From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npois!ucbvax!sf-lovers Newsgroups: fa.sf-lovers Title: SF-LOVERS Digest V5 #64 Article-I.D.: ucbvax.7601 Posted: Thu Jun 10 12:40:04 1982 Received: Fri Jun 11 06:13:54 1982 >From JPM@Mit-Ai Thu Jun 10 11:49:15 1982 SF-LOVERS Digest Monday, 7 Jun 1982 Volume 5 : Issue 64 Today's Topics: SF Books - Here's the Plot...What's the Title & Puppet Masters & "Gulf", SF TV - Dr Who, SF Topics - Politics in SF, SF Movies - ET: the Extra-Terrestrial & Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Random Topics - Commercials at the movies, Spoiler - "Gulf" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Monday, 7 Jun 1982 14:27-PDT Subject: Help locating a Parallel Worlds Story From: norm at RAND-UNIX I wonder if somebody could help me locate a Science Fiction Story. Its a parallel worlds plot. I know neither the author nor the title. The story begins with the hero in England interviewing relatives of a girl he loved in a parallel world. The family claimed that the girl never existed. After further investigation he finds her, with a different name, in Canada. He once slips and refers to her by the parallel world name. Her mother than tells him that while pregnant and on a riverboat trip with her lover she saw the name, the hero inadvertently used, on a passing boat and planned to name her baby after the boat. As far as she knows nobody else knew this name. The naming plans were changed when the mother's lover was killed in (I think) the First World War. The mother never told her lover's relatives of her pregnancy. The story is NOT the similar story based on the 1971 English movie "Quest for Love", though I would also like to locate that story. Since I'm not on the SF_LOVERS list, I'd appreciate replies directly to me. thanks much Norm Shapiro norm at RAND-UNIX ------------------------------ Date: 6 Jun 1982 1621-EDT From: MarkSubject: Dr. Who's real name In the last "Keys of Time" series (I don't remember the series' name), Dr. Who met an imprisoned time lord who knew him from their college days, I think his name was Drax. Anyway, he called the Doctor "Phete", and once said his full name, "Phetus Sigma". I'm just guessing at the spelling. Later on in the episode, the Doctor told Drax that he now preferred to be called "The Doctor". ------------------------------ Date: 6 Jun 1982 22:33:36-EST From: Chris Kent Reply-to: cak at Purdue Subject: Dr Who and Tom Baker Has anyone out there gotten any of the 'new' episodes (i.e. those with Peter Davison playing the Doctor)? The local station has been backpedalling -- we've seen the Key to Time sequence twice, and they are now rerunning VERY EARLY Tom Baker episodes. The last episode that has been shown (chronologically speaking) is Logopolis, in which Davison replaces Baker (sniff). Can't really picture anyone else playing the Doctor. chris ------------------------------ Date: 6 Jun 1982 1239-PDT From: Mike Leavitt Subject: Utopian, feminist sf A good friend is putting together a seminar on utopias from a feminist anthropological position, and one session (perhaps more) will be devoted to contemporary sf's contribution. Some obvious ones come to mind (Dispossessed (pace, SD), Anderson's Winter of the World, miscellaneous Russ), but I felt that I was probably missing many good choices. The utopias don't have to be explicitly feminist utopias, but rather, utopias that would be of interest to feminists. A blatantly anti-feminist one would be great, too. By "contemporary," I mean, say, since John Campbell started at Astounding. I exclude mainstream favorites (1984, etc.) since they will be covered elsewhere. Any ideas? If anybody so indicates, I will be happy to share a summary with individuals or with the list. Mike PS I vaguely recall a similar discussion in months (years?) past in SFL. Pointers to specific issues would also be most welcome. ------------------------------ Date: 6 Jun 1982 17:16:30-PDT From: decvax!minow at Berkeley Subject: Progressive literature In sf-lovers several weeks ago, James Cox (APPLE @ MIT-MC) stated "politics generally makes bad literature. Nobody ever reads fiction writers 'with a cause.'" A week or so ago, I submitted a list or "progressive writers" to POLI-SCI, but network difficulties -- such as the non-existence of an arpa gateway -- prevented submitting it to SF-LOVERS. The following slightly expanded list "popular, progressive" authors is ordered roughly chronologically (with apologies for misspellings): Aristophenes, Macchievelli, Voltaire, Swift, Balzac, Thomas Paine, Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe (and the other abolitionists), Mark Twain, Victor Hugo, Strindberg, Ibsen, Dosteyevski, Gorky, Shaw, Driesler, Jose Marti, Lorca, Jallosa Vargas. Zola, Camus. In our era, we have: Brecht, Gunter Grass, Orwell, Satre, de Bouvoir, Vilhelm Moberg, Ivar Lo Johansson, Maj Sjovall and Per Wahloo, Theodorakis, Vaino Linna and Steinbeck. These writers all exhibit several characteristics: 1. They are all part of the Western cultural tradition. 2. They were in opposition to the traditional society. 3. They were popular during their own time. Cox subsequently pointed out that it was a bit unfair to include satirists such as Swift and Twain, as their intention is to attack the social order. He also pointed out that, to classify, say, Dosteyevsky, as a progressive writer is to miss the importance of his work. The same could well be said of all the writers on this list. By the way, the list contains a fair number of Scandinavian writers that, while readily available in translation, are almost unknown here. Several of the Scandinavians are accessible via film: Sjovall/Wahloo's The Laughing Policeman, Moberg's The Emigrants, and Linna's The World is a Sinful Song have all been shown in the US. (The Laughing Policeman lost most of its political bite: read their books instead.) I can think of few "progressive, successful" SF authors (besides Brunner, of course). Any others? Regards Martin Minow (with some help from a friend) decvax!minow ------------------------------ Date: 1 Jun 1982 0900-EDT From: Ed Bailey Reply-to: "Ed Bailey c/o" Subject: E.T.: the Extraterrestial This past weekend I was able to catch the Hartford, Connecticut preview of E.T. I was quite surprised to find a quality offering that answered such questions as, "What would your little sister do if she found an extraterrestrial in your closet?", and "What would NASA do if they found an extraterrestrial in your closet?". The film has some very funny moments, as well as enough of a tear-jerker to get an eight-year-old sobbing (and a twenty-three-year-old a little misty eyed). I found it a little surprising that one of the NASA people couldn't figure out what "E.T." built out of a radar detector, a phonograph, and a TI "Speak 'n Spell", but it was not that critical to the plot. So, if you're willing to forego documentary style accuracy (you won't find it here), and want to see what may be the most expressive face that never lived, see E.T. Ed About the units of time on "Battlescow Garbagecan". I think you will find that the units are powers of ten, as I remember hearing/seeing a countdown go from one centon (?) to 99 microns.... ------------------------------ Date: 5 Jun 82 2:06-PDT From: mclure at SRI-UNIX Subject: Star Trek II Pretty good. True to the series and characters. A bit melodramatic and sentimental near the end. Sometimes hysterical one-liners. Vastly superior to the first movie. Impressive, but not suffocating, special effects by Industrial Light & Magic. Nicholas Meyer's reputation can only increase with this one. ------------------------------ Date: 6 June 1982 02:55-EDT From: Gary E. Ansok Subject: ST:TWOK -- A question Is there a reason that Khan never takes the glove off of his right hand? (i.e., is this an artificial hand or such like?) ------------------------------ Date: 8 Jun 1982 0220-PDT From: Dolata at SUMEX-AIM Subject: Commercials at the movies! I just saw Star Trek; The Rath of Kahn. I like it. However, what I was writing about was the fact that before the film they showed a commercial for Pepsi! I have already written and printed out a letter expressing my distaste for commercials in the movies, promising that I would be concienciously buying COKE in protest. I encourage everybody who feels similarly to join me in writing such letters of complaint when theatres pull this cheapo. After all, once commercials become firmly established at the beginning and end of the movie, where is the next obvious place to put them??????????? [ This practice is quite common in European theatres. Usually commercials are shown before the movie for 5 to 15 minutes. However, no place I know of has adopted a policy of showing them DURING the movie itself. -- Jim ] ------------------------------ Date: Tuesday, June 8, 1982 2:26AM From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) Subject: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING! The following message is the last in the digest. It discusses some plot details of the story "Gulf." Some readers may not wish to read on. ------------------------------ Date: Monday, 7 Jun 1982 09:35-PDT From: jim at RAND-UNIX Subject: Puppet Masters and Gulf revisited Because of the widespread differences of opinion on The Puppet Masters and Gulf, I thought I'd re-read both and report: Kettle-Belly Baldwin is indeed a main character of Gulf, and does indeed head a super-secret PRIVATE organization of supermen dedicated to the concept of separating smart people from average people with the eventual goal of creating a separate and superior species. They speak a constructed language as previously described in this newsletter. The hero is a guy called Joe Green, who doesn't survive (I guess this is a spoiler). The setting is sometime after recovery from (!) the 3rd world war, which may have been won by the Soviets. I haven't yet read Friday. Does this sound like the same Kettle-Belly? The hero of Puppet Masters is named Elihu Nivens (cover name Sam). His father, Andrew, is the head of the super-secret GOVERNMENT organization which seems to have some kind of security duties ... perhaps like a Gestapo or something, but all good guys, of course. Sam eventually takes over the organization by popular acclaim. The organization does not have its own language, although Sam's girl friend (cover name Mary, originally named Allucquere) was a member of the Whitmanite religious (?) sect which used its own artificial language. No Kettle-Bellies, no Baldwins. Separate universe. ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest ***********************