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THE MT VOID
10/03/25 -- Vol. 44, No. 14, Whole Number 2400
Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
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Topics:
Milestone
Mini Reviews, Part 22 (THE WHITE REINDEER, ALPHAVILLE,
FAHRENHEIT 451) (film comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
This Week's Reading (bookshops)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
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TOPIC: Milestone
The MT VOID has reached a milestone--note the Whole Number above.
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 22 (film comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Catching up on Terry Frost recommendations:
THE WHITE REINDEER (1952): First, this is not the 2013 film WHITE
REINDEER (no definite article), which is far better known, but a
Finnish folk horror film.
Unlike films made in Romance or even Germanic languages, this is
not a film most English-speaking viewers can turn away from and
hope to follow from the spoken dialogue. Finnish is a Uralic
language, not even on the Indo-European language tree, and related
to only Estonian and Hungarian. And Finnish works at not adopting
Indo-European cognates, so where a lot of non-Indo-European
languages use a word resembling "telephone" for "telephone",
Finnish uses "puhelin". (Icelandic uses "simi".) The bottom line:
unless you understand Finnish, it will all be, well, Finnish to
you.
The prelude is shot using a different style of cinematography
(filters, perhaps) to give it a more mythical feel. And it's hard
to do a Dutch angle on a steep hill, but the cinematographer
manages (the viewer can see that Pirita isn't vertical on the
screen). Another shot has Pirita in the center of the screen in
focus and the rest of the crowd surrounding her out of focus.
Vaseline on the lens, maybe?
We see what are presumably accurate portrayals of Sami customs,
including sleigh races and the idea of a pride price. My first
thought on seeing the reindeer herds is, "At least people will see
what reindeer really look like, and stop picturing Bambi pulling
Santa's sleigh." And they are sleighs, not sleds, looking more
like ships, with curved hulls and raised prows. When Pirita goes
to the shaman, the snow is so deep, that there is a trench all
around the cabin to be able to get in, making it look like one of
the basement apartments in New York.
The score sounds very Nordic. I'm not sure how to define that, but
it made me think of Sibelius or Grieg. But the setting reminds me
of Westerns: open expanses, isolated cabins, and large herds. And
the trope of "sacrifice the first living thing you see on your way
home" is common to many mythologies. So is the notion of iron as a
weapon against the supernatural, and of course, shape-shifting
(including longer canine teeth and the effect of the full moon).
And there are the old "deal with the devil"/"three wishes" tropes;
you just know that when Pirita asks to become irresistible to all
reindeer herders, it will not turn out well. In fact, much is
reminiscent of other films and stories: WOLF MAN, DR. JEKYLL AND
MR. HYDE, CAT PEOPLE, "The Monkey's Paw", ... This is not a bad
thing, because what these stories have in common is what the
cultures and mythologies have in common.
Coincidentally, I was reading NORDIC VISIONS, an anthology of
Nordic speculative fiction edited by Margret Helgadottir, when
Terry Frost recommended THE WHITE REINDEER. It fits right in.)
Released in the U.S. 1957.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0045283/reference>
What others are saying: <
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/valkoinen-peura-the-white-reindeer>
ALPHAVILLE (1965): Terry Frost recommended two French New Wave
science fiction films, so I decided to (re-)watch them. One was
ALPHAVILLE; the other was FAHRENHEIT 451.
The first thing I noticed about ALPHAVILLE was that the main
character Lemmy Caution (played by Eddie Constantine) has "Peter
Lorre eyes".
The music is a little overdramatic, hardly in keeping with the
more realistic bent of the French New Wave. For that matter, lots
of people are shot, but we never see any blood, not even when the
people being shot fall into a swimming pool.
Everyone seems to say, "Yes, I'm fine. Don't mention it," instead
of "Hello". It sounds a bit like a response to "How are you?"
except no one ever says that. One reviewer seems to think it is
evidence of the increased distancing of people, that greetings
have become so formalized that all logic and continuity is gone
from them. People could as easily be saying, "Tuesday's weather
will be good."
As is all too common in science fiction by people who are not
scientifically literate, Henri Dickson (played by Akim Tamiroff)
thinks light years are a measure of time.
Whatever modernity this film had, it wasn't a nascent feminism:
women are mostly portrayed as furniture that comes with a hotel
room (an idea that shows up explicitly again in SOYLENT GREEN).
Towards the end of the film, people start acting strange and we
occasionally see things in negative. I'm sure this means
something, but I have no idea what. And Lemmy Caution claims they
are driving their car through "intersidereal [i.e., interstellar]
space." Even those air-tight Volkswagens of the 1960s wouldn't be
able to do that.
Released theatrically 25 October 1965.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058898/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/alphaville>
FAHRENHEIT 451 (1966): The other film recommended by Terry Frost
was FAHRENHEIT 451. Although it is a British film, it was written
and directed by French director Francois Truffaut and was his only
non-French language film, hence its inclusion in the French New
Wave. (Well, it was his only non-French language film as a
director--he was featured notably as an actor in Steven
Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND.)
There is much care taken that the printed word does not appear in
the world of FAHRENHEIT 451. At the beginning, we see "A Universal
Release" on the screen (not really part of that world), and there
is a bunch of legalese at the end. But between the two, the only
printed words are those in the forbidden books. Even the credits
are done in voice-over.
Even people's personnel files consist only of photographs. But
apparently numbers are okay: the firemen's uniforms all have the
number "451" on them, and addresses use block numbers that must
have some representation on signs.
However, when Clarisse asks Montag whether he reads any of the
books he seizes, he says he doesn't read the books because he is
not interested, he has better things too do, and it is forbidden.
but he doesn't say it's because he can't read them, and in fact
later on he is reading books (albeit with the help of a
dictionary). His comments indicate that he is too young to
remember a time before firemen burned books, ao when did he learn,
and why? And if he can read, presumably others (not just outlaws)
can as well, why do we see nothing printed even in the files?
(By the way, the subtitles on my DVD say "9 18's are 163", but
they're actually 162, which is what the dialogue says.)
Released Theatrically 14 November 1966.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060390/reference>
What others are saying: <
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1007003-fahrenheit_451>
[-ecl]
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TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
This is another report on all the books I acquired to read, rather
than the actual reading. Kate came to visit and we went to both
Second Time Books and Book Garden, which are in some sense polar
opposites.
Second Time Books (Mount Laurel, NJ) is medium-sized,
well-organized, and focused almost entirely on history and science fiction/fantasy, with some classics and literature and a bit of
other categories, but not a lot. They are also very picky about
condition (of necessity a little less so in older science fiction
paperbacks). I *strongly* recommend it.
I bought four heavy books on ancient Rome, by which I mean
physically heavy because of the heavy paper they used. They also
had gotten an influx of Great Courses on DVD a couple of months
ago and I went a bit crazy, buying eight different courses at $5
each.
The books were $8 each and in fact every book but one that I
pulled out to look at was $8, leading me to ask whether the store
was going to change its name to the "$8 Book Store".
I also sold them a bunch of history books and three boxes of
pulps, leaving me with some store credit, even after my
purchases--but there's always November, when we stop on the way to
Philcon.
(I discovered when I got home that the pulps had been the featured
item the next day on their Facebook page.)
As Kate was checking out, she asked first whether they had a
separate historical biography section. No, everything was
chronological. Then she asked whether they might have Longstreet's
"Memoirs", which she had for which she had been looking for a
couple of years. "Why, yes, we just got a copy in on Tuesday." We
were both gob-smacked, but it proves it always pays to ask.
Book Garden (Cream Ridge, NJ), on the other hand, is sprawling,
somewhat disorganized (for example, somewhere in the maze of
shelves there's a shelf of James Patterson, nowhere near anything
connected to him). The condition of books ranges from good to
really beat up (the entire back wall seems to be old fiction of no
particular note, in bad condition). It has a bit of everything
(including comics, DVDs, and CDs) but doesn't seem to specialize
in anything. It does have two ceiling-high bookshelves of vintage
paperbacks.
At Book Garden, I settled for one book: HENRY JAMES ON ITALY, a
quite attractive illustrated hardback volume for only $6.
(We had also stopped at the Friends of the Library permanent book
sale Thursday, where I had gotten another Great Courses course,
this one on CD (which is great for the car), and also TIME IN
HISTORY, about how people thought of time through the ages.)
After a couple of days with no bookstores (birding at Sandy Hook,
visiting with friends, and watching movies), we headed to
Massachusetts. Since it had been a while since I saw my brother
(except for a couple of hours for Mark's funeral), it seemed like
a perfect opportunity to save Kate having to take two trains and a
bus home, and to save me shipping her books up, by me driving up
to Massachusetts with her, and visiting my brother as well.
This also opened the opportunity for more bookstores: Book Moon,
Grey Matter, Roundabout Books, Raven, and Barnes & Noble, as well
as Whitlock's Book Barn for me on the way back.
We went to Book Moon (a new and used bookstore in Easthampton, MA,
owned by Kelly Link) on the trip up. It is a nice small albeit
small store, but they did carry some Borges and even some
Saramago, which are my tests for new book stores these days, as
well as various small press books. We even had time to go to Grey
Matter (Hadley, MA) before dinner. Grey Matter is a big sprawling
bookstore, somewhat better organized than Book Garden, and
specializing in more academic books, as befits its location in the
Five-College area. (It has the biggest poetry collection I have
ever seen in a used book store, and an entire section of Loeb
Classics.) I got three books here: a biography of James Buchanan,
SHAKESPEARE IN PRODUCTION (about Shakespeare in movies), and THANK
YOU FOR NOT READING (a collection of essays by Dubravka Ugresic).
We then had to carry all of Kate's purchases up to her third floor
apartment (40 steps). Miraculously, we got a parking space right
in front of her building, and even more miraculously, as we were
headed up for the second trip, one of the other residents happened
to come in, saw what I'm sure looked to him like two little old
ladies with heavy bags, and insisted on carrying pretty much all
the rest for us, multiple bags at a time and practically running
up the stairs!
Tuesday we went to Roundabout Books (Greenfield, MA), another new
and used bookstore. We had never been to this store before, and it
was pretty decent; it was in an old warehouse, but there was a lot
of open space in the store, and it was mostly well-lit. We wanted
to go also to Federal Street Books, but this was the last day of
their vacation.
[Speaking of biographies, at Second Time Books they are arranged chronologically with the rest of the history books. At many stores
they are arranged by subject--the person whose biography it is. At
Roundabout Books they are arranged by author! I mean, seriously,
what sort of sense does that make?]
We then proceeded to Raven Used Books (Northampton, MA), which has
been around for ages. We even got a decent parking space (sort of)
nearby! I got a couple of books here: DOWN WITH THE OLD CANOE
(about Titanic), and ROME, BLOOD & POLITICS (about the late Roman
Republic).
Then a stop at Barnes & Noble (for Kate--I popped into Walmart to
pick up a couple of bras, which I needed more than I needed more
books). By then it was time for me to head for my brother's house,
so I dropped Kate off, with somewhat fewer bags than we had coming
back from New Jersey.
But since I really hadn't bought any books on this trip ( :-) ) I
stopped at Whitlock's Book Barn (Bethany, CT) on the way home, and
bought four more books: a copy of Dante's INFERNO with commentary,
THE ESSENCE OF THE HOLY DAYS, THE PITY OF IT ALL: A PORTRAIT OF
THE GERMAN-JEWISH EPOCH 1743-1933, and GALACTIC EMPIRES (edited by
Neil Clarke).
It sounds like a lot, but it was only fifteen books total (not
counting the Great Courses), and the total cost was under $100.
(Three of the books were only a dollar each.) Given what new books
cost these days, that is the equivalent of buying three new books.
And I only do this a couple of times a year.
And I achieved the goal of selling more than I bought--in numbers,
in volume, and in dollars--so a trifecta for me!
So those are some of what I may end up commenting on somewhere
down the road.
[I spoke too soon. Less than a week after I got back I went to the
library to donate twenty-eight books to the Friends of the Library
and ended up buying a $10 bag with seventeen Oxford "Very Short
Introduction"s, nine Penguin "Monarchs", six Schocken "Jewish
Insights", two Sterling "Brief Insights", one Great Courses course,
and a partridge in a pear tree. (Okay, I'm kidding about the
partridge.) All of this fit into a $10 bag (the "Very Short
Introduction"s are very short indeed), but I did leave with more
books than I came with, though a smaller volume (and obviously less
money, but it's in a good cause).]
[-ecl]
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Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
A free society is one where it is safe to be unpopular.
--Adlai Stevenson
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