THE MT VOID
05/02/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 44, Whole Number 2378
Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.comAll material is the opinion of the author and is copyrighted by
the author unless otherwise noted.
All comments sent or posted will be assumed authorized for
inclusion unless otherwise noted.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send mail to
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.comThe latest issue is at <
http://www.leepers.us/mtvoid/latest.htm>.
An index with links to the issues of the MT VOID since 1986 is at
<
http://leepers.us/mtvoid/back_issues.htm>.
Topics:
Mini Reviews, Part 11 (THE POST, ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN,
SPOTLIGHT) (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Training AIs (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Willy Ley's Ashes Found in a New York City Basement (link)
WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE by John Scalzi (audio book
review by Joe Karpierz)
THE PURSUIT OF THE PANKERA vs. THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST,
both by Robert Heinlein (book reviews
by Robert L. Mitchell)
THE BIGGEST IDEAS IN THE UNIVERSE: QUANTA AND FIELDS
by Sean Carroll (book review by Gregory Frederick)
THE AMATEUR (film review by Art Stadlin)
Opera (letter of comment by Scott Dorsey)
This Week's Reading (SICK CAESARS) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 11 (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Three films about investigative journalism:
I recently went on a binge of movies about investigative
journalism, and the one commonality is that all of them (so far)
emphasize that it is not so much glamorous as tedious.
The first is ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976, covering 1972 through
1975). In this we see Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
(occasionally called "Woodstein" by their editors) going through
stacks of book requests at the Library of Congress to see if
Howard Hunt had requested books about the Kennedys. Then they
spend endless days visiting everyone who worked in a specific
department; the list has about a hundred people on it.
(As an aside, we learn that among the other differences between
Woodward and Bernstein, Woodward was a two-finger typist, while
Bernstein was a fairly proficient touch typist. We see this, and
producer Robert Redford confirms it in his commentary.)
Released theatrically 09 April 1976.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074119/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/all_the_presidents_men>
Then comes SPOTLIGHT (2016, set in 2001 and 2002), which covers
the exposure by the "Spotlight" section of the Boston Globe of the
sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church. Here we see the
reporters going through years of directories of priests and their
assignments looking for those who were "on sick leave" or
"unassigned". And there is also the attempts to speak to the
victims, which involved going to dozens, if not hundreds, of
houses in the hopes of finding someone who would speak on the
record.
Released theatrically 20 November 2015.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895587/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/spotlight>
And finally we have THE POST (2017, set in 1971), which is about
the Washington Post's decision to publish the leaked Pentagon
papers. In an echo of current relations between the White House
and the press, this got the Washington Post barred from the Nixon
White house (although apparently they were already banned because
one of their reporters "crashed" Tricia Nixon's wedding). In this
film, we see reporters trying to sort out thousands of pages of
the Pentagon papers that had had the page numbers cut off when the
top secret classification was cut off.
THE POST also has a sub-plot of Kathryn Graham and her progress
from being a socialite who left the running of the paper she
inherited from her husband to the senior staff, to assertive
decision-maker in her own right. (That the paper had been her
father's, but he left it to her husband rather then to her, tells
you all you need to know about the era.)
Released theatrically 12 January 2018.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6294822/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_post>
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Training AIs (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Apparently several people have discovered that their papers in the
AT&T or Bell System Technical Journals were used to train AIs.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Willy Ley's Ashes Found in a New York City Basement (link)
"The basement of the prewar co-op on the Upper West Side was so
cluttered and dark in one area that the staff called it 'the
Dungeon,' and last year, the building's new superintendent
resolved to clear it out.
"For weeks, he hauled the junk left behind by former tenants--old
air-conditioners, cans of paint, ancient elevator parts and
rolled-up carpets--through the winding hallway with its low
ceilings to the dumpster out back.
"About halfway through the job, he spied an old tin can on a shelf
next to a leaf blower. He read the label:
'Remains of Willy Ley. Cremated June 26, 1969.'
"This was not the sort of thing you toss in a dumpster."
Evelyn here:
Apparently the co-op board president has since raised the money
(from Celestis and others) to send the ashes into space. There is
a GoFundMe at
<
https://www.gofundme.com/f/honoring-willy-leys-space-legacy>, but
that is for a scholarship in his name from the AMNH, not the
scattering.
Full article at:
<
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/willy-ley-rocket-ashes.html>
Non-paywalled (but good for only thirty days, I think):
<
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/21/nyregion/willy-ley-rocket-ashes.html?
unlocked_article_code=1.C08.fthy.u6U1zuzJcvBm&smid=url-share>
===================================================================
TOPIC: WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE by John Scalzi (copyright
2025, Audible Studios, ASIN: B0DFMXM1DV, 10 hours and 5 minutes,
narrated by Wil Wheaton) (audio book review by Joe Karpierz)
A lot of people ask me the questions "What are you reading right
now, and what is it about?" These are usually fairly easy to
answer. But answering the questions gets a bit tricky when it
comes to John Scalzi's new novel WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE. I
suspect anyone who is reading this review is already familiar with
the event that sets off the entire story: the moon turns to
cheese. If I were to lead off with that when describing this book
to anyone on the street who asks, or to a casual reader, I'd most
likely be greeted with derision--or at least the book would. So,
I thought I'd say something like "A celestial event occurs that is
so unusual and incredible that it affects the lives of every human
on earth (and probably some of the non-human residents as well) in
very different ways. The novel tells the story of how people on
Earth from all walks of life are dealing with the event.". I
would then wait for the inevitable "well, just what is that
celestial event?", to which I would reply "the moon turns to
cheese". You see, I figure if I lead with THAT statement, I'd
lose the listener. I figure I'd try the other way and see if they
were still interested in letting me continue.
So, yeah, the novel starts out when it is discovered that the moon
rock sample in the Neil Armstrong museum in Ohio has changed. A
small bit of investigation reveals that the lunar sample has
turned into a cheese-like substance. That night, up in the sky,
the moon is much larger in diameter and a very different color.
And while it's larger in diameter, the lunar mass has not changed.
And so the novel begins a tale that lasts a full 30-day lunar
cycle.
Let me say right here that this novel is not *about* the moon
turning to cheese. That event is simply the catalyst for what is
to come, not unlike the moon exploding at the beginning of Neal
Stephenson's SEVENEVES. What this story is really about is
humanity's reaction to the altered moon. The vast majority of the
story takes place over thirty days, with each day being its own
chapter. Each chapter deals with one segment of society or
another. How does a pastor react when one of his flock tells his
son that the devil changed the moon, so its not God's moon any
more. How does he deal with the effect it has on the children in
Sunday school? Or, for that matter, how does he deal with a
distraught parishioner who is losing his faith? How about the
owners of two rival cheese shops literally almost across the
street from each other who haven't spoken to each other for twenty
years (oh yeah--they're brothers)? Then there's the privileged
billionaire who tries to be the first human to walk on the moon
decades after the Apollo program ended? Speaking of lunar
landing, there are the team of astronauts who have trained for a
new set of missions to the moon and now they can't go because it's
turned to cheese and some billionaire is going to try to do it
anyway? How do *they* feel? What about the scientists whose view
of the solar system and celestial workings is now null and void
and who have to throw up their hands because nothing makes sense?
And that's just the normal ho-hum every day stuff. Things really
kick into gear when a huge chunk of the moon cheese breaks off and
heads towards Earth with a trajectory that will cause the
destruction of the planet--inevitably called "death by cheese--in
about two years. (Side note here. The news that the chunk of
cheese will hit the Earth in roughly two years is leaked from a
Chinese science lab, and all I could think of was the theory that
the COVID virus was leaked by a Chinese lab). Now we have
governments trying to hold press conferences to ease the fears of
their country's population. And the bankers who are trying to
find a way to make money off the situation, even though they'll
have no use for money in two years, just like everyone else. Or
the divorced couple having something of a reunion, the man dying
and trying to make things right before the end of the world. Or,
how the U.S., Russia, and China try to work together to solve a
problem that is probably unsolvable. The list goes on and on.
For such a weird premise, this is such a serious novel. Well, not
always serious, of course. This is not a huge novel, but it is
huge in terms of ideas, of humanity, of how we go on in the face
of coming disaster. And that's what sets this novel apart from
some other novels wherein the planet is facing a global
catastrophe. In those other novels, the story centers around the
people who are trying to solve the problem, trying to save
humanity--the heroes. WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE is about
everyone else, the every day people who are not in charge of
trying to solve the world's problems--they're just trying to
survive them.
In his afterward, Scalzi freely admits to the absurdity of the
premise. He deliberately made all the science, such as it is,
vague, gray, wibbly-wobbly (to borrow from a certain Doctor). He
didn't want to give details about what kind of cheese the moon
turned into, knowing that there would be people out there who
would call him out on the color, consistency, and density of
whatever kind of cheese he decided to use. He learned enough to
make the moon the right size and density that its gravitational
pull on the Earth would not affect the tides. He didn't want all
those details to detract from the story, because the story wasn't
about the moon. It was about its affect on us. Just like the
moon has *always* affected us, sitting up there in the sky.
I don't know that there's much more that I can say about Wil
Wheaton's narration. At this point, and I've probably said it in
a previous review, I've heard both of them enough that I feel like
when I hear Wheaton's voice I'm actually hearing Scalzi's. And
this book is no exception to that rule. Wheaton does his usual
terrific job, and I can't imagine anyone else narrating a John
Scalzi novel.
WHEN THE MOON HITS YOUR EYE, despite its title and premise, may
actually be one of the best books of 2025. It certainly is so
far. I mean, who can go wrong with a story about a moon made of
cheese? [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE PURSUIT OF THE PANKERA vs. THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST,
both by Robert Heinlein (book reviews by Robert L. Mitchell)
Last year while on an out-of-state vacation, I dropped in to the
local library just to look around. While there, I saw a book by
Robert Heinlein that I'd never heard of, THE PURSUIT OF THE
PANKERA. I consider myself a big Heinlein fan (back in the day, I
was credited on the MTVoid masthead as the "Distinguished Heinlein
Apologist"), so I bought the book as soon as I got home. I
learned that this book had been submitted for publishing in
Heinlein's lifetime, was rejected for unspecified reasons, and
Heinlein rewrote large parts of it. He then submitted the new
manuscript, which was published in 1980 as THE NUMBER OF THE
BEAST. I read PANKERA only recently, and decided to reread BEAST
for the first time in 45 years to see what the similarities and
differences were.
As a stand-alone book PANKERA is a decent yarn, with strong-willed
and highly intelligent/skilled/articulate men and women who really
enjoy mostly heterosexual sex (same-sex kissing is as far as
Heinlein goes). Classic Heinlein "competent men (and women)",
although the four main characters push "competent" to its limits.
Zeb is a jack-of-all-trades, a master pilot and a crack shot, and
has a Spiderman-like danger sense; Jacob is a brilliant
mathematical physicist and inventor; Deety is not only a brilliant
computer scientist but she has savant-level mathematical skills
and can track precise time in her head, and Hilda, although the
only one without multiple doctorates, has social skills to rival
anyone you could think of on top of an eidetic memory. So, the
main characters are not just heroes, but low-level superheroes in
a sense.
Jacob has invented a device that allows them to travel between and
through universes, and when things go south at home (Earth-Zero),
they flee to Mars. It's not the Mars from our universe, though -
it's E.R. Burroughs' Barsoom. After some adventures there, the
quartet travel and find themselves in Oz and get help from Glinda
the Good Witch, and then proceed to a universe populated from
characters out of E.E. Smith's LENSMEN series. After some side
jaunts, the book ends with a cliffhanger and our heroes, with
help, attempt to deal with the problem that caused them to flee
Earth-Zero in the first place.
I rate this book a B-. It was clearly Heinlein indulging himself,
tipping his hat to some of the favorite literature of his youth,
and playing with the old idea "what if {fictional setting} was
real?". Harmless, pleasant in spots, but nothing you can't live
without.
PANKERA clearly shares a lot of DNA with BEAST. The first 150-odd
pages are identical, then the plots diverge significantly, with a
couple of minor sections where PANKERA is again duplicated in
BEAST. Looking at the differences between the two books, I'm
convinced the reason PANKERA didn't get published was because
Heinlein extensively used characters from Burroughs and Smith,
with pages and pages of action, dialogue, and "background" that
were not in the original stories. I assume the respective estates
for those authors didn't approve of how their property was used.
In BEAST, the Barsoom storyline was replaced by an alternate
history where Britain still had the American colonies, was using
Mars as a prison planet, and had problems with the Russians who
also claimed Mars. The Oz bit was almost word-for-word the same,
and in BEAST the only mention of the LENSMEN was a few pages
involving brief contact with a character not found in Smith's
books. The extensive material from PANKERA that dealt with the
Lensmen universe was mostly replaced by having our main characters
dealing with Lazarus Long, a very different "Slipstick" Libby, and
others from those and other Heinlein stories. In addition,
layered through the stories our heroes had lots of issues with
each other, with who's-in-charge shifting four times. Much more
talking, and less action, in BEAST than in PANKERA.
Of the two, I recommend PANKERA more than BEAST, although neither
are prime Heinlein. Although I've not read Burroughs, Baum, or
Smith's Lensmen, I recognize the archetypes and character
concepts, and could enjoy and respect Heinlein's homage in
PANKERA. PANKERA's plot also seemed more plausible to me, with
the emphasis on working to a way to alleviate the problem on
Earth-Zero. BEAST had none of that, but instead had lots of
bickering and self-indulgent bringing together of various Heinlein
characters who didn't do anything but talk, and who really aren't
that different from each other. I'd give BEAST a C, and don't
recommend it other than for completists. [-rlm]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE BIGGEST IDEAS IN THE UNIVERSE: QUANTA AND FIELDS by
Sean Carroll (book review by Gregory Frederick)
This book is a part of the "Biggest Ideas in the Universe" series,
which aims to explain complex scientific concepts in accessible
and engaging ways. The two parts, Quanta and Fields, focus on
different aspects of modern physics, specifically quantum
mechanics and field theory.
Part 1: Quanta
-- Overview: The Quanta section covers the strange, counter
intuitive world of quantum mechanics. Carroll takes readers
through the key ideas of quantum theory, from the early 20th
century discoveries by pioneers like Planck and Einstein to the
more recent developments like quantum entanglement and quantum
field theory.
-- What It Covers:
--Quantum Superposition and the idea that particles can
exist in multiple states at once.
--Wave-Particle Duality--the nature of light and particles
that can behave like both waves and particles.
--Quantum Entanglement and non-locality--how particles can
be "linked" across vast distances.
--The Uncertainty Principle--Heisenberg's famous principle
that limits how precisely we can know certain pairs of properties,
like position and momentum, simultaneously.
-- Strengths:
--Accessibility: Carroll has a gift for making complex
concepts accessible to a general audience. He breaks down the
complicated ideas of quantum mechanics in a way that doesn't
require a background in physics to understand.
--Engaging Explanation: Carroll introduces real-world
experiments and thought experiments (like Schroedinger's cat and
the double-slit experiment) to illustrate these concepts.
--Thought-Provoking: He does not shy away from discussing
the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics, such as the
observer effect, and what it means for our understanding of
reality.
-- Weaknesses:
--Density of Information: For someone unfamiliar with
physics, the concepts can feel dense. While it's accessible for
the most part, it's still a lot to digest.
--Not Much Detail: While the explanations are clear, some
readers may feel they don't go deep enough into the more intricate
mathematical aspects of quantum theory, though this is
understandable given the target audience is general readers.
Part 2: Fields (Field Theory)
-- Overview: The Fields section shifts focus to field theory,
which describes how forces and particles interact in the universe.
This is where Carroll explains the four fundamental forces
(gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear force, and weak nuclear
force) through the lens of fields-something that revolutionized
our understanding of the physical world.
-- What It Covers:
--The Higgs Field and how it gives particles mass.
--Electromagnetic Fields and how charged particles interact
with one another.
--Quantum Field Theory (QFT)--the unification of quantum
mechanics and special relativity that provides a framework for
understanding how fundamental particles interact.
--General Relativity and how it describes gravity as the
curvature of spacetime (though this gets less focus compared to
the quantum fields).
-- Strengths:
--Clear Introduction to Fields: Carroll does a great job
introducing the notion of fields (which can be tricky to
visualize) and explaining why they are fundamental to
understanding the forces in nature.
--Relatable Examples: He ties abstract concepts back to
real-world phenomena and experimental evidence, which makes the
theoretical ideas more tangible.
--Unified Framework: For readers looking for an
understanding of how quantum mechanics and general relativity
might fit together (at least at the conceptual level), the Fields
section provides a great start.
-- Weaknesses:
--Technical Detail: For those who are completely new to
these concepts, Carroll's explanation of quantum field theory can
feel like it skims over some of the more complex details.
--Overly Simplified: While the accessibility of the writing
is a strength, some readers with a deeper interest in physics may
feel that the book doesn't dive deeply enough into the technical
aspects of field theory, especially in the context of quantum
fields.
If you're looking for a clear, engaging, and thought-provoking
introduction to the most important concepts in modern physics, THE
BIGGEST IDEAS IN THE UNIVERSE is an excellent choice. It provides
a high-level overview of quantum mechanics and field theory in a
way that anyone can follow, while still sparking interest in
deeper study. Sean Carroll has a knack for making abstract
scientific ideas feel accessible, and this book is a perfect entry
point for anyone curious about the fundamental nature of reality.
[-gf]
===================================================================
TOPIC: THE AMATEUR (film review by Art Stadlin)
THE AMATEUR is a revenge story of a CIA technical data analyst,
with an IQ of 170, who is determined to find and kill the four
international terrorists who killed his wife. She happened to be
on a trip to London and by bad luck was in the wrong place at the
wrong time. At the same time, our lead character, the data
analyst (Rami Malek), uncovers rogue operations within the CIA
that are being covered up. As it turns out, the terrorist bad
guys are actually under a rogue contract with the analyst's boss
at CIA.
Since a "computer nerd" data scientist is not adept at going on
clandestine missions in the field, he needs to learn the ropes,
quickly. He is assigned to an old hand, a crusty old but lovable
Laurence Fishburne. In the end, they both conclude that our
analyst does not have the personality to be a cold-blooded
up-close-and-personal killer. But there are other, more technical
ways to kill, which makes THE AMATEUR different than DEATH WISH or
other revenge flicks that rely on firearms.
The movie takes place at CIA headquarters, and also lots of scenes
in London, Paris, Madrid, and eastern Europe. My wife says some
of the scenes were actually not filmed in the city we are told to
believe in the story. By the way, I found the technical details
to be realistic. Perhaps leading-edge, or even just on-the-edge
(like the glass swimming pool scene). However, I did not find the
need to suspend my training as an electrical engineer to
appreciate the technical details and special effects.
Overall it's a swift ride. No long, dull sequences to fill time.
I found it totally engaging. There is a very happy surprise at
the end, which I won't spoil for you. I like revenge movies and
this one is a good one. I'd score it a 5 out of 5. I will
definitely want to watch it again when it comes on TV, as I'm sure
there are some details I missed the first time.
Oh, we went to a weekday matinee showing at a multiplex in
Orlando. Two tickets were $26. Parking was $12. With a bucket
of popcorn and two drinks, our movie experience cost $64. That
kind of cost will scare away lots of customers, which is probably
why there was only one other viewer besides my wife and I. The
recliner seating was clean and very comfortable. All that said,
it was a fun experience while on vacation, but we'll look for a
different movie house next time we visit Orlando. [-as]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Opera (letter of comment by Scott Dorsey)
In response to Gary McGath's comments on opera in the 04/18/25
issue of the MT VOID, Scott Dorsey writes:
[Gary writes,] "I recently heard of a production of FIDELIO where
Leonore, who is a woman disguised as a man until the final scene,
was played by a woman who was eight months' pregnant." [-gmg]
Opera is often very silly and is an abstract art form even by the
standards of the theatre where animals are frequently performed by
humans in costume and boys play womens' roles and vice-versa.
But ... I could easily see Falstaff played by a women who was
eight months' pregnant. [-sd]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
As part of my latest haul of Roman history books, I read SICK
CAESARS: MADNESS AND MALADY IN ANCIENT ROME by Michael Grant
(Barnes & Noble, ISBN 978-0-7807-4136-8). The publisher should
have been a clue; this is not exactly a scholarly work, even
though Grant was a well-known classicist.
For starters, it is short--even shorter than it appears. It is
178 pages long. Sixteen pages are a double-spaced index, four are
a double-spaced list of emperors (up to Constantine), and five are
genealogical tables. There are twenty-two pages of photos of
statues or busts of the emperors covered, with a brief precis for
each, and ten pages of maps of questionable relevance. Of actual
text, we are given only ninety-four pages, and much of that is
repetitious, with Grant quoting various ancient sources (and
modern historians, including much quoting from Grant's other
works) who often say the same things about a given emperor's
maladies.
And at the end of the day, Grant often concludes that we cannot
determine what the maladies were, or whether some of the emperors
were mad or just bad. Occasionally Grant will make a
semi-definite statement, such as that smallpox probably didn't
exist in the Roman Empire, since no descriptions or
representations of the distinctive pockmarks exist.
And this is even talking about the fact that Grant considers a
belief in astrology and in the predictive power of dreams as
"maladies" or "sicknesses", not to mention that he also considered
Elagabalus' "passive homosexuality" as a form of "ill-health".
(Note: the book was written in 2000, so it's not as if it was from
before Stonewall et al.) Apparently the astrology thing was a
hobbyhorse of Grant's; one might presume the homosexuality thing
was also. And in with the dreams he includes Constantine's dream
before the battle of the Milvian Bridge so one could claim he has
a touch of an anti-Christian bias as well.
The whole book seems more aimed at a high school audience, or
adults not looking for tremendous depth. I keep thinking of how
Isaac Asimov tended to write books popularizing science without
requiring a lot of effort on the part of the reader, and this may
be its analogue in the Classical world. But at least Asimov wrote
his books rather than cobbled together a lot of repetitive quotes.
And the anti-gay aspect makes it impossible for me to recommend
at all. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com More than one newspaper has been ruined by the brilliant
writer in the editor's chair.
--Lord Camrose
MT VOID, 05/02/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 44, Whole Number 2378