From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!sf-lovers Newsgroups: fa.sf-lovers Title: SF-LOVERS Digest V6 #28 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 ***********************