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Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society
Club Notice - 05/21/93 -- Vol. 11, No. 47

MEETINGS UPCOMING:

Unless otherwise stated, all meetings are in Holmdel 4N-509
Wednesdays at noon.

_D_A_T_E _T_O_P_I_C

06/02 RED MARS by Kim Stanley Robinson
(Politics in Space Colonization)
06/23 CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG by Maureen McHugh
(Non-European Futures)
07/14 SIGHT OF PROTEUS by Charles Sheffield (Human Metamorphosis)
08/04 Hugo Short Story Nominees
08/25 CONSIDER PHLEBAS by Iain Banks
(Space Opera with a Knife Twist)
09/15 WORLD AT THE END OF TIME by Frederik Pohl
(Modern Stapledonian Fiction)

Outside events:
07/31 Deadline for Hugo Ballots to be postmarked
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County meets on the second
Saturday of every month in Upper Saddle River; call 201-933-2724 for
details. The New Jersey Science Fiction Society meets on the third
Saturday of every month in Belleville; call 201-432-5965 for details.

HO Chair: John Jetzt HO 1E-525 908-834-1563 holly!jetzt
LZ Chair: Rob Mitchell HO 1C-523 908-834-1267 holly!jrrt
MT Chair: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzfs3!leeper
HO Librarian: Nick Sauer HO 4F-427 908-949-7076 homxc!11366ns
LZ Librarian: Lance Larsen LZ 3L-312 908-576-3346 quartet!lfl
MT Librarian: Mark Leeper MT 3D-441 908-957-5619 mtgzfs3!leeper
Factotum: Evelyn Leeper MT 1F-329 908-957-2070 mtgpfs1!ecl
All material copyright by author unless otherwise noted.

1. Hugo Factoid of the Week: The best batting average with at least
two nominations is a tie between Walter Miller, Jr. (_A _C_a_n_t_i_c_l_e _f_o_r
_L_e_i_b_o_w_i_t_z and "The Darfstellar") and Octavia Butler ("Speech
Sounds" and "Bloodchild"), each with two wins out of two
nominations. Next week: who has the most Hugo wins in the fiction
categories? [-ecl]

THE MT VOID Page 2

2.
David Betancourt
Shamrock Chemical
Old Bridge, New Jersey
January 18, 1996
Dear MR. LEEPER,

As a neighbor to you in Old Bridge, Shamrock Chemical would like to
call your attention to a situation that should be of interest to
you and your family. Shamrock Chemical has for many years been a
good corporate citizen of Old Bridge, New Jersey, and we would like
to be a better one.

As you may know, the Township of Old Bridge recently sued Shamrock
Chemical for polluting the local ground-water supply. The court
gave us ten years to desist from this practice. Ten years is a
long time to subject you and your family to toxic chemicals. I
think that Shamrock can be a much better citizen than that. But of
course the American legal system can be very expensive and
following the court case of the Township of Old Bridge v. Shamrock
Chemical, we simply do not have the funds to clean up any faster.
And the sad fact is that it is your family that is at risk.

Now is your chance to show your support for Shamrock chemical's
clean-up. Please give as much as you can so we in Old Bridge can
once again feel safe drinking water from the tap.
Yours truly,

David Betancourt

---------------------------------------------------------

Yes, I am concerned about toxic waste in my drinking
water. Please accept my contribution to the Shamrock
Clean Water Project in the amount of:
___$20 ___$50 ___$200 ___$1000 ___$10,000

MR. LEEPER
AT&T--RM MT 3D-441
200 LAUREL AVENUE
MIDDLETOWN NJ 07748

THE MT VOID Page 3

3. Please note that the last three non-festival notices, including
this one, each of the form of a letter, represent a satire. They
are a slight exaggeration--only a slight one--of how bad things
have gotten. But it is not unusual for me in one day to get four
such "beg" letters, often for opposing points of view. Next week
I'll tell you about a letter I really _d_i_d get.

Mark Leeper
MT 3D-441 908-957-5619
...mtgzfs3!leeper

The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.
-- Oscar Wilde

WILD CARDS: CARD SHARKS edited by George R. R. Martin
Baen, ISBN 0-671-72159-3, 1993, $5.99.
A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper

For this "Wild Cards" book, Martin has changed publishers from
Bantam to Baen and returned to the format of multiple stories, each
written by a single identified author, rather than a single
narrative with each author doing a separate character.

There is a framing story, though: someone has set fire to a
church in Jokertown and Hannah Davis is assigned to investigate.
This investigation brings her into contact with eight very different
characters, each with his or her own story to tell, each with a
piece of the puzzle (reminiscent of _C_i_t_i_z_e_n _K_a_n_e). (Without having
read the initial "Wild Cards" book, however, none of them will make
a lot of sense, so be warned.) Though the authors all bring their
own individual strengths to their sections, "The Crooked Man" by
Melinda M. Snodgrass is the stand-out story, a realistically drawn
picture even if a trifle obvious. The parallels to bigotry towards
gays and lesbians, and towards people with AIDS, is much more
heavy-handed than in previous volumes I had read and worked better,
I think, with the lighter touch.

I had stopped reading the "Wild Cards" books for a while, in
part because I thought they were moving too much away from science
fiction and into horror, and in part because I didn't think the
single-narrative formula worked as well as the short stories. (But
then, I'm an inveterate short story fan!) With this new book,
Martin seems to be returning to the style of the earlier books, and
I recommend it to fans of those books.

MAP OF THE HUMAN HEART
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper

Capsule review: This could have been a story
about racism, it could have been a film with
historical scope, it could have been a film about
courage in wartime or an anti-war movie, it might
have been about an engaging love triangle story, it
might have been a study of contrasting cultures, but
in trying to be all those things this murky film is
not enough of any of them. (Warning: this review
tells more plot than I usually do as the film is
otherwise difficult to describe. For most readers I
don't believe I will be damaging the enjoyment of the
film.) Rating: 0 (-4 to +4).

With _T_h_e _N_a_v_i_g_a_t_o_r, New Zealand director Vincent Ward showed he
had an unusual photographic style, some interesting ideas, and an
occasional mystical impulse. They all worked fairly well in that
small film. _M_a_p _o_f _t_h_e _H_u_m_a_n _H_e_a_r_t is a big film, but Louis Nowra's
screenplay from Ward's own story assumes it is bigger than it
actually is and that Ward's direction can deliver more than it
actually can.

Avik (played by Robert Joamie as a child and Jason Scott Lee as
an adult) is an Inuit--or as he says, an Eskimo--who meets a
cartographer and tells him his life story. As a boy in 1931, his
life was changed when another cartographer, Walter Russell (played
by Patrick Bergin) came to his people's land to survey for maps.
Russell is impressed with the boy's curiosity and deeply affected
when he discovers that the boy has tuberculosis. Russell arranges
to take to take the boy to a Montreal Catholic hospital and school,
flying the boy in the open biplane the cartographer came in. One
taste of flying and the young Inuit is hooked for life.

At the hospital Avik is traumatized by all the scientific
equipment. He is mistreated by the nuns, who are portrayed as
extremely bigoted against Protestants and "half-breeds." Avik forms
a close relationship with Albertine (played by Annie Galipeau as a
child and Anne Parillaud as an adult). He is half white, half
Inuit; she is half white, half Indian. They are torn apart by the
nuns. In 1941 events draw Avik into the RAF and he, Russell, and
Albertine will cross paths again.

This is a film with at least two or three very memorable
scenes--one over the Albert Hall, one involving a barrage balloon,
and a horrifying sequence set in Germany--but it still leaves loose
ends and is unsatisfying. Patrick Bergin's last scene comes totally

Map of the Human Heart May 16, 1993 Page 2

out of left field and seems to belong more to a surrealistic satire.
The scenes of air warfare are of a unique style that perhaps gives
them the feel of real Army-Air Force World War II documentaries: the
scenes are murky and more than once scenes seemed out of focus.

This was a film I was anxious to see and tried very hard to
enjoy, but I have to say that it really did not work for me. This
British-Australian-French-Canadian-Japanese co-production is a
hodge-podge of too little of too much. I give it a 0 on the -4 to
+4 scale.

Capsule review: Two boys have to spend the
summer of 1942 with their steel-willed grandmother
and out-to-lunch aunt in Neil Simon's _L_o_s_t _i_n
_Y_o_n_k_e_r_s. While there is some of the old Simon
whimsey here, there is also some real human drama
without sugar-coating. This play won a Pulitzer
Prize and may well be one of the best films of the
year. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4).

Neil Simon built his reputation on warm, whimsical comedies
with occasional pieces of real drama mixed in, as long as they do
not threaten too much to spoil the play or movie-goer's day. _L_o_s_t
_i_n _Y_o_n_k_e_r_s is not typical Simon. There is some whimsey here,
certainly, but there is also some tragedy and some authentic human
pain. A lot of people may be disappointed by _L_o_s_t _i_n _Y_o_n_k_e_r_s; I
certainly was not.

It is the summer of 1942 and Eddie Kurnitz, a widower, needs to
have someplace to leave his two sons Jay and Arty (played by Brad
Stoll and Mike Damus) so that he can make some money to pay his
debts. Reluctantly he's decided to leave them with his mother, the
family matriarch. Grandma Kurnitz (played by Irene Worth) loves
nobody and is herself unloved. Her family has always lived in fear
of her and it has never really functioned as a family. This is the
story of the boys and that summer, but even more, this is the story
of the boy's Aunt Bella, who lives with her mother. Aunt Bella has
always seemed a little out-to-lunch to the boys (and everybody
else), and the idea of spending a summer with both the aunt and the
grandmother is less than promising for Arty and Jay. This is the
story of how the boys come to love their aunt and understand their
grandmother, but the telling is not pat. Understanding does not
always bring forgiveness. While there is hope by the end of this
story, there is also some disappointment.

Receiving top billing is Richard Dreyfus as the boys' uncle who
is fooling around on the shady side of the law. He has double-
crossed a flashy hood and is using his mother's house to hide out in
temporarily. While he gives a little panache to his role and some
action to the film, his part is really mostly distraction from the
main plotline. In the end he is just there to show one more way
Grandma Kurnitz's personality has damaged the lives of his children.
I may be one of the few people in the world who was not bowled over
by Mercedes Ruehl in _T_h_e _F_i_s_h_e_r _K_i_n_g, but _L_o_s_t _i_n _Y_o_n_k_e_r_s is a good
film and it is mostly due to her. She has already won a Tony Award
for her role as Aunt Bella on Broadway and she may get an Oscar

Lost in Yonkers May 16, 1993 Page 2

nomination.

Martha Coolidge's direction is engaging and the feel of 1942 is
well conveyed, considering that it depends mostly on one house, a
street, and a candy shop. Critical comment seems very mixed on _L_o_s_t
_i_n _Y_o_n_k_e_r_s, but I am inclined to think it is because it has been so
long since we have seen real human drama on the screen that we may
have forgotten how to react to it. I give _L_o_s_t _i_n _Y_o_n_k_e_r_s a +2 on
the -4 to +4 scale.