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THE MT VOID
06/27/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 52, Whole Number 2386

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 July (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
APOLLO 13 (film comments)
Which Word Doesn't Belong? (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
METROPOLIS and OCTOBER SKY (letters of comment by Joe Major
and Gary McGath)
This Week's Reading (THE PLANTAGENETS) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)

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

TOPIC: Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion
Group

July 3 POOR THINGS (2023) & novel by Alasdair Gray
<https://libbyapp.com/search/elibrarynj/search/
query-Poor%20Things/page-1/10147225>
<https://www.hoopladigital.com/ebook/
poor-things-alasdair-gray/16291277>

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

TOPIC: Picks for Turner Classic Movies in July (comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)

Mark recommended NIGHT OF THE HUNTER in 2012, and again in 2018,
so I guess if it's seven years after that, I can recommend it
again.

As Mark wrote (and why should I try to improve on this?):

The only film that Charles Laughton ever directed, unfortunately
because it is an atmospheric gem, was THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER
(1955). There must be a story there because Laughton did a
beautiful job of directing with a terrific, poetic style. The two
children of a convicted robber (Peter Graves) are given the loot
by their father. Robert Mitchum plays a fake preacher who will do
what he has to to get his hands on that money. In 1930s West
Virginia people love their preachers so much, nobody questions
that Mitchum might not be exactly what he seems. And that gives
Mitchum free rein do whatever he wants to stalk and terrorize the
children. One famous bit: he has "LOVE" tattooed on the knuckles
of one hand and "HATE" on the knuckles of the other and nothing
impresses the simple country people as the sermon where his
LOVE-hand defeats his HATE-hand. This sequence has become iconic,
and throughout Mitchum makes your skin crawl just a little. Also
look for the beautiful image of Shelley Winter, strangled and
sitting in a topless car at the bottom of a river. The film is
based on a novel by Davis Grubb who specialized in hill country
gothic horror.

[NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, Saturday, July 5, 8:00 PM]

There are also several other "series" of note:

David Lynch's films are featured on July 11-12:

FRIDAY, July 11
8:00 PM The Straight Story (1999)
10:00 PM Blue Velvet (1986)
SATURDAY, July 12
12:15 AM Wild at Heart (1990)
2:30 AM Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
5:00 AM Eraserhead (1977)

Two classic Japanese films everyone should see:

TUESDAY, July 8
12:00 AM The Seven Samurai (1956)
3:45 AM Yojimbo (1961)

Visit ancient Rome with:

FRIDAY, July 18
8:00 PM Cleopatra (1963)
2:45 AM Julius Caesar (1953)

And ancient (mostly mythical) Greece with:

WEDNESDAY, July 9
8:00 PM Clash of the Titans (1981)
10:15 PM Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
THURSDAY, July 10
12:15 AM My Son, the Hero (1962)
4:15 AM Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1960)
WEDNESDAY, July 16
8:00 PM Helen of Troy (1956)
THURSDAY, July 17
12:00 AM Hercules, Samson & Ulysses (1963)
1:45 AM Hercules (1983)
3:30 AM The Colossus of Rhodes (1961)
WEDNESDAY, July 23
2:15 AM Iphigenia (1977)
4:30 AM Damon and Pythias (1962)

Other films of interest:

TUESDAY, July 1
2:15 PM Forbidden Planet (1956)
4:00 PM King Kong (1933)

THURSDAY, July 3
7:15 AM Them! (1954)

SATURDAY, July 5
3:45 PM The Omega Man (1971)
8:00 PM The Night of the Hunter (1955)

SUNDAY, July 6
8:00 PM Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
10:00 PM Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)

MONDAY, July 7
2:00 AM Onibaba (1964)
4:00 AM Kuroneko (1968)
2:00 PM The Women (1939)
8:00 PM Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

TUESDAY, July 8
12:00 AM The Seven Samurai (1956)
3:45 AM Yojimbo (1961)

WEDNESDAY, July 9
8:00 PM Clash of the Titans (1981)
10:15 PM Jason and the Argonauts (1963)

THURSDAY, July 10
12:15 AM My Son, the Hero (1962)
4:15 AM Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1960)

THURSDAY, July 10
8:00 PM Superman: The Movie (1978)
10:30 PM Somewhere in Time (1980)

FRIDAY, July 11
10:00 PM Blue Velvet (1986)

SATURDAY, July 12
12:15 AM Wild at Heart (1990)
2:30 AM Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992)
5:00 AM Eraserhead (1977)

SUNDAY, July 13
8:00 PM Fail Safe (1964)

TUESDAY, July 15
3:45 AM Around the World Under the Sea (1965)
5:45 AM The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

TUESDAY, July 15
3:45 PM Tarnished Angel (1938)

WEDNESDAY, July 16
8:00 PM Helen of Troy (1956)

THURSDAY, July 17
12:00 AM Hercules, Samson & Ulysses (1963)
1:45 AM Hercules (1983)
3:30 AM The Colossus of Rhodes (1961)
6:00 PM Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and
Love the Bomb (1964)
8:00 PM All That Money Can Buy (1941)
10:00 PM The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

FRIDAY, July 18
8:00 PM Cleopatra (1963)
2:45 AM Julius Caesar (1953)

SUNDAY, July 20
4:30 AM Mummy's Boys (1936)
6:00 AM Sinbad the Sailor (1947)
8:15 AM Treasure Island (1973)

MONDAY, July 21
3:30 PM Brainstorm (1983)
11:45 PM The Quiet American (1958)

WEDNESDAY, July 23
2:15 AM Iphigenia (1977)
4:30 AM Damon and Pythias (1962)

THURSDAY, July 24
6:15 AM Hold On! (1966)

SATURDAY, July 26
2:45 PM The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)

SUNDAY, July 27
2:30 AM 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
4:15 AM The Boy with Green Hair (1948)

MONDAY, July 28
12:15 AM The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
11:30 PM Ship of Fools (1965)

WEDNESDAY, July 30
6:00 AM Trog (1970)
7:45 AM The Invisible Boy (1957)
9:30 AM Indestructible Man (1956)
10:45 AM The Hypnotic Eye (1960)
6:30 PM Spider Baby (1964)
10:00 PM Black Orpheus (1959)

THURSDAY, July 31
4:00 AM Time Bandits (1981)

[-ecl]

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

TOPIC: APOLLO 13 (film comments)

June 30 is the 30th anniversary of the release of the film APOLLO
13. Rather than include Mark's quite lengthy review, I will give
a pointer to the issue of the MT VOID that contained it: <http://leepers.us/mtvoid/1995/950707.TXT>. [-ecl]

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

TOPIC: Which Word Doesn't Belong? (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

Last week, I asked which word doesn't belong in this list:

allays, arrays, assays, aways, bays, belays, brays, clays, copays,
days, decays, delays, drays, essays, flays, frays, gays, grays,
hays, inlays, jays, lays, mays, nays, okays, pays, plays, prays,
rays, relays, repays, says, shays, slays, spays, splays, sprays,
stays, strays, sways, todays, trays, unlays, ways

The answer is "says"; it is the only one that doesn't rhyme with
all the others.

Absent from the list are "cays" and "quays". The reason for this
is that the forms of these two words lacking the 's' two don't
rhyme with the forms of the other words lacking an 's' either.
Only "say" stops rhyming when you add an 's'.

An anonymous poster on usenet was the first to get it. They
rot-13ed their answer, and I'm not sure if I'm proud or embarrassed
to say I could actually translate the rot-13 in my head. Tim
Merrigan also had the answer. [-ecl]

Pete Rubinstein asks:

Is aways actually a word? [-pr]

Evelyn notes:

It sort of is--it shows up in on-line dictionaries as a misspelling
of "a ways". I was working from an on-line list of words ending in
"ays". [-ecl]

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

TOPIC: METROPOLIS and OCTOBER SKY (letters of comment by Joe Major
and Gary McGath)

In response to Evelyn's comments on METROPOLIS in the 06/20/25
issue of the MT VOID, Joe Major writes:

Whenever I have a CT scan, I always address the technician as
"Dr. Rotwang".

[Evelyn writes,] "Interestingly, in OCTOBER SKY one sees a 'reverse
influence' (that is, where Lang got his ideas from): the scenes of
the coal miners descending by elevator into the mines are based on
real life, and the same real life probably inspired Lang's
depiction of his workers in the elevators." [-ecl]

I wonder if Homer Hickam, Jr., saw the movie METROPOLIS or read the
book. Apparently he really was into SF. It would have been
interesting if he joined fandom but for a long period in his life
he was a diver and only got into rockets later.

I told my sister-in-law and my niece about the ending scenes, the
teacher watching the rocket from her hospital bed followed by the
segue to the shuttle launch. I was crying. [-jtm]

And Gary McGath writes:

[Evelyn writes,] "Our movie-and-book group watched METROPOLIS (1927)
this month, and read (or tried to read) METROPOLIS by Thea Von Harbou.
Whether it was Von Harbou's writing, or the translation, I found the
book over-flowery and then some (and I was not the only one)." [-ecl]

I just glanced at the first few sentences of the original German.
It's ultraviolet prose.

<https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/harbou/metropol/chap001.html>

[-gmg]

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

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

After finishing MAGNA CARTA, I moved on to THE PLANTAGENETS: THE
WARRIOR KINGS AND QUEENS WHO MADE ENGLAND (Penguin, ISBN
978-0-143-12492-4). This was actually written earlier (and was
his second book), and was followed by THE HOLLOW CROWN: THE WARS
OF THE ROSES AND THE RISE OF THE TUDORS, and then MAGNA CARTA: THE
MAKING AND LEGACY OF THE GREAT CHARTER. Whether I was just
noticing more in this, or whether Jones was still learning his
craft, I found several spots where his word choice was either
confusing, or just ill-chosen. For example, he writes, "Edward
would not be king for more than a decade, but he was most
decidedly the future of the Plantagenets family..." I read this
several times, thinking he was saying that Edward's regency would
not last more than ten years, and had I missed Edward's ascension?
Eventually, I realized that he meant, "Edward would not *become*
king for more than a decade,.."

Again, later Jones describes Edward as "a virile father and a
doting husband." Surely a better phrasing would have been "a
virile husband and a doting father." Frankly, Jones's sounds more
than a little incestuous.

Okay, these are perhaps minor hiccoughs. But when you have to
stop and re-read a sentence several times to decode it, it is not
good.

This was harder going for other reasons. The main one of course,
is that the history of the Plantagenets (and particularly the
upcoming Wars of the Roses) is incredibly convoluted. First of
all, all the men seemed to be named either Henry, Edward, or John,
and all the women were either Isabella or Margaret. (All the
French were either Louis, Philip, or Charles.) At time it feels
like the Monty Python sketch where everyone is named Bruce.

And there are so many defections and deceptions that keeping track
of who is on which side almost requires a scorecard. As Josephine
Tey has her narrator in THE DAUGHTER OF TIME say, "Every schoolboy
turned over the final page of Richard III with relief, because now
at last the Wars of the Roses were over and they could get on to
the Tudors, who were dull but easy to follow."

Nevertheless, I will persevere and continue with THE HOLLOW CROWN.

By the way, in the "everything old is new again" category, we have:

"The specter of treason had haunted Edward II's reign; it was the
irredeemable charge that had justified the murders of Piers
Gaveston, Thomas earl of Lancaster, Edmund earl of Kent, and Roger
Mortimer earl of March. In an effort to prevent such bloody
misery from ever again afflicting England, Edward III had passed
the Treason Act of 1351, which limited the definition of the crime
to attacks or plots on the lives of the king, the queen, and their
eldest son, rape of the king's eldest daughter, murder of the
chancellor, treasurer, or chief justices, or making war against
the king in his kingdom. Now Richard [II] was blowing the
definition of treason wide open again. A traitor was no longer
someone who tried to kill the king, his family, or his most senior
officials. It could be anyone who attempted to reform the realm
or regulate the royal household. The judges, pressed by the king,
had agreed that all those who had constrained him in 1386 could be
considered traitors. Traitors too were any who ignored a royal
command to dissolve parliament, impeached a royal minister, or
reminded Richard of the fate of his great-grandfather Edward II."

(Edward II had been deposed and murdered. So eventually was
Richard II.)

Note: Amazon says that the following has been highlighted by 660
Kindle readers: "Henry [II] was the first ruler to be crowned king
of England, rather than the old form, king of the English."

I have two comments on this:

First, one of the changes of the French revolution was to change
to King's title from "King of the French" to "King of France".
This supposedly implied his authority came from the French people
rather than from God granting him the lands of France. I suppose
the implication here could be that Henry II was claiming divine
right. However, I have also seen that this title was first
claimed by Aethelstan (as Rex Anglorum), Cnut, and John, but not
Henry II.

And second, yes, Amazon is spying on your Kindle reading. [-ecl]

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

Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com


Every man's work, whether it be literature or music
or pictures or anything else, is always a portrait
of himself, and the more he tries to conceal himself
the more clearly will his character appear in spite
of him.
--Samuel Butler
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