THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
06/24/22 -- Vol. 40, No. 52, Whole Number 2229
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper,
mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in July (comments
by Mark R. Leeper)
Mini Reviews by Evelyn, Part 6 (OPERATION MINCEMEAT,
LICORICE PIZZA, THE BAD GUYS, THE OUTFIT)
(film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper)
DARK RIDE: THE BEST SHORT FICTION OF JOHN KESSEL
(book review by Joe Karpierz)
Merlin and Mathematics (letters of comment by Kevin R and
Jim Susky)
Juneteenth and LINCOLN (letter of comment by Jim Susky)
This Week's Reading (Hugo Award novella finalists)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
Meetings are still fluctuating between in-person and Zoom. The
best way to get the latest information is to be on the mailing
lists for them.
June 2, 2022 (MTPL), 5:30PM, in-person: A.I. ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE (2001) & short story
"Supertoys Last All Summer Long" (1969) by Brian Aldiss
<
https://archive.org/details/supertoyslastall0000aldi/>
July 7, 2022 (MTPL), 5:30PM, in-person: THE LOST WORLD (1925)
and novel THE LOST WORLD by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(<
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/139> has various
formats available)
July 28, 2022 (OBPL), 7:00PM, Zoom: A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT by
Becky Chambers
===================================================================
TOPIC: My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in July (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
First, apologies to those who looked for THE BEAST MUST DIE in
June; Turner Classic Movies changed their schedule after the
article was written, and replaced THE BEAST MUST DIE with another
film.
Now onto July.
In 1968 Hammer Films not only had their best year to date, they
also produced two of the best horror or science fiction films any
film studio had ever made. (And this is outside of their
successful Dracula series). The horror film was THE DEVIL RIDES
OUT and the SF film was QUATERMASS AND THE PIT. And then they made
one film--a very, very strange film, THE LOST CONTINENT. It was a
lost civilization story--nowhere near Hammer's best.
A tramp freighter on which everybody has some tawdry backstory
finds itself tangled in the Sargasso Sea, unable to pull itself
out. Also trapped in that lost world is a contingent of 16th
century Spanish fighters. It is no less weird than it sounds. Oh,
they are also menaced by giant jumbo shrimp.
[THE LOST CONTINENT (1968), July 29, 1:15 AM]
Also, I see that BMW (or someone) has posted THE HIRE to YouTube.
This is a film composed of 9 chapters, each of which shows off how
fancy BMW cars are. The pieces are each directed by a major
industry director of action films (e.g., the first is directed by
John Frankenheimer), and they all star Clive Owen.
See <
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4A24A64BDE6DC272> for
a playlist of all of them. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mini Reviews by Evelyn, Part 6 (film reviews by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
OPERATION MINCEMEAT: OPERATION MINCEMEAT is a re-telling of the
story from Ewan Montague's book 1953 THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS, which
told the true story of the World War II operation that used a
corpse to convince the Germans that the Allied invasion from the
Mediterranean would be in Greece rather than Sicily. The book (and
the 1956 film of the same name) were not entirely accurate due to
the official secrets act. (The book was published in part to
counteract the spy novel OPERATION HEARTBREAK by Duff Cooper, which
used a similar plot.) So OPERATION MINCEMEAT is in some ways more
accurate than the earlier film, but it also suffers (IMHO) from a
superfluous romance sub-plot. Apparently using a corpse to deceive
the Germans about the invasion wasn't exciting enough for Netflix.
Even with its inaccuracies, I still prefer the first film. IMDB
voters agree; THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS gets a 7.4, while OPERATION
MINCEMEAT gets a 6.7.
Released 05/11/22 on Netflix.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1879016/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/operation_mincemeat>
LICORICE PIZZA: LICORICE PIZZA is the latest from Paul Thomas
Anderson. Anderson has written some great movies: HARD EIGHT,
BOOGIE NIGHTS, MAGNOLIA, THERE WILL BE BLOOD, THE MASTER. But he
has also written some not-so-great movies (PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE,
INHERENT VICE), and this is one of them.
Paul Thomas Anderson should not be confused with Wes Anderson.
Both are named Anderson and make quirky independent films, but
there the similarity ends.)
Released theatrically 12/25/21; available on DVD and various
streaming services.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11271038/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/licorice_pizza>
THE BAD GUYS: THE BAD GUYS is the latest from DreamWorks, but it is
strangely reminiscent of the Pixar film THE INCREDIBLES (especially
the musical score) and Twentieth Century Fox film THE FANTASTIC
MR. FOX (no pun intended!) (especially the characterization of the
main character). Somehow, though, this story of a bunch of "Bad
Guys" (a wolf, a snake, a shark, a piranha, and a tarantula) who
get caught in a heist and are put through a regimen to try to make
them good. I suppose the idea is that people are wrong to judge
them by the stereotypes applied to them. The fact that we're
apparently not supposed to ask why almost everyone else in the
movie is human but the humans and animals interact on a mostly
equal basis is to make children see a parallel between the
characters and human beings in our world. But I can't say it did
much more for me.
Released theatrically 04/22/22.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8115900/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_bad_guys_2022>
THE OUTFIT: THE OUTFIT is another tour de force for Mark Rylance
(BRIDGE OF SPIES). Rylance is Leonard Burling, a cutter (*not* a tailor--tailors just o buttons and hems, according to his
character) who has left England and come to 1950s Chicago, where he
ends up making bespoke suits for a family of gangsters who aspire
to become part of "The Outfit", the empire that has grown from what
Al Capone began. The film relies on an excellent script, with all
the action contained within the two rooms of Burling's tailor shop.
Rylance trained under the same real cutters from Savile Row who
trained the actors in the "Kingsman" series. (One wonders if all
this goes back to THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.'s use of El Florio's
Tailor Shop as the disguised entrance to their headquarters.)
Released theatrically 03/18/22; available on DVD and various
streaming services.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14114802/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_outfit_2022>
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: DARK RIDE: THE BEST SHORT FICTION OF JOHN KESSEL (copyright
2022, Subterranean Press, Publication Date June 30, 2022, $45
Hardcover, ISBN 9781645240587) (book review by Joe Karpierz)
To be honest, I didn't know very much about John Kessel before I
started reading this collection from Subterranean Press. I was
aware that he had written a novel called THE MOON AND THE OTHER,
and just before I started writing this review I discovered that I'd
read and reviewed (back in 2012) an anthology that he co-edited
with James Patrick Kelly called DIGITAL RAPTURE: THE SINGULARITY
ANTHOLOGY (which, now that I think about it, is one of the best
anthologies I've read in a very long time). So what caused me to
pick up Dark Ride: The Best Short Fiction of John Kessel?
Most likely because I'd heard his name uttered enough by people in
the field whom I respect that I felt reading it was worth a try. I
will also have to say that Subterranean Press puts out some
fantastic collections, many of which I own. What I didn't realize,
once I started reading the book, that I was in for a magnificent
treat.
Not knowing any of Kessel's fiction allowed me to come into the
book with an open mind and little to no expectations. The works
would stand on their own; I would not really be influenced by
anyone's thoughts on these stories because I'd never read them
before. I was prepared to discover a bunch of new favorite short
stories. And I did.
I really enjoyed "Pride and Prometheus", a merging of Jane Austen
and Frankenstein, in which Mary Bennet meets Victor Frankenstein
(and encounters The Creature, albeit briefly). Bennet falls for
Frankenstein, and Victor is impressed with her curiosity and
knowledge. It was, of course, not meant to be. "Pride and
Prometheus" won a Nebula Award and a Shirley Jackson Award. Little
did I know that there were more stories like this in the collection.
Then there's "Another Orphan", a story in which a stock trader from
Chicago ends up smack dab in the middle of MOBY DICK, on the Pequod
herself as part of Ahab's revenge mission against the titular
whale. It's not really clear whether the central character is
actually on the Pequod or back in Chicago (and he does go back and
forth a few times), but the longer he's around Ahab and the crew,
the more he feels like he might be Ishmael, who does eventually
survive the original tale. It's another one of my favorites in the
book. Sure enough, another Nebula winner.
Another, "Stories for Men", in which the Society of Cousins on the
moon is essentially role-reversed, where the men are pampered and
protected and the women go out and do the hard labor, won a Tiptree
(now Otherwise) Award. It's a powerful story about men without
agency and an underground group of men who want to have meaning in
their lives. The protagonist, Erno, is caught between his mother -
a police officer - and that underground group who want to shake
things up. "Stories For Men" takes place in the same setting as
"THE MOON AND THE OTHER", and I like it enough that I will probably
head to my local bookstore - yes, there is an independent bookstore
in my town - and pick it up.
Another favorite is "Gulliver at Home", which doesn't actually
answer the question of what Gulliver's wife does while he's off on
all his travels, but instead it explores the effect of his absence
on his wife. "Buffalo" is a beautiful tribute story about Kessel's
father and an imaginary meeting with H.G. Wells. Wells did go to
Buffalo when Kessel's father worked there, although the meeting
never did take place. "The Baum Plan for Financial Independence"
follows a couple looking for a quick score of cash in an empty (but
not abandoned) house that has a subway station running underneath
it that leads to an idyllic location where all their needs are met
and requests are granted. The Baum in the title does refer to the
author of the Oz books, with the female of the couple being
Dorothy, and the city at the end of the subway line being Oz, a
place where all wishes are granted.
Probably the best story of the collection is the last one, "The
Dark Ride", which gives the collection its title. It takes the
true story of the assassination of President McKinley at the
Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo by anarchist Leon Czolgosz and
give it a genre twist by introducing a "Dark Ride" to the moon,
where Leon meets and falls in with some rebels there who want to
kill the lunar leader. Leon falls in with the group after he sees
what the lunar natives are doing to human slaves. The similarities
between Czolgosz wanting to assassinate McKinley and the members of
the rebellion on the moon is deliberate, of course, but the real
question is whether the experience Czolgosz had on the moon was
real, or just a figment of a deranged imagination. "The Dark Ride"
is a terrifically powerful story that, as I said, is probably the
best tale in the collection.
These may be the best of the stories in the book, but by no means
are any of the stories weak. The stories are excellent genre
fiction, with the fantastic elements doing a slow burn before they
come to the forefront. Those same genre elements don't knock the
reader over the head, but instead slowly insinuate themselves in
the reader's consciousness until they become a natural part of the
tale that Kessel is trying to tell and cause the reader to ask how
they got in there when they clearly weren't there when the story
started.
I may not have known much about John Kessel before I read this
collection, but I do know a little more now, and it's clear that
the thing to do is go out and find more John Kessel fiction to
read. I'm sure I won't be disappointed. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Merlin and Mathematics (letters of comment by Kevin R and
Jim Susky)
In response to Evelyn's review of BY FORCE ALONE in the 06/10/22
issue of the MT VOID, and Keith F. Lynch's comments in the 06/17/22
issue, Kevin R writes:
Evelyn wrote:
"Merlin mutters pi. Pi is an irrational number--only such
numbers hold power in an irrational place--and it is
transcendental, which seems appropriate. And it is infinite,
just like the Weald." (Well, no it's not infinite--its decimal
expression is infinitely long.)
He also goes on about the square root of two being irrational,
which doesn't strike me as something the Merlin of this story
would be that informed about. [-ecl]
Keith F. Lynch noted:
But there was no concept of decimal expression in those days.
Nor did anyone know that pi was irrational until the 18th
century, or transcendental until the 19th. But at least the
Greeks of the time already knew that the square root of two
was irrational. [-kfl]
And Kevin responds:
If Merlin lived his life backward, he'd know stuff discovered in
Arthur's future. [-kr]
Evelyn notes:
Merlin living backwards was invented by T. H. White in THE ONCE
AND FUTURE KING, so stories based on earlier Arthur legends do
not have this excuse. [-ecl]
Jim Susky writes:
Pi is indeed "irrational"--Merlin's muttering reminds me of a very
short "story":
i and pi were arguing.
Frustrated, i shouted:
"You're IRRATIONAL!"
pi retorted:
"Get REAL!"
<RIM SHOT>
[-js]
Evelyn notes:
Someone gave us a T-shirt with this dialogue on it. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Juneteenth and LINCOLN (letters of comment by Gary McGath
and Jim Susky)
In response to Mark and Evelyn's comments on Juneteenth and the
film LINCOLN in the 06/17/22 issue of the MT VOID, Gary McGath
writes:
It's surprising, at least to me, that Delaware was one of the
"border states" that had slavery until the ratification of the 13th
but didn't secede. I normally think of it as a northern state.
The Delaware Constitution of 1776 prohibited the importation of
slaves but didn't, in spite of what some sources claim, outlaw
slavery. It was replaced by the 1792 Constitution, which didn't
have that prohibition.
Jim Susky writes:
Mark and Evelyn's remembrance of Juneteenth, the Emancipation
Proclamation, the 13th Amendment and its ratification (and LINCOLN)
was "provocative"--not because of its content, but because of the
implications aroused by that ratification.
The film looks like it's really good--I might go find a copy--and
turn on the subtitles. [-js]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I've decided this year to concentrate on novellas and Long Form
Dramatic Presentation rather than do all the short fiction. So
here are the novellas. (For what it's worth, I think there is some
amazing work being done these days in the novella format.)
ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS by Seanan McGuire (Tordotcom, ISBN 978-1-250-21359-4) is a stand-alone story in McGuire's "Wayward
Children" series. Ten-year-old Regan tells her best friend a
secret, except Regan didn't realize it should be a secret, and
Regan also didn't realize that he best friend was no friend. When
she flees the disastrous scene, she goes through a doorway to
another world of centaurs and unicorns and evil queens, where she
is the only human, and supposedly let in to save that world. It
seems aimed more at a YA audience, though Lord knows it would get
heavy pushback from the book-banners.
ELDER RACE by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom, ISBN
978-1-259-76872-8) was "on order" for months at my local library,
but luckily the library in the next town over got a copy, allowing
me to finally finish this column, and I'm glad I could include it.
It takes a while for the reader to figure out what is going on, so
I will just say that it involves planetary colonization and the
long-term effects thereof, as well as a quite unusual alien
encounter with Lovecraftian overtones.. For a novella, it has a
lot of science fiction ideas going on all at once.
FIREHEART TIGER by Aliette de Bodard (Tordotcom, ISBN
978-1-250-26051-2) is set in a fantasy version of pre-colonial
Vietnam. That is, the names are all Vietnamese (complete with the
correct typography), but the geopolitical units, the characters,
and the supernatural elements are not historical. One has to
recognize this as de Bodar's answer to the thousands of fantasy
stories set in fantasy versions of medieval Europe, sometimes with
the geography changed, and sometimes not. There is also a gender
aspect which is both reasonable, and problematic. All the
characters are women. On the one hand, it's probably a response to
the many fantasies that are almost entirely populated by men. On
the other, having a royal marriage of two women makes one wonder
how procreation happens--are there no men at all? Definitely thought-provoking.
THE PAST IS RED by Catherynne M. Valente (Tordotcom, ISBN
978-1-250-30113-0) was actually pretty good for most of it, if a
bit unlikely. Tetley Abednego lives on the Great Pacific Garbage
Patch, a.k.a. Garbagetown, which is divided into regions such as
Electric City, Pill Hill, Cardboard Flats, and Clotheschester.
People get their names from things on the patch. I was willing to
accept all this, and even that there supposedly was no dry land
left, even though in actual fact if all the ice melted, the sea
level would rise only 215 feet. (See
<
https://www.goodshomedesign.com/maps- of-what-the-earth-would- look-like-if-all-ice-melted/> for what Earth would look like.) But
when Tetley finds a radio and has a real-time conversation with a
girl on Mars (i.e., with no time lag), I gave up on accurate
science. (Valente's novelette "The Future Is Blue" forms the first
part of this novella.)
A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT by Becky Chambers (Tordotcom, ISBN 978-1-250-23621-0) is set on a not-Earth (at least based on the
description of the geography) that has gone through the Awakening
(when robots became self-aware and separated themselves from
humans) and the Transition (when civilization apparently scaled
itself *way* back to fit better ecologically into the world). Dex
is a monk who is trying to find their purpose. Along the way, they
meet Mosscap, a robot trying to understand humans. There is more
than just the usual human-robot failure to understand each other
(though certainly there is that), including a long discussion of
what anyone's or anything's "purpose". Recommended.
A SPINDLE SPLINTERED by Alix E. Harrow (Tordotcom, ISBN
978-1-250-76535-2) is a re-imagining of the story of Snow White in
all its iterations. Not surprisingly, this twenty-first century
take does not see the story as a "happy-ever-after" story, but one
of female lack of agency, male dominance, and sexual assault.
Though at times the "multiple worlds" explanation seems a bit
shaky, it's still a different way of looking at the story.
Ranking: A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT, A SPINDLE SPLINTERED, ELDER
RACE, FIREHEART TIGER, ACROSS THE GREEN GRASS FIELDS, No Award, THE
PAST IS RED
[-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
If we would have new knowledge, we must get a whole world
of new questions.
--Susanne K. Langer
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