sf-lovers (06/10/82)
>From JPM@Mit-Ai Thu Jun 10 11:49:15 1982
SF-LOVERS Digest Monday, 7 Jun 1982 Volume 5 : Issue 64
Today's Topics:
SF Books - Here's the Plot...What's the Title &
Puppet Masters & "Gulf",
SF TV - Dr Who, SF Topics - Politics in SF,
SF Movies - ET: the Extra-Terrestrial &
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,
Random Topics - Commercials at the movies, Spoiler - "Gulf"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Monday, 7 Jun 1982 14:27-PDT
Subject: Help locating a Parallel Worlds Story
From: norm at RAND-UNIX
I wonder if somebody could help me locate a Science Fiction Story.
Its a parallel worlds plot. I know neither the author nor the title.
The story begins with the hero in England interviewing relatives of a
girl he loved in a parallel world. The family claimed that the girl
never existed. After further investigation he finds her, with a
different name, in Canada. He once slips and refers to her by the
parallel world name. Her mother than tells him that while pregnant
and on a riverboat trip with her lover she saw the name, the hero
inadvertently used, on a passing boat and planned to name her baby
after the boat. As far as she knows nobody else knew this name. The
naming plans were changed when the mother's lover was killed in (I
think) the First World War. The mother never told her lover's
relatives of her pregnancy.
The story is NOT the similar story based on the 1971 English movie
"Quest for Love", though I would also like to locate that story.
Since I'm not on the SF_LOVERS list, I'd appreciate replies directly
to me.
thanks much
Norm Shapiro
norm at RAND-UNIX
------------------------------
Date: 6 Jun 1982 1621-EDT
From: Mark <MARKT at MIT-XX>
Subject: Dr. Who's real name
In the last "Keys of Time" series (I don't remember the series' name),
Dr. Who met an imprisoned time lord who knew him from their college
days, I think his name was Drax. Anyway, he called the Doctor
"Phete", and once said his full name, "Phetus Sigma". I'm just
guessing at the spelling. Later on in the episode, the Doctor told
Drax that he now preferred to be called "The Doctor".
------------------------------
Date: 6 Jun 1982 22:33:36-EST
From: Chris Kent <cak at Purdue>
Reply-to: cak at Purdue
Subject: Dr Who and Tom Baker
Has anyone out there gotten any of the 'new' episodes (i.e. those with
Peter Davison playing the Doctor)? The local station has been
backpedalling -- we've seen the Key to Time sequence twice, and they
are now rerunning VERY EARLY Tom Baker episodes. The last episode that
has been shown (chronologically speaking) is Logopolis, in which
Davison replaces Baker (sniff).
Can't really picture anyone else playing the Doctor.
chris
------------------------------
Date: 6 Jun 1982 1239-PDT
From: Mike Leavitt <LEAVITT at USC-ISI>
Subject: Utopian, feminist sf
A good friend is putting together a seminar on utopias from a
feminist anthropological position, and one session (perhaps more) will
be devoted to contemporary sf's contribution. Some obvious ones come
to mind (Dispossessed (pace, SD), Anderson's Winter of the World,
miscellaneous Russ), but I felt that I was probably missing many good
choices. The utopias don't have to be explicitly feminist utopias,
but rather, utopias that would be of interest to feminists. A
blatantly anti-feminist one would be great, too. By "contemporary," I
mean, say, since John Campbell started at Astounding. I exclude
mainstream favorites (1984, etc.) since they will be covered
elsewhere. Any ideas? If anybody so indicates, I will be happy to
share a summary with individuals or with the list.
Mike <Leavitt at USC-ISI>
PS I vaguely recall a similar discussion in months (years?) past in
SFL. Pointers to specific issues would also be most welcome.
------------------------------
Date: 6 Jun 1982 17:16:30-PDT
From: decvax!minow at Berkeley
Subject: Progressive literature
In sf-lovers several weeks ago, James Cox (APPLE @ MIT-MC) stated
"politics generally makes bad literature. Nobody ever reads fiction
writers 'with a cause.'"
A week or so ago, I submitted a list or "progressive writers" to
POLI-SCI, but network difficulties -- such as the non-existence of an
arpa gateway -- prevented submitting it to SF-LOVERS. The following
slightly expanded list "popular, progressive" authors is ordered
roughly chronologically (with apologies for misspellings):
Aristophenes, Macchievelli, Voltaire, Swift, Balzac, Thomas Paine,
Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe (and the other abolitionists), Mark
Twain, Victor Hugo, Strindberg, Ibsen, Dosteyevski, Gorky, Shaw,
Driesler, Jose Marti, Lorca, Jallosa Vargas. Zola, Camus.
In our era, we have:
Brecht, Gunter Grass, Orwell, Satre, de Bouvoir, Vilhelm Moberg, Ivar
Lo Johansson, Maj Sjovall and Per Wahloo, Theodorakis, Vaino Linna and
Steinbeck.
These writers all exhibit several characteristics:
1. They are all part of the Western cultural tradition.
2. They were in opposition to the traditional society.
3. They were popular during their own time.
Cox subsequently pointed out that it was a bit unfair to include
satirists such as Swift and Twain, as their intention is to attack the
social order. He also pointed out that, to classify, say,
Dosteyevsky, as a progressive writer is to miss the importance of his
work. The same could well be said of all the writers on this list.
By the way, the list contains a fair number of Scandinavian writers
that, while readily available in translation, are almost unknown here.
Several of the Scandinavians are accessible via film:
Sjovall/Wahloo's The Laughing Policeman, Moberg's The Emigrants, and
Linna's The World is a Sinful Song have all been shown in the US.
(The Laughing Policeman lost most of its political bite: read their
books instead.)
I can think of few "progressive, successful" SF authors (besides
Brunner, of course). Any others?
Regards
Martin Minow (with some help from a friend)
decvax!minow
------------------------------
Date: 1 Jun 1982 0900-EDT
From: Ed Bailey <BAILEY at KL2116>
Reply-to: "Ed Bailey <BAILEY at KL2116> c/o" <Young at DEC-Marlboro>
Subject: E.T.: the Extraterrestial
This past weekend I was able to catch the Hartford,
Connecticut preview of E.T. I was quite surprised to find a quality
offering that answered such questions as, "What would your little
sister do if she found an extraterrestrial in your closet?", and "What
would NASA do if they found an extraterrestrial in your closet?". The
film has some very funny moments, as well as enough of a tear-jerker
to get an eight-year-old sobbing (and a twenty-three-year-old a little
misty eyed). I found it a little surprising that one of the NASA
people couldn't figure out what "E.T." built out of a radar detector,
a phonograph, and a TI "Speak 'n Spell", but it was not that critical
to the plot.
So, if you're willing to forego documentary style accuracy
(you won't find it here), and want to see what may be the most
expressive face that never lived, see E.T.
Ed
About the units of time on "Battlescow Garbagecan". I think you will
find that the units are powers of ten, as I remember hearing/seeing a
countdown go from one centon (?) to 99 microns....
------------------------------
Date: 5 Jun 82 2:06-PDT
From: mclure at SRI-UNIX
Subject: Star Trek II
Pretty good. True to the series and characters. A bit melodramatic
and sentimental near the end. Sometimes hysterical one-liners.
Vastly superior to the first movie. Impressive, but not suffocating,
special effects by Industrial Light & Magic. Nicholas Meyer's
reputation can only increase with this one.
------------------------------
Date: 6 June 1982 02:55-EDT
From: Gary E. Ansok <GEA at MIT-AI>
Subject: ST:TWOK -- A question
Is there a reason that Khan never takes the glove off of his right
hand? (i.e., is this an artificial hand or such like?)
------------------------------
Date: 8 Jun 1982 0220-PDT
From: Dolata at SUMEX-AIM
Subject: Commercials at the movies!
I just saw Star Trek; The Rath of Kahn. I like it.
However, what I was writing about was the fact that before the film
they showed a commercial for Pepsi! I have already written and
printed out a letter expressing my distaste for commercials in the
movies, promising that I would be concienciously buying COKE in
protest.
I encourage everybody who feels similarly to join me in writing such
letters of complaint when theatres pull this cheapo. After all, once
commercials become firmly established at the beginning and end of the
movie, where is the next obvious place to put them???????????
[ This practice is quite common in European theatres. Usually
commercials are shown before the movie for 5 to 15 minutes.
However, no place I know of has adopted a policy of showing
them DURING the movie itself. -- Jim ]
------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, June 8, 1982 2:26AM
From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) <JPM at MIT-AI>
Subject: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING!
The following message is the last in the digest. It discusses some
plot details of the story "Gulf." Some readers may not wish to read
on.
------------------------------
Date: Monday, 7 Jun 1982 09:35-PDT
From: jim at RAND-UNIX
Subject: Puppet Masters and Gulf revisited
Because of the widespread differences of opinion on The Puppet Masters
and Gulf, I thought I'd re-read both and report:
Kettle-Belly Baldwin is indeed a main character of Gulf, and does
indeed head a super-secret PRIVATE organization of supermen dedicated
to the concept of separating smart people from average people with the
eventual goal of creating a separate and superior species. They speak
a constructed language as previously described in this newsletter.
The hero is a guy called Joe Green, who doesn't survive (I guess this
is a spoiler). The setting is sometime after recovery from (!) the
3rd world war, which may have been won by the Soviets. I haven't yet
read Friday. Does this sound like the same Kettle-Belly?
The hero of Puppet Masters is named Elihu Nivens (cover name Sam).
His father, Andrew, is the head of the super-secret GOVERNMENT
organization which seems to have some kind of security duties ...
perhaps like a Gestapo or something, but all good guys, of course.
Sam eventually takes over the organization by popular acclaim. The
organization does not have its own language, although Sam's girl
friend (cover name Mary, originally named Allucquere) was a member of
the Whitmanite religious (?) sect which used its own artificial
language. No Kettle-Bellies, no Baldwins. Separate universe.
------------------------------
End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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