THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
04/20/18 -- Vol. 36, No. 42, Whole Number 2011
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
All material is the opinion of the author and is copyrighted by the
author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for
inclusion unless otherwise noted.
To subscribe, send mail to mtvoid-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
To unsubscribe, send mail to mtvoid-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
The latest issue is at .
An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at
..
Topics:
Mark and Evelyn Go To India (Part 1) (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
Lewis and Clark and the Paradox of Induction (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (letter of comment by Gwen Karpierz)
This Week's Reading (EX LIBRIS) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mark and Evelyn Go To India (Part 1) (comments by Mark
R. Leeper)
Mark and Evelyn were not always as you see them now. Yes, we were
the good looking devils you see them as today, but they were also
intrepid world travelers. We planned an extended trip to India on
our own and set out on our own. We kept an extensive log co-
authored by ourselves. I just recently ran across the log of that
trip. I decided to publish my log of just one day of this of this
25-day trip. Even then we have to break it into four parts and
publish each separately in the VOID.
October 14,1993: This was the day we saw the Taj Mahal, some of
the best of India and also this was the day we were kidnapped. As
the day started we were in Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal.
The bathroom is laid out very well at the Sunrise. In our last
hotel you had to do a lot of balancing with the night case. This
place had very well designed facilities with a nice counter around
the sink. It is the sort of thing you don't think much about until
it isn't there.
Mark noted, "Another thing that has proven very useful is a photo
vest. I expected it would be about as good as a knapsack, but it
is much more convenient. All my valuables are right on my chest
and with one zip-up they are secure."
Our morning wake-up alarm was the so-called "Government of India"
man trying to sell us a tour at 7 AM and ringing us on the phone.
That seems to be how everyone in the hotel wakes up from the sounds
of the other rooms' phones. (At least he didn't call early enough
to ask us if we wanted to see dawn at the Taj.)
Agra is cooler than the last two towns we visited. There looks to
be a little more greenery than Khajurao. That last city seemed to
have a little more open space but not so many trees. The
temperature in the morning was pleasant. By all accounts afternoon
at the Taj Mahal is pretty hot.
We ordered breakfast. Mark had stuffed paratha and curds; Evelyn
had her usual porridge. People often ask Mark how a fun, "stuffed
paratha" sort of guy like him can get along so well with a plain
porridge sort of woman like Evelyn. Well, he'll tell you: "The
woman makes a damn fine cup of coffee." Mark says he lives in fear
of the day somebody points out that he doesn't drink coffee because
he may have to make some difficult life decisions that day.
Moona came to talk with us over breakfast and discuss our plans.
He also had to speed up our breakfast, which took over a half-hour
to get served. We had intended to go to the Tourist Office to book
our tour, but decided to go directly to the railway station, since
it actually leaves from there and can be booked there as well. So
we took an auto-rickshaw that Moona arranged to the railway station
from the hotel for Rs25.
But first we had to stop and get gas. The same thing had happened
in Varanasi. It's as if they're worried about the gas going stale
and won't buy any until they have a passenger. We still made the
station in plenty of time.
The Agra Cantonment railway station looks like something out of THE
MAN WHO WOULD BE KING. If you haven't seen John Huston's MAN WHO
WOULD BE KING, put this log down and go find a copy on videotape or
something and see it. It's wonderful. Or you can go find the
story by Rudyard Kipling. It is pretty good too, perhaps better
than the film, but the film is a great adaptation. That's better
than anything you'll read in this log.
The station is chaotic even when little is happening. The auto-
rickshaw went into a corral with about a hundred other auto-
rickshaws waiting for passengers. Outside homeless dogs and people
sleep; beggars and hawkers ply their trade. You cannot go more
than a few feet without hearing someone say, "Hello," trying in
some way or another to make money off of you. We like the country
and the culture and most of the people, but we are getting very
tired of people barraging us in attempts to make money off of us.
Although we are having a great time, but we have very strong
reservations about recommending India to anyone who looks American
or European. We are meeting a lot of Indians we like, but we are
finding much too often that we are more interested in the Indians
we meet than they are interested in us. They see us as a source of
revenue first and foremost. And for the majority of these, it is
"exclusively," not even "foremost." It is a serious problem for
Indian tourism. India is the only country where it might be
anywhere near a serious consideration. And in India it is a very
serious consideration. In New York City, nobody gets into your
taxi to give you a sales pitch. Someone who jumps into taxis in
New York City very soon gets shot. New York City is civilized.
But seriously, if your skin is white, expect that you will look to
a lot of the locals in India like a bag of money with running
shoes. While we are having a heck of a good time, if you are
reading this log to decide if you want to come to this country,
take the attitude of the locals into consideration. It is not
difficult to avoid crime, and it is tough to run into terrorism
even if you want to, but the chasing of the tourist dollar
oblivious to any consideration for the tourist himself or herself
makes this country one that is pretty tough to recommend to others.
The booking office for the tour was easy to find, though at first
Evelyn thought it was the wrong one because it said "Uttar Pradesh
Tourist Office" instead of "Government of India Tourist Office,"
but it turned out to be the right one anyway. Tours are now Rs60
(not the Rs120 that the man was telling us--although it's
conceivable he meant for two) or the Rs75 Moona had said. We
bought tickets for the city tour and went out amid the hubbub and
chaos of beggars and hawkers and found our bus, an old non-air-
conditioned type with rather torn headrest covers. It was pretty
hot sitting there (Evelyn notes, "I had foolishly picked the side
of the bus in the sun, though for riding it was the better side,
being nearest the side of the road"). In addition, hawkers kept
trying to sell us postcards and other items. We did buy a liter of
water (at the price listed in fine print on the side of the bottle
rather than higher, which was initially asked) and two wire puzzle
bracelets for Rs5 each. The vendor was asking Rs8, but willing to
sell two for Rs10.
At about 10:30 AM we finally headed out. Most of the passengers
were Indians; there was a New Zealander we talked to a bit and
three or four other non-Indians. As the books indicated,
everything was conducted in English.
The Lonely Planet guide recommends the "Tourist Guest House" in
Agra. It also says that there are several other places claiming to
be the Tourist Guest House that aren't, including the Kapoor
Tourist Guest House, which it says is a "real dive." "No matter
what they say, if you're opposite the Central Methodist Church,
you're at the Kapoor." Well, we passed the Kapoor and it now has
painted above its name "Recommended by: Lonely Planet
Publications"! We assume there are no laws about truth in
advertising here.
On our way to Fatehpur Sikri, the bus was stopped at a checkpoint
by the police for a random traffic check. Someone said the
driver's license had expired, but he got back in and started
driving again anyway. Maybe he got a temporary one. Then again,
maybe not.
The road to Fatehpur Sikri goes through countryside and a few small
villages, but you can still tell it's a road that tourists travel.
There was a man with a couple of camels with spots painted on them
sitting by the side of the road, and another with a bear on a
leash. These are what are known as "photo ops." We had never
thought there were bears in India, but there one was. Mark was
thinking it probably wanted to shake us down for rupees. Evelyn
said that the Lonely Planet guide says that the bear has been
trained to dance in the road blocking traffic until the driver pays
the bear's owner baksheesh. It was a scam so that he would be paid
to remove the bear from the road. What a country!
Next week I will continue on to the Taj Mahal. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Lewis and Clark and the Paradox of Induction (comments by
Evelyn C. Leeper)
"Past performance is no indication of future results." You see or
hear this on all those financial ads. This is "the paradox of
induction" (scientific induction, not mathematical induction).
That paradox is that we assume there are physical laws that are
permanent: when Isaac Newton comes up with the Laws of Motion and
verifies them with experimentation and measurement, he assumes that
his discoveries will remain true--that if gravitational
acceleration was 32 feet per second per second today, it will be 32
feet per second per second tomorrow. But why does he (and why do
we) assume that? Well, because that has always been true in the
past, which is of course just circular reasoning.
And how does this apply to Lewis and Clark? They were told there
were big mountains ahead of them. Okay, they knew about mountains-
-they were familiar with the Appalachians, and so they were not
intimidated by these "big mountains"; they expected them to be at
most equal to the Appalachians. As they approached the Bitteroot
Mountains and started to climb the closest one, they figured they
would get to the top and see a gentle slope down the western side
and be able to put their canoes into a river that would carry them
quickly to the Pacific Ocean. When they reached the top of the
first ridge they saw, not a gentle slope to an easy river, but
mountains twice as high as the Appalachians stretching as far as
the eye could see.
Past performance indeed is no indication of future results.
Two other notes:
When the Corps of Discovery was trying to decide where to winter in
1804, they took a vote. All the "official" expedition members
voted, of course, but so did York (a slave) and Sacagewea (a Native
American and a woman). One wonders what the thought process was
that led to Lewis and Clark asking for their votes, particularly
since on their return Clark refused to free York until several
years later.
And this three-year journey thousands of miles through uncharted
territory was achieved with only one casualty--and that was from
something (a burst appendix) that would have killed this person
even if he had stayed in St. Louis with dozens of doctors available
to him. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS (letter of comment by Gwen
Karpierz)
In response to Evelyn's comments on THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS in
the 04/13/18 issue of the MT VOID, Gwen Karpierz writes:
Re: THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS quote ""But it is not human to be
without shame and without desire", [Evelyn wrote, "As we have
learned more about human sexuality, it has become clear that there
are humans who are asexual."]
As someone who is asexual myself, I don't think the existence of
asexuality invalidates that quote at all. In fact, it's one of my
favorites in the book. Although the paragraph at hand is primarily
focused around sexuality, I think taken out of context, the quote
holds just as much weight--perhaps more. It can be applied to
sexual desire, but it is equally applicable to the human tendency
to want in ways that exceed necessity and survival. There is a
yearning inherent to being human that is never really satisfied,
and it goes far beyond sex." [-gk]
Evelyn responds:
I thought of this, but it seemed as though the conversation was
focused on sex/gender, so I sort of ruled that out. [-ecl]
Gwen replies:
Even if it is mostly focused on sex and gender, I wouldn't say that
I'm completely without shame and without desire in regards to those
things. At the very least, there's the fact that plenty of aces
out there enjoy sex--asexuality is simply the lack of sexual
attraction, not necessarily the complete absence of it. Although I
personally am not interested in sex, we live in a society too
centered around it for it to not exist as something in the
consciousness around which to have thoughts and emotions. [-gk]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
EX LIBRIS: STORIES OF LIBRARIANS, LIBRARIES & LORE edited by Paula
Guran (ISBN 978-1-60701-489-8) is an anthology of 23 stories about,
well, librarians and libraries (obviously). The first surprise is
that it does *not* include Jorge Luis Borges's "Library of Babel".
Guran does mention it in her preface. Another classic (which she
doesn't mention) is Kurd Lasswitz's "Universal Library".
(Actually, I suppose the first surprise is that this is not an
"original anthology" in the sense of having the stories specially
written for it. Rather Guran has collected stories dating as far
back as 1988, which means that the stories have been "vetted" by
other editors as well.)
The stories are more a mixed bag than one usually finds in a theme
anthology. In my experience most theme anthologies focus on a
particular type of "fantastika" (e.g., all science fiction stories,
or all fantasy stories). But EX LIBRIS has science fiction,
fantasy, and horror. It also has some stories in which the library
aspect was incidental to the story.
As with most anthologies, some stories will appeal to a given
reader more than others, but I think for those who love books
and libraries there is more than enough to make this a must-read.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Although present on the occasion, I have no clear
recollection of the events leading up to it.
--Winston Churchill,
on his birth, recalled on his death 24 Jan 1965