sf-lovers (07/06/82)
>From JPM@Mit-Ai Tue Jul 6 13:13:22 1982
SF-LOVERS Digest Tuesday, 6 Jul 1982 Volume 6 : Issue 5
Today's Topics:
Random Topics - Commercials at the Movies,
SF TV - Series, SF Movies - The Secret of NIMH &
TRON & Firefox, SF Topics - SF Ghetto,
Humor - Other Hope & Genderless Video Games,
SF Books - The Day After Judgment,
Spoiler - The Day After Judgment
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 06/15/82 1311-EDT
From: Joe Baldassini <GNC @ LL>
Subject: SF on TV
I think the discussion of commercials during movies doesn't belong
on this list, since it is non-specific to SF, and not very interesting
(to me) anyway. What I'd like to discuss is science fiction on TV,
specifically the lack of a current series in production. It seems to
me that Laumer's Retief series would be a good candidate for a TV
series (if the rights could be negotiated). Such a series could star
someone like Roger Moore as Retief, and could have Mr. Magnan and a
secretary as regulars, as well as a regular Groaci perhaps (though I
think it would be difficult to portray one of the vile five-eyes).
Guest stars could appear regularly as Ambassador's (Grossblunder,
Pennywhistle, Crodfoller, etc.). There is a wealth of short stories to
draw on for plots, and even a couple of novels to make movies from,
when the series gets cancelled after 79 shows and becomes even more
popular. The royalties from nose-flutes alone is enough to boggle the
mind, and it's entirely possible that ritual grimacing could sweep the
nation.
Joe Baldassini
------------------------------
Date: 2 Jul 1982 1040-EDT
From: PERKINS at DEC-MARLBORO
Reply-to: PERKINS at DEC-MARLBORO
Subject: A New Animated Film -- "The Secret of NIMH"
Following is my synopsis of a batch of promotional material I received
from the local United Artists people. There was also a video tape of
clips from the film which I have shown to a number of people.
In general, the film looks promising. The art work (though the video
tape doesn't to do it justice) is impressive.
I haven't seen anything on this new movie in the digest (though I've
missed the last couple issues due to machine/net problems).
----- ----- ----- -----
"The Secret of NIMH," an animated film, is based on Don Bluth's
adaptation of Robert C. O'Brien's Newbury Award winning book "Mrs.
Frisby and the Rats of NIMH." The story line centers around the
efforts of a widowed field mouse (Mrs. Brisby) to delay the impending
plowing of the field where she and her children live until after her
son recovers from pneumonia. Her efforts eventually bring her to a
group of super (intelligent ?) rats. (There may be no connection, but
in the mundane world, N.I.M.H stands for the National Institute of
Mental Health!)
The film's creators, Dom Bluth, Gary Goldman, and John Pomeroy all
left Walt Disney Studios in 1979 to start their own animation studio.
Their first release was "Banjo, the Woodplie Cat," a 30 minute TV
special that was shown on ABC earlier this year.
In "The Secret of NIMH," Bluth has gone back to the old Classical
Animation that Disney used in "Snow White." He uses up to 96 drawings
in each cel, more than 1000 backgrounds, electronically operated
multiplane cameras, and multiple passes of the same film through the
camera. The film took 2 1/2 years to complete. This is not Saturday
morning cartoon animation. Likewise it is not computer animation.
Over a million-and-a-half drawings were done to complete this 6800
foot film.
Voices of the characters in "The Secret of NIMH" include such notables
as Dom de Luise, Elizabeth Hartman, Peter Strauss, Derek Jacoby and
John Carradine.
Jerry Goldsmith composed and conducts the score. Lyrics were supplied
by Paul Williams.
"The Secret of NIMH" will release on July 16th by MGM/United Artists.
------------------------------
Date: 1-Jul-82 17:09-PDT
From: DAUL at OFFICE
Subject: Star Wars (the other hope)
Maybe the "other hope" is Steven Speilberg!
------------------------------
Date: 29 Jun 1982 1257-PDT
From: Craig W. Reynolds from III via Rand <REYNOLDS at RAND-AI>
Subject: TRON numerology
Just to add fuel to the fire over the alledged origin of TRON's name
(supposedly from the PDP10 instruction "Test Right Ones and skip if
Not all masked bits equaled 0", which is octal opcode 666), I thought
I should point out another interesting number. Like all production
companies, Disney assigns unique sequence numbers to each of their
productions. TRON is Disney production number 222.
And of course 666/222 is 3 which (like all integers under 100) has
many well known numerological interpretations ...
Also, speaking of numbers: 800-622-TRON (800-622-8766). This is your
big chance to speak to the Evil MCP Himself. Call this number and have
a chat with the Big Guy - call him a Bit Brain, tell him to Rezz up,
tell him that Free Programs everywhere will not submit to his evil
rule, make him explain the origin of the name "TRON". (This number
will be active for about 10 days.)
"OK you programs, look operative!"
-c
------------------------------
Date: 2 July 1982 20:14 edt
From: Boebert.SCOMP at MIT-MULTICS
Subject: Firefox stole the trench from Star Wars...
...and Star Wars stole it from The Bridges at Toko-Ri. The title to
the idea is about as clear as that to the Maltese Falcon.
Earl
------------------------------
Date: 2 Jul 1982 1054-PDT
From: Dave Dyer <DDYER at USC-ISIB>
Subject: Vonnegut & SF
Vonnegut has indeed made statements that dissociate him from the SF,
which you can read in his essay collection "Wompeters, Foma and
Granfalloons". If memory serves, he says that he doesn't like being
in the science fictions genre because it is frequently mistaken for a
urinal.
------------------------------
Date: 2 Jul 1982 12:37:22-EDT
From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX
Subject: Re: authors hating SF
Ellison's first problem is that he began as a particularly bratty
fan and has for some time been trying to put that part of his life
behind him by excoriating fans and affecting to despise anything they
like. Certainly he has succeeded [outside the field], but most of his
prose work is at least as alien to normal literature as Bradbury. You
could call it fantasy, but that would push it even further out in the
margin.
The proper labels for Jessica Amanda Salmonson can't be included in
this digest, but I will say for publication that she has repeatedly
shown herself to be a bad-tempered, self-righteous,
homosexually-biased, prig. (Note that this isn't an attack on
homosexuality, but an observation that her support of it bears a
striking resemblance to the Moral Majority's support of
heterosexuality.) She talks about refusing to let SF authors inspire
her because of their narrowness; she sings a very different tune as an
anthologist.
Zebrowski I'm not so familiar with, but I notice you don't mention
Barry Malzberg, who makes similar attacks on SF. Stine's comments are
questionable at best; like a lot of hard-headed engineers he gets
really flaky outside his field. (I would say that [mainline] SF is
perhaps less wildly imaginative than other areas simply because the
authors put more time into developing plausibilities rather than
making wild, directionless leaps into the unknown.) Frequently such
criticisms come out of ignorance; there is a recent Malzberg history
of the field which seems to have been written solely to support his
halfwitted theses (it certainly shows that he hasn't even done basic
study of the period he talks about). (No, I don't have the title, and
under the circumstances I'm not going to go back and reread it to give
you all an inventory as I have too much in my queue that's worth
reading.)
------------------------------
Date: 2-Jul-82 9:34:35 EDT
From: duntemann.wbst
Subject: RE: SF Authors who covet the Mainstream
Another SF luminary who renounced the field some years back was
Robert Silverberg, amidst much acidic foofaraw. But he came back.
They all come back. Another was Alan Brennert, who came back to write
scripts for Buck Rogers. I'd love to hear of somebody who left and
DIDN'T come back.
I missed Zebrowski's snotty comments, as I think his fiction is
bloated and dumb and don't read him anymore. But I've met the man and
I think I know where he's coming from.
The people who gripe, moan, and complain and (temporarily) leave are
those SF writers who strive to create Literature. Spinning yarns
isn't enough. They indeed want to answer cosmic questions
embracing all time and all space. They want to deal with Important
Issues. They want (I guess) to rub shoulders with the great writers
of what we (also snottily) call the Mainstream. They want Status,
Importance, all that stuff. Which is legit. Where they go wrong is
in thinking they can consciously work toward such things as a goal.
No way. Nobody can set out to write Literature; you tell a tale and
if time proves it good enough, you've written Literature. If you
haven't got it in you, or if you have but it isn't quite ready yet,
you only end up sounding pompous and dumb and snotty.
Many SF writers try to do it full time, no matter how hungry they get.
They get looked down on by academic and the bright lights of the
Mainstream, and it hurts. So they toss tomatoes at the only targets
they can reach, which is the rest of us. I think they'd feel better
if they had something else to hang their self-esteem on. I've been a
published writer for almost ten years, but the total take on ten
stories is $2800. Not a living wage. Better to make good buc as a
programmer and tell tales for the hell of it. That's something I wish
a few more low-mid level SF writers would do. They'd write better
stories and we'd all be happier.
Keep this up;p I just got on but I like it. Extra characters
inserted by noisy lines, mostly, and will be corrected in time.
--Jeff Duntemann <duntemann.wbst PARC-MAXC>
------------------------------
Date: 2 Jul 1982 0959-PDT
From: Jwagner at OFFICE
Subject: Genderless video games
Q. What does PacMan wear while hiking?
A. PacPack.
(I REALLY apologize ...)
------------------------------
Date: Monday, July 5, 1982 6:16AM
From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) <JPM at MIT-AI>
Subject: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING!
The last message in this digest discusses some plot details in the
novel The Day After Judgment, by James Blish. Some readers may not
wish to read on.
------------------------------
Date: 13 June 1982 22:06-EDT
From: Charles F. Von Rospach <CHUQUI at MIT-AI>
Subject: The Day After Judgment (possible spoiler review)
Book: The Day After Judgment
James Blish
Avon Paperbacks, $2.50 (1982 release)
Pico review: Extremely unsatisfying climax, otherwise kinda ok.
Review: TDAJ is the sequel to James Blish's Satanic novel of the
Armageddon 'Black Easter'. These two books (originally published 1968
and 1971) combine one third of the three part 'after such knowledge
trilogy, in which Blish looks at the Black arts from a Historic
'Doctor Mirabilis', modern 'Black Easter and TDAJ', and futuristic 'A
case of conscience' viewpoint. Calling Black Easter and TDAJ SF is
stretching things. It is more of a fantasy which is heavily based in
the reality of occult sciences. Black Easter tells the events leading
up to Armageddon in our nuclear world, told from the viewpoints of a
munition dealer and the sorcerer he hires to let the demons loose for
an evening of evil. Once they are out, they decide to stay out and
declare armageddon and stay out.
TDAJ takes up where Black Easter leaves off. The world is a nuclear
cesspool, with certain exception. The SAC base under Denver still
exists. Certain other areas have also escaped destruction, at least
temporarily. Suddenly, the SAC base finds that someone has built a
base in death valley. The computer decides that it is the City of DIS,
the mythical city on the outskirts of heck. The intrepids who caused
this whole thing to begin decide to travel to DIS to attempt to put it
all back together again, them against Satan. There is a
semi-interesting nuclear attack by the SAC base, and finally a face to
face confrontation between the people who opened the gates of heck
and Satan himself. At this point, Satan lapses into a highly
Miltonesque piece of Prose, declares that by winning the war against
Heaven he really lost, and pulls all of heck back into the ground. End
of armageddon, end of story, end of book. One of the most blatant Deus
Ex Machina endings I have ever seen, and it ruined the whole series
for me. I first read Black Easter back in 75, and have been looking
for the sequel since. Now I wish I hadn't.
Rating: If you are interested in the Occult, BE and TDAJ are both
pretty heavily laden with tidbits of information. If you are willing
to stop reading before you reach the final chapter, then TDAJ is
probably a pretty good book. I would seriously recommend reading Black
Easter and simply sticking with that.
chuq (chuqui@mit-mc)
------------------------------
End of SF-LOVERS Digest
***********************