Aucbvax.1975 fa.sf-lovers utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!MDP@MIT-AI Sat Jun 27 20:50:06 1981 SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #160 SF-LOVERS AM Digest Saturday, 27 Jun 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 160 Today's Topics: SF Books - Timescape & Lord Valentine's Castle, SF Movies - 2001 Parodies & Excalibur & Dragonslayer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 27 Jun 81 2:24-PDT From: mclure at SRI-Unix Subject: Timescape I'm surprised there hasn't been more discussion about Benford's Timescape on this forum. It is by far the best hard science SF I've read, vastly superior to Hogan's books or Dragon's Egg. And there's a simple reason. The reader CARES about the characters. Benford is an unusual character himself; he seems adept at excellent characteriza- tion as well as believable science. Although the plot is somewhat tame and not terribly original, the book lives through its incredibly detailed description of the scientific method, academic communities, research centers, and the like; and yet, it never becomes dry as Hogan's books do. The characters do NOT introduce themselves to each other by reciting their resumes, and there are actually some believable women. Benford has drawn very heavily from his own experience in the Physics community. ------------------------------ Date: 21 Jun 1981 1344-PDT From: ICL.REDFORD at SU-SCORE Subject: Book Reviews In "Timescape" by Gregory Benford, the world has gone to hell as early as 1998. Political upheaval and ecological disaster are decimating the world's population. People speak of "diebacks" in the poorer parts of the third world as necessary to get the population down to supportable levels (I might note that this is already happening in the Sahel and Ethiopia). In the largely abandoned buildings of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge University, a last group of physicists desperately try to send a message into the past to warn people of the impending catastrophes. They have found that tachyons (the faster-than-light particles) can interact with matter under certain experimental conditions that were being investigated in the early sixties. By projecting a beam of tachyons modulated in Morse code at the position of the earth in 1962 they hope to get through. The action moves from one time to the other, from the efforts of one group to keep transmitting to the other group trying to convince someone of what they have received. As sf plots go this is unremarkable, but what makes this book stand out is its capturing of the workings of science. Every detail rings true. You feel that this must be the way it is done. The characters live and breathe; in fact you read on more to find out what happens to them than to find out what happens in the plot, a rare thing in sf. Some real people are included; Freeman Dyson is in here, and there's an unflattering picture of Carl Sagan under another name. And Benford takes the theme of time travel seriously. It's not just a gimmick for meeting Christ or hunting dinosaurs, it's handled as a real philosophical problem. Benford is a physicist and so presumably knows what he's talking about when he says that the basic equations of physics show no preference for the direction of time. I found his means of resolving paradoxes unsatisfying, but at least he's done some thinking about it. Here's the counter-example to the complaints about the lack of science in science fiction. "Lord Valentine's Castle" by Robert Silverberg has also just come out in paperback. It might make a good short novel, but for some reason Silverberg bloated it to 450+ pages. The emperor of the planet Majipoor is kidnapped and transferred into another body. He is left to wander a distant land as an amnesiac, while the kidnappers rule in his stead with his face. He falls in with a troupe of jugglers and finds that he has innate talent as a juggler, part of the aura of natural grace that still clings to him from the emperorship. He tours the continent with them, slowly coming to realize his true identity. Finally he sets out on a quest to regain the throne, first by contacting his mother, the Lady of the Isle of Sleep, then by meeting the Pontifex, the law-giver for all Majipoor, and finally by storming the thirty mile high mountain on which resides his seat of power, Lord Valentine's Castle. All well enough. But Silverberg seems to lose interest after a while. The characters that he introduces early on seem much richer and more developed than the ones brought in later, and eventually they all become a gang of faces on their way to this mountain. He says some interesting things about the philosophy of juggling at the beginning, and then doesn't develop them. At one point the jugglers rescue an alien captured by the shape-changing natives, and then he's hardly heard from again. So all in all a disappointment. ------------------------------ Date: 26-Jun-81 11:42:35 PDT From: tou.pa @ PARC-MAXC Subject: 2001 Parodies I remember "The Groove Tube" containing a parody of the 2001 dawn scene. I think "Being There" showed Peter Sellers walking down a street with the 2001 theme playing in the background, though that's not really a parody of the dawn scene. [Thanks also to First at SUMEX-AIM for reporting the 2001 parody in "The Groove Tube". -- MDP] ------------------------------ Date: 26 Jun 1981 17:10:18-PDT From: ihnss!karn at Berkeley Subject: Re: Parodies of 2001 I remember one in Mad magazine. A page from it was reprinted in the paperback "The Making of 2001". Phil ------------------------------ Date: 06/26/81 23:21:34 From: ELLEN@MIT-MC Subject: Parodies of 2001 Sesame Street has a Parody of 2001, same theme song. I think it is a commercial for the letter I, but I may be wrong, it has been many years since my (now 13) year old son watched Sesame Street. Anyway, little "glob-characters" (cartoon humanoids) gathered around the "monolith" to the theme of 2001, and then recited "I I I" (I think... at least they recited in unison the name of the letter, but I think it was "I"). ------------------------------ Date: 27 Jun 1981 1538-PDT From: Richard Pattis Subject: 2001-like Ape Scenes (take II) The movie "Simon" also had Alan Arkin doing an ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. When he got to apes, he did a good parody of moon-watcher discovering a bone/club to be an extension of his arm. I think this whole scene played sans-music, so it might have been a bit subtle. Rich ------------------------------ Date: 06/24/81 01:06:49 From: DP@MIT-ML Subject: Excalibur on the downhill side? I just got the schedule from my local cult film house. They will show Excalibur next month. It must not have done all that well for them to get it so soon. Jeff ------------------------------ Date: 23 Jun 1981 0352-PDT From: Jim McGrath Subject: Dragonslayer BOB THOMAS Associated Press Writer DRAGONSLAYER is another return to boyhood pleasures by young filmmakers. This time Matthew Robbins (director-writer) and Hal Barwood (producer-writer) seek to recreate the fantasy adventure - as epitomized by the Disney animated features - which they enjoyed in their recent youth. The result is a well-made, sometimes inspired flight of imagination that employs the latest cinematic wizardry. Peter MacNicol, apprentice to sorceror Ralph Richardson, uses his newfound powers to save a kingdom - and his love, Caitlin Clarke, from an evil-tempered dragon. The young players are engaging, and Richardson contributes believability to the fantastic happenings. Robbins-Barwood have captured the feeling of the Dark Ages; their climax proves a drawback, being overly mystical and extended. Rated PG, with ample scares for young children. ------------------------------ Date: 06/25/81 01:12:54 From: DP@MIT-ML Subject: Dragonslayer. Micro review. Dragonslayer is a typical wizards quest story. A Paramount/Disney production with a little help from some real wizards (the people at industrial light and magic). A rather atypical production from Disney. There is a fair amount of gore in spots, and one brief display of nudity (skinny dipping). However many of the obvious sexy lead-ins got left flat (I suppose they must hold slight standards). The story was supposedly set in 6'th century Saxon England. They did manage to get some of the religious symbols and architecture correct, but the garb, music, and dance used were solid 14th century. In addition, the garb worn by the peasants was far richer than people of their station could afford. The costumers did not restrain their technique sufficiently. There were darts in some of the women's clothing, (instead of the more typical laced bodice; darts aren't even 14th century) and yokes and separate sleeves on some of the tunics. I suppose they don't know how to not use them. General idea of film - there is this dragon living in a cave. To prevent him from ravaging the local populace, every equinox a fresh virgin chosen by lot gets offered up as a pacifier. A group of disgruntled locals upset about the drain on the marriageable pool, travels 100 leagues to recruit a great sorcerer. Due to some rather bizarre circumstances they wind up with the master's egotistical apprentice. The apprentice manages to upset the dragon, who flies around toasting the countryside. As expected, they get the dragon in the end, and the apprentice and the blacksmith's daughter ride out across the moors into the setting sun. The program was amusing, 1/3 of a page of acting credits, and 1 2/3 page of technical credits.. with close to a page being effex credits. This was a preview showing, the theater management invited members of the local Society for Creative Anachronism to the opening. Tickets contingent on appearing in garb, and conducting a demo outside to attract attention to things. We staged a fighting demo/practice, the jongleurs played, people danced, the jugglers did their thing, and all the rest passed out propaganda, and answered infinite questions. The movie is reasonable, not up to Raiders, but certainly better than Excalibur or CloT. Jeff (The SCA is a group interested in learning about the middle ages. The technique used is to act the part. At regular gatherings, members dress in period clothing, eat traditional food, listen and dance to early music, and a small number fight with padded rattan swords and body armor. Groups exist around most universities.) ------------------------------ Date: 25 Jun 1981 11:10:02-EDT From: cjh at CCA-UNIX (Chip Hitchcock) Subject: DRAGONSLAYER ("sneak" preview) Nano-review: not great, but pretty good. Summary: an apprentice sorcerer is called upon to kill a dragon over the opposition of the rulers, who prefer a quiet sacrifice every solstice to the general destruction from somebody's unsuccessful attempt to kill the beast. Comments: a bit too much attempt at political relevance, some magnificent monsters, good bits of magic, lots of gore, acting mostly good with some notable weak spots (particularly the king's daughter) and some annoyances in diction (why does everyone say prinCESS rather than PRINcess), good camera work, excellent scenery including period castles. On the whole, probably the best fantasy film since Cocteau's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. ------------------------------ Date: 25-JUN-1981 12:57 From: KERMIT::PARMENTER Subject: sf movie Sneek prevue last nite of "Dragonslayer": the best damn kill-the-monster movie I ever saw, and certainly the best monster I ever saw. "Dragonslayer" is a joint Disney/Paramount production and Disney did the dragon. Plot is that dragon is ravaging the land. Must be placated with virgins. People seek help from sorcerer, but sorcerer dies and must be replaced by sorcerer's apprentice. Dragon must die. Movie has the authentic sword-and-sorcery feel with hardly any of the usual sword-and-sorcery bits. That is, no brass breastplates or barbarians, but plenty of misty mountains and mystery moves by the sorcerer. I can say no more, but if you like that kind of thing, "Dragonslayer" is that kind of thing. ------------------------------ Date: 26 June 1981 08:01-EDT (Friday) From: Winston Edmond To: Malis at BBNS, WMilliken at BBNE, RClifford at BBNC Subject: Movie Review: Dragonslayer My rating: * * 1/2 I consider the film to be a worthwhile evening's entertainment, but not a great film. It contains a couple scenes of a dragon eating human flesh that may be unsuitable for young children. I did not recognize the names of anyone associated with film, except Walt Disney Productions. The film is a sword and sorcery adventure. The story begins with a weary group of travelers who have come 100 leagues to see Ulrich, one of the last surviving magicians. In the olden days, the skies were filled with dragons, but most of them had been slain by the sorcerers. There is, however, one aging dragon left, Vermithrax. Only human sacrifice twice a year, at the equinoxes, keeps it from ravaging the nearby kingdom. The film is the story of the travel to the kingdom, the initial "sizing up" of the dragon, and the final battle. Intermixed is some occasional satire about religion and politics in general. I found the beginning of the film to be very uneven. Scene transitions were abrupt and, coupled with equally abrupt costume changes in the principal character, I found it very difficult to follow. Fortunately, transitions become much smoother as the film progresses. Also, for about the first two thirds of the film, I was unimpressed (though not unhappy) with the story. However, the last third brought together lots of things that had looked like irrelevancies, the dragon makes its first real appearance (I had begun to wonder if we would ever see the whole dragon), and the battle begins to take shape. I believe this last part "makes" the film. I liked the special effects. The dragon was pretty good. It isn't a speaking dragon, but it does have some character. Stop-action photography has its limitations, of course, but I think they did it well. The lighting in the flying scenes might have wanted to be a bit brighter. They were careful with their magic, too, using appropriate colors for traditional meanings. I can't say more about that without giving away part of the story. "Excalibur", the legend of a great sword of power, undertook too much for the time available to tell the story. This film, not as complex or with as detailed a history to draw upon, presents a world of sorcery, feudalism, and dragons that is less realistic but more appropriate to adventure and imagination. Incidentally, I challenge you to guess which character gains the name "Dragonslayer". -Winston ------------------------------ 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.