From: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:UNKNOWN:sf-lovers Newsgroups: fa.sf-lovers Title: SF-LOVERS Digest V6 #46 Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8477 Posted: Sat Sep 11 23:43:17 1982 Received: Tue Sep 14 05:06:52 1982 >From SFL@SRI-CSL Sat Sep 11 23:22:32 1982 SF-LOVERS Digest Thursday, 26 Aug 1982 Volume 6 : Issue 46 Today's Topics: SF Fandom - CHICON IV, SF Books - Down to a Sunless Sea & Stanislaw Lem & VALIS, Humor - Genderless Video Games, SF Movies - TRON, Spoiler - TRON ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 24 Aug 1982 2104-PDT From: Zellich at OFFICE-3 (Rich Zellich) Subject: SFL Party at CHICON We have received little response to the SFL party query, and may have trouble making contact with all those who want to attend but haven't yet been in touch. Anyone who is interested, look on the Con's bulletin board for a notice with ZELLICH@OFFICE-3 and a room number. The party is currently planned for Friday night about an hour after the GoH speeches and attendant ceremonies. See y'all there, Rich ------------------------------ Date: 17 Aug 82 8:46:25-EDT (Tue) From: Earl Weaver (VLD/VMB)Subject: Down to a Sunless Sea DTASS has it's faults (some things a little "far fetched"), but in general it's worth reading. It should appeal to anyone with an interest in aviation; some of the action is the most realistic I have ever read. One nitpick: the author several times refers to a safety lever on a revolver; what kind of revolver has a safety like that?? (Does the old Webley have one?) ------------------------------ Date: 21-Aug-82 20:16:25-PDT (Sat) From: sdcsvax!sdchema!donn Subject: Lem Re: Lem again [V6 #41, from JAF at MIT-EECS] I beg to differ with some of JAF's judgments about (and titles of) Stanislaw Lem's books. I would rank Lem among my top five or so favorite authors of science fiction and I hope more Americans take the time to read the books of this remarkable Pole. I have a fairly extensive set of books by Lem in translation and I thoroughly enjoy all of them, not just the satirical books. I will profile them quickly and give my own recommendations. SOLARIS: This book of his seems to be most widely known in the West, partly because the Russians made a movie out of it and partly because it was translated a long time ago. The current paperback version (I think it's Berkley) has a translation that is just awful and spoils the book. I think the book might otherwise be quite compelling: it is a rather Dickian story of reality and surreality on board a research station on the sentient planet Solaris. THE INVINCIBLE: Also spoiled by a bad translation. This is a serious novel about the nature of intelligence in a similar vein to SOLARIS. The spaceship Invincible discovers a planet that once held a civilization yet now appears to be lifeless; but it is and it isn't. THE CHAIN OF CHANCE: Another bad translation. An ex-astronaut is called in to serve as a guinea pig in an experiment to find a reason for the deaths of several middle-aged men. As things turn out, this is the wrong way to go about it. This book is a statement of Lem's unique philosophy of nature. THE INVESTIGATION: A quite good translation. This is a very atmospheric science fiction detective novel, but the atmosphere is more that of Lovecraft than of Chandler. A number of cadavers have disappeared and some of them appear to have simply gotten up and walked away. The setting is England, and Scotland Yard is called in to investigate. The solution to the mystery will never satisfy Chandler fans but I found it extremely intriguing (unlike JAF, apparently). One of my favorites. TALES OF PIRX THE PILOT: A reasonable translation. These are (somewhat dated, and incomplete) stories of Pirx, a young man who progresses from space cadet to space pilot. The first stories are amusing, light pieces; these change to stories with an Asimovian concern with life amid technology and conclude with a darkly impressive science fiction ghost story. RETURN FROM THE STARS: Just finished reading this one. It was written nearly twenty years ago but only was translated recently (a good job, too). Hal Bregg has returned from an interstellar mission that lasted 10 years ship time and 127 years Earth time. Earth's culture has changed radically in this period of time and Bregg's (and the reader's) experience is very disorienting. A very good treatment of a classic theme. THE CYBERIAD: (Is Cyberaid a powdered soft drink for robots? ("Just add a few tablespoons of positrons and stir...") Sorry.) These are the crazy adventures of Trurl and Klapaucius, the great (and sometimes not-so-great) robot inventors. The exuberant style is amazingly well translated by Michael Kandel. A fave. Give this one to your most dedicated computer addict. MORTAL ENGINES: This book contains the Robot Fables, along with a new Ijon Tichy story, a new Pirx story and a strange and beautiful novellette called "The Mask". The Robot Fables are a kind of prequel to the Trurl and Klapaucius stories. Excellent translation by Michael Kandel, with a long and interesting foreword. THE STAR DIARIES (of Ijon Tichy): More wonderful silliness, with even sillier illustrations by the author. Ijon Tichy lives and travels in a universe that manages to contain parodies of almost every science fiction construct ever thought of, and a few that are yet to be. Another brilliant Kandel translation. Highly recommended. The preface gives a good etymology of Lem's name. THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS: An independent tale of Ijon Tichy, in novel form. This one travels through Philip Dick country when a congress Tichy is attending is attacked with pharmaceuticals. This is yet another comment on the nature of reality. MEMOIRS FOUND IN A BATHTUB: A harsh satire of military bureaucracy which takes place in the underground bastions of the Pentagon after the bomb. The depiction of police paranoia in this absurd novel makes me wonder if it is just the Americans whom this barb is meant to prick. A book which I haven't managed to read and which I would love to get my hands on is A PERFECT VACUUM, which is a series of prefaces to very profound (but alas, unwritten) books. I'm not sure if it exists in translation yet; I may have to learn Polish, sigh.... [A comment on the medium: I really like the book reviews in SF-L even when I disagree with them; I hope we see more. I'm afraid I've really gotten tired of reading movie reviews in SF-L, and there's so many good books out there I know I've read that other people ought to hear about, and even more I haven't read which I would like to hear about...] Donn Seeley UCSD Chemistry Dept. RRCF ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn ------------------------------ Date: 20 Aug 1982 1810-PDT From: LEWIS at SRI-AI (Bil Lewis) Subject: VALIS -- a personal review What ever else one might wish to say about VALIS, it is most certainly autobiographical. Philip K Dick plays the major role, and Doris X, an old friend of mine, is the number two figure (Sherri) through out the first half of the book. I and various other friends appear as minor characters or just in passing. Several others I don't know at all. The only event that I know to be inaccurate is that Doris didn't die in her second bout with Cancer, which implies that most of the other weird things that occur are real. When I returned from the Peace Corps in 1974, I met "Phil" , a friend of Doris' who lived next door, and his cat. He struck me as a depressed, moribund character with little interest in people and none in living, exactly the last type of person Doris needed at that time. I didn't realize that this was Dick and that he and Doris were lovers until last week. VALIS is not so much science fiction as it is religious/mystic fiction (however much of it really is fiction!). Dick writes very well. He uses a huge vocabulary makes innumerable literary references, and a fair number of personal ones too. Having read the Bible, alot of SF & all of Dick's works would certainly help in understanding the book. Knowing the people involved would also. The book is angry, confused, neurotic, and brilliant, like Phil was. He yearns for, and half-believes in, a mystic, quasi-religious reality where spiritual elites exist and discover each other through subtle messages hidden on TV and in movies. Age-old conspiracies, "Others", and God-cum-human are an integral part of the universe. Just as we expect these things in SF, Dick proposes them to be real. Dick exposes himself as he is, he extols the mystic, and bemoans his personal loss of the two girls [sic]. Ironically Doris now bemoans HER personal loss of two men, David (a grand mal seizure), and now Phil. Somehow I find all of this quite fitting, like closing a circle. I cannot recommend VALIS as a book to read to very many people. Only if you are particulary intrigued by the questions posed above and posses a fine sense of the agony of both life and love, and can empathize with a man's struggling would you enjoy reading this. [Robert, YOU would understand.] If you still think of great writers as being all around fantastic people, ones that are conversant, personable, and in control of their own lives (like I did), then avoid VALIS. He leaves few emotional stones unturned, and they are real. -Bil ------------------------------ Date: 18 Aug 1982 1416-PDT From: Henry W. Miller Subject: More Wretched PAC Humour What do you call a flat PACMAN? A Disc PAC... -HWM ------------------------------ Date: Wednesday, August 25, 1982 6:02PM From: Jim McGrath (The Moderator) Subject: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING! The last three messages in this digest touch upon some plot details in the movie TRON. Some readers may not wish to read on. ------------------------------ Date: 20 August 1982 19:15 edt From: Boebert.SCOMP at MIT-MULTICS Subject: The bit in TRON Did anybody notice that the so-called "bit" in TRON was actually tristable? I suppose this makes it a trit. Earl ------------------------------ Date: 30-Jul-82 20:02:45 EDT From: DUNTEMANN.WBST Subject: TRON's Bit Actually, the Bit from TRON is a direct descendant of the Cute Robots (TM) we've seen so much of in recent years. I suspect they get created in random framing errors, or else spontaneously a arise out of alpha particle radiation from the substrate of that most peculiar universe. I kinda liked the Bit, and, knowing Disney, I rather suspected it was going to turn up again later in the move to save Flynn's skin before rolling over and dying sentimentally. One wonders how much of the flick ended up decorating a dumpster somewhere. (Find me that dumpster!) --Jeff Duntemann (duntemann.wbst at PARC-MAXC) ------------------------------ Date: 13 Aug 1982 03:02:36-PDT From: decvax!duke!uok!uokvax!jab at Berkeley Subject: Disney's Divine Comedy I recently had a discussion with a English professor who had just seen TRON. He kept commenting on the similarities to The Divine Comedy (specifically, The Inferno). The descent through Hell, and finding Satan at the bottom (buried to the neck) seem very familiar. Jeff Bowles ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest ***********************