SFL@SRI-CSL@sri-unix (11/26/82)
Reply-to: SF-LOVERS at SRI-CSL
SF-LOVERS Digest Friday, 26 Nov 1982 Volume 6 : Issue 88
Today's Topics:
Themes - shrinking, explosive decompression
Books - Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun
Radio - A Canticle for Lebowitz
Movies - Dark Crystal, Star Wars/TESB, Star Trek
Music - space classics
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Date: 23 Nov 82 18:02:15 EST (Tue)
From: Fred Blonder <fred.umcp-cs@UDel-Relay>
Subject: Re: Shrinking in SF
From: Landon M. Dyer <ZEMON at MIT-AI>
What are the books/short stories/movies that have shrinking or
expanding as a central (or maybe not so central) theme?
-Landon-
The obvious one is ``The [Incredible] Shrinking Man'', (I'm not sure
of the presence of the word ``incredible'' in the title) a 50's black
& white film which is actually quite good for this sort of thing. The
reason the hero starts shrinking is a little hokey: he is exposed to a
``mysterious cloud of fog'', but the effects used to show him getting
smaller, and people's reactions to it were well portrayed. What's
unusual about this movie is that the hero is neither cured nor killed,
but at the end of the movie is left on his own to fend for himself, no
longer a member of human society.
Lilly Tomlin recently did a remake of the movie. (s/man/wo&/ in the
title)
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Date: 25 Nov 1982 1132-MST
From: William Galway <Galway at UTAH-20>
Subject: Shrinking people
Two childrens stories come to mind--however it's been a long time so
I'll only be able to give a rough description of the plots:
Story #1.
The main characters here are a boy and a seagull. The boy has some
accident (something like falling out of a tree), and starts to shrink.
When he gets down to something like an inch or so high, he meets a
seagull (named Gus?), and strikes up a friendship. My impression of
Gus is that he's rather steet-wise, probably from New York. At some
point the boy is approached by some government agent (?), (or his
father?), and told about an evil mad (and European) scientist who's
invented a powerful new explosive. As I recall, the scientist has
created about a vitamin pill's worth of the stuff and, to prove he
means business, has exploded one tiny little piece of that with
results comparable to the Hiroshima bomb.
The boy and Gus agree to try stealing the explosive, are outfitted for
the flight across the Atlantic, and go for it. They spend some time
playing tourist before getting down to business--this turns out to be
a dissapointment. In one country (France, or modeled after France?)
everyone's on strike. And Gus is wild about the idea of going to
Sardinia, but can't find a decent sardine once he gets there.
They successfully steal the explosive, fly back towards home, and drop
the explosive in the middle of the Atlantic. They're really knocked
around by the blast, and the boy starts growing again as a result of
that.
Story #2.
I remember even less about this one. The characters in this story are
some school boys (I forget exactly how many, two or three probably),
probably in their early teens. They come across some chemicals
somewhere (a school lab?) and somehow ingest some of them (or absorb
it through their skin?). My impression is that the chemicals are some
sort of pituitary hormones.
Nothing much happens for a few days, except the boys loose a little
weight. Then, on the way home, they suddenly shrink down to nearly
nothing--about knee-high to an ant perhaps. The rest of the story is
about their adventures covering the 100 yards or so to one of the
boy's homes.
Can someone identify the titles/authors for these stories, and correct
any details that I've distorted?
Perhaps the transformations of Arthur (the Wart) in "The Once and
Future King" count as shrinking? (He's turned into several different
animals as part of his education under Merlin.)
In Zelazny's "Jack of Shadows", there's an episode where Jack is
captured by one of his enemies. He's held prisoner in a hollowed out
jewel that hangs as a pendant around the enemy's neck. The cute thing
about this is that he only finds this out after being visited by his
enemy inside the jewel. The baddie shows Jack the jewel hanging
around his neck, suggests that Jack look inside. Later on he plunges
the room into darkness by putting his hand around it, and raises the
temperature a bit by holding it over a candle. I'm not sure if this a
"shrinking" or not, for all I know it's also an expanding. Escher
could have some fun with the scene.
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Date: 25 Nov 82 02:29:34 EST (Thu)
From: Fred Blonder <fred.umcp-cs@UDel-Relay>
Subject: Re: Explosive Decompression
From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-UNIX>
How long CAN someone survive in [a vacuum]? I know that there
have been some experiments on this topic over the years... does
anyone know the results of these?
A couple of years ago I was given a tour of the University of Maryland
Hospital in Baltimore City by one of the doctors. (a friend of a
friend) While he was explaining the hyperbaric chamber (which is
itself quite fascinating: They have a complete operating room in
there, which they can compress to up to five atmospheres.) I asked the
same question. He said that yes, you can survive in a complete vacuum
for a little while, but that it is extremely painful. Unfortunately we
zipped on to the next exhibit before I got to ask the obvious
questions: ``how long'' and ``how do you know''. I got the feeling he
didn't want to discuss it.
I expect that the immediate effect of exposing yourself to a vacuum
(aside from having nothing to breathe) would be about the same as the
effect of a too-rapid decompression from a 30 foot (i.e.: one
atmospheric pressure) scuba dive, namely the bends.
I've always felt that the 2001 ``spacewalk'' would have been a bit
more plausible if Bowman had gotten a nosebleed from it or his
eardrums had burst. (nothing TOO gross of course, but SOME sort of
injury)
The next time I get thrown from a spaceship by a large, burly
guard who keeps bellowing, "Resistance is useless!!!", how long
should I expect to last?
30 seconds at a probability factor of 8,137,445 to one against and
falling, which just happens to be the phone number of a very good...
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Date: 25 Nov 82 10:35:11-EST (Thu)
From: Richard G Turner <rturner.xls-onyx02@UDel-Relay>
Subject: Re: V6 #86 -- Decompression Query
Regarding Lauren's query in volume 6, issue 86 concerning exlosive
decompres- sion, I remember being handed a pamphlet when I entered the
theater to view "2001" for the first time. This pamphlet described
experiments on laboratory animals being subjected to decompression.
They stated that based upon these experiments, it was felt that a man
could spend somewhere between 30 seconds and 1 minute (if I remember
this correctly) in vacuum prior to succumbing to the boiling away of
his bodily fluids.
I think I remember this pamphlet because I am not usually given
explanatory material in movie theaters, and also my pregnant wife
(couldn't see her feet!) chose this moment to kick over a large urn
filled with sand. I immediately stuck my head in the pamphlet and
tried to find a seat.
rick
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Date: 25 Nov 1982 1558-CST
Subject: The Book of the New Sun
From: CS.TEMIN at UTEXAS-20
Has anyone seen the third volume of Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New
Sun"? The first volume is entitled "The Shadow of the Torturer", the
second is "The Claw of the Concilliator". Both books contain teasing
hints about the condition of the protagonist which I think are
promised to be resolved in the third book.
I've looked for the book but can find no information. (The books are
published by Timescape/Pocket books.)
Thanks,
-aaron temin (Cs.Temin at Utexas-20)
[The third book is "The Citadel of the Autarch" (sp?). I saw
it at our local SF bookshop, in hardcover only.--Stuart]
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Date: 25 Nov 1982 2247-EST
From: Gene Hastings <HASTINGS at CMU-CS-C>
Subject: NPR radio plays-A Canticle for Lebowitz?
I heard recently (I think it was on "The Sunday Show") that
NPR is going to air (if not produce) a version of A Canticle for
Lebowitz. Can anyone supplement this information? (Like release
date?)
Gene
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Date: 25 Nov 1982 2317-EST
From: Gene Hastings <HASTINGS at CMU-CS-C>
Subject: Dark Crystal
Since the book is an adaptation of the screenplay, it seems
appropriate to put off reading it until after seeing the film. (It
could only spoil things, right?)
According to an ad earlier this month on USA (cable)Network,
the film opens nationally Dec. 17. The trailer looks very promising,
-there is a credit for "conceptual design" given to Brian Froud, a
wonderfully warped illustrator. (His past work includes Faeries and
Master Snickup's Cloak.) I hope they have a new stable of voices,
since I'm not sure I'll ever get over seeing Yoda, and hearing Fozzie
Bear.
Gene Hastings
<HASTINGS at
CMU-CS-C>
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Date: 24 Nov 82 21:53:17-PST (Wed)
From: decvax!utzoo!watmath!jcwinterton at Ucb-C70
Subject: Re: Darth
Darth must be a Canadian if all he wants is PEACE and ORDER. Of
course, Canadians also want "good Government" according to the
provisions of the BNA Act. Oh well......
John Winterton.
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Date: 25 Nov 1982 0306-PST
From: Henry W. Miller <Miller at SRI-NIC>
Subject: ST:TWOK
This in reply to Reed Powell's comment on the movie.
Reed, old friend, you hit the nail on the head. You brought
out two of my biggest, yet unpublished gripes. First, the year
skewage. Secondly, the planet messup.
BUT, if you remember from the series, the star dates
seemed to have no real significance. They jumped around
helter skelter from episode to episode. I know that you have
almost the entire series on tape, AND, if you can prove me
wrong, dinner is on me at DECUS. (One dinner, note.)
-HWM
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Date: 23 Nov 82 21:15:09-PST (Tue)
From: harpo!floyd!cmcl2!philabs!sdcsvax!sdchema!will at Ucb-C70
Subject: Re: re: trek trivia
Ah, yes, I remember, now...an alien being was found dead in a service
tube on the ship. But I'm not sure...was it Spock's father? It seems
to me that he was accused but we all know he was innocent...who did
it??
(i.e., was it Spock's father that killed him?)
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Date: 23 Nov 82 18:09:18 EST (Tue)
From: Fred Blonder <fred.umcp-cs@UDel-Relay>
Subject: Re: More on Space Classics; INFO-MUSIC ??
From: Michael Muuss <mike@BRL>
Since the subject of classical music in "SF" has been broached,
how about Tommaso Albinoni's Adagio in G Minor for Strings and
Organ Continuo? It was used most effectively in a "Space: 1999"
episode.
Wasn't it also used as the theme music for the movie ``Rollerball'',
which is SF at least in the sense that the story is set 50 - 100 years
in the future?
[I believe the Rollerball theme music was the Toccata in D Minor
by J.S. Bach. --Stuart]
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End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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