THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
12/21/18 -- Vol. 37, No. 25, Whole Number 2046
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Round Up the Usual Suspect (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
All of Tor.com's Original Short Fiction From 2018
Short Takes On New Films (DARKEST HOUR, EATING ANIMALS, and
TITO AND THE BIRDS) (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Horror Story (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
20TH ANNUAL ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS (a film review
by Mark R. Leeper)
GREEN BOOK (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CANNIBALS AND CARPET FITTERS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
Super Powers (letters of comment by Jim Susky
and Daphne Eftychia Arthur)
Comic Books (letter of comment by Jim Susky)
This Week's Reading (INSIDE THE THIRD REICH) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Round Up the Usual Suspect (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
I never understand why Harry Potter stories so frequently start
with some evil having happened and everybody blaming Harry. Then a
big part of the story is Harry vindicating himself. Then some
other evil has happened and again Potter becomes the prime suspect.
Doesn't anybody remember Potter's good deeds in the past? It is
like there has been a string of bank robberies and the prime
suspect is always Babe Ruth. But he is never guilty. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: All of Tor.com's Original Short Fiction from 2018
Tor has provided a page with links to all of the free short fiction
they published on tor.com in 2018:
https://tinyurl.com/void-tor2018
===================================================================
TOPIC: Short Takes On New Films (comments by Mark R. Leeper)
We have gotten through another film award voting season. Each year
the On-line Film Critic Society, of which I am a member, makes a
string of awards that are much like the Academy Awards. Both have
a lot of the same categories from Best Picture to Best Supporting
Actress.
From roughly late October to mid-December I have an opportunity to
pick from about 135 films to see from MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT
and GREEN BOOK to tiny foreign films you will never hear from any
place else.
In theory I could see about four films a day and vote on what films
seem most recommendable. How does a film get nominated for awards?
Anybody can submit a film for consideration. And it will attract
film critics to see it. The film may be distributed to the critics
in many I have to say that I like different forms. Once the film
is distributed to the critics the film is on its own. It has to be
judged. Some films will be the sort of thing playing in local
movie theaters with actors recognized around the world. And some
you will never hear of again. I will rate each on the -4 to +4
scale.
DARKEST HOUR
I like history films that recreate some historic decision and all
the reasoning and arguing that came before the decision that is
made. I could (and do) read about it in a book, but on the screen
it is so much more compelling. In the past few years we have had
history films like LINCOLN and SPOTLIGHT. Last year we had Joe
Wright's DARKEST HOUR. The latter is about Winston Churchill.
Britain has been pulled into the European war. The whole British
army is on the beaches of Calais and Dunkirk surrounded by the
German army where the Germans are picking them off waiting for the
coming slaughter. Once the German army gets around to it, it will
drive the English into the channel. Churchill arranges for the
Dunkirk evacuation. Then Chamberlain and Halifax want to take up
Mussolini's offer to mediate between Hitler and Churchill on a
possible peace. Of course, today we have a better idea how
faithful Hitler would have been to any such agreement. Joe Wright
directs. Gary Oldman plays Winston Churchill. The result of
Oldman making up to look like Churchill does not look like either.
Rating: +2
EATING ANIMALS
This documentary is about the history, current practices, and
future of industrialized farming. The outlook is very bleak for
the food supply. Most have the same message. That is, "It is not
a question of if {some very bad thing} is going to happen; it is a
question of when." Don't get me wrong. I am not being cynical or
sarcastic. There are many disasters on the horizon. Which mega-
disaster will happen first is impossible to tell, but it will be at
least one mega-disaster and probably more. Rating: +2
TITO AND THE BIRDS
This is a Portuguese-language film on a theme that hatred spawns
hatred; fear spawns fear; paranoia spawns paranoia. The main
character is a boy who with his father invented a process to fight
paranoia. With something called "the Outbreak" threatening to
bring down a parallel world by spreading hatreds, young Tito
travels to the other world to use his anti-hate process.
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Horror Story (comments by
Evelyn C. Leeper)
Maybe I am late to the game, but I have just learned about the Elf
on the Shelf and I am appalled.
It was bad enough before, with Santa knowing if you were naughty or
nice, sleeping or awake, and so on. But at least that was somewhat
nebulous, and worked because Santa was somehow omniscient, like
God, and so also, like God, was assumed to be omnibenevolent.
Even so, if is not clear how a child who is told that Santa won't
bring him anything if he is not good reconciles this with the
classroom bully showing up on January 2 talking about all the great
things Santa brought him.
But the Elf on the Shelf takes this in a whole new direction.
Santa is no longer omniscient, like God. Instead, he is more like
the East German Stasi, employing enough spies and undercover agents
to watch everyone all the time. And this is presented as a good
thing. Children are even more explicitly told that their good
behavior will generate material rewards and bad behavior will have
negative effects, *but only when someone sees them*. So when
Christmas is over, the children go back to their usual behavior.
(Think of how Eddie Haskell acted when Mrs. Cleaver was around
versus when she wasn't.)
And of course the Elf on the Shelf is not free. (I think he--or
she--runs about $29.99.) So not only do you end up indoctrinating
your children into the idea that there is nothing wrong with the
surveillance state, but you get to pay for that privilege.
So next time someone tells me I should get in the Christmas spirit,
I'll ask them if that means I have to support the old Stasi, or
whether the Patriot Act is enough. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: 20TH ANNUAL ANIMATION SHOW OF SHOWS (film review by Mark
R. Leeper)
There are two or three annual films showing generally in art house
theaters. They are collections of animated films that go on tours.
One is composed of the animated films or short films that are
nominated for Academy Awards that year. The ANIMATION SHOW OF
SHOWS is similar but different. It is just a good collection of
animated films. Some can be from previous years; some can be the
present year. I do not know the selection method, but the majority
of the films are only about one or two years old. I will rate each
film A, B, C, or if it is particularly good, AA or AAA. These are
this year's films:
1. "The Green Bird" is directed by a team of four people. It is
about an exotic bird in s significantly screwed up environment.
But the poor bird has problems that would be much like those of
Scrat from the ICE AGE films. The bird is trying to hatch an egg.
The animation is done with stop motion. The story is nothing deep
but somehow it is entertaining. Rating: B
2. "One Small Step" has a young girl who knows she just has to be
an astronaut and go into space. She dreams of being an astronaut
in the space program. There are some obstacles in her way and
going into space. She will persevere. With the support of her
family she hopes to get into space. Some of the story is
affecting. Rating: AA
3. "Grands Canons" is an observation of hundreds of thousands of
tools and of tech. It all starts with a pencil. The tools are not
really animated but they are shown for just one frame. These
figures go past the viewers for the length of just one frame.
Rating: B.
4. "Barry", a goat, needs a job and gets one temporarily in a
hospital. He seems to a very talented doctor, but speciesism get
in his way. The hospital administration does no care that he is
talented at curing the ill; no goat will be allowed to practice
medicine in the hospital. And any goat would be over-qualified.
Barry could be saving lives, but the System will not allow it.
Rating: A
5. "Super Girl" has a little girl (reported to be a four-year-old)
who daydreams of having super powers and being Super Girl. There
is no story here. The film is not long enough. The film is only
70 seconds long. But we see what is going on in her mind. Rating:
C.
6. "Love Me, Fear Me" is implemented in clay animation, for which a
stick figure dances around in abstract of sexually suggestive
poses. At times it takes on a birdlike texture with feathers. The
title suggests that the creature demands loyalty from the molded
creature. Rating: A
7. "Business Meeting" is a satire on upper management of a
corporation. There is one new idea in the whole meeting; everybody
adopts the idea of the person who spoke just before him; nothing is
accomplished to justify the huge salaries these guys undoubtedly
receive. Rating: A
8. "Flower Found" has a cute-looking mouse looking for a particular
lost flower. He must be a charismatic mouse since along the way he
finds other animals join his search. There may be more to the
mouse's plan than meets the eye. Rating: A
9. "Bullets" seems inspired by the "It's a Good Life" episode of
THE TWILIGHT ZONE. A young boy gives orders as if he has
omnipotent powers. Everything in world is hunted by something else
and is told it should stop doing negative things. Some of his
ideas seem like good ideas. Rating: A
10. "A Table Game" is hard to understand. It seems to be the
adventures of a tennis ball as it travels, looking for a mouth to
lodge in. It suggests that the world looks different from the
point of view of a ball that cannot control where it travels to.
Rating: C
11. "Carlotta's Face" is done in German with English subtitles.
The narrator is telling the story of looking for Carlotta while
coping with face-blindness. In fact, Carlotta is trying to find
her own face based on a description and being the one who suffers
with the face-blindness. The images are in black and sepia with
highlight in bright scarlet, giving some of the feeling of the
neurological condition. (The filmmaker herself is face-blind.)
Rating: A.
12. "Age of Sail" is perhaps the film that uses animation the least
to tell its story. It uses a detailed near-realistic art style. A
sea captain is retiring after 21 years on the sea. He is
regretting his loss of the sea as his longtime friend and
companion. When he sees a young woman in distress he decides to
save her as one last mission on the waves. Rating: AA
13. "Polaris" is the story of a polar bear that leaves his home,
his friends, and his family. Along the way he dreams of what it
must be like to be human. The bears are drawn very expressively
but with impressive simplicity. Rating: AA
14. "My Moon" seems to be made up mostly of mother-daughter
relationship images show frequently as a small planet orbiting
around a bigger mother planet. Celestial bodies have very human-
like relationships. There is not much story, just an idea that is
illustrated. Rating: B
15. "Weekends" is somewhat reminiscent of Henry James' WHAT MAISIE
KNEW. The child of a divorce is pulled in two directions, caught
between warring parents. His mother is soft and caring and his
father is rich and willing to spend on him. Does his mother stand
a chance in this tug-of-war? Rating: B
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: GREEN BOOK (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: In 1962 a pot-bellied tough guy, played by Viggo
Mortensen, agrees to act as chauffer and bodyguard for a great
black jazz and classical musician (Mahershale Ali) for a
performance tour of engagements in the Deep South. The bodyguard
was needed because the will be in areas where it is very dangerous
to be black. Each will get more out of the tour than he expected.
It is all formula, but it is likable formula. The film is based on
a true story. Director: Peter Farrelly; Writers: Nick Vallelonga,
Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
As will probably come as a surprise to few filmgoers, there really
was a Green Book during the three decades, 1936 to 1966, officially
titled THE NEGRO MOTORIST GREEN-BOOK. At that time it was
extremely dangerous for a black automobile driver to travel in the
American Deep South. A black person could easily be murdered on
sight with the killer and/or his friends having no fear of
punishment. Much like a Triple-A Tour Book, it would tell the
reader where it was safe to travel and where it was or was not safe
to have a driving excursion. The book THE GREEN BOOK shows up in
something like three references in the script. There are three
quick mentions of THE GREEN BOOK, which indeed was probably what
Tony and Don used for a guide, but which gets little mentioned in
the film.
The plot is straightforward enough. It is 1962 and Tony Lip
(played by Viggo Mortensen) is out of work. He is a bouncer at a
Manhattan bar, but the bar is closing for a couple of months, and
Tony needs work. Through a mix-up he meets classical and jazz
prodigy Don Shirley (played by Mahershala Ali) who is looking to
hire someone, but not for the job Tony was expecting. Don is a
great and famous black musician. His trio is planning a tour of
engagements, including a leg in the Deep and dangerous South.
These are places where race bigotry rules and the life of a black
man is little cheaper than the price of a bullet. So the two (and
two more musicians) head off for what is likely to be a dangerous
trip.
The two mix like oil and water--precisely what one would expect
from a road film or a buddy movie. But what will come as precisely
no surprise is that the picayune, snobbish black intellectual and
the lowbrow white tough guy soon break through the attitude barrier
and concentrate on what they have in common. The film follows a
very familiar formula, but one that works.
It is a impressive to see how much Mortensen had gained in growing
a pot belly. He no longer looks like a character out of LORD OF THE
RINGS like his Aragorn. I rate GREEN BOOK a +2 on the -4 to +4
scale or 7/10.
Film Credits:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/green_book
What others are saying:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6966692/reference
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: CANNIBALS AND CARPET FITTERS (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: A company of carpet installers goes on their worst job
ever when they have to install carpets in a mansion with a family
from the London Chainsaw Massacre. Droll English humor if never
hilarious, it does have its share of funny lines and circumstances.
Its working class characters making usually amusing comments. Some
will find it unpalatable while others will find it bloody droll.
Directed by: James Bushe; Written by: Richard Lee O'Donnell.
Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4) or 4/10
Ever have trouble with your carpets when you visited England? Here
is a little film to tell you just what went wrong. It is far too
technical to explain here what happens but it all seems to come
down to one simple observation: it would seem that carpet "fitters"
in England--what we would call carpet "installers"--are a bunch of
bloody simple useless gits. In fact the fitters we see seem too
dumb to join Shaun of the Dead. But it isn't all their fault. In
this little opus they have been trapped and ambushed by a family
out of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE.
The film opens with a bickering young couple driving out to the
English countryside for a bit of camping and picnicking. Hours
later the tent just does not seem to be coming together. They
decide to put off working on the tent. There is a nice woods
nearby so they go for a little walk. More hours later our friends
are totally lost in the woods... in the dark... in the night... in
the woods... They get good news and bad news. The good news is
that they find a huge mansion like it had come from a different
age. The bad news is that it deserved to stay in a different age.
The mansion belongs to a nice old lady and her four sons. The
woman seems pleasant at first and proffers cups of tea. But there
are worse things in the house than stale tea.
As the title suggests they are a company of carpet installers. The
lady of the house seems nice and friendly. And she was caught
unexpectedly by the visiting teens. She was really there waiting
for the carpet installers to arrive to start their work. And then
she also would start hers. This group is incompetent and abrasive.
This plot really does not leave much latitude for The Great Ideas.
It is a fairly standard 1960s television-level situation comedy.
It may be a little bloodier wish excessive fire engine-red blood.
The latter was probably following the influence of Hammer Film.
This is a film the viewer will start forgetting before he leaves
the building. I rate it a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale or
4/10.Currently on disk or streaming.
Film Credits:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4249580/reference
What others are saying:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cannibals_and_carpet_fitters
[-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Super Powers (letters of comment by Jim Susky and Daphne
Eftychia Arthur)
In response to Mark's comments on super powers in the 12/14/18
issue of the MT VOID, Jim Susky writes:
I may have the same "superpower" as you--ability to feel a faint
buzzy sensation on electrical appliances.
I have a theory about that--but first let me ask if you have
noticed the phenomenon in this century?
I have noticed this myself on various items of audio equipment--in
my case detectable by lightly rubbing fingers on equipment
chassis's--but have never "tested" it. The "test" would be to
reverse the prongs on a two prong power plug and try again. These
days, two prong plugs have a "neutral" prong--which is wider than
the "hot" or "phase" plug--such plug may only be plugged in one
way--with the neutral/wide prong to the left (with the 3rd,
"ground" prong, below the other two).
In the (not so) "old days", with equal width prongs, the plug could
be reversed thus putting the refrigerator enclosure (and door) (and
audio equipment chassis) at voltage significantly above "neutral
voltage"--which itself is normally close to "ground voltage".
I believe most recent electrical equipment now rigorously conforms
to the three-prong approach described above. [-js]
Mark responds:
"A faint buzzy sensation on electrical appliances" Yeah. That is
a fairly good description. I just don't understand why it is not
better known. Well, now I know three people who admit to having
the the feeling. The time since I last felt it is measured in
decades. I don't know enough electronics, but your explanation
sounds believable. It was probably recognized and ignored by lots
of electricians and hams, but was not interesting enough to draw
much attention. [-mrl]
Daphne Eftychia Arthur writes:
Heh. Me too! Has to be a very light touch, slow movement parallel
to the surface increases the effect (and can be the difference
between detecting it or not), & it feels like a 60 Hz not-exactly-
a-vibration. (I don't think I've gotten it from anything that
wasn't mains-powered; I didn't notice it during the month I was
overseas, so I don't know whether I'd be able to tell the
difference between 50 Hz and 60 Hz by touch.) Not present on most
appliances, but quite pronounced on a few (including a refrigerator
at a house where I used to live, and the waterbed at the house
where The Never Ending Party was held, as well as a few
computers(!) and the occasional lamp).
I haven't been able to detect anything with a multimeter to explain
what I'm feeling; I've wondered whether I might be able to spot
anything with an oscilloscope. It's not the same sensation as
static electricity, and grounding myself doesn't make it go away
(though IIRC that did reduce the sensation from the waterbed by
about a third, while making no perceptible difference with the
fridge).
I've wondered about the mechanism behind the sensation for a long
time. (Also wondered whether only a few of us have this sense, or
most of us have it but only a few of us are attentive enough to our
senses other than sight and sound to notice.) [-dea]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Comic Books (letter of comment by Jim Susky)
In response to Mark's comments on comic books in the 12/07/18 issue
of the MT VOID, Jim Susky writes:
[Regarding] comic-books (more interesting to me) and paternal
disapproval of same.
I clearly remember an afternoon when my father brought home a large
box full of books. This was in my "first house" and during the
school year, so I could have been no older than seven. He was a
tradesman for the school district (having left his position
teaching "shop") and had diverted these well-loved books from the
trash bin. This was close to the time when, I too, started reading
comic books--mostly DC with fewer Marvel comics (and Casper,
Archie, Donald Duck, and other Disney's). My mother and father
never paid much attention to what I read (at least that I knew of)
Within a few years I was reading SF, various juveniles, (BALL FOUR)
and whatever else I could get my hands on. I was thus distracted
from comics and have never returned. By the time I started driving
I'd read 90% of Asimov's and Clarke's fiction but was again
distracted from reading-for-pleasure. I have never since read so
much as I did as an early teen.
P.S. My mother would have been shocked by some of the more "out
there" "new wave" stories that Harlan Ellison published in
DANGEROUS VISIONS and its sequels--BALL FOUR is tame by comparison.
[-js]
Mark writes:
As for interest in SF and fantasy, we had a neighbor who was a
teacher and he gave me a box of SF he was getting rid of. The
number of SF books I had owned went from about 10 to about 60. It
was one of the happiest moments of my youth. I will always be
grateful. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
[This is part two of three parts.]
In INSIDE THE THIRD REICH by Albert Speer (ISBN 978-0-684-82949-4),
Speer has a lot to say about Hitler's personality, attitudes, and
so on.
We see a leader having no ideology, but relying on whatever got him
support at the time:
"Hitler's alliance with the old-style nationalists of the Harzburg
Front led me to think that a contradiction could be detected
between his statements at public meetings and his political views.
I regarded this contradiction as highly promising. In actuality
Hitler only wanted to thrust his way to power by whatever means he
could."
"In saying this he was expressing what Hitler and his staff had
already been doing for years: picking up anything that promised
success without regard for ideology--in fact, determining even
ideological questions by their effect upon the voters."
"But the idea of a caviar-eating Leader was incompatible with
Hitler's conception of himself."
"Since he regularly responded to opposition by choosing someone
more amenable, over the years he assembled around himself a group
of associates who more and more surrendered to his arguments and
translated them into action more and more unscrupulously."
"The discrepancy between the total mobilization of labor forces in
democratic England and the casual treatment of this question in
authoritarian Germany is proof of the regime's anxiety not to risk
any shift in the popular mood."
(See also below in the comments on a yearning for "the good old
days"--Hitler would use that as a way to gain support, whether or
not he believed it, or whether or not there was any contradiction
in his statements.)
A head of state spending more time on his hobbies and pastimes than
on work (though apparently golf was not one of them):
"I myself threw all my strength into my work and was baffled at
first by the way Hitler squandered his working time. I could
understand that he might wish his day to trail off in boredom and
pastimes; but to my notion this phase of the day, averaging some
six hours, proved rather long, whereas the actual working session
was by comparison relatively short. When, I would often ask
myself, did he really work?"
A head of state who was unqualified to lead, and not willing to
surround himself with those better qualified:
"Hitler, too, had seen nothing of the world and had acquired
neither knowledge nor understanding of it. Moreover, the average
party politician lacked higher education. Of the fifty
Reichsleiters and Gauleiters, the elite of the leadership, only ten
had completed a university education, a few had attended university
classes for a while, and the majority had never gone beyond
secondary school. Virtually none of them had distinguished himself
by any notable achievement in any field whatsoever. Almost all
displayed an astonishing intellectual dullness. Their educational
standard certainly did not correspond to what might be expected of
the top leadership of a nation with a traditionally high
intellectual level. Basically, Hitler preferred to have people of
the same origins as himself in his immediate entourage; no doubt he
felt most at ease among them. In general he was pleased if his
associates showed some 'flaw in the weave,' as we called it at the
time. As Hanke commented one day: 'It is all to the good if
associates have faults and know that the superior is aware of them.
That is why the Fuehrer so seldom changes his assistants. For he
finds them easiest to work with. Almost every one of them has his
defect; that helps keep them in line.' Immoral conduct, remote
Jewish ancestors, or recent membership in the party were counted as
flaws in the weave."
"Goering did nothing about these problems. Whenever he did do
anything, he usually created total confusion, since he never took
the trouble to work through the problems but made his decisions on
the basis of impulsive inspirations."
"To be sure, it was in keeping with Hitler's dilettantism that he
preferred to choose non-specialists as his associates. After all,
he had already appointed a wine salesman as his Foreign Minister,
his party philosopher as his Minister for Eastern Affairs, and an
erstwhile fighter pilot as overseer of the entire economy. Now he
was picking an architect of all people to be his Minister of
Armaments. Undoubtedly Hitler preferred to fill positions of
leadership with laymen. All his life he respected but distrusted
professionals such as, for example, Schacht."
"It is significant that Hitler did not choose the direct route of
obtaining information on this matter from responsible people but
depended instead on unreliable and incompetent informants to give
him a Sunday-supplement account. Here again was proof of his love
for amateurishness and his lack of understanding of fundamental
scientific research."
However, eventually the people around him tried to use their better
knowledge to block Hitler's more ludicrous orders:
"Occasionally they tried to counter the effects of obviously absurd
orders by adding little clauses that Hitler did not understand.
Under the leadership of a man so submissive and irresolute as
Keitel, the High Command often had to look for all sorts of crooked
paths in order to arrive at its goals."
A leader who insisted on personal loyalty and fawning "advisors"
who would tell him only what he wanted to hear:
"In keeping with his character, Hitler gladly sought advice from
persons who saw the situation even more optimistically and
delusively than he himself."
"Hitler said that he could not do without Keitel because the man
was loyal as a dog" to him. Perhaps Keitel embodied most precisely
the type of person Hitler needed in his entourage."
"Even during the period between 1933 and 1939, when his position
made life easier for him, he was visibly refreshed by the daily
procession of admirers who came to pay homage to him at
Obersalzberg. The rallies in the prewar period had also been a
stimulant to Hitler. They were part of his life, and each one left
him more incisive and self-assured than he had been before."
A leader who totally ignored facts and relied instead entirely on
his intuition and his immediate feelings (which could change day by
day, or even hour by hour):
"Hitler actually knew nothing about his enemies and even refused to
use the information that was available to him. Instead, he trusted
his inspirations, no matter how inherently contradictory they might
be, and these inspirations were governed by extreme contempt for
and underestimation of the others."
"In saying this Hitler was flatly reversing himself, for as I knew
from Himmler, he had decided only a few days before that Dorsch
would be entrusted with this work. As so often, he brushed aside
the view he had only recently expressed and ignored Dorsch's
feelings as well. This inconsistency was still another proof of
his profound contempt for people."
"By this original device, the men ceased to exist for the draft
boards. On the list drawn up by Hitler and Goebbels, however,
architects and sculptors occupied little space. The overwhelming
majority of those thus exempted were singers and actors. The fact
that young scientists were also important for the future was not
discovered until 1942, and then with my help."
"Amateurishness was one of Hitler's dominant traits, he had never
learned a profession and basically had always remained an outsider
to all fields of endeavor. Like many self-taught people, he had no
idea what real specialized knowledge meant. Without any sense of
the complexities of any great task, he boldly assumed one function
after another."
"Thus, Hitler's decisions led to a multiplicity of parallel
projects. They also led to more and more complicated problems of
supply. One of his worst failings was that he simply did not
understand the necessity for supplying the armies with sufficient
spare parts."
"As the situation deteriorated further, Hitler closed his mind more
and more to any word against his decisions. He proved to be more
autocratic than ever in this crisis.
"Hitler, however, continued to be exceedingly skeptical. He was
filled with a fundamental distrust of all innovations which, as in
the case of jet aircraft or atom bombs, went beyond the technical
experience of the First World War generation and presaged an era he
could not know."
"As early as August 1942, Hitler had assured the naval leadership
that the Allies could not make a successful invasion unless they
were able to take a sizable port."
"Sometimes he could realize the hopelessness of a situation, but he
could not be shaken in his expectation that at the last moment Fate
would suddenly turn the tide in his favor. If there was any
fundamental insanity in Hitler, it was this unshakable belief in
his lucky star. He was by nature a religious man, but his capacity
for belief had been perverted into belief in himself."
"Hitler seemed to be the only one in the company who was drunk
without having taken any stimulating beverage. He was in the grip
of a permanent euphoria."
[Compare these statements to the recent Presidential announcement,
"I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody
else's brain can ever tell me."]
[to be concluded]
[-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
I used to look at [my dog] Smokey and think, 'If you
were a little smarter you could tell me what you were
thinking,' and he'd look at me like he was saying,
'If you were a little smarter, I wouldn't have to.'
--Fred Jungclaus