From Newsgroup: rec.arts.sf.fandom
THE MT VOID
01/30/26 -- Vol. 44, No. 31, Whole Number 2417
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 February (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
The James Bond Films That Never Get Any Love (comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Another National Riddle (riddle by Keith F. Lynch)
WHERE THE AXE IS BURIED by Ray Nayler (audio book review
by Joe Karpierz)
George Orwell's Essays (letter of comment by Dale Skran)
THE SILENT STAR and Agfa (letter of comment
by Scott Dorsey)
Audiobooks (letters of comment by Jay Morris
and Steve Coltrin)
This Week's Reading (THE HISTORY OF TIME: A VERY SHORT
INTRODUCTION, ATHEISM: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion
Group
Feb 5, 2026: HEART OF A DOG (1988) & novella by Mikhail Bulgakov
<
https://www.hoopladigital.com/ebook/
a-dogs-heart-michael-bulgaria/13640560>
[Yes, I know the author's name is misspelled. Apparently enough
people have autocorrect change it to this that Hoopla has
decided to have a redirect from it. The correct spelling also
works:
<
https://www.hoopladigital.com/ebook/
a-dogs-heart-mikhail-bulgakov/13640560>
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Picks for Turner Classic Movies in February (comments by
Evelyn C. Leeper)
I will recommend one of my favorite Woody Allen movies (directed
by him, but without him as an actor), MIDNIGHT IN PARIS. The TCM
description is, "While on a trip to Paris with his fiancee's
family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going
back to the 1920s every day at midnight." So obviously it's
fantasy. The screenplay won an Oscar, and the film was also was
nominated for art direction, as well as for the Oscars for Best
Picture and Best Director, and for the SFWA Bradbury Award for
Best Screenplay.
For those reading this who claim not to like fantasy (or science
fiction--you know who you are), I will say this is more along the
lines of COCOON than of LORD OF THE RINGS. Just as in mysteries
there are such things as "cozies", this is the fantasy equivalent.
(This is actually the sort of thing that almost all fantasies were
back in the day: IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR,
the "Topper" films, ... The list goes on.)
It features all the 1920s characters you want to see, including
Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel. It has Marion Cotillard, Kathy
Bates, Tom Hiddleston, Lea Seydoux, and a lot more excellent
actors.
And the art and set design *is* gorgeous.
[MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011), Saturday, February 14, 2:00 PM]
TCM is also showing a boatload of Chuck Jones cartoons, many of
them science fiction (e.g., "Haredevil Hare", "The Hasty Hare",
and "Hare-way to the Stars", all with Marvin the Martian).
Other films of interest:
MONDAY, February 2
6:45 AM Bomba, the Jungle Boy (1949)
8:00 AM Bomba on Panther Island (1949)
9:30 AM The Lost Volcano (1950)
11:00 AM The Hidden City (1950)
12:15 PM The Lion Hunters (1951)
1:45 PM Elephant Stampede (1951)
3:15 PM African Treasure (1952)
4:30 PM Bomba and the Jungle Girl (1952)
6:00 PM Safari Drums (1953)
TUESDAY, February 3
1:30 AM King Kong (1933)
3:30 AM Mighty Joe Young (1949)
WEDNESDAY, February 4
1:30 AM Frankenstein (1931)
3:00 AM The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
4:30 AM Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969)
6:15 PM Westworld (1973)
8:00 PM Haredevil Hare (1948)
8:10 PM The Hasty Hare (1952)
8:20 PM Hare-way to the Stars (1958)
8:30 PM Invaders from Mars (1953)
10:30 PM Bugs and Thugs (1954)
FRIDAY, February 6
1:20 AM A Witch's Tangled Hare (1959)
1:30 AM Hamlet (1948)
4:15 AM Romeo and Juliet (1936)
10:00 AM It! (1967)
SATURDAY, February 7
3:00 AM The Glass Slipper (1955)
5:00 AM Tom Thumb (1958)
10:00 AM Tarzan's Peril (1951)
1:45 PM Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)
SUNDAY, February 8
3:45 AM The Omega Man (1971)
2:45 PM The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
8:00 PM The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
10:00 PM Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
11:30 PM The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
WEDNESDAY, February 11
3:30 AM The Haunting (1963)
THURSDAY, February 12
7:30 AM Blithe Spirit (1945)
9:30 AM The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)
FRIDAY, February 13
6:00 AM Cabin in the Sky (1943)
7:45 AM The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962)
10:15 AM The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
4:15 PM 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)
6:00 PM Brigadoon (1954)
SATURDAY, February 14
8:00 AM The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
2:00 PM Midnight in Paris (2011)
SUNDAY, February 15
12:15 AM Am|-lie (2001)
TUESDAY, February 17
6:15 PM Them! (1954)
8:00 PM On the Beach (1959)
10:30 PM The China Syndrome (1979)
WEDNESDAY, February 18
12:45 AM Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying
and Love the Bomb (1964)
2:30 AM Seven Days to Noon (1950)
FRIDAY, February 20
6:45 AM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932)
8:30 AM Dr. Cyclops (1940)
10:00 AM The Time Machine (1960)
SATURDAY, February 21
7:30 AM Ben-Hur (1959)
MONDAY, February 23
11:15 AM Gulliver's Travels (1939)
WEDNESDAY, February 25
4:00 PM Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941)
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: The James Bond Films That Never Get Any Love (comments by
Evelyn C. Leeper)
Netflix is advertising:
Stream every James Bond film on Netflix now.
The Ultimate James Bond Movie Marathon
From DR. NO to NO TIME TO DIE, Netflix is streaming all the
007 films for the first time.
Wrong.
While I will grant them that the hour-long 1954 version of CASINO
ROYALE on "Climax!", starring Barry Nelson and Peter Lorre is not
technically a film, they are still ignoring the 1967 spoof CASINO
ROYALE (starring David Niven and Woody Allen), and the 1983 NEVER
SAY NEVER AGAIN (starring Sean Connery). [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Another National Riddle (riddle by Keith F. Lynch)
Here's a new national trivia question: What do these nations all
have in common? Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Leichtenstein,
South Africa, Tanzania, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, and Zambia?
[-kfl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: WHERE THE AXE IS BURIED by Ray Nayler (copyright 2025,
Macmillan Audio, 9 hours and 9 minutes, ASIN: B0D3QK5Q1P, narrated
by Eunice Wong) (audio book review by Joe Karpierz)
Apparently, I've come very late to the Ray Nayler party. I first
encountered his writing, like many people did, with 2022's THE
MOUNTAIN IN THE SEA, which was a finalist for the Best Novel Hugo
in 2023. Next came 2024's "The Tusks of Extinction", which won
the Best Novella Hugo in 2025. Little did I know that Nayler was
a writer who paid his dues, publishing short fiction and poetry
going back to 1996 (according to the bibliography on his website).
He's still writing short fiction, much of which is being published
in ASIMOV'S. But he's starting to garner attention with his
longer works, the latest of which is 2025's WHERE THE AXE IS
BURIED.
The story takes place in what appears to be the near future. The
year isn't important, and Nayler never gives us that piece of
information. What *is* important is that it is a glimpse of what
certainly could be happening not too long from now. The novel is
a political dystopian thriller. And while the term
post-apocalyptic doesn't apply here, it really feels like it does.
Part of the story takes place in an authoritarian dystopia.
Another takes place under the rule of AI Prime Ministers, whose
mandate--from the masses--is to enforce "rationalization", where
everything is designed to make everyone's life better using
algorithmic calculations. And yet a third takes place in the
West--England, to be specific--which will end up crumbling
before the reader's eyes. If you think this is bleak, you'd be
correct.
The centerpiece character of the story is the brilliant scientist
Lilia, who has managed to leave the authoritarian state (and you
don't even have to squint too hard to feel that Nayler is talking
about Russia) where people are monitored everywhere and have a
social score which indicates freedom of movement, comes back to
visit her father, a famous broken down dissident who is just
trying to survive, and gets arrested and trapped in the Federation
again. The Federation is run by a president who uses technology
to move from one body to the next in order to stay in power.
Lilia has created a technology based on quantum entanglement, so
naturally everyone wants a piece of her and her technology.
The action of the novel is taking place on several fronts
involving different characters. One Republic, not far from the
Federation borders, which is run by an AI which is making erratic
decisions that cause an energy crisis and riots. Zoya is the
exiled author of a banned book, The Forever Argument, who has a
huge part to play in the downfall of the world political scene
that exists in the novel. Nikolai is the physician to the
President in the Federation, who just wants to leave for the West
and no longer have to deal with what he's seeing there. Krotov
heads up the Federation's security forces, to whom Nikolai must
report, and who knows more than he lets on for most of the book.
These and others are part of the larger story here--that of
revolution and the overturning of the way the world works,
hopefully for something better.
The dedication of the book is simple, but powerful: "For everyone
who has lost a country". This feels like a dedication and a story
that is perfect for our current time and place. Nayler worked in
Russia for a period of time, and it feels like his experiences
there may have contributed greatly to the novel. WHERE THE AXE IS
BURIED is a story of desperate people doing desperate things in
order to extricate themselves from the situations they find
themselves in. Those people living in the Federation are
certainly under an authoritarian thumb. Those in the various
republics under rationalization have everything they need, except
happiness. While we don't know too much about the situation in
England, the reader gets the feeling that things aren't going too
well there.
There really isn't a lot of genre content here, in my mind.
Lilia's quantum entanglement technology--a way to look into
people's minds, in this case--is really a device to move the plot
along--it's not there to be examined, dissected, and explained.
And the idea of AI running countries, or transferring
consciousness from one body to another doesn't really need to be
examined in great deal either. Those ideas are there to move
things along as well. This is a story of rebellion, of people
trying to survive in a system that is designed to grind them down.
But there is also a ray of hope at the end of the book. Nothing
is guaranteed, and nothing is solved. Nayler doesn't give us the
answers. He just gives us a great novel. [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: George Orwell's Essays (letter of comment by Dale Skran)
In response to Evelyn's comments on George Orwell's essays in the
01/23/26 issue of the MT VOID, Dale Skran writes:
It is interesting how the great prophet Orwell made some many
howlers in terms of predictions about India and WW2. It was
logical to think the Indians would turn against the English
language, yet that did not happen.
Although taxes in the US were very high during WW2, and I suspect
in England as well, that worked as long as the war was on, but
drifted away afterwards.
Orwell was a strong socialist, so I think he confused what he
wanted with what might actually happen. H. G. Wells suffered from
the same problem, although I think he did a lot better on the
prediction front. [-dls]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE SILENT STAR and Agfa (letter of comment by Scott Dorsey)
In response to Evelyn's comments on THE SILENT STAR in the
01/23/26 issue of the MT VOID, Scott Dorsey writes:
[Evelyn writes,] "But the original is better (in spite of the fact
that I go on to list a lot of its flaws). The restoration done by
DEFA brings out the vivid colors, which seemed to be a
pan-European thing at the time: Italian films of that era also had
those intense primary colors." [-ecl]
That's Agfa process. In the case of Italian films it was Agfa
process under license to Ferrania most of the time. In the case
of the DEFA films it was film from what is now ORWO, the old Agfa
plant in Wolfen.
There are a lot of Soviet films in Sovcolor which is basically
Agfa process. After the war the Soviets packed up one of the Agfa manufacturing plants and brought it back to Ukraine where they
kept making 1930s-style Agfa stock under the Svema name until the
late 1990s.
The Agfa process uses completely different color chemistry than
Eastman process, and if it's processed properly it is extremely
stable and does not fade. (Unfortunately it took a while for
people to figure out that the wash water pH had to be within a
pretty narrow range for the film to be stable but once they did
things were okay.)
The film prints of FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS that we got in the
west (and Boskone owns a 35mm print still) were the cheapest
possible Eastman prints and faded pretty badly. American
International Pictures didn't keep much in the way of archives or
rights paperwork so video versions of that film which you see
today are invariably transferred from a faded print. [-sd]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Audiobooks (letters of comment by Jay Morris and Steve
Coltrin)
In response to Evelyn's comments and the article mentioned about
audiobooks in the 01/23/26 issue of the MT VOID, Jay Morris writes:
When listening to audio books, podcasts, TV/Movies, lectures
(which was a problem in college) my mind sometimes tends to wander
off for a while, even if I am interested. I'm lucky there's a
30-second rewind on my podcast app. Doesn't happen when I'm
reading. [-jm]
Steve Coltrin notes:
Ook.
And it's pretty damn hard to use a highlighter on an audiobook.
[-sc]
Evelyn adds:
And maybe it's age, but I'm even worse--if I'm just sitting while
listening (e.g., not driving), I tend to fall asleep and totally
lose my place. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE HISTORY OF TIME: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION by Leofranc
Holland-Strevens (Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-280499-5) is very short
only of you don't take the time to understand and follow arcane
and the complicated calculations for hours, days, weeks, months,
seasons, years, and holidays (Easter being the main example).
There's a two-page glossary of several dozen words such as
embolism, feria, luna, and indiction, that are used liberally in
the text.
ATHEISM: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION by Julian Baggini (Oxford, ISBN 978-0-19-280424-2) is a sort of outlier in the "Very Short
Introduction" series, at least of the dozen I have read so far.
All the rest were histories of one sort or another, though this
was probably due as much to the topics as to the approach chosen.
ATHEISM is basically an apologetic (in the sense of a formal
defense rather than an apology). There is a bit of the history of
atheism, but the book basically looks at the arguments for and
against atheism itself.
At one point, in talking about the current debunking of the
Enlightenment (in 2003, anyway), Baggini writes, "And although
some may think that we have gone too far in our disrespect of
authority, few seriously believe that we should go back to a time
when office was inherited, when only the male middle classes were
enfranchised, or when leading clerics wielded strong political
power."
If only.
(And those not-so-few would add "white" in front of "male".) [-ecl]
===================================================================
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
For a successful technology, reality must take
precedence over public relations, for nature
cannot be fooled.
--Richard Feynman
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