Aucbvax.1375
fa.sf-lovers
utzoo!duke!mhtsa!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-AI
Tue May 19 20:04:14 1981
SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #125
SF-LOVERS AM Digest Monday, 18 May 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 125
Today's Topics:
SF Events - GENCON gaming convention,
SF Books - Journeys of Frodo & The World and Thorinn & Cyber-SF,
SF TV - Star Trek, Humor - Dr. Ann Atomic,
SF Topics - Children's stories (The Lemonade Trick) &
Children's TV (Speed Racer and Astro Boy and Japanese animation and
Gigantor and Felix the Naughty Kitty and Homer Price and 8th Man)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 14 May 1981 2049-EDT
From: KJB at MIT-DMS (Kevin J. Burnett)
Subject: GENCON gaming convention
Does anybody have any idea of when GENCON is going to be, if at all
this year? It was supposedly going to be in California.
-Kevin
------------------------------
Date: 17 May 1981 0427-PDT
From: Jim McGrath <JPM SU-AI AT>
Subject: Tolkien Book
Journeys of Frodo: An Atlas of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings,
by Barbara Strachey (Ballentine, $7.95). 51 two color maps of Frodo's
journey through Middle Earth. Now available in your local (well,
maybe big city) bookstores.
Jim
------------------------------
Date: 17 May 1981 (Sunday) 1112-EDT
From: SHRAGE at WHARTON-10 (Jeffrey Shrager)
Subject: ST sex and Parallel universes:
There must be something in the air... our local bboard just got over a
long discussion of sex in ST. As I recall, I think the winners were:
Wink of an Eye (in which Kirk is seen "after the (f)act" pulling
on his boots)
and
The one with the indians on a planet with a broken meteor deflector
in which Kirk has a child. That's the most implicit sex possible.
There were some others. I'll try to dig up the backlog from BULL.
------------------------------
Date: 18 May 1981 0035-EDT
From: CSH at MIT-DMS (Cynthia S. Hanley)
Subject: Speed Racer
Local Boston area fans of Speed Racer may find this of interest.
Some months ago I turned to the Meet The Manager show on Channel 56
and overheard the manager saying loudly, "Speed Racer will never be
show by this channel while I am here." It seems that Channel 56
holds the local rights and this creature, in his infinite wisdom,
has decided it is far, far too violent a show for his station.
Instead he wants to show such "tame classics" as Tom & Jerry,
Flintstones, Woody Woodpecker, and the like. I make no comment...
---CSH
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 1981 1731-PDT
From: OR.TOVEY at SU-SCORE
Subject: animal robots
In addition to the animal shapes in the Oz books, there are
robot birds in The Pastel City by M. John Harrison. Their creator
says that some of them were so complex they had learned to talk.
"That's about as good a definition of life as any..." he says. There
also are some humanoid robot warriors in the book, but these are less
unusual.
I just read The World and Thorinn, Damon Knight's new book.
nano-review: Fair to good. Not as good as the reviews have said.
This book, too, has a bird-robot in it.
--cat
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 1981 12:38:36 EDT (Friday)
From: Ward Harriman <HARRIMAN BBNT AT>
Subject: ROBOTS:
concerning animal like and magical 'robots':
animal: Dr. Who's K9. K9 is (obviously) a dog robot with a
great diversity of capabilities, not the least of
which is to act much like you'd expect a dog who can
talk and reason and 'compute' to act!
magical: in I ROBOT, what about the robot who could read minds?
I won't say any more and avoid a spoiler warning.
ward
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 1981 09:18 PDT
From: Pettit at PARC-MAXC
Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #122 Tin Woodman
I would not classify the Tin Woodman as magical robot, but more of a
magical cyborg, if anything. The story of the Tin Woodman is: He was
an ordinary man in love with a young maid whom a wicked witch, for
some reason I forget, did not want him to marry. The witch put a
spell on his ax causing him to chop off various parts of himself while
cutting trees. Each time he amputated a part, a local tinsmith would
fix him up with a prothetic part, until finally he was all made of
tin. At no time was there any lapse of personal identity. However,
when he got a tin trunk he found that he no longer loved the maiden
because he had no heart, and so went in search of one.
Incidentally, the same witch put the same spell on the sword of a
different man who was in love with the same maiden, and the same
tinsmith fixed him up. His name was something like "Major Metal", I
think. Anyway he was pictured as having a rather militaristic tin
body. In one of the original Baum Oz books, the Tin Woodman and Major
Metal meet the man which this tinsmith stitched together
Frankenstein-style out of the best amputated parts of both of them,
and find that he has married the lass they both loved. There is a lot
of philosophical discussion about the locus of personal identity, but
the plot of this book is rather weak. If you make a category for the
Tin Woodman, put Major Metal in it too. But I'm inclined to think
they should be left out of the categorization altogether.
(Besides reading as a child most of the juvenile series which have
been discussed recently, when I was 8 I went on an Oz binge and read
all 42 books in the series, and wished there were more. I was one of
those weird kids who went to the public library once a week or more
often if I could get a ride, and checked out the limit of 10 books
each time. Mostly fantasies of some sort. Doctor Dolittle was
another favorite when I was 9, and a lot of Andre Norton books at 10
and 11.)
Teri
------------------------------
Date: 8 May 1981 1030-PDT
Sender: Daul at OFFICE
From: Andrews
Subject: friday foolishness: Dr. Ann Atomic #1
This is a series of rather punny stories. I'll hit you with one next
friday too unless you beg me not to.
(from "Son of Space Cases" by Sharon N. Farber)
Introduction
The life of a doctor of the stars is fraught with constant dangers
and crises. Ann Atomic, the well-known space physician, is
equipped to deal with these hazards, with extensive training as a
mad doctor and psychosurgeon. She serves the public ceaselessly,
both as Clinical Professor of Infernal Medicine at the Lunatech
College of Physick and Chirurgery, and in her private practice in
that empty region of the cosmos known as the Ann Atomic Dead Space.
Here now are more illuminating cases from the files of Dr. Ann
Atomic:
Foul Play
Ann Atomic's old high school friend the enigmatic Shirley U. Gest,
was starring in a new theatrical production and as usual sent Ann
tickets for the opening night. The theatre was a showboat, aloat
in Hades, as the producers wanted to see how well the play would
be liked in the Styx.
"It's about a quartet of billionaires who attend an auction for
Saturn; that's why it titled FOUR BID ON PLfANET," Ann told her
fiance Osgood Ascanby.
"Sounds forbidding, but at least it's not avant garde--that
really puts me on gard," he answered.
Unfortunately, the play was written entirely in heroic couplets.
"Too bad we aren't on Betelgeuse 7," Osgood groaned. "They've
legislated methods of dealing with miserable minstrels who insist
on producting putrid poetry."
"Yes, I've heard. They let the punishment fit the rhyme," Ann
whispered.
During the intermission Ann was caled backstage to Shirley's
dressing room. Shirley was in poor shape, evincing a constellation
of symptoms.
"Oh Dear," Ann said, "you've really got a rare one. You seem to
have contracted a plant disease, probably harbored within the very
boards of the stage."
"What's this disease called?"
Ann shook her head sadly. "I'm afraid you've got a bad case of
Stage Blight."
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 1981 14:38-EDT
From: Dennis L. Doughty <DUFTY MIT-MC AT>
Subject: Children's stories -- The Lemonade Trick
Since we're on the subject of children's stories that have anything at
all to do with SF or Magic, does anyone out there remember the Scott
Corbett series of books (the "Trick" books)? Some of these were:
The Lemonade Trick
The Baseball Trick
The Hairy Horror Trick
etc.
These stories concerned three (?) boys, Fenton & two others whose
names I can't recall and their dog Waldo who meet Mrs. Graymalkin and
her car Nostradamus. Mrs. Graymalkin can only be described as a witch
(of the "good" variety). She gives the boys a chemistry set that
"used to be her son's" that can do all sorts of wondrous things. I
remember reading these as a child and greatly enjoying them. --Dennis
------------------------------
Date: 13 May 1981 1415-PDT (Wednesday)
From: Lauren at UCLA-SECURITY (Lauren Weinstein)
Subject: Astro Boy, Gigantor, Felix the Naughty Kitty, Homer Price, 8th Man
All right, kiddies. Let's continue our jaunt down memory lane...
Indeed there was an Astro Boy episode where budget cuts threatened his
existence. Rather an advanced plot for a kiddie show.
---
Gigantor deserves special mention. The kid who controlled this giant
robot -- Jimmy Sparks -- did it all with a remote control with just
ONE control lever. Amazing. Recently, a punk rock (excuse me, New
Wave) group recorded a punk version of the Gigantor theme... same
lyrics and basically the same tune...
Gigantor, the space age robot,
He's at,
Your command.
Gigantor, the space age robot,
His ... power ... is ... in your hands.
Bigger than big.
Stronger than strong.
Quicker than quick.
Taller than tall.
Ready to fight for RIGHT,
Against wrong.
Gigantor.... Gigantor.... Gigaaaaaaaannnnnnnnntor.
On a sidenote, I also heard a punk version of the "Green Acres" theme
fairly recently...
---
Felix the Cat was and is one of my favorites. I could fill digests
about him. I will simply mention that the Master Cylinder (an
ex-student of The Professor's who was always blowing himself up and
who ended up with a metal can body) is a fantastic character. So was
Pointdextor (the brainy kid who always wore a graduation cap and had a
little button in the center of his chest).
A particularly impressive character was "Marty the Martian", who
travelled around in a "fourth dimensional space capsule". If he were
to appear in your vicinity, you would first see a black dot hanging in
space. This would expand to a "one dimensional" line, then a 2-D
square, then a 3-D cube -- with Marty inside. He would vanish the
same way. Felix the Cat plots ranged over a tremendous variety of
topics. Sometimes The Professor was evil; sometimes Felix was
"babysitting" for him. Sometimes Pointdextor was Felix's friend,
sometimes he was a BRAT. By the way, Pointdextor at various times
built: a flying saucer, an N-dimensional ladder that traveled all the
way to the stars, and a trans-dimensional doorway that opened directly
onto Mars.
"What will happen to Felix, in the next exciting chapter, of the
adventures of Felix the Cat?" "Righteeooooh!"
---
I haven't heard the name Homer Price mentioned in years. I can
distinctly picture him though... sort of a pear shaped face -- bald as
I recall. I only remember one story -- where a doughnut machine goes
crazy and starts spilling doughnuts all over the place!
---
Finally, anyone out there remember the animated feature "8th Man"?:
There's a Prehistoric Monster,
Who came from Outer Space,
Created by the Martians to destroy the human race.
The FBI is helpless,
It's 20 stories tall!
What shall we do? Who can we call?
Call TOBOR,
The EIGHTH man.
Call TOBOR,
The EIGHTH man.
Faster than a rocket.
Swifter than a jet.
He's the mighty robot.
He's the one to get.
Call TOBOR,
The EIGHTH man.
Quick, call TOBOR, the mightiest robot of them all!
TOBOR had a human brain which had been transplanted into a robot body.
Most of the time TOBOR (ROBOT) looked perfectly human, until he needed
to exercise his special powers, at which time he'd change to EIGHTH
MAN! As I recall, the show was rather arty. I liked it.
---
I guess I've been a bit lenghty even for me. Sorry 'bout that, but
the digest has diverged into one of those areas where I am a
bottomless pit of semi-useless information.
See you later .... RIGHTEEEEEEOOOO!
--Lauren--
------------------------------
Date: 17 MAY 1981 1605-PDT
From: PEDERSEN at USC-ECL
Subject: Astro Boy & Animated SF TV
Astro Boy was the creation of Osamu Tezuka, the "Walt Disney" of
Japanese animation, who was also largely responsible for the Japanese
comic book industry. His Astro Boy series (based on his successful
comic book character) started the whole Japanese science fiction
explosion. Several of the early animated series from Japan made to
American tv in the 60's, but (primarily due to censorship problems)
the most recent Japanese product remains unseen in this country,
except for very watered-down versions at very odd hours. Of interest
is that a new Astro Boy series was produced in Japan in the past year,
though it is doubtful that it will reach our shores. However, after
the success of Star Wars, the Japanese decided to go after one of the
sources of that success - Edmond Hamilton's Captain Future stories -
and 52 animated episodes (reasonably true to the original) were
produced for Japanese tv - and have been bought for American
syndication this fall. Look for them on your neighborhood independent
stations. If they are not "edited for American tastes" it should be a
fun series. I saw part of the pilot (in the original Japanese) and it
looks very good.
The Japanese have also been producing a number of very good feature-
length animated sf movies (Galaxy Express, Phoenix: 2772, etc) which
may make it to America. Also, anyone interested in Japanese tv
cartoons, there is an organization in the Los Angeles area that has
regular screenings:
Cartoon/Fantasy Organization
c/o Fred Patten
11863 West Jefferson Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90230
- Ted Pedersen <PEDERSEN@USC-ECL>
------------------------------
End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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