sf-lovers (07/14/82)
>From JPM@Mit-Ai Tue Jul 13 21:35:06 1982
SF-LOVERS Digest Wednesday, 14 Jul 1982 Volume 6 : Issue 14
Today's Topics:
SF Books - From The Legend Of Biel & The Demolished Man &
This Perfect Day & Capitol & Hot Sleep & The Demu Trilogy &
A Canticle For Leibowitz & Lord Of Light & The Shrinking Man &
The Dragon Masters & Heinlein & The Deceivers & ADA & LOCUS Poll,
SF TV - HHGttG, SF Movies - TRON & Megaforce,
SF Music - Theme Songs, SF Topics - Hard SF & Brain Use,
Humor - Genderless Video Games
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Date: Sun Jul 11 17:07:21 1982
From: decvax!harpo!druxv!jmb at Berkeley
Subject: Book reviews
I spotted the plea for other good science fiction while browsing
through SFL the other day. Here are a few suggestions...
"From The Legend Of Biel" by Mary Staton (ACE)
This novel has just about everything, from interstellar travel to
growing up to intelligent computers to psychology. Prepare to think.
"The Demolished Man" by Alfred Bester (POCKET)
A classic Bester novel (written in 1951) and better than most new
'science fiction' available now. A telepathic detective attempts to
track down a megalomaniac who killed in a society of telepaths - and
got away with it.
"This Perfect Day" by Ira Levin (Fawcett)
Banish thoughts of Rosemary's Baby... Here Levin describes a
future world controlled by a huge computer system for the good of all,
and what happens to those who rebel.
"Capitol"
"Hot Sleep" by Orson Scott Card (ACE)
Although not masterpieces, these books have a lot of interesting
ideas. The breakdown of galactic civilization (where have we heard
that before) and other nifty things.
"A Canticle For Leibowitz" by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (Bantam)
Another oldie (1959) written when 'after the bomb' books were
popular. This is not your normal doomsday book, though. Many
centuries after the war, the catholic church arises from the ashes...
and the cycle begins again.
"The Demu Trilogy" by F. M. Busby (Pocket/Timescape)
Again, not a masterpiece, but enjoyable. There is a race loose in
the galaxy who want to turn you into one of them - by cutting you
apart and putting you together they way they like it. This is a
trilogy, and the first book, "Cage a Man", you may have heard of...
"Lord Of Light" by Roger Zelazny (Avon)
My favorite Zelazny book.
"The Shrinking Man" by Richard Matheson (Berkeley)
Another old one (1969) about a man who begins to shrink
(proportionally of course) and his adventures in the cruel world. A
nice book to practise "suspension of disbelief".
"The Dragon Masters" by Jack Vance (ACE)
An oldie (1962) about war between US and THEM, and we keep slaves
of theirs, and they keep slaves of ours, and who will win?
An aside...
I am disappointed with mister Robert A. Heinlein. It seems to me
that he has become a dirty old man titillating himself by writing dirty
science fiction books. His earlier 'sex & sf' books are classics in
the genre ('Glory Road', 'Farnham's Freehold', 'Moon is a Harsh
Mistress'). However, starting about 'I Will Fear No Evil' he began
repeating himself and became boring. I tired of 'Number of the Beast'
about half way through and never finished. Has Bob run out of ideas?
Is this the only way he can sell books anymore, through sex and pieces
of other people's stories?
Jim Barton
BTL ...!druxs!druxv!jmb
30K49
11900 Pecos
Denver, Colorado 80303
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Date: 6 July 1982 2107-EDT (Tuesday)
From: Joe.Newcomer at CMU-10A
Subject: The Deceivers
Actually, the book is not that bad; the problem is if you approach it
expecting a story by Bester (I agree that the 'true successor' line is
misleading). On the other hand, as a light story suitable for use
when recovering from Dick, depressed Ellison, Malzberg, or any other
downbeat author, it fills the bill. Keep it around for those nights
when you are bored out of your mind, or too tired to concentrate on
anything substantial, or whatever. Possibly because I read it at a
time when I needed a content-free story I found it entertaining (yes,
the CS is silly, but I've learned to expect that. Only Hogan seems to
get it right). Entertaining, yes. Scientific, no. The characters
are sort of beaver board (not quite cardboard, but not much deeper).
A Bester story? Not really. Keep it in the same pile as "Lucky Starr
and the Creature from the Black Lagoon" and you won't be disappointed;
you may (as I did) enjoy the silly thing.
joe
[ This is in response to a message on The Deceivers distributed in
volume 6, issue 2. -- Jim ]
------------------------------
Date: 12 Jul 82 2:14-PDT
From: mclure at SRI-UNIX
Subject: out of the quagmire
Tired of the same old sh*t? Frustrated by SF authors unable to control
plot, demonstrate imagination with the English language, unable to
bring novels to reasonable conclusions?
Read ADA by Vladimir Nabokov. As far as I'm concerned, this is the
best alternate-worlds SF I have read and easily among the 10 best SF
books I've read. It is vastly superior to Dick's alternate worlds
books. Some critics have denied ADA is SF. Balderdash.
The reason this came to mind was that while I was at Westercon in
Phoenix over the July 4 weekend, Brunner happened to mention it in
much the same words, adding that it was ludicrous ADA didn't win the
Hugo/Nebula/whatever back in 1969.
------------------------------
Date: 2 Jul 1982 11:17:11-EDT
From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX
Subject: locus extracts
Was that your typo, or did they actually credit WINDHAVEN only to
George R. R. Martin?!? (It was co-authored with Lisa Tuttle.)
[ This is in response to a message containing an excerpt from LOCUS
distributed in volume 5, issue 75. -- Jim ]
------------------------------
Date: 9 Jul 1982 1417-MDT
From: Michi Wada <WADA at SANDIA>
Subject: Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
A friend told me HhGttG (English TV version) is running right now in
Buffalo. Miami will start running HhGttG on July 25th. Chicago has
bought it, but unknown as to when it will run.
Does anybody know if it is or will be running anywhere else?
------------------------------
Date: 12 Jul 1982 1923-EDT
From: John R. Covert <RSX-DEV at DEC-MARLBORO>
Subject: Starting Friday, 16 July on WMEB, Orono, Maine
The TV Guide listing for 10 PM this Friday is:
/12/ Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Comedy. Debut: Arthur Dent is
whisked off the Earth by his alien friend Ford Prefect moments before
the planet's destruction. Together they begin a series of
intergalactic adventures.
------------------------------
Date: Sun Jul 11 18:17:21 1982
From: decvax!watmath!bstempleton at Berkeley
Subject: The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, BBC-TV version
Don't Panic! HHGTTG is now showing on PBS, as I reported earlier. In
my area, times are 10:00 on Friday night and 11:30 on Saturday night.
Episode one was just shown. Check your own listings for times.
The series stars Peter Jones as the Book and Simon Jones as Arthur
Dent (these are both from the radio cast) also, Mark Wing-Davy will
play Zephod Beeblebrox when that character appears, you'll remember
his voice too. A new actor plays Ford Prefect, but he is fairly good.
The TV version has a lot of similar jokes to the radio one, but there
is new material, and of course visual effects. I'll be collecting
this series on videotape for sure.
------------------------------
Date: 12 July 1982 15:08 edt
From: Boebert.SCOMP at MIT-MULTICS
Subject: HHGtG and TRON
1. HHGtG snuck into town this Saturday. A 30-minute segment on PBS,
so presumably we are going to get the whole thing. Special effects a
little above the Dr. Who level; an adequate Dent and a perfect
Prefect.
2. An excellent article on TRON and computer animation is in the
latest Smithsonian magazine.
Earl
------------------------------
Date: 11 Jul 1982 1932-PDT
From: Jim McGrath <CSD.MCGRATH at SU-SCORE>
Subject: Megaforce
Megaforce - maybe one star (if you're in the proper mood)
Commander Ace Hunter leads an elite multinational fighting force,
armed with the best weapons modern technology can provide, in a fight
for truth, justice, and comic book heros.
The fact that Megaforce is a comic book brought to life on the big
screen is not a major problem for me - afterall, that's all Star Wars
or Raiders of the Lost Ark were, and I LOVED them. But these latter
two movies had two qualities Megaforce lacks - a decent script and
believable special effects.
When Ace Hunter tells the enemy commander "the good guys always win in
the end," you do not moan - for by the time you reached that point in
the movie so many inane lines have been uttered that you have grown
accustomed to them. But I still flinched when I witnessed "special
effects" that our school photography club could have improved upon.
The ONLY thing that prevented me from walking out of the theatre
(something I almost never do) was the acting. The actors were simply
excellent at their parts, and I actually rated them superior to most
of the actors in Star Wars, et al. However, they cannot redeem a
script that tries to be pulpish but ends up turning into pulp instead.
And no matter how hard you try, it is difficult getting into the movie
when so many bad special effect force you to suspend your belief.
It's too bad - they obviously spent a bit filming this movie (a lot of
action with vehicles that was not stock footage). Although in this
movie climate it will probably bring a decent return to the backers,
it ultimately does a disservice to the industry and science fiction,
since claptrap like this will dilute the market for well crafted
fantasy and science fiction (as the grade B movies of the '50s did).
Jim
------------------------------
Date: 10 Jul 1982 21:52:10-PDT
From: CSVAX.wildbill at Berkeley
Subject: Stealing theme songs
This is nothing new. NBC used the theme from RotLA for a while during
their major league baseball preview sequences, back when that movie
was getting lots of attention. I also seem to remember hearing the
Star Wars theme used in another sports plug somewhere.
------------------------------
Date: 8 Jul 1982 13:40 PDT
From: kolling at PARC-MAXC
Subject: Speaking of Dragon's Egg,
when is there going to be another book, Dr. Forward?
Karen
------------------------------
Date: Thursday, 8 July 1982 15:47-EDT
From: Vince Fuller <VAF at CMU-20C>
Subject: Real SF writers don't...
I believe it is safe to say that Forward has another book in the
offing. A first draft has been produced (which I have been fortunate
enough to read) and looks quite good. It is on the topic of
interstellar travel using light sail propulsion of a type that appears
quite feasible given a slightly more advanced state of technology than
our own (but only slightly - say within the next century). I believe
it is scheduled for serialization in Analog (?) sometime in the fall,
but I am not sure. Perhaps someone else on the list who knows more
about this could say more.
--vaf
------------------------------
Date: 9 Jul 1982 12:45:47-PDT
From: jef at LBL-UNIX (Jef Poskanzer [rtsg])
Subject: Oh where, oh where, is the hard SF...
One more author to look for: David Brin. As far as I know, he has one
novel out (Sundiver), and a number of novelettes in Analog. Strong,
likeable, human characters (even the aliens!), combined with intricate
background material and faultless science. Really good stuff. If
only we could get him to write more...
Re: the sub-quark physics in "Voyage from Yesteryear". This is a
mildly munged version of a real-world theory. I believe it was
thought up by Abdus Saalam, recent co-Nobel winner. In the real
world, the hypothetical particles are called rishons.
--- Jef
------------------------------
Date: 9 July 1982 18:04-EDT
From: Allan C. Wechsler <ACW at MIT-AI>
Subject: Neuropsychological folklore.
In this message I will recount several pieces of neuropsychological
folklore. They have several features in common:
1. They are widespread: almost everybody in our society has heard
them.
2. They are widely believed.
3. They have a sensational nature.
4. They are one of the following:
a. Blatantly false or fallacious
b. Nonsensical, that is, depending on words which are hard or
impossible to define rigorously
c. Almost impossible to verify.
I am interested in tracking down the sources of these modern folk
beliefs. I hope many contributors to this list will help me out by
telling me the earliest time they ever heard any of these. Send your
responses to me (ACW@AI), not to SF-LOVERS. Of course, other items of
folklore might be of general interest.
I. People use their brains very inefficiently. In fact, people use
only a very small portion of their brains. [Individual instances
of this belief often give the exact percentage.]
II. People only /seem/ to forget things. In fact, nothing is ever
forgotten. Every experience you have ever had since infancy is
recorded in full detail somewhere in your brain. You can retrieve
these memories by hypnosis [or direct electrical stimulation of
the cortex, or meditation, or scientology, or ...].
III.People sleep in order to dream. Dreaming is the only essential
element of sleep.
IV. Most people usually dream in black and white. Some exceptional
people usually dream in color. Most people have an occasional
color dream.
V. Some people who have used LSD very occasionally experience
"flashbacks", in which the symptoms of taking the drug recur
months or years after the last use.
---Allan
------------------------------
Date: 9 July 1982 19:39 edt
From: Walters.SoftArts at MIT-MULTICS
Subject: PacAnimals
What's a thickskinned PacAnimal called? Why, a Pac-a-Derm (commonly
found in India and Pac-i-stan).
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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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