THE MT VOID
08/25/23 -- Vol. 42, No. 8, Whole Number 2290

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Topics:
Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion
Group
Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in September
(comments by Mark R. Leeper)
A STRANGER IN THE CITADEL by Tobias Buckell (book review
by Joe Karpierz)
WIND RIVER, AVATAR--THE WAY OF WATER, OPPENHEIMER
(letter of comment by Taras Wolansky)
This Week's Reading (UNTHINKING THINKING) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)

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

TOPIC: Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion
Group

The only local meetings left are in Middletown, and they are
in-person. The best way to get the latest information is to be on
the mailing list for it.

Sept 14, 2023 [postponed from Sept 7]: THE ROAD (2009) & novel
by Cormac McCarthy
<https://tinyurl.com/RoadCormac1234>
Oct 5, 2023: FANTASTIC PLANET (1973) & novel by Stefan Wul
<https://epdf.pub/queue/fantastic-planet-creation-oneiros.html>

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

TOPIC: Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in September
(comments by Mark R. Leeper)

One of more the more enjoyable choices for the month was at one
time much looked for as being collectible. The film is the 1954
GOJIRA (a.k.a. GODZILLA, as I probably do not have to inform the
reader). This is perhaps the most serious monster movie ever
made, and does not have cute pudgy oversized creatures of
outlandish proportions. For this special showing it will be shown
back-to-back with the second Godzilla film, GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN.

[GOJIRA (1954), Sunday, October 1, 2:00 AM]
[GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN (1955), Sunday, October 1, 4:00 AM]

(Yes, I know those are technically in October. But TCM and other
stations use what is sometimes referred to as "TV Guide time",
which makes everything between midnight and 6AM part of the
previous day. You would think with the advent of VCRs, DVRs, etc.,
everyone would start listing the day one needs to program into the
machine, but apparently not.)

[-mrl]

And some comments on some other films:

THE BIG SLEEP (1946): The best-known anecdote about this film is
that it was so confusing that when the studio asked writer Raymond
Chandler who had killed the chauffeur, even Chandler didn't know.

CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT (1967): When a film is made based on a play by
Shakespeare, people often complain that parts are edited out or
slightly modernized. Welles avoided this by making this (a.k.a.
FALSTAFF) by piecing together parts of five different plays rather
than claiming it to be a specific play.

CROSSING DELANCEY (1988): A rom-com set where the uptown literary
world and the downtown modern Orthodox world meet, with a great
performance by Reizl Bozyk.

GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS (1992): David Mamet's hyper-cynical take on the
shady side of the business world.

ISLE OF THE DEAD (1945): The look of this film was heavily
influenced by Arnold Bocklin's painting "The Isle of the Dead",
which is acknowledged in the credits.

MY DINNER WITH ANDRE (1981): This film generated a number of
parodies, as well as jokes, cartoons, and other pop culture
references, but seems to have fallen off the radar in the
intervening forty years.

SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS (1954): Who would have thought that
Hollywood would make a musical based on the rape of the Sabine
Women? Then again, Hollywood made a romantic comedy about a
teenage girl being groomed to be a courtesan, complete with a song
"Thank Heaven for Little Girls".

[-ecl]

Other films of interest include:

SATURDAY, September 2
8:00 PM The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)

MONDAY, September 4
2:30 AM Baal (1970)

TUESDAY, September 5
3:15 AM Soylent Green (1973)

WEDNESDAY, September 6
6:00 PM Cabin in the Sky (1943)

SUNDAY, September 10
12:00 AM The Wrong Man (1956)
6:00 AM The 39 Steps (1935)
8:00 AM The Lady Vanishes (1938)
10:00 AM The Wrong Man (1956)
12:00 PM I Confess (1953)
1:45 PM Vertigo (1958)
4:00 PM Rear Window (1954)
6:00 PM Psycho (1960)

THURSDAY, September 14
8:00 PM Duck Soup (1933)
9:15 PM The Fearless Vampire Killers (1966)

FRIDAY, September 15
3:15 PM The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
5:00 PM The Glass Slipper (1955)

SATURDAY, September 16
10:08 AM Mr. Hex (1946)

SUNDAY, September 17
11:00 PM Isle of the Dead (1945)

MONDAY, September 18
8:00 PM Them! (1954)
10:00 PM Tarantula (1955)

TUESDAY, September 19
1:30 AM The Wasp Woman (1960)
3:00 AM The Black Scorpion (1957)
4:30 AM The Cosmic Monster (1958)

WEDNESDAY, September 20
12:00 AM Elevator to the Gallows (1958)
11:45 AM The Great Dictator (1940)

SATURDAY, September 23
10:08 AM Spook Busters (1946)

SUNDAY, September 24
8:00 AM The Crimson Pirate (1952)
5:45 PM Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)

TUESDAY, September 26
4:30 PM I Married an Angel (1942)

WEDNESDAY, September 27
4:45 PM Freaks (1932)

THURSDAY, September 28
10:00 AM House on Haunted Hill (1958)
11:45 AM The Exterminating Angel (1962)

SATURDAY, September 30
4:00 AM Jungle Book (1942)

SUNDAY, October 1
2:00 AM Godzilla (1954)
4:00 AM Godzilla Raids Again (1955)

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

TOPIC: A STRANGER IN THE CITADEL by Tobias Buckell (copyright
October 2023, Tachyon Publications, ISBN: 978-1-61696-398-9
(print); 978-1-61696-399-6 (digital)) (book review by Joe Karpierz)

A great number of reviews of Tobias Buckell's latest book, A
STRANGER IN THE CITADEL, start out with the following tag line, the
one that is meant to draw the reader in:

"You shall not suffer a librarian to live."

I will admit that it drew me in. Forbidden knowledge, citadels,
book banning and burning--I mean, it sure reads like a summary of
modern day life, doesn't it? But as I said, the line is meant to
draw in the reader, for the book is about much more than that and
really something other than that. Of course it is.

Lilith lives in the walled city of Ninetha. She is a musketress of
the citadel, and she and her twelve siblings are charged with
protection of the city. The people of Ninetha are provided for by
the cornucopia, a device left to them by the gods who demand that
in exchange for the cornucopia the people abandon knowledge and the
pursuit of it. Thus, books are banned, and anyone who is in
possession of a book is condemned to die. Life is simple under
this rule, and things are peaceful--until a traveler from outside
the city wanders in with a book in his possession. Lilith's
trainer, Kira, wants the "librarian" put to death on the spot.
Lilith, being curious by nature, wants to learn more about the man.
Kira tries to dissuade Lilith, but as Lilith's father is the leader
of the city and she is in line for his position (should it ever get
to that--she is the youngest of the 13), she pulls rank and has the
man imprisoned instead.

I've mentioned that Lilith is curious. She is too curious for her
own good, as it turns out. She wonders what her other siblings are
guarding in a room deep within the citadel, and manages to discover
that they are guarding, of all things, a book. She begins to
question how things are being done by her father, and what other
lies he might be keeping from her. Lilith makes the mistake of
confiding in Kira about the book. That single act sets in motion
the rest of the story, as the city descends into chaos when the
discovery is made public. And while her siblings had plans for
this eventuality, and indeed saw it coming sooner or later, things
did not go as planned, and Lilith's life was forever changed.
Lilith vows to assemble an army and take her city back, but that is
a daunting task.

The rest of the novel, then, is spent outside the city, as Lilith
and librarian (whose name is Ishmael, we come to learn), wander
from town to town, looking for help and shelter, and trying to
figure out where to go next. There was much talk of going to New
Alexandria--and this is one of the reader's hints that this world
is not all as it appears to be. As the novel unfolds, Ishmael and
Lilith discover much, much more about the truth of their land, and
why they're in the situation they are.