• MT VOID, 12/10/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 24, Whole Number 2201

    From evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com@21:1/5 to All on Sun Dec 12 07:33:20 2021
    THE MT VOID
    Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
    12/10/21 -- Vol. 40, No. 24, Whole Number 2201

    Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
    Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
    Sending Address: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
    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 or unsubscribe, send mail to eleeper@optonline.net
    The latest issue is at <http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm>.
    An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at <http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm>.

    Topics:
    Mini Reviews, Part 3 (FAUCI, MY SALINGER YEAR, SWAN SONG)
    (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
    LIGHT CHASER by Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell
    (book review by Joe Karpierz)
    BEING THE RICARDOS (film review by Mark R. Leeper
    and Evelyn C. Leeper)
    THE DYBBUK (1938) (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
    THE LAST PAGAN (letters of comment by Peter Trei, Kevin R,
    Gary McGath, and Paul Dormer)
    This Week's Reading (THE PAST IS RED, LINCOLN'S DREAMS)
    (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 3 (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper and
    Evelyn C. Leeper)

    Here is the third batch of mini-reviews, biographical
    documentaries and biopics.

    FAUCI: This film covers Dr. Anthony Fauci's work not only with the
    COVID-19 pandemic, but also with the AIDS/HIV epidemic in the 1980s
    and 1990s. (Interestingly, both were politicized, though in very
    different ways, and we can see how politics often drives people's
    positions more than science does.) In both epidemics, Fauci had a
    major role. Though most of the film is about his efforts against
    disease, there is some biographical material, as he talks about
    trying to balance his family life and his professional career (hard
    to do when he is the point man during an epidemic). (Warning: on-
    line ratings such as in the IMDB tend to be skewed by political
    factors and should not be trusted.)

    Released theatrically 09/10/21; available on Disney+ and NatGeoTV.
    Rating: +2 (-4 to +4), or 7/10.

    Film Credits:
    <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13984924/reference>

    What others are saying:
    <https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fauci>

    MY SALINGER YEAR: A semi-autobiographical film based on the non-
    fiction book by Joanna Smith Rakoff, covering her time in 1996 and
    1997 with a New York literary agency who had J. D. Salinger as a
    client. (Careful angles avoid showing the face of the actor
    playing Salinger, so the filmmakers emphasize Salinger's famous
    reclusiveness, while also avoiding the need for extensive make-up.)
    Our main character learns to see much of life through the lens of
    Holden Caulfield, in spite of not having read THE CATCHER IN THE
    RYE when she started the job. One envies Joanna the chance to walk
    down the street and be greeted by world-famous writers. For those
    who are into the New York literary lifestyle I can recommend also
    CROSSING DELANCEY.

    Released theatrically 03/05/21; available on DVD. Rating: +2 (-4
    to +4), or 7/10.

    Film Credits:
    <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2222052/reference>

    What others are saying:
    <https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_salinger_year>

    SWAN SONG: [There are two 2021 films titled SWAN SONG. One is a
    science fiction film with Mahershala Ali. This is not that film.
    This is a drama film with Udo Kier.]

    Udo Kier got his real start as the star of FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN
    and for BLOOD FOR DRACULA, and has been known mostly as a character
    actor in his over-200 films. In SWAN SONG, he is a retired hair
    dresser asked to do the hair and make-up for a former client with
    whom he had a falling-out. His character, Patrick Pitsenbarger,
    was a real hairdresser to the Sandusky socialites "back in the day"
    and a well-known drag performer. Patrick (a.k.a. "Mister Pat")
    keeps his history alive with a set of very old photographs and
    memories of himself and his family. This is a familiar story of
    old person revisiting places from their youth, as well as a story
    of someone discovering that they never understood what the real
    situation was. What starts as pity in the viewer transforms into an appreciation of "Mister Pat's" charm and joie de vivre, with some
    moments of sadness for the disappearance of a gay culture he was
    such a part of. (Upon hearing that the drag bar where he used to
    perform is closing, Pat plaintively asks, "But where will we dance
    now?")

    Released on various streaming services 08/13/21. Rating: high +1
    (-4 to +4), or 6/10.

    Film Credits:
    <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10832274/reference>

    What others are saying:
    <https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/swan_song_2021>

    [-mrl/ecl]

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: LIGHT CHASER by Peter F. Hamilton and Gareth L. Powell
    (copyright 2021, Tordotcom, $13.99, trade paperback, 173pp, ISBN 978-1-250-76982-4) (book review by Joe Karpierz)

    Science fiction is a funny, weird genre (go figure). Some of the
    best SF stories are told with emphasis on their characters and on
    character development. It's not unusual to talk to fans who will
    say that they "want more stories about character X" because they
    fell in love with that character. It's also not unusual to talk to
    fans who love stories that are built around interesting ideas; and
    really, that's how the genre started in the first place. Science
    fiction was the genre of fantastic ideas, of the sense of wonder
    that people get from stories that contain wild, outside the box
    ideas. Many people like one type of story over another, and that's
    okay. Others like stories that have both great character
    development and wild ideas that generate a sense of wonder. That's
    okay too.

    But here's another oddball one. Peter F. Hamilton, one of the
    great space opera writers of our time, who has so many wonderful
    ideas running through his novels that it's impossible to write them
    in anything less than the length of WAR AND PEACE, is a
    collaborator on a novella, of all lengths, which contains some
    pretty spectacular ideas. The thing is, the novella is actually
    the right length for the story. How does *that* happen? To be
    fair, I've never read anything by Gareth L. Powell before, but I'll
    bet he at least had something to do with the cat being in the
    story.

    While there really is only one main character, Amahle, there isn't
    much time for the full character development that many people like
    to see. And yet, I think we see enough to get a feel for her
    motivations as we move through the story. Amahle is a Light
    Chaser, an explorer who travels from planet to planet in the
    universe--and it's not clear whether all her stops are within the
    same galaxy or not--alone except for an onboard AI traveling
    companion, trading baubles and trinkets for life stories. She
    makes her stops throughout The Domain. At the end of her round
    trip cycle, she turns in the memories (stored on a kind of
    necklace) in exchange for more baubles, and goes back out on the
    trip again. She is revered wherever she goes; she is remembered by
    each of the civilizations she visits. All are interested in making
    sure she gets the memories she asked for so they can get the
    trinkets she gives in return.

    Yet, something is amiss.

    She gets bored on her journeys, so she views the memories that have
    been handed in to her. There is a voice, a person, who is telling
    her that something is wrong. It seems to be the same person, but
    from different times and different places. This person knows her,
    and knows that she can do something about what is wrong. She is
    warned not to trust her AI. And as she puts all the stories
    together, she realizes that something is indeed wrong, and that she
    can and should do something about it, for the future of humanity is
    at stake.

    Which brings us to the beginning of the book.

    Okay, that's not fair, but really the rest of the book sets up the
    beginning, which is the result of everything that has transpired in
    the rest of the story. We don't know what hits us at first, but as
    the story continues we do come to realize that the beginning is the
    culmination of the rest of it. Granted, this is not a new
    storytelling method, but in this case it is very compelling.

    Hamilton and Powell pack a lot into this novella. There is no
    extra fluff here. Everything counts, and everything matters. And
    it's all good, even great. This will be on my Hugo nomination
    ballot for Chicago next year. That's about as high a
    recommendation as I can make. [-jak]

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: BEING THE RICARDOS (film review by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn
    C. Leeper)

    BEING THE RICARDOS is a fictional telling of three crises that
    affected Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz during the early 1950s: Ball
    was declared a Communist by Walter Winchell, there was a front-page
    tabloid scandal about Arnaz and another woman, and Ball was
    pregnant. (The latter may not seem like much of a crisis, but in
    the early 1950s, television had never shown a pregnant woman, and
    had certainly never used the word "pregnant".) The film has a lot
    of flashbacks, but there seems to be a change of film stock that
    helps us know what is 1950s and what is earlier. In a tribute to
    the show, the first line (after the "documentary" opening--see
    below) is, "Lucy, I'm home!"

    In addition to all this, there is reasonable coverage of the
    technical aspects of rehearsing and filming an episode at that
    time.

    There are a few criticisms one can make of the film. One that has
    been made by many is that they cast a Spaniard (Javier Bardem) as
    Arnaz, rather than someone from Cuba, or at least from Latin
    America. (Similar casting, such as Antonio Banderas as a Cuban in
    THE MAMBO KINGS PLAY SONGS OF LOVE in 1992, attracted less
    attention. Indeed, the fact that they chose someone Hispanic for
    MAMBO KINGS was considered a big step forward by some.) On the
    other hand, Javier Bardem does get a chance to show off his singing
    voice with Latin (American) songs.

    There seems to have been less of a commitment to have the
    characters in the film look like their real-life counterparts than
    there often is in films of this sort. Perhaps that's a good thing;
    the actors are actors, not impersonators, and covering actors in
    lots of make-up to achieve an artificial resemblance is often counter-productive. (They did do accurate hairstyles, though.) On
    the other hand, it took me quite a while to realize that J. K.
    Simmons was playing William Frawley (as Fred Mertz)--he was just
    too recognizable as Simmons.

    The film also does some major time compression, showing all these
    crises as happening in one week, while in fact Ball was pregnant in
    1951 and brought before HUAC--and event happening *before*
    Winchell's accusation--in 1953. And unlike in REDS, the
    "witnesses" (the people labeled as people who worked with Ball and
    Arnaz in what is filmed in a documentary style) are not the real
    people, but actors. (Quite possibly they are delivering things
    that the real people actually said.) As in many biopics, the
    viewer has a choice what there is to believe.

    One suspects this will have more appeal for those who remember the
    original "I Love Lucy" show, but its continuing popularity will
    extend the audience for this.

    Released theatrically 12/10/21. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4), or
    8/10.

    Film Credits:
    <https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4995540/reference>

    What others are saying:
    <https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/being_the_ricardos>

    [-mrl/ecl]

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: THE DYBBUK (1938) (letter of comment by Kip Williams)

    In response to Mark's review of THE DYBBUK in the 12/03/21 issue of
    the MT VOID, Kip Williams writes:

    Thanks for spoilers [warning]. Some of us read old works of
    literature for actual enjoyment, and not seeing the author's work
    unraveled by punchline shouters helps. [-kw]

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: THE LAST PAGAN (letters of comment by Peter Trei, Kevin R,
    Gary McGath, and Paul Dormer)

    In response to Evelyn's comments on THE LAST PAGAN in the 12/03/21
    issue of the MT VOID, Peter Trei writes:

    Nit: When you write about a non-famous historical event, it helps to
    include the date: Julian ruled 361 to 363 AD. He was the second
    Emperor after Constantine.

    There's a good portrait of him from a coin on his Wikipedia page.
    It's a profile, so can't speak to the beard's point, but his lip
    looks pretty normal:

    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_(emperor)>

    [-pt]

    Evelyn responds:

    I should have included his dates. But while we're picking nits:

    It's "A.D. 361", not "361 A.D." (Whether or not it includes
    periods seems to be a style thing, and may differ in the UK.)

    I would say "361 C.E.", *especially* for Julian! (He'd probably
    prefer 1114 AUC.) [-ecl]

    But Kevin R writes:

    I'm all for adding relevant dates, but Julian is far from obscure.*
    ObMundane Fiction:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_(novel)>

    * That'd be Jude:
    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_the_Obscure>

    Julian would have been considered infamous, if not famous, in
    Christendom.

    My opinion may be skewed by 12 years of Catholic El-Hi education,
    including two years of Latin, and a history B.A. from a Jesuit
    university. I had maybe more than average exposure to things
    classical than was usual for a late 20th century schoolboy? [-kr]

    Peter replies:

    Just a tad. Or maybe, I'm just a Philistine. My school was, to the
    extent it was anything, Church of England, and that as little as
    possible. I didn't study history past 8th grade (the UK made you
    specialize early, which I regard as one of its
    weak points.).

    If I were of a more serious-lit bent, I might have read the Vidal,
    but I wasn't. [-pt]

    Gary McGath adds:

    Ibsen wrote an extra-long play, "Emperor and Galilean", about
    Julian. [-gmg]

    And Evelyn notes:

    The BBC did a radio version of it, which is one of the extras in
    their Ibsen DVD set. [-ecl]

    And Paul Dormer adds:

    Saw it at the National Theatre in London back in 2011, apparently
    its UK stage premiere. Andrew Scott was the lead. [-pd]

    ===================================================================

    TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

    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.)

    Interesting note: James David Nicoll reports on Twitter that Connie
    Willis's novel LINCOLN'S DREAMS, about Robert E. Lee and the Civil
    War, doesn't mention the word "slave" once. Or the word "black"
    (except in referring to objects), "African (except in referring to
    violets) or even "Negro".

    [-ecl]

    ===================================================================

    Mark Leeper
    mleeper@optonline.net


    The Micawber Principle:
    Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure
    nineteen nineteen six, result happiness.
    Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure
    twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
    --Wilkins Micawber
    (Charles Dickens,
    DAVID COPPERFIELD)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Paul Dormer@21:1/5 to evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com on Mon Dec 13 11:23:00 2021
    In article <4855edf0-b00b-4462-9516-ac308172381fn@googlegroups.com>, evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com () wrote:

    Tetley Abednego

    Are Tetley teabags known in the US. (Or Tetley beer, although that
    brewery no longer exists.)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Urs@21:1/5 to Paul Dormer on Mon Dec 13 13:12:13 2021
    Paul Dormer <prd@pauldormer.cix.co.uk> wrote:
    In article <4855edf0-b00b-4462-9516-ac308172381fn@googlegroups.com>, evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com () wrote:

    Tetley Abednego

    Are Tetley teabags known in the US. (Or Tetley beer, although that
    brewery no longer exists.)

    Tetley teabags, certainly. They sell them in our small-town Kentucky
    Walmart.

    --
    Jeff

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com@21:1/5 to Jeff Urs on Mon Dec 13 09:05:16 2021
    On Monday, December 13, 2021 at 8:12:15 AM UTC-5, Jeff Urs wrote:
    Paul Dormer <p...@pauldormer.cix.co.uk> wrote:
    In article <4855edf0-b00b-4462...@googlegroups.com>, evelynchim...@gmail.com () wrote:

    Tetley Abednego

    Are Tetley teabags known in the US. (Or Tetley beer, although that
    brewery no longer exists.)
    Tetley teabags, certainly. They sell them in our small-town Kentucky
    Walmart.

    Kentucky? I hope you're okay. (I'm assuming you are or you wouldn't be posting this morning, but I wanted you to know we care.)

    --
    Evelyn C. Leeper

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Jeff Urs@21:1/5 to eleeper@optonline.net on Mon Dec 13 18:38:03 2021
    eleeper@optonline.net <evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com> wrote:
    On Monday, December 13, 2021 at 8:12:15 AM UTC-5, Jeff Urs wrote:
    Paul Dormer <p...@pauldormer.cix.co.uk> wrote:
    In article <4855edf0-b00b-4462...@googlegroups.com>,
    evelynchim...@gmail.com () wrote:

    Tetley Abednego

    Are Tetley teabags known in the US. (Or Tetley beer, although that
    brewery no longer exists.)
    Tetley teabags, certainly. They sell them in our small-town Kentucky
    Walmart.

    Kentucky? I hope you're okay. (I'm assuming you are or you wouldn't be posting this morning, but I wanted you to know we care.)

    Yes, thanks very much; we got tornado sirens at 4am, but the most NE
    touchdown was 25 miles SW of us.

    --
    Jeff

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Kevrob@21:1/5 to Jeff Urs on Mon Dec 13 14:00:46 2021
    On Monday, December 13, 2021 at 1:38:05 PM UTC-5, Jeff Urs wrote:
    ele...@optonline.net <evelynchim...@gmail.com> wrote:
    On Monday, December 13, 2021 at 8:12:15 AM UTC-5, Jeff Urs wrote:
    Paul Dormer <p...@pauldormer.cix.co.uk> wrote:
    In article <4855edf0-b00b-4462...@googlegroups.com>,
    evelynchim...@gmail.com () wrote:

    Tetley Abednego

    Are Tetley teabags known in the US. (Or Tetley beer, although that
    brewery no longer exists.)
    Tetley teabags, certainly. They sell them in our small-town Kentucky
    Walmart.

    Kentucky? I hope you're okay. (I'm assuming you are or you wouldn't be posting this morning, but I wanted you to know we care.)
    Yes, thanks very much; we got tornado sirens at 4am, but the most NE touchdown was 25 miles SW of us.

    --

    Good to hear!

    My folks bought Tetley Tea most of the time.
    I'll buy it if the shop I get tea from is out of Barry's.

    https://www.instacart.com/shoprite/tetley-tea-bags

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFfEbWqjuYU&ab_channel=EllisFeaster

    --
    Kevin R

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Tim Merrigan@21:1/5 to Paul Dormer on Mon Dec 13 15:45:09 2021
    On Mon, 13 Dec 2021 11:23 +0000 (GMT Standard Time),
    prd@pauldormer.cix.co.uk (Paul Dormer) wrote:

    In article <4855edf0-b00b-4462-9516-ac308172381fn@googlegroups.com>, >evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com () wrote:

    Tetley Abednego

    Are Tetley teabags known in the US. (Or Tetley beer, although that
    brewery no longer exists.)

    The teabags are, I've never heard of the beer.
    --

    Qualified immuninity = virtual impunity.

    Tim Merrigan

    --
    This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
    https://www.avg.com

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Kerr-Mudd, John@21:1/5 to Tim Merrigan on Tue Dec 14 10:19:53 2021
    On Mon, 13 Dec 2021 15:45:09 -0800
    Tim Merrigan <tppm@ca.rr.com> wrote:

    On Mon, 13 Dec 2021 11:23 +0000 (GMT Standard Time),
    prd@pauldormer.cix.co.uk (Paul Dormer) wrote:

    In article <4855edf0-b00b-4462-9516-ac308172381fn@googlegroups.com>, >evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com () wrote:

    Tetley Abednego

    Are Tetley teabags known in the US. (Or Tetley beer, although that
    brewery no longer exists.)

    The teabags are, I've never heard of the beer.

    Lucky you!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetley%27s_Brewery#Beers
    (Old news)

    --
    Bah, and indeed Humbug.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)