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THE MT VOID
07/24/26 -- Vol. 45, No. 4, Whole Number 2442
Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
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Topics:
NEW YORK (mini-series review by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Last Week's Neglected Gems (comment by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Space Jam and Earth-Like Exoplanet with Atmosphere
(pointers by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Matt Damon Just Wants to Go Home (film comments
by Paul S. R. Chisholm)
Science vs. Scientific Knowledge (letter of comment
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro)
THE DISH (letters of comment by Paul Dormer, Scott Dorsey,
and Lawrence D'Oliveiro)
BRAINSTORM (letters of comment by Steve Coltrin
and Lawrence D'Oliveiro)
KNIGHTRIDERS (letter of comment by Lawrence D'Oliveiro)
Non-Existent Books (letter of comment by Hal Heydt)
THE WORLD THE CIVIL WAR MADE (letters of comment
by Paul Dormer and Keith F. Lynch)
This Week's Reading ("Masterpieces of Short Fiction",
Part 1) (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: NEW YORK (mini-series review by Evelyn C. Leeper)
This is more a collection of random thoughts and NEW YORK, the
1999 mini-series by Ric Burns, than a review.
DEI hatred goes way back: Peter Stuyvesant hated the diversity of
New Amsterdam. When Central Park was being constructed, Seneca
Village and other areas inhabited by African-Americans and the
poor were razed, and its location far from lower Manhattan (where
most of the poor lived) and strict regulations made it more a park
for the wealthy than for all New Yorkers. And of course, there
were the 1863 riots, which started as draft riots, but rapidly
escalated into race riots. (And Episode Seven, about Robert Moses,
shows that this tradition was carried on.)
Washington Irving was the first American to earn his living as an
author.
Burns claims that De Witt Clinton was the most important person to
live in New York because he oversaw the construction of the Erie
Canal, which was the first real access to anything coming from the
West. (His cousin, Simon De Witt, helped design the grid system of
Manhattan's streets.)
Trigger warning for Episode Four: it has The Don in it.
The peak year for immigration seems to have been 1907, with over a
million immigrants. During this period (1890-1920), the Irish
looked down on the Italians the same way the English had looked
down on the Irish.
In Episode Six, the narrator refers to 1944 being the third year
of World War II. No, it was the *fifth* year: September 1, 1939,
is almost always given as the start of World War II. And that is
ignoring all the fighting in China (starting in 1937) or Ethiopia
(starting in 1935).
Episode Seven ends on an upbeat note, but is still very depressing
for two reasons. First, much of what it covers is how Robert Moses
(and other urban planners) destroyed much of what made New York
New York, and ruined tens of thousands of lives--possibly hundreds
of thousands--in the process. And second, though it ends talking
about how New York recovered from the loss of manufacturing, the
exodus to the suburbs, and the financial crisis, throughout the
series we have been seeing shots of New York showing the World
Trade Center in the background (or from the air). The series (and
this episode) were from 1999, and we know what's coming, even
though Burns didn't. It's as if someone made a documentary in 1928
about how wonderful everything was going. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Last Week's Neglected Gems (comment by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I just noticed that all three of last week's "neglected gems" had
titles that were compound words: KNIGHTRIDERS, LIFEFORCE, and
BRAINSTORM. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Space Jam and Earth-Like Exoplanet with Atmosphere
(pointers by Evelyn C. Leeper)
From (where else?) The Guardian:
"Space jam: astronomers detect 'raspberry sugar' on dust cloud in
Milky Way
"Detection of erythrulose shows compounds that are key to life can
form in expanse between stars
"The simple sugar erythrulose appears to be produced through
chemical reactions on tiny interstellar dust grains. A natural
sugar found in raspberries and used in fake tan lotions has been
detected in an enormous cloud of dust and gas that lurks near the
heart of the Milky Way. The discovery does not suggest that the
galaxy revolves around a distant civilisation of pale,
safety-conscious frugivores, but shows that compounds important
for life can form in the frigid expanse between the stars."
Full story at:
<
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jul/13/ natural-sugar-cloud-dust-gas-milky-way-erythrulose>
Also from The Guardian:
"Earth-like exoplanet found to have an atmosphere
"Scientists discover the first confirmed atmosphere around rocky
planet outside our solar system that is within the habitable zone
"The search for life outside our solar system has taken another
twist as researchers revealed they have discovered an atmosphere
around an Earth-like planet 49 light years away that could have
liquid water on its surface. Atmospheres have previously been
found around gas giant exoplanets as well as 'sub-Neptunes'. There
have also been signs of such envelopes around rocky exoplanets
that sit outside their star's habitable zone--a region in which
liquid water could exist on the planet's surface, and hence
potentially support life. But the new discovery is different.
'This is the first actually observationally confirmed atmosphere
on a rocky planet in the habitable zone outside of our solar
system,' said Dr Collin Cherubim, the first author of the study,
who until recently was based at Harvard University."
Full story at:
<
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/jul/16/ atmosphere-lhs-1140b-exoplanet-could-water-scientists>
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Matt Damon Just Wants to Go Home (film comments by Paul
S. R. Chisholm)
Matt Damon just wants to go home.
More accurately, his characters do:
- The title character in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, albeit reluctantly.
- Loki in DOGMA, actively, ruat caelum. (He also portrays the actor
who portrays Loki in THOR: RAGNAROK and THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER.)
- John Grady Cole in ALL THE PRETTY HORSES.
- Dr. Mann in INTERSTELLAR.
- The title character, Mark Watney, in THE MARTIAN.
- Odysseus, the title character of THE ODYSSEY.
More:
- The title character in THE BOURNE IDENTITY tries to mentally
return.
- Rannulph Junuh in THE LEGEND OF BAGGER VANCE physically returns
to Savannah and then needs to return to his abilities as a
golfer.
- In THE MONUMENT MEN, James Granger works to return artwork stolen
by the Nazis.
- David Norris tries to return to Elise Sellas in THE ADJUSTMENT
BUREAU.
Time Magazine suggests a few more:
<
https://time.com/4162254/cost-of-rescuing-matt-damon/>
Maybe someone can weave WE BOUGHT A ZOO into this narrative, but
I can't. [-psrc]
Evelyn notes:
Coincidentally, I am listening to the Teaching Company's
"Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature's Most Fantastic
Works" by Prof. Eric S. Rabkin. In the introductory lecture he
talks about Vladimir Propp's thirty-one basic "functions" in
Russian fairy tales, of which #20 is "the hero travels back to his
home". This idea also appears in Joseph Campbell's "Hero's
Journey" with seventeen functions in three groups, the third of
which is "Return".
So while the idea that characters in films are trying to return
home may not be universal, it certainly has its place in stories
centered around a hero. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Science vs. Scientific Knowledge (letter of comment by
Lawrence D'Oliveiro)
In response to Greg Frederick's review of THE EDGE OF KNOWLEDGE in
the 07/03/26 issue of the MT VOID, Lawrence D'Oliveiro writes:
[Greg writes:] "One of the book's most compelling themes is the
idea that ignorance, when approached scientifically, is productive
rather than discouraging. Krauss argues that science advances not
by claiming certainty but by continually testing ideas and
confronting unanswered questions. He reminds readers that many
concepts that seem obvious today for example; the age of the
Earth, the existence of galaxies beyond our own, or the structure
of DNA, all were once
mysteries. By placing today's unsolved problems in historical
context, he demonstrates how scientific knowledge evolves through
curiosity, skepticism, and evidence." [-gf]
Worth distinguishing between
* "Science" -- the process of acquiring knowledge
* "Scientific knowledge" -- the product of the process, which also
feeds back into the process.
Every human culture has its own store of traditional knowledge,
acquired over many centuries or millennia. But ask them about
their processes for acquiring knowledge, or for verifying its
correctness, and you draw a blank. Everybody simply assumes their
traditional knowledge is correct. And no-one has any idea where it
actually came from.
Science is about making those points explicit. [-ldo]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE DISH (letters of comment by Paul Dormer, Scott Dorsey,
and Lawrence D'Oliveiro)
In response to Evelyn's comments on THE DISH in the 07/17/26 issue
of the MT VOID, Paul Dormer writes:
I remember seeing that on TV many years ago. [-pd]
Scott Dorsey adds:
It is one of my favorite films ever. We showed a beautiful 35mm
print of it at Arisia one year and we got a small but very
appreciative audience.
And yes, I did give the five-minute talk about quadrant tracking
systems first because I don't think the film explains adequately
why it's so bad to lose the bogey. [-sd]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro adds:
Jokes were made about the radio telescope being situated in the
middle of a sheep paddock.
But then again, where would be a better place to put it ...? [-ldo]
===================================================================
TOPIC: BRAINSTORM (letters of comment by Steve Coltrin and
Lawrence D'Oliveiro)
In response to Evelyn's comments on BRAINSTORM in the 07/17/26
issue of the MT VOID, Steve Coltrin writes:
[Evelyn writes,] "BRAINSTORM (1983): Watching the film this time,
I found myself thinking of the Babel Fish from THE HITCHHIKER'S
GUIDE TO THE GALAXY. The idea is that by allowing direct recording
of memories, feelings, etc., we could achieve understanding of
other people and hence resolve conflicts." [-ecl]
Ooh, this would be a good double feature with STRANGE DAYS (1995),
in which society has contemplated that idea and said "hahahaha no".
Similarly:
[Evelyn writes,] "The film does look at other uses of the
technology, including two of the most popular uses to which any
new technology is applied: war and pornography." [-ecl]
And one of [STRANGE DAYS's] principal characters is one such
pornographer. Add in a predicted 1999-12-31 which was a) much
more interesting than mine and b) eerily prophetic of more recent
years, while having the sunny belief that they might not lead to
as shitty a place as we're in now. (Some things would not put
butts in seats back in 1995.) [-sc]
As I understand it, STRANGE DAYS was rather hard to find for some
time; currently it is streaming courtesy the Mouse. [-sc]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro writes:
[Evelyn writes,] "The film suffers by having its star Natalie Wood
die two-thirds of the way through filming, so some scenes had to
be filmed with her sister Lana Wood as a stand-in with modified
camera angles." [-ecl]
Also its release got held up by over a year, I think as a result
of said misfortune.
Also Douglas Trumbull's directorial debut--he who was responsible
for the memorable special effects on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (for
which director Stanley Kubrick took the credit--and the Oscar).
Every few years, it seems, the Feds want to go back to Robert
Wagner and talk to him about that last night his wife was alive
... [-ldo]
===================================================================
TOPIC: KNIGHTRIDERS (letter of comment by Lawrence D'Oliveiro)
In response to Evelyn's comments on KNIGHTRIDERS in the 07/17/26
issue of the MT VOID, Lawrence D'Oliveiro writes:
[Evelyn writes,] "(And the carnage is what probably brought in the
audiences. We used to attend a Renaissance Fair in Tuxedo, New
York, with the main attraction for us being the staging of a
Shakespeare play. Then one year when we called to ask which play
they were doing, they said they had dropped it, because it had
always been scheduled against the joust as the last main events of
the day, but almost everyone went to the joust instead and it
wasn't worth the expense.)" [-ecl]
There are fight scenes in Shakespeare. It's just a matter of
making them suitably graphic.
As Uncle Fester did, to totally gratuitous excess, in the first
"Addams Family" movie ...
Or was it really him? [-ldo]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Non-Existent Books (letter of comment by Hal Heydt)
In response to Joe Karpierz's review of DEATH OF THE AUTHOR in the
07/17/26 issue of the MT VOID, Hal Heydt writes:
In Dorothy's (published) novel A POINT OF HONOR she wrote in
internal reference to a non-existent work, THE GOLDEN ROAD. Some
of her friends immediately piped up wanting to read THE
[line missing] [s]o there it sits as an un-published (but
complete) work. It needs at least one minor edit, but is a full
work. [-hh]
Evelyn adds:
Stanislaw Lem wrote three collections of reviews of non-existent
books: A PERFECT VACUUM, PROVOCATION, and ONE HUMAN MINUTE. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE WORLD THE CIVIL WAR MADE (letters of comment by Paul
Dormer and Keith F. Lynch)
In response to Evelyn's comments on THE WORLD THE CIVIL WAR MADE
in the 07/17/26 issue of the MT VOID, Paul Dormer writes:
Cromwell has a lot to answer for. [-pd]
Evelyn notes:
But one thing Jews remember him for is that he finally let Jews
back into England in 1656, after they had been expelled by Edward
I in 1290. [-ecl]
Keith F. Lynch replies:
It's odd that England has had numerous civil wars, but "The
English Civil War" only refers to the 1640s one. Similarly, it
has had several regencies, but "The Regency" refers only to
1811-1820. And it has had eleven kings called Edward, but the
"Edwardian era" refers only to the rule of Edward VII, so called
because his name was Albert and nine previous kings had been named
Edward.
By contrast, the American Civil War wasn't a civil war at all.
The South was not attempting to put Jefferson Davis in the White
House. [-kfl]
[A long discussion followed about what constitutes a civil war,
which appears to resolve as "a civil war is what I point to when I
say it." -ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
"Masterpieces of Short Fiction" was one of the Great
Courses/Teaching Company courses that I picked up at Second Time
Books, taught by Professor Michael Krasny. Since I am reading all
the stories, I will comment on them, but since they are short
stories, the comments will also be short (well, mostly).
1. "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe: This was also the
introductory lecture, so Krasny spent a lot of time introducing
the concept of the short story, and so he spent less on the actual
story than he did in subsequent lectures. For this one, I got more
from the notes in the copy I read than from the lecture. The
notes, for example, pointed out that Montressor is quite ignorant
about Amontillado (and wine, for that matter)--he apparently
doesn't know it is a sherry, for example. Whether this is
intentional on Poe's part, or that Poe himself was confused, is
not clear. (Krasny pronounces it with "lla" as "la" rather than as
"ya", which I think is incorrect, and also refers to a "space
capsule" when he means a "time capsule".)
2. "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne: At the beginning,
the narrator claims that Faith is "aptly named", so unless we are
to believe them to be an unreliable narrator, we have to believe
she is not actually at the Witches' Sabbath. So the two
possibilities are that her appearance there is an illusion
generated by the Devil to fool Goodman Brown, or that the whole
thing is a dream. Krasny seems to find significance in the
character being called "Goodman Brown", which indicates to me that
he doesn't realize that "Goodman" was a title the equivalent of
"Mister". There is an irony there, but it is not as though
Hawthorne chose the name out of a whole pool of possibilities.
I think this story probably inspired "The Devil and Daniel
Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benet. In "Young Goodman Brown", the
Devil tells Goodman Brown, "I have been as well acquainted with
your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and thatrCOs no
trifle to say. I helped your grandfather, the constable, when he
lashed the Quaker woman so smartly through the streets of Salem;
and it was I that brought your father a pitch-pine knot, kindled
at my own hearth, to set fire to an Indian village, in King
PhiliprCOs war." In "The Devil and Daniel Webster", Webster insists
on an American jury, and what does he get?
"For there was Walter Butler, the loyalist, who spread fire and
horror through the Mohawk Valley in the times of the Revolution;
and there was Simon Girty, the renegade, who saw white men burned
at the stake and whooped with the Indians to see them burn. His
eyes were green, like a catamount's, and the stains on his hunting
shirt did not come from the blood of the deer. King Philip was
there, wild and proud as he had been in life, with the great gash
in his head that gave him his death wound, and cruel Governor
Dale, who broke men on the wheel. There was Morton of Merry Mount,
who so vexed the Plymouth Colony, with his flushed, loose,
handsome face and his hate of the godly. There was Teach, the
bloody pirate, with his black beard curling on his breast. The
Reverend John Smeet, with his strangler's hands and his Geneva
gown, walked as daintily as he had to the gallows. The red print
of the rope was still around his neck, but he carried a perfumed
handkerchief in one hand. One and all, they came into the room
with the fires of hell still upon them, and the stranger named
their names and their deeds as they came, till the tale of twelve
was told. Yet the stranger had told the truthrCothey had all played
a part in America."
3. "The Overcoat" by Nikolai Gogol: Like the next story ("The
Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant), this is basically a "be-careful-what-you-wish-for" tale. Akaky Akakievich
Bashmachkin's name means "harmless", but also sounds like the
Russian for poop, so the reader already thinks of him as a
schlimazel. He needs a new overcoat, and by scrimping and saving,
is able to buy one. He glories in it, but it is ultimately the
cause of his downfall.
4. "The Necklace" (a.k.a. "The Diamond Necklace") by Guy de
Maupassant: Reading this I was struck by two things. First, early
on it follows the general outline of the Cinderella story. (That I
just listened to the "Classical Stuff You Should Know" episode on
Cinderella probably had something to do with this.) Mathilde lives
a dreary life, and when there's a ball, she can't go because she
doesn't have a gown, or jewels. Then somehow they are provided,
and she goes and charms everyone. (After this, the story
diverges.) It is also clear that authors such as O. Henry were
influenced by the story.
Maupassant does seem to have a very classist attitude. In spite of
saying, "Natural ingenuity, instinct for what is elegant, a supple
mind are [women's] sole hierarchy, and often make of women of the
people the equals of the very greatest ladies," Maupassant seems
to imply that Mathilde's problems arise because she is not
satisfied with her place in life.
And there is something about Maupassant saying, "She would have
liked so much to please," followed by "to be envied, to be
charming, to be sought after," that implies she doesn't so much
want to please others, but herself. She's not as sympathetic a
protagonist as one might think.
And her husband is no prize. He's been stashing money away to buy
himself a gun and have a shooting vacation--instead of spending a
little bit to make his wife's life a little easier or pleasanter.
And like "The Overcoat", this is about someone who wishes for
something they think is wonderful, revels in it, and then pays a
big price.
5. "The Lady with the Dog" by Anton Chekhov: I have read this
story a couple of times and frankly, it does nothing for me.
Apparently it's considered a classic, one of Chekhov's best, but I
can't see it. I don't feel this way about all of Chekhov's work,
though I lean more to the dramas. Of the "Big Four", I think UNCLE
VANYA, THE SEAGULL, and THE CHERRY ORCHARD are excellent; I am
less keen on THREE SISTERS.
My one "complaint" is that Chekhov seems to have a very negative
view of middle-aged women. In both THE SEAGULL and THE CHERRY
ORCHARD, the older women are total "flibbertigibbets"--neither has
any business sense, or any concept of money. Madame Lyubov
Andreievna Ranevskaya in THE CHERRY ORCHARD refuses to make any
decision that might save the estate, relying on some sort of
miracle while handing out outrageous tips and alms. Irina
Nikolayevna Arkadina in THE SEAGULL is totally self-centered and
won't even give her son money to replace his shabby clothes, or to
buy him a coat, with the excuse that as an actress all her money
is spent on *her* clothes. For that matter, Helena Andreyevna
Serebryakova in Uncle Vanya is not middle-aged (she is 27), but
she also seems to lead a useless life and can't manage to do
anything useful. It is not clear that the woman in "The Lady with
the Dog" is any better, but again, she is young, and apparently
neither she nor the narrator can come up with a concrete plan to
resolve their problem. Maybe that's just what Chekhov likes to
write about.
6. "The Real Thing" by Henry James: Umberto Eco once wrote an
essay about hyperreality. EBSCO describes it thusly, "Eco examines
how Americans create and venerate perfect replicas of reality,
allowing him to reflect on philosophical questions about the
nature of reality itself. The title essay highlights his
observations during a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles,
where he encounters various hyperrealistic representations, such
as wax replicas of Leonardo da Vinci's 'The Last Supper' and
meticulous recreations of historical spaces like the Oval Office.
Through these examples, Eco raises critical inquiries about
authenticity and representation, engaging with longstanding
philosophical debates about what constitutes reality." Henry James
did it almost a century before, in this story about how two
professional models are better able to represent a variety of
types of people than the actual types themselves, i.e., they can
seem more representative of an upper-class couple than an actual
upper-class couple. ("Travels in Hyperreality" was written in
1986; James write "The Real Thing" in 1892.)
7. "Araby" by James Joyce: This story apparently has a lot of
references to Catholicism which were not obvious to me. It also is
a move away from 19th century story-telling and into the 20th
century. I will have to see how the rest of the 20th century
stories strike me, but this one (and many of Joyce's stories) just
don't connect with me, or vice versa.
8. "My First Goose" by Isaac Babel: This is probably the shortest
story in this class. The main character, a bookish sort, is
assigned to a Cossack unit, and initially they ridicule him. So he
brutally kills an old woman's goose and demands that she cook it
for them, and then he is accepted. Babel had a strange
relationship with the Cossacks. Presumably as a Jew he would
despise and fear them, but instead he rode with them.
9. "The Killers" by Ernest Hemingway: This is a Hemingway story.
Two men come into a diner. They are looking for another man. They
tie up the owner and the cook. Later the two go away and a patron
goes to warn the victim. He warns him. The victim doesn't try to
get away. The patron goes back to the diner. The cook doesn't seem
to care. The patron decides to leave town.
10. "A Hunger Artist" by Franz Kafka: As I note below this seems
to be somewhat related to "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings",
although more in its use of the carnival/circus themes than in
straight magical realism. The idea of the carnival/circus as a
fictional setting recurs in other authors as well, notably Ray
Bradbury, Angela Carter, and William Lindsay Gresham.
11. "Rocking-Horse Winner" by D. H. Lawrence: We all wish we could
see the future, and often as not it is to know the winning lottery
numbers. But before the lottery there were horse races (and there
still are) and that was what people dreamt of knowing. Lawrence
looks at the idea that this knowledge is not free, that it comes
with a price, and also that the drive for money can overwhelm all
reason and natural feeling. The boy pushes himself beyond all
reason because he hears his parents always talking about money;
the parents encourage him because all they think of is the money.
This has been made into a classic film in 1949 with Valerie Hobson
and John Mills, as well as a later made-for-television film and
two shorts.
12. "The Garden Party" by Katherine Mansfield: "The Garden Party"
is a study in opposites: upper class and lower class, empathy and insensitivity, life and death. Laura wants to empathize with the
lower class, but can't escape her own upbringing. She expresses
sympathy for the bereaved family, but goes ahead with the party.
She sees death, but thinks it looks like life.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
It is never too late to be what you might have been.
--George Eliot
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