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THE MT VOID
04/17/26 -- Vol. 44, No. 42, Whole Number 2428
Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
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Topics:
Apology
Mini Reviews, Part 12 (OUTLAND, CAST A DEADLY SPELL,
THE HIDDEN) (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper)
"A Magazine for Earthlings Who Dream of Outer Space"
THE SUBJECTS (2015) (film review by Dale Skran)
Pluto (letters of comment by Peter Trei and Paul Dormer)
THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETIC DIVISION (letters of comment
by Rob Mitchell and Steve Milton)
THE TRUE BELIEVER (letter of comment by Dale Skran)
This Week's Reading (THE NIGHT ATTILA DIED: SOLVING THE
MURDER OF ATTILA THE HUN) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Apology
Last week's text version of the MT VOID contained a couple of
stubs that should have been removed. And both versions (text and
PDF) had a word dropped from one of the headings; it should have
been "STORIES YOU NEVER HEARD OF", not "STORIES YOU NEVER OF".
Double ooops. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 12 (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper)
OUTLAND (1981): Sometimes you just watch to watch a trashy science
fiction movie, which is why I watched OUTLAND. Described as HIGH
NOON in space, this gets the science rather spectacularly wrong,
as well as being a totally unoriginal plot. Were it not for Sean
Connery and Frances Sternhagen, there wouldn't be any reason to
watch this at all.
For starters, they are on Io, which the introduction says has
one-sixth Earth gravity. But everyone is clearly operating in
normal 1G Earth gravity. Partway through, they introduce a
zero-gravity room, entirely surrounded by a 1G environment. I
suppose this implies they have anti-gravity, but nothing is ever
said about this, and even some of the scenes outside the base
(including falling) seem to be Earth gravity. Certainly it would
be easier to work in a lower-gravity environment. On the other
hand, having people firing projectile weapons (or playing golf) in
a non-familiar gravity would be near impossible, so the filmmakers
were stuck.
Also, in the zero-gravity room, blood flows *up* rather than just
hangs there.
Having projectile weapons in a station on a zero-atmosphere moon
seems ill-advised, especially since the villain's "best men" don't
seem to realize that shooting a hole in an outside wall is a bad
idea. For that matter, in this movie (as in many others) vital
tubes and connectors to the spacesuits seem very tenuously
attached.
I also have a real problem with the whole idea that if he has a
one-year tour of duty, and his wife doesn't like it, that's the
end of the marriage. Apparently the writers never knew any
military families. (Later on, it turns out that the one year on Io
is apparently in addition to one year deep sleep each way. This
makes no logistics sense.)
And while Sternhagen is an interesting character, this film still
fails the Bechdel test. (Connery's wife and son serve no useful
function in the plot. You expect that she will come back, or they
will be threatened somehow, but nothing of that sort happens.)
Released theatrically 22 May 1981.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082869/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/outland>
CAST A DEADLY SPELL (1991): CAST A DEADLY SPELL is an H. P.
Lovecraft / Raymond Chandler pastiche. It's convenient that
Lovecraft's middle name really was Philip, because the detective
named H. P. Lovecraft can be called "Phil" (after Philip Marlowe).
And it has Fred Ward, who is always good.
The basic plot is that the "Old Ones" of the author Lovecraft are
real, and in late 1940s Los Angeles someone is trying to summon
them. Everyone uses magic, except private eye Lovecraft, because
he wants to "own his own soul" (a line straight out of Raymond
Chandler: "Until you guys own your own souls you don't own mine"
from THE HIGH WINDOW).
The only problem is what to watch following this. The obvious
choice would be its sequel, WITCH HUNT, but that's not very good.
Probably CABIN IN THE WOODS will do.
(The Region 1 DVD I got on eBay for CAST A DEADLY SPELL has no UPC
code and fairly minimal information on the cover, as well as
having only a trailer for extras, and no subtitles or closer
captioning. My suspicion is that it is not entirely legit. There
are, however, many copies of a Region 2 DVD apparently dubbed in
Spanish, which strikes me as odd, and does me no good. The trailer
on my DVD was very fuzzy, which had me worried, but the actual
film was quite clear and sharp.)
Released on HBO 07 September 1991.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101550/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cast_a_deadly_spell>
THE HIDDEN (1987): THE HIDDEN stars Kyle McLaughlin (after DUNE
and BLUE VELVET, but before TWIN PEAKS), Claudia Christian
(pre-BABYLON 5), and Clu Gallagher (whose career spanned a third
of a century before and a third of a century after THE HIDDEN).
But its claim to fame for science fiction fans is that this seems
to have taken its inspiration (to put it kindly) from Hal
Clement's NEEDLE: the plot involves an alien cop chasing another
of his kind, a criminal, with the twist that these aliens live
inside humans. If you're wondering which plot I'm describing, the
answer is "both". The major difference is that NEEDLE is a young
adult novel, and THE HIDDEN is definitely not (it was rated R,
though it would probably be a PG-13 today).
Released theatrically 30 October 1987.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093185/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hidden>
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: "A Magazine for Earthlings Who Dream of Outer Space"
The New York Times reports on SPACE JUNK, which "bills itself as
the first magazine to look at the culture of space travel--not
just astronauts and prospective space tourists, but meteor
hunters, stargazing communities and sci-fi fans."
The article goes on to explain, though, that it's not a science
magazine, but more an art book, and published only annually (with
a newsstand price of $41--and what sort of peculiar price is
that?)..
And at the end of the article, one of the editors admits, "Space
is a red herring in the issue. It's not about the act of space
travel. It's that feeling of the unknown, of the future, that
engages me."
Unpaywalled link (good for thirty days):
<
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/style/ a-magazine-for-earthlings-who-dream-of-outer-space.html? unlocked_article_code=1.ZlA.48sh.d4z 8Z7gahOKW&smid=url-share>
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE SUBJECTS (2015) (film review by Dale Skran)
I just watched THE SUBJECTS on Amazon Prime. Directed Robert Mond,
this low-budget Australian SF film starts with a simple premise--a
group of people are locked in a sound studio for eight hours after
taking an experimental drug. They are all desperate for money,
and, as it turns out, lacking in human connection to the point
that no one knows any of them are participating in the trial.
This is a low-budget film with unknown Australian actors filmed
entirely in one room. For all those limitations, it is a
surprisingly interesting and engaging story. I am rating it +1 on
the -4 to +4 scale overall, but perhaps +2 in terms of ideas. This
is a film with bloody low-budget horror effects, and a good deal
of sexual innuendo and humor, so only for teens and up.
SPOILER ALERT STOP READING NOW
The basic idea is that the experimental drug gives each subject a
different super-power. Some of those powers seem pointless, while
others quickly result in fatal accidents. But there is a lot more
going on here than meets the eye. I'm not going to give away every
twist of this twisty story, but it has a great treatment of the
dangers of time-travel. Another theme is that as the powers are
used, they feel good, but their scope increases. What at first
seems a weak joke soon becomes God-like in impact. This is a
serious meditation on the real-world impact of giving ordinary
folks transcendent superpowers. The ending reminds me a bit of the
final episode of "Sapphire and Steel", an obscure SF series
starring David McCallum, which you can also see on Amazon Prime.
[-dls]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Pluto (letters of comment by Peter Trei and Paul Dormer)
In response to Evelyn's comments on Pluto in the 04/10/26 issue of
the MT VOID, Peter Trei writes:
Frankly, I'd like to see Pluto re-instated as a planet. I don't
really care if doing so is inconsistent. It isn't like there's
some system that's going to break if we call it a planet.
"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
- Walt Whitman
Beside, if the IAU is going to be consistent, then Neptune has to
be cancelled as a planet too: It hasn't cleared Pluto from its
orbit. [-pt]
Evelyn adds:
I have seen it claimed that Earth, Mars, and Jupiter haven't
cleared their orbits either. And also that no one is really clear
on what "clearing their orbit" means. See
<
https://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Clearing_the_neighbourhood#Disagreement>. [-ecl]
Paul Dormer responds to Peter:
It's not so much what you want to call it as what is useful for
planetary scientists. Planets do one thing, dwarf planets another.
In Pluto's case, there is no orbital dominance. Apparently, it
doesn'tclear other bodies out of the way.
I found this article online:
<
https://littleastronomy.com/planet-vs-dwarf-planet/>
Incidentally, this reminds me of a news item from last week about
how EU regulations might mean that marmalade will have to be
called "citrus marmalade" in the near future. This has annoyed
all the anti-EU brigade, although I think the whole thing has been
blown up.
Which also reminds me of the episode of YES, MINISTER where EU
regulations would mean that sausages as made in the UK would have
to be labelled "reconstituted offal tubes". This led to Jim
Hacker becoming prime minister. [-pd]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETIC DIVISION (letters of comment by Rob
Mitchell and Steve Milton)
In response to Paul S. R. Chisholm's review of THERE IS NO
ANTIMEMETIC DIVISION in the 04/10/26 issue of the MT VOID, Rob
Mitchell writes:
YouTube has a short film with that title: <
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v8AsTHfAG0>
IrCOve watched the film; itrCOs not bad for a short. The concept is underdeveloped, but potentially intriguing. I have no idea if itrCOs
related to the book--the liner notes credit "Based on the short
story 'We Need to Talk about Fifty-Five'." [-rjm]
And Steve Milton also writes:
There is a short video floating around somewhere in the internet
with the same title. It begins with the second in command in the
division accused of being a spy, because her boss doesn't
recognize her. [-smm]
Evelyn notes:
A bit of searching indicates that the short story and the book
were written by the same person/pseudonym. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE TRUE BELIEVER (letter of comment by Dale Skran)
In response to Paul S. R. Chisholm's review of THERE IS NO
ANTIMEMETIC DIVISION in the 04/10/26 issue of the MT VOID, Dale
Skran writes:
[Paul S. R. Chisholm wrote,] "[THERE IS NO ANTIMEMETIC DIVISION]
was one of the three books Anthropic co-founder Jack Clark
recommended on a recent podcast interview with Ezra Klein. ... The
other two were Ursula K. LeGuin's A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA and THE
TRUE BELIEVER by Eric Hoffer." [-psrc]
I also strongly recommend Eric Hoffer's THE TRUE BELIEVER. The
book was mostly about communism, but reached beyond other such
books to classic status, with terse, epigrammatic writing that
transcends politics. Written by the self-educated longshoreman
Hoffer, and mercifully free of "academese," THE TRUE BELIEVER is
one of the most important books I have read. [-dls]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE NIGHT ATTILA DIED: SOLVING THE MURDER OF ATTILA THE HUN by
Michael A. Babcock (Berkley, ISBN 978-0-425-20272-0) was a
disappointment. I suppose the fact that it was published by
Berkley (a mainstream press part of Penguin) rather than an
academic press should have told me something. And that Babcock was
a philologist by training rather than a historian might have been
another clue. Another way to tell that this book is aimed at a
popular, rather than an academic audience, is that the author is
listed on the cover as "Michael A. Babcock, Ph.D." In general, it
seems to me that academic books may list degrees on the title
page, but not on the cover.
Though I would think a philologist--someone who focuses on
words--would know that it should be "toe the line", not "tow the
line". I have long since given up on most publishers having
proofreaders, or for that matter copy editors: on page 38 Babcock
says that Mama and Atakam were impaled; on pages 60 and 61 he says
they were crucified. He also misuses the word "fortuitous": it
does not mean "lucky", but rather "accidental" (although now the
dictionaries often give a second definition of "lucky" because it
is so often mis-used).
Also, one of the maps of one diplomatic journey is missing the
lines indicating the actual journey. And oddly, Babcock refers
late in the book to, "[a] young general named Aspar (whom we've
already encountered several times, most notably as Marcian's
patron)." It seems odd to say "a young general named Aspar" rather
than just "Aspar" when he has already been introduced. (Babcock
also writes later of "a dwarf named Zerko" after having earlier
given us a multi-page history of Zerko. Again, a strange
construction.)
While I'm at it, let me say that Babcock writes very informally,
using phrases such as "tow [sic] the line", "carrying water for
the Church", and "an eighteen-minute gap, as it were", as well as
writing a fair amount in the first person singular, including
anecdotal--and irrelevant--stories of trudging home in the cold
after leaving the university library.
Babcock provides pronunciations for some of the names, but not
all, and even when he does, it's not necessarily when he first
mentions the name. And he bounces around chronologically as well,
e.g., stopping in the middle of the description of Priscus's
report of dinner with Attila to give the back story of Zerko, a
dwarf [Babcock's term] in Attila's court, and also Zerko's future
after the dinner, before returning backwards in time to the main
thread. (This account of the dinner has appeared in various
"Eyewitness to History" books. Mark was particularly taken by it.)
And while he provides some basis for thinking it was possible that
Attila was murdered, his presentation of it is so difficult to
follow that I did not find it convincing. Every once in a while he
inserts a block that says "Exhibit Ten" (or whatever number) and
some piece of evidence, but I never could figure out if it was
referring to what he had just written, or what he was about to
write. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
I said I'm two and a half billion years old because when
I was young the earth was two billion years old and now
it is four and a half billion years old so I must be
two and a half billion years old.
--Paul Erdos
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