From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.fandom
THE MT VOID
07/25/25 -- Vol. 44, No. 4, Whole Number 2390
Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
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Topics:
Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion
Group
Picks for Turner Classic Movies in August (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Movie Non-Reviews (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (THE WORLD OF JEEVES, JOURNAL OF A
RESIDENCE ON A GEORGIAN PLANTATION 1838-1839)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion
Group
August 7: KING KONG (1933) & novel by Delos W. Lovelace (1932)
<
https://archive.org/details/kingkong0000love/mode/2up>
<
https://archive.org/details/kingkong0000love_g9k9/mode/2up>
There is a possibility that this and all future meetings will be
canceled due to lack of suitable equipment. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Picks for Turner Classic Movies in August (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
April may be the cruellest month, at least according to T. S.
Eliot, but on TCM August is the "boringest" month. I think the
scheduling team thinks everyone is at the beach and not watching
TCM. So they seem to have a rather bland line-up; even the classic
movies are those that have been run many times before.
But I have still found a film to recommend: the 1936 SHOW BOAT,
directed by James Whale (known for several classic Universal
horror films) and starring Paul Robeson, whose singing is the main
reason you should watch this film.
(My mother actually had a preference for the 1954 remake, which
Turner is also running. You could watch both and decide for
yourself.)
[SHOW BOAT (1951), Monday, August 4, 10:00PM]
[SHOW BOAT (1936), Sunday, August 31, 6:00PM]
Other films of interest include:
SUNDAY, August 3
8:15 AM Green Mansions (1959)
6:00 PM Wait Until Dark (1967)
Monday, August 4
10:00 PM Show Boat (1951)
THURSDAY, August 7
5:15 PM Long Day's Journey Into Night (1982)
TUESDAY, August 12
4:30 PM Captain Sindbad (1963)
WEDNESDAY, August 13
11:30 AM Being There (1979)
FRIDAY, August 15
12:45 AM Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and
Love the Bomb (1964)
FRIDAY, August 15
10:00 AM Angels in the Outfield (1951)
8:00 PM Psycho (1960)
10:00 PM Touch of Evil (1958)
SATURDAY, August 16
4:30 AM Night of the Lepus (1972)
SUNDAY, August 17
12:00 PM Portrait of Jennie (1948)
MONDAY, August 18
8:00 PM Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941)
10:00 PM The Night of the Hunter (1955)
11:45 PM Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
SUNDAY, August 24
2:15 AM The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956)
8:00 PM Fail Safe (1964)
10:00 PM The Best Man (1964)
FRIDAY, August 29
7:30 AM The Smiling Ghost (1941)
10:30 AM The Horn Blows at Midnight (1945)
2:00 PM The Woman in White (1948)
SUNDAY, August 31
3:45 PM A Guy Named Joe (1943)
6:00 PM Show Boat (1936)
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Movie Non-Reviews (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I've been bingeing various films and TV shows lately, which I'm
not reviewing here, but I did want to mention. I just finished
re-watching THE LORD OF THE RINGS (the extended version), but in
six sessions of two hours each, rather than three sessions of four
hours each. (That each part is split fairly evenly over two discs
helps here.) I also watched THE GATHERING STORM and INTO THE
STORM (along with several other films about Churchill: CHURCHILL,
DUNKIRK, and DARKEST HOUR). I highly recommend the commentaries on
THE GATHERING STORM and INTO THE STORM, which are full of
historical detail about Churchill and the period in general. I
will warn you that while THE GATHERING STORM is fairly
straightforward, INTO THE STORM jumps back and forth between the
period from the beginnings of the war to V-E Day on the one hand,
and the 5 July 1945 election on the other. It's probably easier
for Brits to follow than for we colonials. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
As noted above I've been bingeing movies, so my reading is down.
I did finish THE WORLD OF JEEVES by P. G. Wodehouse (Harper
Collins, ISBN 978-0-060-15968-9), the complete collection of the
thirty-four short fiction pieces about Jeeves. (Actually, there
seem to be thirty-five short stories; for some reason "Extricating
Young Gussie" is omitted. There are also eleven novels.) These are
best read having Stephen Fry's and Hugh Laurie's voices in your
head (IMHO).
I also read JOURNAL OF A RESIDENCE ON A GEORGIAN PLANTATION
1838-1839 by Frances Anne Kemble (available in more editions than
you can shake a stick at, and also in Project Gutenberg, under the
name Fanny Kemble). Kemble was an abolitionist Englishwoman who
married an American who turned out to be a slave-holder. But while
she clearly opposes slavery, she is also quite negative towards
black people, and her descriptions are not what you would call
"politically correct", "woke", or even "polite". (Her descriptions
often use words like "wooly" or "dusky", and the N-word shows up
in her descriptions as well as in the speech of the black people
she talks to.)
Not surprisingly, she and her husband divorced (in addition to
their differing views on slavery, he was repeatedly unfaithful and
an inveterate gambler), and when he was almost bankrupt, he sold
436 men, women, and children in what was until very recently
thought to be the largest single such sale in the United States.
(An auction of over 600 people in 1835 was discovered only a few
years ago.)
Not a pleasant read, certainly--Kemble is fairly explicit in the
conditions and treatment of those ensalved--but part of our
history nonetheless. (I should add that some people, including
descendants of some of the slave holders and managers, have
disputed her descriptions.) [-ecl]
===================================================================
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
What does the 'B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for?
It stands for "Benoit B. Mandelbrot".
--unknown
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