From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.fandom

THE MT VOID
08/07/26 -- Vol. 45, No. 6, Whole Number 2444

Editor: Evelyn Leeper, evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
All material is the opinion of the author and is copyrighted by
the author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for
inclusion unless otherwise noted.

To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
The latest issue is at <http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm>.
An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at <http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm>.

Topics:
Mini Reviews, Part 22 (LA CAGE AUX FOLLES,
SOME LIKE IT HOT, THE MOUSE THAT ROARED)
(film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper)
"Preaching to the Choir" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
(book review by Joe Karpierz)
MOBY DICK (1930) (letter of comment by Gary McGath)
Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotation (letter of comment
by John Hertz)
UFO Sightings (letters of comment by Lawrence D'Oliveiro,
Keith F. Lynch, and Charles Packer)
This Week's Reading (Readercon bookshops) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 22 (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper)

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES (1978): I cannot be absolutely sure, but I
think even the first time I saw this when it originally came out,
I thought Laurent was totally unsympathetic, and my opinion has
not changed. Even if one makes the argument that things were
different then (although, alas, we seem to be back-sliding towards
it now), the way he handled it was terrible. He was too cowardly
to tell Albin himself, and didn't even try to suggest that maybe
if Albin went out just for that evening...

This was originally a play, then became a movie, then a musical,
then an American remake (THE BIRDCAGE), and now a revival of the
musical. The original is probably still the best, though the cast
album from the musical is one of my favorites.


SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959): In the introduction and outro on the TCM
showing, Alan Shankman talked about the two ways of showing drag
and particularly drag humor: men who are in drag but still clearly heterosexual, and men in drag who are clearly gay (or "queer",
which was Shankman's preferred term). In SOME LIKE IT HOT, it is
clearly the first for most of the film, but towards the end, we
see Jack Lemmon's character leaning into the queer side, retaining
his drag persona even when alone with Tony Curtis's character, and
particularly in his facial expression at the very end.

Shankman also pointed out that while at the beginning the two
don't even have coats and are freezing, when they become women,
they suddenly had massive wardrobes of expensive clothes, My
thought was, "If that were the way real life worked, we'd have a
lot more drag queens now."


THE MOUSE THAT ROARED (1959): THE MOUSE THAT ROARED is another
British film about a peculiar geographic/political quirk in
Europe. Well, Europe in the geographic sense of including the
British Isles, as opposed to "continental Europe".

I mention this because the film begins by claiming that Grand
Fenwick is the only English-speaking country in Europe; obviously
they intend this to mean continental Europe (which by the way
doesn't include any of the Mediterranean islands, not that this
affects this statement).

It also claims that at 15.3 square miles, Grand Fenwick is the
world's smallest country. Even at the time of the film this wasn't
tru: Vatican City was 0.17 square miles, and Monaco was 0.8 square
miles. Since then, Nauru (at 8 square miles) and Tuvalu (at 10
square miles) have displaced it even farther from the record.

But back to the common thread with another British film, PASSPORT
TO PIMLICO (1949). In THE MOUSE THAT ROARED Grand Fenwick is an
anomalous country in the middle of Europe that somehow has not
been absorbed by any of its neighbors. In PASSPORT TO PIMLICO. it
is discovered that part of Pimlico is actually part of Burgundy,
and hence not subject to British law--in particular, post-war
rationing and pub closure hours.

(That Burgundy is now part of France, and would make this part of
Pimlico French rather than independent is not even considered.)

And there is yet a third example: ALL AT SEA (a.k.a. BARNACLE
BILL) (1957). In this Ealing comedy, someone wants to open an
amusement pier, runs into a lot of regulations from the town, and
figures out that they can turn (technically) the pier into a
foreign naval vessel, thus avoiding all these rules and
regulations.

One can certainly argue that the whole concept of Grand Fenwick
requires that "willing suspension of disbelief" that Coleridge
described. But one is entitled to only one such unlikelihood in a
book or film, so I think I am entitled to point out that there is
no way that an air raid drill would result in *everyone* going
into the air raid shelters, leaving Manhattan empty. And if you
actually did believe this, you would have to also believe that
basements with *open* gratings in the sidewalk above them would
serve as air raid shelters, or that everyone in Manhattan could
fit into the subways (and basements, I suppose). They wouldn't.

Oh, and I watched THE MOUSE THAT ROARED on June 30, as my closing
tribute to Pride Month.

[-ecl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: "Preaching to the Choir" by Adrian Tchaikovsky (copyright
2026, Solaris, publication date August 11, 2026, 176pp, ISBN: 978-1-837867-30-1) (book review by Joe Karpierz)

Anyone who reads my reviews, or talks to me about genre writers,
or who has to listen to me blather on about which writers they
should read, knows that I've become quite the Adrian Tchaikovsky
fan. He is a prolific author who writes science fiction, fantasy,
and horror stories, and I haven't read a book of his that I
haven't liked. Imagine, then, my delight when I received an email
from NetGalley informing me that Solaris had approved my request
for an advance reader copy. Honestly, I'd forgotten that I'd
requested it, so it was a pleasant surprise when it showed up in
my inbox a couple of weeks ago.

"Preaching to the Choir" is the second of Tchaikovsky's Terrible
Worlds: Transformations novellas. In it, Ross Enderbough invites
his girlfriend Elena Mendes on a trip to England to introduce her
to his very rich, very upper crust, and very eccentric family
during one of their once in a generation family gatherings. Ross
left England for the United States to get away from the family, as
he doesn't get along with them. However, attendance at the family
gathering is mandatory, so he doesn't have much choice as to
whether he should attend. The problem is that outsiders--meaning
spouses and girlfriends--are not invited or allowed at the
gathering. Elena is not welcome, and although the older family
members try to get her to leave and stay somewhere off the
grounds, they eventually relent. There is an undercurrent of
tension, however, between the family and Elena.

The gathering is held on the grounds of a family mansion built
hundreds of years ago. The story takes place almost exclusively
within the mansion, with some forays out to the overgrown and
unkempt grounds. The mansion is creepy, labyrinthine, and as you
might guess, holds many secrets. The family itself is no better
when it comes to being creepy and holding secrets. As the story
advances weird things happen, and the younger members of the
family begin to question what's going on and why they are here at
all. This ends up being a good thing for Elena, for as an outsider
she feels much the same way. The elder members of the family keep
telling them that they will learn what is happening soon, but once
Elena spots a dead body being carted out of the mansion, "soon"
isn't soon enough.

I wasn't aware that Tchaikovsky wrote horror stories, although
novellas like "Walking to Aldebaran" and "Hungry Gods" should have
been a clue. "Preaching to the Choir" is a creepy gothic horror
novel, complete with the creepy architecture of the mansion with
scary things lurking around every corner in the dark, frightening
things lurking on the mansion grounds, and the monstrous creatures
that are at the heart of the story. The family secret--because
every story like this involves a family secret--is not only
frightening from a body horror standpoint but is frightening from
the implications of what is revealed about the family.

"Preaching to the Choir" is another fine work from Tchaikovsky.
Sure, we've seen the "let's take the girlfriend to meet the weird
family" any number of times, and scary gothic mansions that
contain odd and frightening things in the dark are not unusual
either, but this story works because the characters are
believable, the plot is well handled, and the story is written
with Tchaikovsky's usual skill. The story is a slow burn, but once
it picks up it gets moving and before you know it, it's over. I do
recommend this for all fans of Tchaikovsky, as well as fans of
well written horror. [-jak]

===================================================================

TOPIC: MOBY DICK (1930) (letter of comment by Gary McGath)

In response to Mark's review of MOBY DICK (1930) in the 07/31/26
issue of the MT VOID, Gary McGath writes:

I'd never heard of this MOBY DICK before. I can see why.

Recently a Leslie Fish video about Moby Dick called my attention
to the version with Patrick Stewart. It's on YouTube. I've only
watched about fifteen minutes of it so far, since I plan to watch
it with a friend in the near future, but it looks well-done and
close to the book.

(Trivia question: Which "Star Trek" character quoted Ahab's last
words?)

By the way, the New Bedford Whaling Museum's souvenir shop has an
entire bookcase full of various editions of and commentaries on
Moby Dick. I recommend visiting it if you're in the area.

Evelyn responds:

The "Star Trek" question is, IMHO, too easy.

I had semi-planned to go to New Bedford this summer (with a stop
at the Niantic Book Barn on the way), but it's hard for me to get
up the enthusiasm (or whatever) needed to do this as a solo trip.
[-ecl]

===================================================================

TOPIC: Mikhail Baryshnikov Quotation (letter of comment by John
Hertz)

In response to the Mikhail Baryshnikov quotation in the 07/31/26
issue of the MT VOID, John Hertz writes:

Your Baryshnikov quotation in HE MT VOID 10 Jul 26 (vo1. 45 No. 2,
Whole No. 2440) brings to mind this story of the great Rabbi Zusha
of Hannopil (his name and "Hannopil" variously rendered in English
e.g. "Zusya", "Anipoli")

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zusha_of_Hanipol> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannopil,_Khmelnytskyi_Oblast>

One day his students found him weeping. "Rabbi," they cried, "why
do you weep? You are so wise and saintly." He said, "I am afraid
of what they will ask me at my death and Judgment. I am not afraid
that they will ask 'Why were you not more like Moses?' I am afraid
that they will ask 'Why were you not more like Zusha?'"

[-jh]

===================================================================

TOPIC: UFO Sightings (letters of comment by Lawrence D'Oliveiro,
Keith F. Lynch, and Charles Packer)

In response to a link to an article on UFO sightings in the
07/31/26 issue of the MT VOID, Lawrence D'Oliveiro writes:

[The article says,] "The sci-fi thriller, starring Emily Blunt and
Colin Firth, will serve for many viewers as a primer on modern UFO
mythology, with flying saucers crashing down in the American
Southwest, US military personnel swooping in to sequester the
spaceships and their egg-headed crew members, and Men in
Black-!-style agents fanning out to silence anyone with knowledge of
the visitation.

How could such a myth coexist in the same minds of a nation where
it is taken as a given that the Government is inherently
incompetent and will always make a hash of things, without private
help? [-ldo]

Keith F. Lynch responded:

Well, according to mainstream UFO mythology, men in black and UFOs
coexist with widespread public knowledge of men in black and UFOs.
So the men in black are obviously not competent at keeping
themselves or UFOs secret.

Why, I hear they've even made multiple Hollywood movies about both
phenomena!

Or maybe that's just intended to make us think the concepts of men
in black and UFOs are completely ridiculous. Thus everyone will
ignore the risk until we learn too late that aliens are real, that
they are here To Serve Man, and that it's a cookbook.

Or maybe aliens aren't real, but are faked by AIs in order to
distract us from the real threat, Terminators. [-kfl]

Evelyn adds:

These led to an enormous thread on rec.arts.sf.fandom, political
in nature, which I will not include here. [-ecl]

Charles Packer went in a different direction:

It amused me to discover that in 1947 the second person to witness
a flying saucer was named Byron Savage. He was quoted as affirming
the veracity of the story by the first person to witness one,
Kenneth Arnold. Both names, of course, allude to British poets.
[-cp]

===================================================================

TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

This is a break from comments on books to a meta-comment on
bookstores--in particular the ones we (Kate and I) visited on the
way to Readercon.

Readercon's "Dealers Room" is actually called the "Bookshop" and
that's pretty much all it sells. (Well, okay, because David
Gerrold was a Guest of Honor, his table was also selling
tribbles.) But that doesn't mean we didn't start buying books
before the convention.

We started on Wednesday. After I drove up to Massachusetts, Kate
and I went to The Raven Bookstore in Shelburne Falls, passing
their most famous landmark, the Bridge of Flowers--a pedestrian
bridge that has gardens along both sides of the walkway; this is a
landmark I remember my father taking us to back in the 1960s--he
was a big fan of flowers, gardening, etc. (See note at the end of
this article for an example.) At The Raven I found THE AESTHETICS
OF FANTASY LITERATURE AND ART by Roger C. Schlobin, which looked
interesting.

The Raven is located in an old warehouse which also contains a lot
of other, smaller shops, including Nancy L. Dole Books & Ephemera.
This was a very small store (one room about the size of a large
bedroom), and I didn't find anything there.

Thursday we drove to Burlington (MA) by way of West Brookfield,
which has Quaboag Book Shop. This was very large, having somewhere
between 100,000 and 250,000 books (according to the owner). Here
also I found one book, THOMAS JEFFERSON'S QUR'AN by Denise A.
Spellberg. Kate, however, found a lot, because while we were
there, someone brought in a large quantity of vintage SF
paperbacks.

Then we drove to Burlington and the Used Book Superstore, which
also claims over 100,000 books. But while it may have as much as
Quaboag (or even more) the stock is less interesting--and not as
cheap. First, a lot of the books seem to be new books with
slightly discounted prices. (I got MONK AND ROBOT by Becky
Chambers, list price $18.99, for 20% off, or $15.18.) They
apparently have a system where, when used books come in, they are
priced with labels the "color of the month". Then they have sales
where the oldest books (in this case, those with purple labels)
are 75% off their originally labeled price, the next oldest 40%
off, and the next oldest 20% off. I'm not sure how often they have
these sales, but we hit one, and so I got HARD TIMES by Dickens
and VIEUX CARRE by Tennessee Williams at 75% off ($0.99 and $1.48)
and BORGES AND ME by Jay Parini and WALT WHITMAN'S AMERICA for 20%
off ($4.78 and $3.17).

One complaint: the labels they use are more designed to protect
the store from people switching labels than to protect the books
from label residue, with the result that I needed to use Goo-Gone
on most of the books I bought.

(You can tell fantasy has overtaken science fiction--the fantasy
section was three times the size of the science fiction section.
When I was in college--and dinosaurs roamed the earth--fantasy was
a few books stuck in the science fiction, will no section of its
own.)

At Readercon itself, I picked up a few books from the "freebie"
table, which I think started at conventions as a place for
publishers to put out flyers, bookmarks, and occasionally books.
It has mutated into a book swap area, where ordinary fans drop off
and take books and magazines. My goal is to take less that I drop
off, and I certainly achieved that, since I got only three books
for myself (though I did pick up a couple for a friend, and a few
for Kate--more vintage SF).

What I got was Lafcadio Hearn's IN GHOSTLY JAPAN, Rich Horton's
YEAR'S BEST SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY 2012, and Mark Kurlansky's
BASQUE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

My major acquisition, however, was the complete set of the first
33 PM Press "Outspoken Authors" series--slim volumes, each
featuring a story or two, an essay, and an interview, all from one
author. They were priced 10% off for one, 50% off for five or
more, and $165 for the set. By the time I had picked about a dozen
of them, it came to so much that it made more sense to buy them
all. (The list prices varied from $12 to $16, so even with 50%
off, my total had come to over $100--and I had pulled only about a
third of them. The set worked out to $5 each.)

The dealer was actually surprised anyone bought the whole set, and
when I saw him later he said I was the only one, partly because
Samuel R. Delany's volume had sold out fairly quickly.

(It was described as the "complete set", though there have been
subsequent volumes, one a collection of interviews and six more
regular volumes.)

No more bookshopping is planned until September, when we will
return to Second Time Books and Book Garden.

Promised note about my father and gardening:

When my father was in Vietnam in 1967/1968, the Air Force base
decided to boost morale (or something) by having a competition for
the best-looking building (or something like that). So my father
put a border of plants and flowers around his building, bringing
in the wooden 2x4s for the border on a bicycle and writing my
mother to please send him some fertilizer in an envelope for it.
Apparently even in the middle of a war, he wanted to garden.

[-ecl]

===================================================================

Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com


If you think technology will solve your problems,
you don't understand technology and you don't
understand your problems.
--Bruce Schneier

--- Synchronet 3.22a-Linux NewsLink 1.2