THE MT VOID
Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
09/24/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 13, Whole Number 2190
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper,
mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
eleeper@optonline.net
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Topics:
Major Correction (and Apologies to Fred Lerner) (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in October (comments
by Mark R. Leeper [and Evelyn C. Leeper])
Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
CAPTAIN VIDEO (comments by Gregory Frederick)
MOONRAKER (letters of comment by Gary McGath, Scott Dorsey,
Keith F. Lynch, Tim Merrigan, Dorothy J. Heydt,
and John Kerr-Mudd)
The "Foundation Trilogy" (letter of comment by Jim Susky)
The Hugo Awards, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, and Complications
(letter of comment by John Hertz)
This Week's Reading (VERITAS) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Major Correction (and Apologies to Fred Lerner) (comments by
Evelyn C. Leeper)
Well, I managed to type in what he said completely backward!
Fred Lerner writes:
I'm afraid that you misquoted me in this issue. You have me saying
"However, Fred notes, 'neither the galleys ... nor the published
book itself lay claim to be other than straight fiction.'"
What I actually wrote was "straight history". My article makes
considerably more sense that way! [-fl]
ARGGH! [-ecl]
[Paul Dormer also pointed out that what I typed made no sense.]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Science Fiction (and Other) Discussion Groups, Films,
Lectures, etc. (NJ)
Both groups have returned to the B.C. (Before Covid) schedules, and
the films will be shown as part of the Middletown meetings.
October 7 (MTPL), 5:30PM: ANNIHILATION (2018) & novel
by Jeff VanderMeer (2014)
<
https://readbooksnovel.com/annihilation/page-1-2885/>
November 4 (MTPL), 5:30PM: Halloween Horror TBD
November 18 (**NOTE DATE SHIFT**) (OBPL), 7:00PM: TBD
===================================================================
TOPIC: My Picks for Turner Classic Movies in October (comments by
Mark R. Leeper)
THE FLY (1958) is a film with a premise that really should not work
for 21st century viewers, but if one looks closely at it one sees
it is built on a framework of Oedipus Rex. A scientist has
everything he would want out of life. But, as Vincent Price tells
us, for one moment he, the scientist, was careless. He is turned
into a shocking monster. THE FLY was an unusual horror film with
no villains, only victims. It also has well-defined characters and
genuine pathos. 20th Century Fox expected THE FLY to be a
summertime adventure for the kids. But they gave it high
production values including beautiful color and script by James
Clavell who later wrote the novel SHOGUN.
The film was directed by Kurt Neumann who counted among his films
several low-budget Tarzan movies, ROCKETSHIP X-M, and more recently
for Fox SHE DEVIL and KRONOS. With the possible exception of
KRONOS, there is not much there to suggest that he could have been
responsible for how well THE FLY resonated with audiences. More
likely it is the mythic elements from the story. THE FLY is based
on a short story by George Langelaan that appeared in Playboy
magazine.
[THE FLY (1958), October 30, 6:15PM]
[-mrl]
Evelyn adds:
October is, as usual, a big month on TCM for horror films, and by
extension, science fiction films as well. Some of these have
horror elements (is CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN a science fiction film,
or a horror film?), but many are also just straight science
fiction. I'll also mention some non-fantastical films worth
seeing.
There is a Fay Wray festival (with a few non-Fay-Wray films; the
Fay Wray films are asterisked), with two of the films made at the
same time:
10/01/2021 06:00 AM King Kong (1933)*
10/01/2021 08:00 AM The Most Dangerous Game (1932)*
10/01/2021 09:15 AM The Vampire Bat (1933)*
10/01/2021 10:30 AM The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
10/01/2021 12:45 PM White Zombie (1932)
10/01/2021 02:00 PM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
10/01/2021 03:45 PM Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)*
10/01/2021 05:15 PM Doctor X (1932)*
10/01/2021 06:45 PM Freaks (1932)
There is an entire evening devoted to the centenary of Fleischer
Brothers animation:
10/02/2021 08:00 PM Cartoon Carnival (2021)
10/02/2021 09:45 PM 100th Anniversary of Fleischer Animation
Part 1: The Silent Era (2021) 10/02/2021 10:45 PM 100th Anniversary of Fleischer Animation
Part 2: The Sound Era (2021)
There is a new documentary about Francis X. Bushman09/18/21 the
star of the silent BEN-HUR, followed by the silent BEN-HUR, which
in my opinion has a more exciting chariot race than the Charleton
Heston version:
10/04/2021 12:30 AM This Is Francis X. Bushman (2021)
10/04/2021 02:00 AM Ben-Hur (1925)
There are all the Val Lewton horror films except THE LEOPARD MAN
(which does show up twice later in the month):
10/04/2021 08:00 AM Bedlam (1946)
10/04/2021 09:30 AM The Body Snatcher (1945)
10/04/2021 11:00 AM Isle of the Dead (1945)
10/04/2021 12:30 PM The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
10/04/2021 02:00 PM The Ghost Ship (1943)
10/04/2021 03:15 PM I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
10/04/2021 04:30 PM The Seventh Victim (1943)
10/04/2021 06:00 PM Cat People (1942)
There is another evening of classic post-war Italian films:
10/05/2021 08:00 PM Open City (1946)
10/05/2021 10:00 PM La Strada (1954) (re-runs 10/25/2021
02:00 AM)
10/06/2021 12:00 AM The Sound of Trumpets (1961)
10/06/2021 01:45 AM Eclipse (1962)
10/06/2021 04:00 AM I Knew Her Well (1965)
10/06/2021 06:15 AM Mamma Roma (1962)
And later the French classic:
10/25/2021 06:00 PM The Rules of the Game (1939)
Another day of science fiction:
10/06/2021 08:15 AM 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
10/06/2021 10:45 AM 2010 (1984)
10/06/2021 12:45 PM Forbidden Planet (1956)
10/06/2021 02:30 PM The Invisible Boy (1957)
10/06/2021 04:15 PM The Terminal Man (1974)
10/06/2021 06:15 PM Deadly Friend (1986)
Then there is:
10/09/2021 08:00 PM Fantastic Voyage (1966)
10/09/2021 11:30 PM A Look at the World of "Soylent Green"
(1973)
but weirdly, they are not running the film SOYLENT GREEN.
An afternoon of horror films:
10/14/2021 11:00 AM M (1931)
10/14/2021 02:45 PM Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
10/14/2021 04:45 PM Eyes Without a Face (1959)
10/14/2021 06:30 PM House of Wax (1953)
A vampire day:
10/21/2021 07:45 AM Dracula--Prince of Darkness (1965)
10/21/2021 09:30 AM Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)
10/21/2021 01:00 PM Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1970)
10/21/2021 02:45 PM Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)
10/21/2021 06:15 PM Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)
10/22/2021 04:45 PM The Bat (1959)
A "day of the animals":
10/26/2021 06:30 AM Razorback (1984)
10/26/2021 08:30 AM The Swarm (1978)
10/26/2021 11:15 AM The Pack (1977)
10/26/2021 01:00 PM Rattlers (1976)
10/26/2021 02:45 PM Night of the Lepus (1972)
10/26/2021 04:30 PM The Killer Shrews (1959)
10/26/2021 06:15 PM Them! (1954)
A tribute to Universal horror films:
10/27/2021 08:00 PM Carl Laemmle (2019)
10/27/2021 09:45 PM Dracula (1931)
10/28/2021 01:45 AM Carl Laemmle (2019)
10/28/2021 03:30 AM The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
10/28/2021 05:00 AM Frankenstein (1931)
And starting on October 29, an almost non-stop horror fest:
10/29/2021 08:00 PM The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
10/29/2021 10:00 PM Night of the Living Dead (1968)
10/30/2021 12:00 AM Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
10/30/2021 03:45 AM Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977)
10/30/2021 05:45 AM Creature From the Haunted Sea (1961)
10/30/2021 06:45 AM The Hypnotic Eye (1960)
10/30/2021 08:15 AM Chamber of Horrors (1966)
10/30/2021 10:00 AM Spider Baby (1964)
10/30/2021 11:30 AM The Devil's Own (1966)
10/30/2021 01:15 PM The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
10/30/2021 02:45 PM The Haunting (1963)
10/30/2021 04:45 PM The Tomb of Ligeia (1965)
10/30/2021 06:15 PM The Fly (1958)
10/30/2021 08:00 PM Frankenstein (1931)
10/30/2021 09:30 PM Young Frankenstein (1974)
10/31/2021 12:00 AM Cat People (1942)
10/31/2021 01:30 AM The Leopard Man (1943)
10/31/2021 04:30 AM Carnival of Souls (1962)
10/31/2021 06:00 AM Phantom of the Rue Morgue (1954)
10/31/2021 07:30 AM Macabre (1958)
10/31/2021 08:45 AM White Zombie (1932)
10/31/2021 10:00 AM Cat People (1942)
10/31/2021 11:30 AM The Leopard Man (1943)
10/31/2021 12:45 PM Mad Love (1935)
10/31/2021 03:30 PM The Pit and the Pendulum (1961)
10/31/2021 05:00 PM Curse of the Demon (1958)
10/31/2021 06:30 PM Horror Hotel (1960)
11/01/2021 01:00 AM Metropolis (1926)
11/01/2021 03:45 AM Vampyr (1932)
11/01/2021 05:15 AM Haxan (1922)
And some miscellaneous offerings:
10/09/2021 04:45 AM Schizoid (1980)
10/09/2021 06:15 AM Dementia 13 (1963)
10/10/2021 08:00 PM The Bad Seed (1956)
10/10/2021 10:15 PM It's Alive (1974)
10/11/2021 06:00 PM Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
10/15/2021 06:15 PM Carnival of Souls (1962)
10/16/2021 06:00 AM Ghosts--Italian Style (1969)
10/17/2021 08:00 PM Poltergeist (1982)
10/17/2021 10:00 PM Burnt Offerings (1976)
10/18/2021 02:30 AM Stalker (1979)
10/19/2021 03:45 PM The Crimson Pirate (1952)
10/19/2021 06:15 PM The Ice Pirates (1984)
10/20/2021 06:15 PM Blithe Spirit (1945)
10/21/2021 06:00 AM The Nanny (1965)
10/22/2021 06:15 PM House on Haunted Hill (1958)
10/22/2021 08:00 PM Jason And The Argonauts (1963)
10/23/2021 06:00 AM The Mummy's Shroud (1967)
10/23/2021 12:00 PM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
10/24/2021 08:00 PM What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)
10/25/2021 12:15 AM The Monster (1925)
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
On 26 September 1983, Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov probably
averted nuclear war. Shortly after the Soviet military had shot
down Korean Air Lines Flight 007, the Soviet nuclear early-warning
system reported that a missile had been launched from the United
States. As Wikipedia describes it, "Petrov judged the reports to
be a false alarm, and his decision to disobey orders, against
Soviet military protocol, is credited with having prevented an
erroneous retaliatory nuclear attack on the United States and its
NATO allies that could have resulted in a large-scale nuclear war."
So on Sunday, raise a glass to Stanislav Yevgrafovich Petrov.
[See also Vasily Aleksandrovich Arkhipov and the Cuban Missile
Crisis.]
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: CAPTAIN VIDEO (comments by Gregory Frederick)
I was surprised to find out that many famous SF writers wrote
episodes of CAPTAIN VIDEO. That old SF television show even had
one of my favorites, Jack Vance, writing for it. And he usually
had very little to do with writing for television or any films.
It's hard to even find any books written by Vance used as the basis
for any films. BAD RONALD is one exception. CAPTAIN VIDEO was
filmed in the film studio of a department store and their props
sometimes were things they found in the store to use. Below is a
list of the writers for CAPTAIN VIDEO. That show and other early
50's SF television were before my time so I never watched them.
Writers include:
Damon Knight
James Blish
Jack Vance
Arthur C. Clarke
Isaac Asimov
Cyril M. Kornbluth
Milt Lesser
Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Robert Sheckley
J. T. McIntosh
Robert S. Richardson
Maurice C. Brachhausen (M. C. Brock)
[-gf]
Mark responds:
I was vaguely aware that some famous SF authors got their start
writing for early SF television.
It had to be simple SF for the kiddoes to understand. Much was
cowboy stuff with six-guns becoming blasters, etc. I think I liked
it but I don't remember much. I would have been about two or three
years old, but I think I remember bits. The "Star Trek" animated
series also had several stories by popular authors. [-mrl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: MOONRAKER (letters of comment by Gary McGath, Scott Dorsey,
Keith F. Lynch, Tim Merrigan, Dorothy J. Heydt, and John Kerr-Mudd)
In response to Mark's comments on MOONRAKER in the 09/17/21 issue
of the MT VOID, Gary McGath writes:
When the movie came out, there was a novelization of it. The movie
was (however loosely) based on an Ian Fleming novel of the same
title. Maybe they could make another movie of the novelization,
and then novelize that? [-gmg]
Scott Dorsey asks:
Didn't Disney do that with THE JUNGLE BOOK? [-sd]
Keith F. Lynch replies:
They, or someone, certainly did with the 1967 version. I don't know
about the remakes. I don't remember the author, not having read the
book or seen the movie in 54 years, but I know it wasn't Kipling.
Gary responds:
A search turns up a "novelization" of the 1994 version which is
actually a ten-page children's book. It credits Kipling as a co-
author, which I think compounds the crime. [-gmg]
Tim Merrigan notes:
I've read the original novel(*), and the only similarities to the
movie, or, presumably, the mobilization, which I haven't read, was
the title, and that James Bond was in it.
In the book, Moonraker is a V-2, or equivalent, being set up
somewhere (I forget, it's been a while) in the west of England,
targeted at London. (It really should have been an MI-5, rather
than MI-6, problem.)
* One of the two James Bond books I've read, the other was CASINO
ROYALE. [-tm]
And Dorothy J. Heydt writes:
Speaking of FORBIDDEN PLANET, which we were doing a week or so ago,
that film got a novelization after the fact. (It stank. I think
I've still got a copy, Cat knows why.) [-djh]
Evelyn notes:
The novelization of FORBIDDEN PLANET was credited to W. J. Stuart,
a pen name for Philip MacDonald, primarily known as a mystery
writer (and not to be confused with John D. MacDonald). [-ecl]
And regarding the title, John Kerr-Mudd writes:
A Moonraker was a West Country smuggler (or bunch of them) who were
recovering some smuggled goods that they'd stashed in a pond. When
spotted doing so by the Revenue/local cops they claimed to be
Moonraking - trying to catch the image of the moon reflected on the
pond, so were left alone as a bunch of stupid yokels.
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonrakers> says it better than my
attempt. [-jkm]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The "Foundation Trilogy" (letter of comment by Jim Susky)
In response to Evelyn's comments on THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES in the
09/17/21 issue of the MT VOID, Jim Susky writes:
In the 2021SEP17 MT VOID, Evelyn wrote (in the lead-up to a notice
on THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES mini-series):
"THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES is not a novel. (Or maybe it is in the
sense that we talk about a "fix-up novel"--after all, we talk about
the "Foundation Trilogy" as three novels, but none of the books is
a novel.)"
So now I have a "bone to pick" albeit a trivial one:
Fans of the Good Doctor, especially those who read his two-volume,
800,000-word auto-biography, are aware that the "Foundation"
stories (all of them?) were first published, over a decade or so,
in Campbell's rag, then in collections. Yet I suspect the vast
majority of readers (well over 95% including the redoubtable
Leepers) read them bound together as "novels".
(Another triviality--that "95%" could be validated with some
counting of "editions" and estimates of Astounding subscription
figures--with suitable overlaps and reader/issue multipliers.)
May I pose a rhetorical question? Is THE PICKWICK PAPERS "a
novel"? What about OLIVER TWIST? NICHOLAS NICKELBY? All were
serials--see the wiki entry for Charles Dickens:
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens>
You could say that these were rolled out in the same way that in-
arguable "novels" have been for decades in ANALOG (what ASTOUNDING
was called when I was a but mere whelp).
But NO! That Dickens entry states:
"The installment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's
reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development
based on such feedback."
There may be more meat on this bone--I am confident others will
weigh in. [-js]
Evelyn responds:
The Dickens novels were serialized novels; a single chapter would
not stand alone. The "Foundation" stories were eight individual
stories, published over a span of nine years, and--while set in the
same universe--had no real through-thread and could stand
individually.
Similarly, ACCELERANDO by Charles Stross is (IMHO) a collection of
stories, not a novel.
Or will you now say that (for example) the twenty-one volumes set
in C. J. Cherryh's "Foreigner" universe are a single novel? [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Hugo Awards, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, and Complications
(letter of comment by John Hertz)
In response to various items, John Hertz writes:
John Purcell in Issue 2179, 9 Jul 21, joins those who fold their
arms while a body falls. then look where it struck and cry "What a
mess the street is in this neighborhood!" The Hugo Awards are what
we make them. When we fail to nominate, the ballot is the work of
those who do nominate. If the result is that we think everything
in a category is unworthy we are left with voting "No Award".
Mark's complaint (Issue 2181, 23 Jul) that the James Bond film YOU
ONLY LIVE TWICE should have been entitled YOU LIVE ONLY TWICE
disregards the poem Bond composes in the book (ch. 11). The poem
says, not that a person has only two lives, but that there are only
two moments when a person is really alive. In having Bond compose
it the author well points to the ennui Bond is suffering from.
Thank you for ending that issue, in which you print my letter
observing that the Marquis de Custine who said the circumstances of
human society were too complicated lived millennia before Hari
Seldon, by quoting John von Neumann's saying people who don't
believe math is simple fail to realize the complications of life it
expresses. [-jh]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book and film comments by Evelyn C.
Leeper)
VERITAS: A HARVARD PROFESSOR, A CON MAN, AND THE GOSPEL OF JESUS'S
WIFE by Ariel Sabar (Doubleday, ISBN 978-0-385-54258-6) is yet
another book about forgery, which you have probably figured out is
an interest of mine. In this case, the items in question are not
paintings or even Mormon manuscripts, but Coptic papyri which
appear to be previously unknown Gnostic gospels or other writings
that would subvert the official accounts. (Originally it was only
the Gospel of Jesus's Wife, but tracing its origins led to the
belief that other, previously accept, papyri were also forged.)
The con man, Walter Fritz, seems to be somewhat sloppy in a number
of ways in his forgery, and in the forging of the provenance of it,
but the target of his forgeries, Professor Karen King, is also
sloppy in that he desire for the works to be authentic makes her
cut corners in testing the age of the papyri, the make-up of the
ink, the style of the writing, or even the grammar of the Coptic.
These details are what I found the most interesting. For example,
the papyrus is a fragment from the center of a page and written in
the style that has no spaces and ignores line breaks, yet there are
no partial letters, but rather gaps at the ends of lines, as if the
writer knew he did not have enough room to write the whole letter.
Unfortunately, Sabar spends a lot of time on irrelevant details,
e.g., what the scenery looked like as he drove to talk to someone
in Florida, or how the professor spent a year of high school with a
Norwegian family. It's a convoluted enough tale without adding
this, or backgrounds for the many peripheral characters.
Eventually, I started doing what Mark has called "cheat-reading"--
reading just the first sentences of each paragraph. This was after
the tangled tale of the background of the papyri had been revealed
and all the details that indicated it was a forgery, and was mostly
the part about the aftermath. Still, if you're willing to get
through all the peripheral details, the detection part is
definitely fascinating. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
One picture is worth 1,000 denials.
--Ronald Reagan
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