THE MT VOID
06/23/23 -- Vol. 41, No. 52, Whole Number 2281

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Topics:
Correction
Bell Labs News
Mini Reviews, Part 26 (BABYLON, SAVING LINCOLN)
(film reviews by Mark R. Leeper
and Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE THIS by Adam Roberts (audio book review
by Joe Karpierz)
Herman Melville (letter of comment by Richie Bielak)
One Octopus, Two ??? (letters of comment by Paul Dormer
and Gary McGath)
This Week's Reading (proof-reading, CARDS ON THE TABLE,
TAKEN AT THE FLOOD) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)

==================================================================
TOPIC: Correction

The last issue should have been Whole Number 2280, not 2260.

==================================================================
TOPIC: Bell Labs News

As reported by Citizens for Informed Land Use Preserve Holmdel and
Friends of Holmdel Open Space:

On Tuesday, June 13th 2023, The Holmdel Township Committee voted
(unanimously) to approve resolutions that will begin the process of
acquiring two of the three parcels that make up the Crawford Hill
property, home to the historically significant horn antenna and the
top of the Holmdel watershed.

==================================================================
TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 26 (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper and
Evelyn C. Leeper)

This is the twenty-sixth batch of mini-reviews, films of
particularly visual interest:

BABYLON (2022): BABYLON is about the late days of silent film and
the early days of sound film. It is somewhat of a remake of
SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, and in fact that film is referenced
explicitly. But it is not the sweet family film that SINGIN' IN
THE RAIN is. BABYLON is full of excess, orgiastic parties, deaths,
foul language, animal cruelty, and general chaos.

Nellie LaRoy is the Lina Lamont character. It's not her voice
that's the problem, though, but her incredibly low-class, vulgar
background. When she tries to "pass" as upper class at a party,
she replies to a question about "Miss Julie" as if she is a person
she has met, thinks George Eliot is a man, and tries to fake
speaking French, only to have a real French-speaker respond.
Meanwhile African-American trumpeter Sidney Palmer (an earlier
version of Sidney Poitier?) is startling the guests by citing
Scriabin as one of his influences, and not agreeing about how good
race films are. Most of the main characters are fictional, but a
few lesser characters are real historical people, or at least have
the same names. (See
<https://www.vulture.com/article/
babylon-real-life-hollywood-inspirations.html> for details on who's
who.)

So, okay, it's more social commentary than SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, and
yes, the Oscar nominations for Music, Costumes and Production
Design are well-earned, but as Lewis Carroll might have said, "It's
too much of a muchness." Director Damien Chazelle is Baz Luhrmann
(MOULIN ROUGE, THE GREAT GATSBY) on steroids.

And the film is over three hours long.

For fans of early film, and those who enjoy lavish visual
spectacles, this is a must-see, but it can't be recommended for a
general audience. [-mrl/ecl]

Released theatrically 23 December 2022. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4), or
6/10.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10640346/reference>

What others are saying:
<https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/babylon_2022>

SAVING LINCOLN (2013): SAVING LINCOLN is a film by Salvador Litvak.
Litvak was the co-writer and director of the Passover comedy WHEN
DO WE EAT? (2005). (His wife, Nina Davidovich, was the co-writer
for both films. Note: SAVING LINCOLN is not rated but is
family-friendly; WHEN DO WE EAT? is R-rated.)

WHEN DO WE EAT? had several sequences with striking visual styles.
SAVING LINCOLN is also unusual visually. There are no sets to
speak of. Rather all the scenes are set against a background of
actual photographs from the time. The closest it comes to having
sets would be a few pieces of furniture in the foreground.

Look, it's not Steven Spielberg's LINCOLN, Tom Amandes is no
Daniel Day-Lewis. But the visual conceit is unique. Some may say
that is because it was not successful, and indeed it never really
fools the eye. It is clear the backdrops are backdrops and not
physically present sets. Then again, the scene in the taxi in
CASABLANCA clearly has rear-projection in the back window, and no
one expects a stage play to have fully constructed backdrops. So
perhaps one should consider this a filmed stage play with far more
settings than the average stage play.

And Litvak covers a lot that everyone else seems to have ignored.
Yes, he throws in all the famous quotes (e.g., Lincoln speaking of
Grant, "I cannot afford to lose this man. He fights.") But he
also has Mrs. Keckley talk about her son, who passed as white to
enlist in the Union Army and was killed at Wilson's Creek. [-ecl]

Released theatrically 13 February 2013. Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4),
or 6/10.

Film Credits:
<https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034098/reference>

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

==================================================================
TOPIC: THE THIS by Adam Roberts (copyright 2022, Gollancz, 10 hours
and 24 minutes, ASIN: B09KHLLG4S, narrated by Elliot Fitzpatrick)
(audio book review by Joe Karpierz)

We live in a crazy media where social media is everywhere.
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Tumblr, Discord, just to name
a few, have taken over the lives of many people. Many folks are
addicted to social media; they can always be seen staring into
their phones while walking down the street, oblivious to the world
around them. Social media has been blamed for many of society's
ills. Whether or not you believe that statement, I think it's fair
to say that the world has changed immensely since and due to the
advent of social media.

So, what if you could communicate directly with someone else
without a keyboard, using a "hands-free Twitter", as the novel
describes it? The This, the new social media platform, is just
the thing for you if that sounds appealing to you. The corporation
that has created The This basically inserts a neural implant
through the roof of your mouth that burrows into your brain that
allows direct mind-to-mind communication.

But really, did you think that the story actually revolves around
The This? Well, yes, I guess it does, but as you might guess, the
story revolves around the affect that technology has on humanity,
and THE THIS is no exception.

The story takes place on two separate timelines. The first is in
what seems to be the near future, the other is in the future.
Rich, our near future protagonist, takes side jobs for extra cash
doing freelance interviews. He gets an assignment to interview a
representative of The This. He is warned not to call The This a
cult, but the more questions he asks, the more curious he is, and
eventually does refer to it as a cult. The interview ends without
incident, and he turns in his work. Not long after, he finds
himself the object of an intense recruiting campaign by The This,
which is something that they never do. While he is trying to
figure all this out, he meets an elderly woman named Helen Susanna,
formerly a "member" of The This. That encounter sets him on a path
that will hopefully save humanity.

I said "hopefully". In the future, to no one's surprise there is a
hive mind made up of folks who joined The This. That hive mind is
waging a war against baseline humans. They are trying to terraform
Venus and use that as a base of operations for attacking the
remaining humans on Earth. Adan, our future protagonist, is a
layabout, living off his mother's finances and using his phone as a
sex toy. Yeah, a little weird, but that actually is an important
point in the story. Suddenly, his funds are cut off as his mother
runs off to join a cult--yeah, that one--and ends up as a soldier
on the front lines. His relationship with Elegy--that advanced,
sophisticated sex toy--gets him special powers that allow him to
survive attacks from the enemy. The military brass want to use him
as a sort of kamikaze weapon (although that's not the right word,
because he doesn't die), but as these things go events go in a
different direction entirely.