Aucbvax.1386
fa.sf-lovers
utzoo!duke!decvax!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-AI
Thu May 21 11:25:49 1981
SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #127
SF-LOVERS AM Digest Thursday, 21 May 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 127
Today's Topics:
SF Books - Cyber SF, SF Movies - Outlands, SF TV - Outer Limits,
SF Topics - Children's TV (Raideen and 8th Man) &
Children's stories (Edward Eager and Mrs. Coverlet's Magicians and
Star Surgeon and Mushroom planet) & Physics Today (Anti-sugar)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 20 May 1981 1106-PDT
From: Stuart McLure Cracraft <MCLURE SRI-KL AT>
Subject: Bay Area Harlan/Outer Limits fans
Channel 20 is showing the two Harlan Ellison Outer Limits episodes
this weekend (unbutchered un-like other stations):
Saturday 10pm 'Soldier'
Sunday 8pm 'Demon with a Glass Hand'
------------------------------
Date: 20 May 1981 0350-EDT
From: Dave Touretzky at CMU-10A
Subject: review of "Outlands"
Review of "Outlands" 5/20/81
"Outlands", starring Sean Connery, is a below-par western with an
unusual but unredeeming setting. Connery plays a straightlaced
marshal newly arrived in a remote mining settlement, where he uses his
fists and a sawed-off shotgun to defeat a corrupt mine operator and
his beefy henchmen. The gun battles are seriously underplayed, as the
director preferred to devote most of his special effects efforts to
the depiction of -- get ready -- explosive decompressions. The
"outlands" turn out to be the moons of Jupiter, not some stretch of
Arizona desert, but Outlands is a shoot-em-up (or blow-em-up) western
all the same. When Connery walks through the swinging double doors
(!) of the canteen and everyone in the room falls silent, one can't
help but appreciate the director's tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of
this fact.
There are two features I pay special attention to in science fiction
movies: future sociology, and future technology. Outlands does
miserably in both areas. It fails sociologically because it makes use
of such severe sexual stereotyping that it would be barely tolerable
in a 1980's setting, much less a futuristic one. Lines like "my
hookers are clean, and some of them are even good looking" are
offensive, not funny, when this is someone's idea of what life will be
like a few centuries from now.
Connery's wife is a whining ninny who deserts him early in the film
because she can't stand settlement towns. She leaves behind a video
message saying that she has left with their son to go back East -- I
mean back to Earth. The other female characters are prostitutes or
low-level technicians, except for a courageous woman doctor who helps
Connery battle the bad guys. Sexists traditionally view such strong
women as unfeminine, and this one isn't going to break any molds.
She's unaccountably grumpy, middle aged, a self-described "old wreck".
Connery befriends her by threatening to "kick her ass."
Technologically, Outlands is a joke, full of inconsistencies. People
communicate via electronic videomail, yet their CRT terminals run at
110 baud and make silly clacking noises. The entire base is monitored
by closed circuit TV cameras with remote control zoom, tilt, and pan,
yet the images they display are only black and white, not color. The
scene where Connery "taps" a fiber optic communications line (actually
an RS-232 connector!) is particularly absurd, since one would expect
that secure communications would have become standard long before that
time.
One good thing this movie forecasts for the future is the elimination
of handguns. The police carry sawed-off shotguns and the bad guys use
rifles with sniperscopes. Don't ask why such heavy artillery is
necessary in the close confines of a space settlement, or why the
lawmen of the future can't use tranquilizers instead of bullets. Just
sit back and enjoy the movie, podner. And root for the man with the
badge.
-- Dave Touretzky
------------------------------
From: OR.TOVEY at SU-SCORE
Subject: Re: Juvenile SF&F: Edward Eager
Yes indeed, he did use the same group of children. Actually he used
two groups, one group being the children of members of the first.
Knight's Castle, Seven-Day Magic, Half Magic, and the Time Garden (it
was a thyme garden, remember) involved these kids. In two of the
books, they meet each other -- I think in the Time Garden and in Half
Magic -- I remember checking to see if the two versions of the same
meeting were consistent (they were). Eager also wrote the Well
Wishers and Magic Or Not, but these used other sets of kids. The Half
Magic book had some very funny spots, since the magic coin only gives
you half your wish. So if you wish to go from X to Y, you end up
halfway there, or half of you get there....The scene where one of them
inadvertently wishes that the cat could talk is hilarious.
--cat
------------------------------
Date: 18 May 1981 1704-PDT
From: OR.TOVEY at SU-SCORE
Subject: more animal robots
Courtesy of my wife:
1) The Godwhale by T.J.Bass is about a part organic part mechanical
whale.
2) There is a robot talking bird in "Quest of the Gypsy" by Ron
Goulart in Weird Heroes Vol I. (the bird is a vulture.
there also are androids and cyborgs.)
3) In the story Usher II (Bradbury's Martian Chronicles/Silver
Locusts) there is a rat, metal fleas -- " It fell over, the
rat did, and from its nylon fur streamed an incredible horde
of metal fleas." Also an ape, white mice, bats, a rabbit, a
mock-turtle, and a dormouse.
4) In Zelazny's Lord of Light, when Mora comes to the temple in the
beginning of the book, there is a Mechobra -- mechanical cobra
-- and also a beetle (p. 37).
5) Fahrenheit 451 (Bradbury) has The Mechanical Hound.
6) There is a story that appeared in 10th Best SF or some such,
edited probably by Merrill (we can't find the book) which has
a robot tiger named Ben. The tiger is controlled, not
autonomous.
7) In an old story about the death of a house (Bradbury?) there are
little robot mice that scream fire! fire! while trying to
extinguish the flames.
8) The Witches of Karres (Schmidtz (sp?)) has a spider robot called
the Sheem Spider. It is supposed to be a replica of a
fiercesome spider beastie, made even more dangerous with a
few high-tech features. (The Agandar uses it).
I think I weeded out all the ones you had already listed. If not,
sorry!
good reading,
--cat
------------------------------
Date: 18 May 1981 08:58 PDT
From: Reed.ES at PARC-MAXC
Subject: Kiddy Kartoons
While we are on the subject of kiddy kartoons, we should probably talk
about the many strange and wonderful(?) treats the Japanese have
served us up.
The show that comes to mind first for me is Raideen. This featured a
large robot called Raideen which is constantly battling the forces of
evil. A few things make this show worthy of note.
First, the robot is actually controlled by one of the boys featured in
the show. He gets on is motorcycle, zooms up to speed while Raideen
appears out of a nearby mountain, and at the last minute, the cycle
flips him up and into the head of Raideen. Then he falls gently
through a long vertical corridor into Raideen's heart where he begins
flying around killing the baddies. Very psychedelic.
Another interesting feature of this series is the amount of sexual
innuendo in it. Not a lot by some standards, but far more than you
would ever find on an American feature. Two scenes stand out in my
mind. In one, three boys and a girl are being chased by an evil flying
robot monster. The boys take great delight when the airwash blows the
girl's skirt up for a very nice view.
My favorite scene from the whole series concerns an evil, woman-shaped
robot which is armed to the teeth. When Raideen comes after it (her?),
rockets come firing straight out of her breasts!
Raideen was rather heavily promoted as well. My roommates ordered all
sorts of toys from them. No female robots, though.
-- Larry --
------------------------------
Date: 18 May 1981 0035-EDT
From: CSH at MIT-DMS (Cynthia S. Hanley)
Subject: Tobor the 8th Man
Tobor the 8th Man plot: As I recall the first episode, a young man
sees a elderly man under attack and goes to the rescue. He is shot
driving the attackers away and dying, so the elderly man (a scientist,
of course) takes his to his lab and implants his brain into his latest
creation, the eighth version of a robot he is developing. When the
young man awakens, he reacts with horror and is still recovering from
the mental shock when the attackers return and suceed in killing the
scientist. Beyond this point, memory is vague, I seem to recall Tobor
as being a policeman before he is shot.
---CSH
------------------------------
Date: 20 May 1981 00:43:28-PDT
From: CSVAX.halbert at Berkeley
Subject: another Nourse book
A young people's SF book by Nourse I liked a lot was STAR SURGEON,
about a medical ship traveling to a number of planets and fixing the
inhabitants' ills. The story is told from the point of view of a
humanoid, who was (I think) the first non-human to get into the
medical service (medicine was Earth's specialty). This perspective,
and the unusual premise of the story made for a very good book. --Dan
------------------------------
Date: 8 MAY 1981 1524-PDT
From: RODOF at USC-ECL
Subject: Mushroom planet
Good God, I'd forgotten that one -- along with the Danny Dunn, Tom
Swift, Rick Brant, and Freddie The Pig stories. Yeah, that was a fun
one -- didn't the two boys actually nail a flying saucer to their
ship's nose, and take Oxygen pills, and have to wear clothespins on
their noses to keep themselves from breathing in space? The whole
thing sounded like the author had been eating too many mushrooms
himself.
Speaking of jarred memories, I remember an odd book that I got
from the children's section of the library back when I was about seven
that I could never find again once I had grown up enough to realize
how strange it was. I remember neither title nor author, but it
involved a Jules Verne like trip to all the planets, written in a very
Verne-like style, and the one thing that sticks in my mind is when the
crew landed on the sun (!) and had to take all their clothes off
because of the heat, and ran around on the surface (!) looking at all
the volcanos that gave off the light... Strike any chords?
By the way, along with mentioning Rick Brant (Which tended to be
a little more scientifically accurate than Tom Swift), and Freddie the
Pig, let me mention a few more childhood faves, to wit: The Mad
Scientist's Club, Alvin Ferdinand and a book called Scoop. Both
Scoop, (which should have been a series, but wasn't, as far as I know)
and especially the Mad Scientists Club went to great pains to be as
technologically accurate as possible. I even ended up building a few
of the pranky devices they came up with, and they worked fine,
although TMSC was no how-to book. They built flying saucers and Loch
Ness Monsters and such like, radio-controlled and made from chicken
wire. Even as I look back, now, I am still pretty impressed. Anyone
else read these?
Rodof
------------------------------
Date: 18 May 1981 1803-PDT
From: OR.TOVEY at SU-SCORE
Subject: mushroom books
According to the Children's Books in Print, only Stowaway to the
Mushroom Planet is available in paperback.
The others,
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet
A Mystery For Mr. Bass
Mr. Bass's Planetoid
Time and Mr. Bass
are available in expensive ($8.95 to $10.95) hardback.
--cat
------------------------------
Date: 15 May 1981 1315-PDT (Friday)
From: Lauren at UCLA-SECURITY (Lauren Weinstein)
Subject: Mrs. Coverlet's Magicians
Egads! Stale bread crumb pudding! I haven't thought about that book
in years. To be specific, the kid (what WAS his name?) sent away for
a do-it-yourself voodoo kit from the back of a comic book... and used
it to control his temporary live-in babysitter -- who made him eat
horrid things like Rutabaga...
I too was a member of the Weekly Reader club. I find this discussion
of children's SF, etc. to be among the most interesting I have seen in
SFL since its inception, particularly in terms of nostalgia value!
--Lauren--
------------------------------
Date: 14 May 1981 (Thursday) 2350-EDT
From: SHRAGE at WHARTON-10 (Jeffrey Shrager)
Subject: Anti-sugar
This one's straight out of any number of SFs beginning, in my mind,
with StarTrek. It is from a radio news brief made by the local
station so I cannot vouch for its validity:
A high-tech bio-chem firm has announced the devlopement of a
zero-calorie sugar "substitute". This compound apparently exhibits
"left-handedness" in structure whereas the body can digest only
right-handed organic compounds. [note, I may have this backward] The
new sugar is simply the wrong-handed version of regular sugar so it is
passed completely thru the digestive tract but tastes "exactly" the
same as regular sugar. The firm [whose name I have forgoetten] said
that the idea is not really new [they probably got it from watching
ST] but that there had not been a good way of producing the chemical
before. They are investigating merging minds (and money) with major
sugar manufacturers in order to mass produce the stuff. The FDA, of
course, is making the firm run about 10000 rats worth of tests before
it can go public.
My reaction to this is best summarized by an exclaimation point!
[ This story is indeed true. As mentioned in a message in volume 3,
issue 126, the HUMAN-NETS digest has been discussing this issue
for the past few weeks. Anyone interested in observations relating
to this discovery should send a message to HUMAN-NETS-REQUEST for
instructions on how to examine that mailing lists archives.
-- Jim ]
------------------------------
End of SF-LOVERS Digest
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