Aucbvax.1478 fa.sf-lovers utzoo!duke!mhtsa!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-AI Mon Jun 1 18:47:30 1981 SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #137 SF-LOVERS AM Digest Monday, 1 Jun 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 137 Today's Topics: Administrivia - Science Fiction Convention Calendar for FTPing, SF Books - Cyber-SF & Book Prices, SF Movies - Clash of the Titans, SF Topics - Space Command & Physics Today (Anti-Sugar) & Children's TV (Roger Ramjet) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 05/31/81 00:00:00 From: The Moderator Subject: Science Fiction Convention Calendar Due to the ever increasing size of our Science Fiction Convention Calendar, direct distribution through the digests will no longer be possible. However, updated copies of the calendar will be made available via the FTP mechanism for those of you interested in this material. Everyone interested in reading this material should obtain the file from the site which is most convenient for them. If you cannot do so, please send mail to SF-LOVERS-REQUEST and we will be happy to make sure that you get a copy. Please obtain your copies in the near future however, since the files will be deleted in one week. A copy of the material will also be available upon request from the SF LOVERS archives. Thanks go to Rich Zellich, who has taken over the task of compiling the calendar in the wake of Richard Brodie's departure, and Alyson L. Abramowitz, Roger Duffey, Richard Lamson, Doug Philips, Bob Weissman, Don Woods, and Paul Young for providing space for the materials on their systems. Site Filename MIT-AI AI:DUFFEY;SFLVRS CONS CMUA TEMP:CONS.TXT[X440DP0Z] PARC-MAXC [MAXC]SFL.CON-CAL SU-AI CONS.SFL[T,DON] MIT-Multics >udd>sm>rsl>sf-lovers>cons.text DEC VAX/PDP-11 KIRK::DB1:[Abramowit.SF]cons.txt DEC TOPS-20 KL2137::FTN20:CONS.TXT [Note, you can TYPE or FTP the file from SAIL without an account.] ------------------------------ Date: 27 May 1981 1014-PDT From: Wmartin at OFFICE-3 (Will Martin) Subject: Animal robot There was a robot dog in Woody Allen's movie, "Sleeper" (if I'm remembering this correctly). I think it was called "Rags". Does this count? (If there was ever a novelization of that movie, it could qualify as printed SF.) Will Martin ------------------------------ Date: 27 May 1981 at 0147-CDT From: hjjh at UTEXAS-11 Subject: A revised version of that robot animal message... ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ CYBER-SF-- robots ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ To make a general answer to some queries... We are only concerned with BOOKS, tho that includes single-author collections like THE REST OF THE ROBOTS as well as novels such as CAVES OF STEEL. So if, for instance, Asimov has a robot dog in TRotR or in I, ROBOT, it's eligible. But otherwise cy-devices from short stories are not within the scope of the study. The books to be covered should have had their initial appearance in the last 50 years, roughly 1930 to the present. Cy-devices from other media, like Dr Who's K-9, are included if they appear in a novelization. Tho not ignored, juveniles and kiddie books are not being hunted down and will generally receive only minimal attention in the write-up. Fantasy is not excluded, but the robot probably needs to be a clock- work device, not just a magically animated statue. So TicToc of Oz is okay but as Pettit at PARC-MAX advised, the Tin Woodman is dubious. As for some specific nominees missing from the following update of the robot-animal list, the Godwhale will be in the CYBORG category rather than the ROBOT one currently under discussion. The critters in Wells' THE PARASAURIANS, if I recall rightly, were biological constructs, not robotic ones like those in Disneyland. If there are some such in fictitional amusement parks (and I, too, feel there must be), we've not found them yet. The list has grown some more as messages and some SF-L's trickle in, yet still remains overwhelmingly canine and avian: Anderson: A CIRCUS OF HELLS Asimov: LUCKY STARR AND THE MOONS OF JUPITER [dog] Asimov: {unidentified source} [dog(s)] Bradbury: FARENHEIT 451 [Mechanical Hound] Bunch: MODERAN Dick: DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP? __________: DR WHO Goulart: AFTER THINGS FELL APART [dogs] Goulart: CALLING DR. PATCHWORK Goulart: HAIL HIBBLER Goulart: WHIFF OF MADNESS: A [guard dogs: horse: birds] Harrison, M.J.: THE PASTEL CITY [birds] Heath: THE MIND BROTHERS [nightingale] Heath: ASSASSINS FROM TOMORROW [hound-like tracking device] High: INVADER ON MY BACK [birds: dogs] High: THE MAD METROPOLIS [insects] High: NO TRUCE WITH TERRA High: THE PRODIGAL SUN [ducks, insects] Knight: THE WORLD AND THORINN [bird] Larson: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA Leiber: THE SILVER EGGHEADS [auto-dog] Norton: {unidentified Witch World novel(s)} [birds] Saberhagen: {unidentified Berserker novel} [wolf] Schmitz: THE WITCHES OF KARRES Sheckley: JOURNEY BEYOND TOMORROW Stasheff: THE WARLOCK IN SPITE OF HIMSELF (Wells R.: THE PARASAURIANS [dinosaur]) ? Zelazny: THE CHANGELING [birds+] Zelazny: LORD OF LIGHT [beetles: Mechobra] Any more data? ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 81 15:20-PDT From: mclure at Sri-Unix Subject: paperback Thanks to the people who responded to my query about paperback book prices. The replies varied greatly, some people predicting the disappearance of books altogether, to be replaced by electronic tablets and plug-in libraries. Perhaps. But assuming this doesn't happen, and there are no major upsets in the paperback publishing industry, we arrive at the figure of $20 - $22 for an "average" book in 2001. Gee, libraries are looking better all the time... ------------------------------ Date: 21 May 1981 16:29:02-EDT From: cjh at CCA-UNIX (Chip Hitchcock) Subject: CLASH OF THE TITANS Has everyone else who saw the sneak preview punted mentioning it here? (SP was a week ago at MIT.) Brief review: I wasn't highly disappointed at most of it, because I'm not all that impressed with Harryhausen's recent work, but I was disgusted by the fact that the people who did this film seemed to have no sense of self-criticism at all. I'm not much at spotting matte lines, but when the background to a stop-motion model is obviously way out of focus that's irritating, as are his incredibly feeble attempts to mimic the movements of living things (there are repeated cuts between a real seagull and a stop-motion one and the contrast shows up the process work), the fact that quality actors were acting down to the level of the unknowns playing the mortals, the awful script, and the massive ripoff of STAR WARS (Burgess Meredith instead of Alec Guinness, and a pseudo-mechanical owl (i.e., stop-motion movement instead of clockwork, so far as I could see) in place of R2D2). I just barely didn't resent the time I took to see this, or the hour wait to be sure of getting a seat, but I'm glad I didn't pay to get in. ------------------------------ Date: 21 May 1981 1206-PDT (Thursday) From: Mike at UCLA-SECURITY (Michael Urban) Subject: Animal/Magical Robot In the forthcoming hi-budget Harryhausen epic "Clash of the Titans", the hero is provided with a not-too-convincing mechanical robot by the gods. Since it is magical, however, everyone but the viewer fails to notice that it's mechanical. Expect merchandising. Mike ------------------------------ Date: 25 May 1981 10:55:10-PDT From: CSVAX.upstill at Berkeley Subject: sf-lovers--Harryhausen tribute in Berkeley Ray Harryhausen came to town last Saturday night, attracting a good-size crowd and thumping like crazy for Clash of the Titans. He brought along with him a trip down memory lane for dimensional animation enthusiasts-- clips from half a dozen Harryhausen spectaculars. Most enlightening to see the dramatically better realism in the later films, especially CotT. I've seen the previews too, and they do look pretty cheesy, but to judge from the clips shown here, we'll be seeing some fine work next month. For a scene of Perseus taming Pegasus, he alternates medium-long shots of his model with closeups of a real horse; very dangerous, see the Tauntauns in TESB. But he pulls it off admirably, with movements on the model that are astonishingly graceful and realistic (in Q&A later, he mentioned using a real horse for a 'guide': has he ever admitted the like before?). Another clip showed Perseus confronting Medusa in her den, a dungeon gloomily and spookily lit only by flickering torches--with the lighting on the model in perfect synch! Jaded eyes popped. His Medusa is truly memorable, genuinely creepy and effective, and in general, he has come great strides in optically integrating the models with the live actors. I regret to warn you that this film is not above having its own R2D2--a mechanical owl that clunks down to guide Perseus. However, since the sound effects are mostly cuckoo-clock noises, it may be that the thing is around mainly for satirical purposes. On the whole, I came away with a sharply enhanced desire to see the film. Moreover, I think this one will break him through into the mainstream. --Steve ------------------------------ Date: Sunday, 31 May 1981 16:10-PDT Subject: ATTENTION ALL SPACE CADETS!!!! PREPARE YOUR ROCKETS! From: mike at RAND-UNIX >From Aviation Week, May 25, 1981 Page 40: Serious consideration within the Defense Dept. and Congress of establishment of a new branch of the armed services for space warfare, probably Space Command. The reasoning is that the Air Force and Navy are seeking to avoid developing space weaponry for defense and that any effort in this area takes away from total obligational authority for other planned strategic weapon systems. ... The article, "Beam Weapons Technology Expanding" goes on to mention, several times, about white house concern that the Pentagon branches are hindering development of space technology, as it is not in their traditional mission areas. (Most famous example, the Navy's effort to delay and destroy air power, Billy Mitchell, et alia). The implication is that a special service will support and not hinder development of a new form of defense. If a Space Command, perhaps also a Space Academy? Michael Wahrman ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 1981 1657-PDT From: OR.TOVEY at SU-SCORE Subject: mirror sugar wonderland; Red Moon, Black Mountain There is a discussion of mirror proteins in The Annotated Alice (in through the looking glass Alice would have been able to eat but get no sustenance). I think Martin Gardner is the annotater. Joy Chant's Red Moon and Black Mountain was originally published in the U.S. in 1971 as part of Ballantine's fantasy series (Lin Carter, editor.) Unfortunately someone took mine out on an extended loan, so I got the hardback children's market edition (1975 or 76) to replace it. A very good fantasy book. good reading, --cat ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 1981 23:22:21-PDT From: decvax!duke!unc!smb at Berkeley Subject: Stereo-isomers Getting a little tired of all the speculation with few facts behind it, I decided to ask a biochemist friend and an immunologist friend about dextro-sugar. Neither was willing to make any firm statements, but both agreed it sounded a bit fishy -- they'd be far more likely to believe it of amino acids than sugars. On a science-fictional note, in Zelazny's "Doorways in the Sand", he points out that reversal can take place in more than way. I can't quite visualize an example, but I suspect that there are some symmetries that would require more than one reversal. Comment, anyone? ------------------------------ Date: 22 May 1981 1008-PDT From: LEWIS at SRI-AI (Bil Lewis) Dolata at SUMEX-AIM mentioned something which implied the existence of reverse "whisk(e)y". Was this a reference to somebody's idea in a story, or is it that the stuff actually exists? -Bil ------------------------------ Date: 26 May 1981 1545-EDT From: MD at MIT-XX Subject: Roger Ramjet If there is a demand for it, I can get information on Roger Ramjet cartoons. We've been showing them for years at LSC films (semi-legitimately). One of our members worked for a television station and rescued a couple dozen episodes from the trash bin (in the 50's and 60's local TV stations were sent much of their material on 16mm film; warehousing was expensive, so eventually it was thrown away). Mike ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest *********************** ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.