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
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:
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.

On 6/26/22 10:17 AM, eleeper@optonline.net wrote:
> ELDER RACE by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Tordotcom, ISBN
> 978-1-259-76872-8)

The name touched my curiosity, so I checked and found from Wikipedia
that it's a pen spelling of Adrian Czajkowski. If there's any indication
that he's related to the composer (who didn't leave any descendants), I
don't know of it.

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

In article <d88babc2-5f20-4546-b453-e8b423c62c60n@googlegroups.com>,
"eleeper@optonline.net" <evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> Sending Address: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com

(SNIP!)

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

(Snip)

>
> 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.

If there is a Spindle, shouldn't this be a re-imagining of Sleeping
Beauty?

--
"We have advanced to new and surprising levels of bafflement."
Imperial Auditor Miles Vorkosigan describes progress in _Komarr_.
—-----------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodward robertaw@drizzle.com

In article <t9a1e2$3v6ai$1@dont-email.me>, garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com
(Gary McGath) wrote:

>
> The name touched my curiosity, so I checked and found from Wikipedia
> that it's a pen spelling of Adrian Czajkowski. If there's any
> indication that he's related to the composer (who didn't leave any
> descendants), I don't know of it.

I've heard that he adopted that spelling as people know how to spell the
composer's name. Unless they use the German spelling of Tschaikowsky. I
thing there was one British newspaper that insisted on spelling the
composer as Chaikovsky.

Paul Dormer <prd@pauldormer.cix.co.uk> wrote:
> garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com (Gary McGath) wrote:
>> The name touched my curiosity, so I checked and found from
>> Wikipedia that it's a pen spelling of Adrian Czajkowski. If
>> there's any indication that he's related to the composer (who
>> didn't leave any descendants), I don't know of it.

> I've heard that he adopted that spelling as people know how to
> spell the composer's name. Unless they use the German spelling of
> Tschaikowsky. I thing there was one British newspaper that insisted
> on spelling the composer as Chaikovsky.

Unfortunately, the proper Cyrillic letter the composer's name begins
with isn't in ASCII, but it looks just like the numeral 4, so
perhaps we should spell it that way: 4ANKOBCKNN. (The Ns should
be backwards, and some of the letters should have accent marks, but
that's pretty close.)
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.

Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
>In article <d88babc2-5f20-4546-b453-e8b423c62c60n@googlegroups.com>,
> "eleeper@optonline.net" <evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
>If there is a Spindle, shouldn't this be a re-imagining of Sleeping
>Beauty?

It's mostly Sleeping Beauty but there are constant references to other
fairy tales throughout. I really wanted to like this book but it just
did not gel for me.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Paul Dormer <prd@pauldormer.cix.co.uk> wrote:
>In article <t9a1e2$3v6ai$1@dont-email.me>, garym@REMOVEmcgathREMOVE.com
>(Gary McGath) wrote:
>
>> The name touched my curiosity, so I checked and found from Wikipedia
>> that it's a pen spelling of Adrian Czajkowski. If there's any
>> indication that he's related to the composer (who didn't leave any
>> descendants), I don't know of it.
>
>I've heard that he adopted that spelling as people know how to spell the
>composer's name. Unless they use the German spelling of Tschaikowsky. I
>thing there was one British newspaper that insisted on spelling the
>composer as Chaikovsky.

In the case of the composer, you have at least three different systems to
transliterate from the cyrillic that you can pick. (Although the cyrillic
version of the name itself changed during the simplification of 1917.) Which
one is correct?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On 6/27/22 8:05 AM, Keith F. Lynch wrote:

>
> Unfortunately, the proper Cyrillic letter the composer's name begins
> with isn't in ASCII, but it looks just like the numeral 4, so
> perhaps we should spell it that way: 4ANKOBCKNN. (The Ns should
> be backwards, and some of the letters should have accent marks, but
> that's pretty close.)

Transliterating Cyrillic is an art. One letter looks like a backwards R
and is pronounced "ya." Tanya Huff once wondered how her first name got
transliterated into the Russian edition with four letters, and I
explained it to her. I also noted that the name of a certain late
lamented toy store chain should be pronounced "Toys Ya Us."

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com

On 6/27/22 8:45 AM, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> Robert Woodward <robertaw@drizzle.com> wrote:
>> In article <d88babc2-5f20-4546-b453-e8b423c62c60n@googlegroups.com>,
>> "eleeper@optonline.net" <evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>> If there is a Spindle, shouldn't this be a re-imagining of Sleeping
>> Beauty?
>
> It's mostly Sleeping Beauty but there are constant references to other
> fairy tales throughout. I really wanted to like this book but it just
> did not gel for me.

In case anyone here likes crossover stories, I've posted one where a
major historical figure of the Reformation meets a legendary person who
was derived from a real one. My project for today is "reconstructing its
original German text," to read to my German language group.

https://garymcgath.com/wp/the-magic-battery/snares-of-satan/

--
Gary McGath http://www.mcgath.com