Megalextoria
Retro computing and gaming, sci-fi books, tv and movies and other geeky stuff.

Home » Archive » fa.sf-lovers » SF-LOVERS Digest V6 #28
Show: Today's Messages :: Show Polls :: Message Navigator
E-mail to friend 
Switch to threaded view of this topic Create a new topic Submit Reply
SF-LOVERS Digest V6 #28 [message #5242] Sat, 28 July 2012 00:11
Anonymous
Karma:
Originally posted by: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!sf-lovers
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8190
Posted: Tue Aug  3 00:17:10 1982
Received: Wed Aug  4 01:00:35 1982

>From JPM@MIT-AI Tue Aug  3 00:14:18 1982

SF-LOVERS Digest         Friday, 30 Jul 1982       Volume 6 : Issue 28

Today's Topics:
              Administrivia - Transmission Difficulties,
                      SF Fandom - Hugo Ballots,
           SF Books - This Darkening Universe & Mallworld &
          Life,The Universe,and Everything,  SF TV - HHGttG,
                  SF Topics -  Stine Query Answered,
                   Humor - Genderless Video Games,
      SF Movies - Destination Moon & The Secret of NIMH & TRON &
            Blade Runner & The Thing,  Spoiler - The Thing
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Friday, July 30, 1982 2:14PM
From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) 
Reply-to: SF-LOVERS-REQUEST at MIT-AI
Subject: Transmission Difficulties

This week MIT-AI had serious difficulties, forcing it down for a few
days.  Many readers probably did not get their digests as scheduled
since AI is in their transmission path.  More importantly, all
submissions are routed via MIT-AI, and thus the digest itself was
temporarily suspended until they began flowing once again.

We are currently working on a more final resolution of this
difficulty.

Jim

------------------------------

Date: 07/30/82 1000-EDT
From: THOKAR at LL
Subject: Hugo Ballot Responses

   The Hugo ballot was distributed on the net over two months ago.  At
that time, it was indicated that ballots could be returned for
counting.  Since then, but four responses have been received, even
though readers have had longer to vote than the members of the
WorldCon.

   Given that the active readership is somewhere between 750 and 1000,
and the total digest distribution is well over 2000, this is a much 
lower percentage of voters than those members of the WorldCon who
vote.

   Therefore, unless a significant number of ballots are received by 
AUGUST 15, the results will not be tabulated.  This gives readers a 
full month longer than WorldCon members had to vote.

   The trend so far indicates one of three things.  1)Readers are too 
busy to vote, 2)They don't care, or 3)They're all media freaks and 
don't know what a printed page looks like (with the exception of hard 
copies of this Digest.)

   Come on, gang.  Let's get that vote in.

                                                   Greg

------------------------------

Date: Thu Jul 22 02:27:40 1982
From: decvax!pur-ee!minn-ua!chris at Berkeley
Subject: Out of Print Book

I am trying to locate "This Darkening Universe" by Lloyd Biggle JR.  
It has only been published in hardcover by Doubleday SF, 1975.  Anyone
know where I can obtain a copy?  I have been looking in used
bookstores for months.  All help appreciated...

Chris Boylan
University of Minnesota
decvax!pur-ee!minn-ua!chris or ihnss!ihps3!stolaf!minn-ua!chris
(612)376-5603

------------------------------

Date: 30 Jul 82 0:51-PDT
From: mclure at SRI-UNIX
Subject: book review: MALLWORLD

MALLWORLD, by Somtow Sucharitkul, Starblaze Editions $4.95

Sucharitkul was given the Campbell award at last year's Worldcon for 
best new writer.  At that con, he mentioned an upcoming collection of 
his stories which would center on a gigantic shopping mall in space.
I thought the idea was excellent and eagerly awaited the book.

It is delightful!  He has an uncanny facility for coining new words.  
There is much humor, lots of action, and three-dimensional characters.
I see a lot of similarities between his technophilic humans and 
Varley's '8 Worlds' series and the characters that inhabit both.  
Mallworld is obsessed with consumerism, capitalism, and individualism 
but in a very grandiose manner.  All the stories are told in first 
person by different people who have experiences in Mallworld. Dialogue
is good. Overall, I found this to be an impressive collection. He's 
definitely someone to watch for.

        Stuart

------------------------------

Date: 29 Jul 1982 at 0954-CDT
From: ables at UTEXAS-11 (King Ables)
Subject: HHGthG book #3

When Douglas Adams was here in Austin last spring to lecture on his
two books (which actually consisted more of reading passages than
anything, there was a short question-answer period, but not nearly
long enough) he said he was going next (after his lecture tour) to Los
Angeles to work with ABC TV on their new fall version of his stories,
then to New York quickly and then back to England to finish the third
book, "Life, The Universe, and Everything," which at that time was to
come out sometime next year (early 83?). Since I have heard the ABC
version of HHGttG as fallen by the wayside (sob!) I assume he is back
finishing the book now, I think he said he was about half way through.
Hopefully we won't have to wait much longer.
-ka

------------------------------

Date: 22-Jul-1982
From: MIRIAM HARVEY AT BERGIL
Reply-to: "MIRIAM HARVEY AT BERGIL c/o" 
Subject: Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy

In my TV GUIDE for the week ending July 15th, on that Friday at 10:00 
on channel WMNE (a Public station in Maine) the first episode of 
HHGTTG was shown.  It was also shown the next day at 4:00 on the same 
station.  Alas, I now get to read about HHGTTG being shown every week,
but cannot see it.  While WMNE is listed in my TV GUIDE, it can't be
received in it.  Oh the frustration. It is at least a sign/hope of the
possibility of seeing the British show of HHGTTG before the Americans
get a hold of it and muck it up in their usual way.

------------------------------

Date: "28-JUL-1982 14:40  "
From: GALAXY~OSTROWSKY AT MAIL-11 AT R2ME2
Reply-to: "GALAXY~OSTROWSKY AT MAIL-11 AT R2ME2 c/o" 
Subject: Hitch-Hiker's Guide


Inspired by the news here of the TV show's appearance on U.S. public 
television stations, I called the programming department of WGBH-TV.  
The woman I spoke with indicated that they didn't have the show 
scheduled for the next couple of months, but that a couple of other 
people had already called in, requesting it, and she would pass the 
word along to the powers that be at the station.

If you live in the Boston area and want to see the show, you should 
pick up the phone and harass the station.  A few hundred calls will 
give them something to think about.

--Jonathan Ostrowsky

------------------------------

Date: 28 Jul 1982 17:41:08-EDT
From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX
Subject: G. Harry Stine

   who wrote SHUTTLE DOWN (as Lee Correy) and has been described as 
"everyone's favorite futurist" (he's \my/ favorite example of an 
engineer turned fruitcake), is indeed the one-time godfather of model 
rocketry. He used to be at White Sands and was able to adapt some of 
his knowledge and a lot of the safe practices to cardboard and balsa.

------------------------------

Date: 28 July 1982 12:26 mst
From: Lippard at PCO-MULTICS (James J. Lippard)
Reply-to: Lippard%PCO-Multics at MIT-MULTICS
Subject: Re: G. Harry Stine

I was also heavily involved in model rocketry, and was a member of the
Valley of the Sun section of the National Association of Rocketry, the
section of which Mr. Stine is (or was, anyway) a leader.  He used to 
work for NASA, now he mostly writes, science fact as G. Harry Stine, 
science fiction under the name Lee Corey.  He also occasionally writes
for Omni and Analog.

------------------------------

Date: 28 Jul 1982 1738-PDT
From: Henry W. Miller 
Subject: PAC humour

        What does a PACMAN do in the great outdoors?  Why, he goes
back-pacing...

-HWM

------------------------------

Date: 29 Jul 1982 10:46:02-EDT
From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX
Subject: scientific consultant on DESTINATION MOON

   was none other than Robert A. Heinlein, who was still in his mental
prime at that time; he had also majored (to the extent that anyone at
USNA "majors" in anything other than controlled slaughter) in
engineering at Annapolis. His books of the 40's and 50's usually
reflected the best technical knowledge then available (I wonder
whether anyone has considered republishing BEYOND THIS HORIZON and
changing all the mentions of 48 chromosomes to 46?).

[  Thanks also to Alan Katz (KATZ at USC-ISIF) and Bob Pendleton
   (Pendleton at UTAH-20) for answering this query.  -- Jim  ]

------------------------------

Date: 29 July 1982 22:31-EDT
From: Charles F. Von Rospach 
Subject: The Secret of NIMH

I think I might have said this once before, but Disney Studios didn't
LET Bluth go. He went, and took about half of the Disney animation
department with him. Bluth, who is one of the OLD time Disney people
(he worked with Walt on Snow White), refused to put up with the MBA's
and the yes-men that have invaded Disney since Walt's death to
continue putting out the drivel they have been producing in Walt's
name all this time. I don't blame him, and I hope that Disney Studio's
takes a long and close look at their product Vs. Bluths and the
appropriate reviews (I can't think of a published review that didn't
either explicitely say 'This is what Disney should make' or heavily
imply it.

chuck

------------------------------

Date: 29 July 1982 00:37-EDT
From: Charles F. Von Rospach 
Subject: TRON as Disney allegory

As a person who did work within the Disney organization for four
years, if there is an allegory to the actual 'takeover', it is
unconscious and/or a great secret from the Disney management. They
would NEVER allow a movie out that might imply they weren't doing
things in the way the great God Walter intended (which I think says it
all about the 'takeover' itself. Walt was NEVER afraid of critisicm.
He just never paid any attention). The Biggest problem with Disney
studios today is not that they are not doing things Walts way, they
are still trying to do it his way. They have not changed as the times
changed (which Walt was very good at), and they are mostly MBA types
that simply don't have the vision that Walt did.

Chuck

------------------------------

Date: 28 July 1982  20:42-EDT (Wednesday)
From: Mijjil (Matthew J. Lecin) 
Subject: Blade Runner anachronism (non-spoiler) [15 Jul 1982, JIM at
Subject: RAND-UNIX]


Obvious Anachronism: Deckard has an obvious smallpox vaccination mark.

    I dunno.  I get the impression that Deckard is in his middle to 
late 30's, if not OLDER.  That would make his youth in the late 1980's
or early 1990's.  Are we going to stop vaccinating in the next ten
years?



------------------------------

Date: 28 Jul 1982 16:18:21-EDT
From: csin!cjh at CCA-UNIX
Subject: re BLADE RUNNER anachronism (non-spoiler)

   I don't consider a smallpox vaccination mark to be an anachronism;
the last I heard, the final stages in the eradication of smallpox were
proving to be unexpectedly difficult, thanks to (among other things)
the continual flareups between Ethiopia and Somalia.

------------------------------

Date: Friday, July 30, 1982 2:14PM
From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) 
Subject: SPOILER WARNING!  SPOILER WARNING!

The last messages in this digest discuss some plot details in the
movie The Thing.  Some readers may not wish to read on.

------------------------------

Date: 29 July 1982  10:37-EDT (Thursday)
From: David H. Kaufman 
Subject: The Thing

Just read WMARTIN's review of The Thing.  This sounds *very* much like
a story I read a while back (3, 4 years?) in one of the best Science 
Fiction collections, my copy of which has since disappeared.  Is The 
Thing based on a story?  My memory of the plot is that an (ant)arctic 
expedition digs up the (frozen) body of an alien space traveller, and 
brings it back to their camp where they thaw it out and it comes 
alive, begins changing shape and taking over other animals, humans, 
etc.  In the end, they catch all the humanoid things by taking blood 
samples which, now that they are separate from the human-thing, try to
avoid a hot needle in the test tube . . . .
        Does anyone remember title and/or author?
Dave Kaufman

[  The short story you are thinking about is "Who Goes There?", by
   John W Campbell.  --  Jim  ]

------------------------------

End of SF-LOVERS Digest
***********************
  Switch to threaded view of this topic Create a new topic Submit Reply
Previous Topic: HHGTG
Next Topic: SF-LOVERS Digest V6 #30
Goto Forum:
  

-=] Back to Top [=-
[ Syndicate this forum (XML) ] [ RSS ] [ PDF ]

Current Time: Fri Mar 29 10:16:35 EDT 2024

Total time taken to generate the page: 0.05286 seconds