Aucbvax.1374
fa.sf-lovers
utzoo!duke!mhtsa!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-AI
Tue May 19 19:50:36 1981
SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #123
SF-LOVERS PM Digest Saturday, 16 May 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 123
Today's Topics:
SF Books - The Universe Between & Alan Nourse, Humor - Mushrooms,
SF Topics - Childern's TV (Astroboy and MUSHI productions and
8th Man and Prince Planet and Rocket Robin Hood),
Spoiler - The Universe Between
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 12 May 1981 1003-EDT (Tuesday)
Sender: Joseph.Ginder at CMU-10A
From: Joe Ginder <JOSEPH.GINDER AT CMU-10A>
Subject: The Universe Between; Alan Nourse
I remember reading several books by Alan Nourse while in grade school
and junior high. The one mentioned in the sf lovers' of a few days
ago was called "The Universe Between" and consisted of three
novella-length stories. The first was the one mentioned in which some
scientists were attempting to cool some object to absolute zero, and
when it got cold enough, it "broke" through into a parallel universe.
The scientists sent several volunteers up to look into the "hole" it
had created; but each one went insane. Then they recruited a young
woman for her psychological "flexibility". To make a long story short
(and attempt to avoid a spoiler which I may already have earned), she
learns how to get to the other universe without any outside aids and
imparts this knowledge to her son. The rest of the story concerns the
verrry cold cube and her experiences in the other universe. The
following two stories are about her son and his experiences in the
other universe (and this one). There are many standard sf themes
touched upon in these stories -- entropy, subjectivity of senses,
alienness, etc. All in all, I liked it a lot then -- like lots of
juvenile sf, it still brings back fond memories.
I remember several other Alan Nourse sf novels and collections of
stories fondly. In particular, I seem to recall a novel "Psi High"
about extrasensory perception, and another collection whose name I
don't seem to recall with stories about "rejuvenation" (with a
politicians named "Dan Forbes" and "Moses Tyndall"?) and other things.
The stories in the latter volume were tied together by a short intro.
and an epilogue in which aliens were observing mankind.
Ah, I remember, one of the stories concerned "analogues" which allowed
men to explore the surface of Jupiter -- in mind if not in body.
I remember several other stories (by Del Rey?) which I recall much
less vividly but remember enjoying. One was about a rocket race
around the sun, I believe -- anyone remember this one? Another
concerned aliens attacking the Earth and had something to do with
Mars. (I guess that would describe a large number of juvenile sf
plots....)
Joe
[ For more about the story The Universe Between, see the Spoiler
section of this digest. -- Jim ]
------------------------------
Date: 12 May 1981 15:16 PDT
From: REDDERSON.ES at PARC-MAXC
Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #118
I don't know anything about the Mushroom Planet books, but i DO notice
the trend of non-remembering associated with these books, their titles
and/or authors. are you sure there maybe wasn't a little mushroom
DUST in those pages?????
------------------------------
Date: 13 May 1981 1424-EDT
From: LS.SEB at MIT-EECS
Subject: Astroboy
I, too, remember Astroboy from the late '60s-early'70s. He had feet
that retracted to become rockets, and a whole lot of neat mechanical
gimmicks that helped to keep the free world safe. Also, much time was
spent trying to convince the viewer that robots could be human, too.
Astroboy's "father" was a stereotypical absent-minded professor type.
That's all I remember for sure...I think there was a girl and a pet,
too. Anyone remember?
Since old SF cartoons have come up, does anyone remember Prince
Planet and Rocket Robin Hood (from the same era)?
Have a good summer, y'all,
Steve Barber
------------------------------
Date: 14 May 1981 18:08:57 EDT (Thursday)
From: Morris Keesan <MKEESAN AT BBN-UNIX>
Subject: Astroboy
The original was definitely in Japanese, from the same Japanese
studio that brought you such wonderful shows as Speed Racer and Kimba,
the White Lion. Their characters were always recognizable by their
oversized eyes.
------------------------------
Date: 16 May 1981 1437-EDT
From: Steven J. Zeve <ZEVE AT RUTGERS>
Subject: Astro boy
Astroboy was originally a Japanese comic strip (according to one of
world encyclopedia of comics). Along with astroboy I remember such
cartoons as: Gigantor, Speed Racer, and Tobor the Eighth Man. I also
remember the marionette shows: Fireball XL-5, Thunderbirds, Captain
Scarlet (only saw it once or twice), Supercar (again very vague), and
Submarina (I think that was the title, one of the central character
was a girl from an underwater civilization). Several of the
marionette shows came from the Space1999 people (which may be why the
characters in Space 1999 were so wooden).
steve z.
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 1981 (Friday) 0012-EDT
From: SHRAGE at WHARTON-10 (Jeffrey Shrager)
Subject: Astroboy
When I was quite young, I watched astroboy religiously. I used to
pretend that I was a robot. I recall the image of Astroboy and his
astro-family quite clearly. Others from that time frame are: Marine
boy (and his oxy-gum), and ...
There's a creature eating Philly [sic]
It came from outter space,
Created by the Martians to destroy the HUMAN NETS DIGEST.
The FBI is helpless, [as usual]
It's twenty stories tall...
What can we do, who can we call???
Call TOBOR the 8th man...
Call TOBOR the 8th man...
Faster than a rocket, stronger than a jet.
He's a mighty robot, he's the one to get..."
[It is beyond me exactly how the FBI got into the act. Imagine trying
to get a twenty story Tarauntasaourous to try to take a bribe!]
I can imagine finding men 1 thru 7 in a closet in the CMU robotics
cave.
-- -- --
How about Ultra-man. He also had a solar power battery that needed
recharging like Astroboy's. Some of the Ultra-man episodes were
actually quite bizarre. This was the time frame of Voyage to the
Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space wasn't it? Maybe they came a bit
later. Oh, for the days of semi-reasonable television...
------------------------------
Date: 13 May 1981 0501-PDT (Wednesday)
From: Lauren at UCLA-SECURITY (Lauren Weinstein)
Subject: Astra Boy and Mushi
Astro Boy has always been one of my all time animated favorites. The
concept involved a robot boy who was built by a scientist when his
real son was killed in an auto accident (the automatic traffic control
system broke down and crashed the car).
Another scientist named Dr. Elephant (who had a very distinctive nose,
as you might imagine) sorta steered Astro Boy toward using his special
abilities for the good of society.
There were a number of very interesting episodes, including one
involving a whole city which was moved to another planet by aliens
without the knowledge of the inhabitants (much like the "Outer Limits"
episode "Feasibility Study".) Astro Boy also had a great theme song,
which used to show up occasionally on radio programs on the level of
Dr. Demento.
Astro Boy was a MUSHI production, from Japan of course. MUSHI
programs have several distinguishing characteristics. Many of the
main characters look alike in all the shows. Large eyes, round faces,
etc. The same voices were used extensively. I learned later that the
same basic face/eye layout is also used extensively in Japanese comic
books (which are an art form in themselves -- some are sorta half for
children and half R -> X rated stuff for adults.) One other MUSHI
production which comes immediately to mind is "Kimba" (about a white
lion in Africa).
There are a number of other animated programs which I believe were
either done by MUSHI or were associated with them. These include
"Prince Planet" (an alien prince is sent to Earth to help achieve law
and order), "Speed Racer" (about a young race car driver), "Marine
Boy" (kind of an underwater version of Prince Planet), and maybe "The
Amazing Three" (about three aliens sent to Earth to determine if it
should be allowed to exist or whether it should be "removed".)
One amusing sidenote about "Speed Racer" The voice of one of the
primary characters ("Racer X") apparently showed up in a completely
unrelated film, the soft X porn classic "The Story of O". It seems
the same person who provided the English voice for Racer X did the
English dialogue looping for a character in the French porn flick.
Actually, this is only a rumor, but from a rather good source.
Such ironies. Ah well, I'll leave you with a bit of empty history,
the theme from "The Amazing Three":
Spacemen with a mission,
You must make a very big decision.
With your solar bomb you could destroy us,
Or save the world, or save the world.
Spacemen, must be wise men.
So we will take pains to disguise them.
Bunny - Bonnie, Pony - Ronnie, last with,
And then the last, becomes a duck.
Spacemen, with a mission,
You must make a very big decision.
Earthboy Kenny Carter knows your secret,
As away you go, to meet the foe,
Amazing Three, Amazing Three, Amazing Three.
---
I think I'm going insane.
[ No comment. -- Jim ]
--Lauren--
------------------------------
JPM@MIT-AI 5/16/81 00:00:00 Re: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING!
The following messages are the last in the digest. They reveal more
details about the plot development in the story The Universe Between.
Those unfamilar with this story may not wish to read any further.
------------------------------
Date: 12 May 1981 17:18:17-PDT
From: decvax!duke!phs!dennis at Berkeley
This concerns the book (yes, by Nourse) about the entry point into the
alternate universe. This other universe was sort of an "over-space"
and from it you could travel into parallels to our own universe (with
slightly differing physical laws, like "The Gods Themselves") by
"turning the corner" just right.
The opening story (it stands alone and was probably published that
way, but I've never seen it other than with the rest of the tale)
concerned an ultra-cold experiment in which they got very close to 0
degrees K when the temperature took a large drop. What was left was
the gateway. A couple of scientists got driven the requisite crazy by
trying to examine (penetrate?) this gateway; they finally got a girl
who was emotionally impaired in some fashion (fewer ties to our
universe, I guess) and she managed to go in and back out, and learned
how to turn the corner wherever she was.
The second part concerns this girl's son (this takes place several
(~15-20) years later) whom she has taught to turn this corner. He
eventually contacts beings who live in this other universe and sets up
a flourishing transporation industry (distances are much shorter
there, of course). Shipments start going haywire (a pile of pipe
arrives melted on Mars, for instance) because they turn a slightly
wrong corner and wind up in a place where physics is different.
------------------------------
Date: 11 May 1981 15:19 edt
From: JSLove at MIT-Multics (J. Spencer Love)
Subject: The Universe Between
Sender: JSLove.PDO at MIT-Multics
The book about the hole in space is "The Universe Between", which I
think is by Alan Norse (Nourse?). Its first chapter originally
appeared as a short story (I don't remember where), in which a
ruthless researcher is using up experimental subjects by demanding
that they look at the phenomenon he has created. The phenomenon is a
roughly cubical, glowing hole in space caused by cooling a metal block
or bar BELOW absolute zero. They got it very cold and then without
warning it jumped to the other side of the "temperature barrier"
without actually passing through absolute zero. The physics here is
questionable but never pinned down enough for a physicist to object to
it.
Finally, they bring in subjects from some parallel research project in
adaptability, or mental flexibility, and they find a woman who doesn't
go mad at the sight of it. There are some quite entertaining
descriptions of the geometry on the other side: "Three parallel lines
met at right angles to form a perfect cube with seven triangular
sides." She learns from examination of the phenomenon to be able to
voluntarily go between this universe and that one without having the
object around, and the relationship between this universe and that one
are such that considerable displacement in one can be had for a short
trip in the other. There is considerable handwaving about "angles"
which is used to suggest motion in other than the usually expected
three dimensions.
The woman doesn't think too much of the ruthless experimenter, and
splits. The short story ends where the experimenters find the empty
cell she was locked into because she feigned insanity to deny him the
knowledge. The story picks up again with the woman married to the
ruthless scientist's protege, or perhaps the person in charge of
adaptability research. They have had a child for the purpose of
teaching an infant to deal with both worlds simultaneously, since
dealing with the other world is very hard even for the woman. The
plot gets very intricate with matter transmitters, parallel universes,
and the inhabitants of the other universe thrown in. Of particular
interest is a beautiful girl from the other universe who appears naked
out of thin air speaking a language with no relationship to any known
language as an emissary from the universe between. She thinks this
universe is as wierd as we think theirs is. It even has a happy
ending that will twist you 180 degrees in your chair. An excellent
book.
------------------------------
End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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