoted rednecks, and so on. TRUEBLOOD often appears
unkind to anti-gay rights activists, but the portrayal of vampirism
is sufficiently balanced and realistic that TRUEBLOOD transcends
the gay/vampire analogy. To put a finer point on it, any rational
person who actually understood the vampires in TRUEBLOOD would
think twice before endorsing vampire rights.
TRUEBLOOD is, rather like KILL BILL, of considerable interest to
those who like this sort of thing, but not for everyone. Strictly
for an adult audience. [-dls]
==================================================================
TOPIC: TRIGGERS by Robert J. Sawyer (copyright 2012, Ace, $25.95,
342pp, ISBN 978-1-937007-16-4) (book review by Joe Karpierz)
Oddly enough, the first thought that came to my mind as I sat down
to write this piece is that "Rob Sawyer is done committing
trilogy". What should have come to my mind was that "he's done it
again, and really, no, I didn't see that ending coming".
Okay, that's getting way ahead of myself, but it's true. Oh, all
right, I'll start again.
In a departure from many of Sawyer's previous novels, TRIGGERS
takes place in the United States. The country has been attacked
multiple times by terrorists--Chicago, San Francisco, and
Philadelphia have all been hit by bombs detonated by an Al-Qaeda
splinter group. President Seth Jerrison is making a speech from
the Lincoln Memorial in an effort to bolster the country's
confidence. Precautions have been taken, and security is tight.
However, a shot rings out, and the president goes down. He is
rushed to Luther Terry hospital in Washington, DC, where a team of
doctors and nurses attempt to save his life.
Elsewhere in the hospital, professor Ranjip Singh is attempting to
erase terrible memories from the mind of Kadeem Adams, who is
suffering from PTSD from the Iraqi war. Singh is working in Luther
Terry hospital using a radical treatment that involves an
experimental device. At the time of the president's surgery, Singh
is operating the device in what he believes will be the climactic
event of the experiment, finally erasing all of Adams' traumatic
memories.
And then a bomb goes off at the White House, sending an EMP out
into the area. At the same time that the pulse happens, Jerrison
is undergoing a near death experience where his life flashes in
front of his eyes, only he realizes that the memories he's
experiencing *are not his*.
It turns out that the EMP has affected Singh's experimental device
in such a way that people who are within a certain distance of the
device have their memories linked. Not everyone is linked with
everyone else; it's a one-to-one, one-way relationship. Person A's
memories are seen by person B, B is seen by C, and so on.
Did I mention that there's an upcoming retaliatory military
operation that will be taking place mere days after the
assassination attempt, and that there is *someone* out there that
now knows about it but shouldn't?
So, we the readers comfortably set in to follow along with the
story of discovering who that person is and what is to be done
about it, what happens to terrorism in the world, and how the
connected memories play into the events.
Nope. Sorry. Not gonna happen that way, well, not completely,
anyway.
And that's where I stop telling you about what specifically goes on
in the story, because it takes a turn out of nowhere that I wasn't
expecting but thoroughly enjoyed. Those of you who read enough of
my little articles know that I just love novels with Big Ideas and
Cosmic Events. Well then.
Sawyer does his usual excellent job of showing how technologies and
their consequences affect the lives of specific human beings and
humanity in general. He does it again here, and thus does not
disappoint. And these characters are engaging, making you want to
know their stories and how they progress, how their lives end up
because of those stories.
But what Sawyer does here is turn the story on its ear, as it were,
taking it in a direction that at the very least I wasn't expecting,
but still left me wanting to know what happened to all the
characters after the end of the book. His idea here may not
necessarily be original, but he certainly gets here in an original
way, one that I didn't see coming. While I want to know what
happened to the characters after the end of the novel, I don't
*need* to. I think the point that Sawyer is trying to make here
stands on its own and transcends the need for the *little things*.
The novel starts out as a techno-thriller, but ends up as something
else again entirely. It may not satisfy every one, but it sure did
satisfy me. A great book, and one that I recommend you all go out
and read. [-jak]
==================================================================
TOPIC: THE BOURNE LEGACY (letter of comment by Mark Brader)
In response to Mark's review of THE BOURNE LEGACY in the 08/03/12
issue of the MT VOID, Mark Brader writes:
[Of the attempt to turn into a selling point the taking of a
completed story and turning it into an unlimited franchise] Well,
that is also what the second and third movies did. They were
basically just remakes of the first one, disguised as sequels by
having different openings. [-mb]
And in response to Mark's comment, "Meanwhile the government people
who created the two out-of-control super-killers, Cross and Bourne,
cannot say they have closed down the program yet. Eliminating
these two is their last cross to be borne,"
Mark Brader writes:
Groan! [-mb]
==================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
In CASTRO'S BOMB by Robert Conroy (Kindle only, ASIN B005ORV3IM),
the politics and military aspects are done reasonably well (at
least as far as I can tell), but Conroy really needs to have only
male characters. Regarding female characters, one of two things
seem to be the case: 1) Conroy has no idea how to write female
characters, or 2) Conroy knows how to write female characters, but
figures his audience is all male and consists of people who do not
want well-written female characters.
So far as I can tell, the female characters are entirely defined by
sex (including rape), fear of pregnancy, menstruation, emotions,
what they are wearing, and how they look. They plead for their
husbands, or spend time searching their bombed-out apartments for
jewelry. The only real exception to this seems to be the Cuban
women who stop the tank column, and even they are more into passive
resistance. (One might speculate on the differing portrayals of
Anglo and Russian women versus those of Hispanic women, but I am
not going to go there.)
(This problem, by the way, also appears in his earlier books,
HIMMLER'S WAR and 1942, and possibly others that I do not recall.)
Conroy also depends a *lot* on infodumps, even to the extent of
explaining the origin of the military response "Nuts!" But in non-
military matters, he makes mistakes (which should have been caught
by his editor, assuming Kindle books have editors). For example,
there is his use of the term "Hobson's choice" in the sense of
Scylla and Charybdis, when it really means no choice at all.
("Any color as long as it's black" would be a classic example.)
And it is not a case of the error being the character's rather than
the author's--the speaker (Kennedy) was classically educated and
would know what "Hobson's choice" means.
WAKE UP AND DREAM by Ian R. MacLeod (ISBN 978-1-848-63194-6) is set
in an alternate Los Angeles where the talkies were quickly
supplanted by the feelies, and so people who would have become
great actors ended up in other professions. For example, Clark
Gable is a private detective in the Philip Marlowe mold. In
addition to the feelies, though, there is at least one other major
change: it is 1942 and the United States has not entered the war.
This seems to be attributed to a much stronger isolationist--and
racist--party in the United States, but I am not sure that explains
why Japan would not have attacked us, especially since the racist
attitudes make it unlikely that we would be any friendlier towards
them.
I have a few nits (other than questioning the premise). In 1942,
phone calls were still a nickel, not a dime. Hertz car rental had
been around since 1918, but Avis had not been founded yet. And one
stylistic (though not factual) mistake: the Clark Gable POV
narrator refers to someone wearing a ragged "jumper". The American
word is "sweater", and to keep from breaking character, MacLeod
should have used that term.
Sophia McDougall has finished her "Romanitas" trilogy. As a
Sidewise Award judge, I was sent copies of all three books when
they came out, but either the publisher did not want to provide a
nicely matched set, or the books were published without concern for
having a nicely matched set. ROMANITAS (ISBN 978-0-75286-894-3) is
in the British "C format" (the size of a hardback but with a soft
cover, 6"x9.25"), ROME BURNING (ISBN 978-0-7528-7930-7) is in the
"A format" (US mass market size, 4.5"x7"), and SAVAGE CITY (ISBN
978-0-575-09638-7) is in the "B format" (somewhere between the two,
5"x7.75"). This is not the most mis-matched set I own, though--
that "honor" goes to the Jasper Fforde "Thursday Next" series, with
volumes in Viking hardcover, Viking UK C format, NEL B format, and
two Penguin US trade paperbacks. But the fact that the heights of
the "Romanitas" books vary so much makes them very difficult to
shelve (or box) together. [-ecl]
==================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
If you don't know, ask. You will be a fool for the
moment, but a wise man for the rest of your life.
--Seneca