THE MT VOID
10/04/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 14, Whole Number 2348
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper,
mleeper@optonline.netCo-Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
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Topics:
The Great Courses: "A Historian Goes to the Movies:
Ancient Rome" (Part 2: The Fall of the Roman Epic)
(CLEOPATRA, THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE)
(comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Mark Leeper's Biography (a la Raymond Chandler,
from ChatGPT)
The Search for Life on Europa (comments
by Gregory Frederick)
Biblical Verse (letters of comment by Gary McGath
and Jay E. Morris)
Turner Classic Movies in October (letter of comment
by Peter Trei)
This Week's Reading (MATH IN DRAG) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Great Courses: "A Historian Goes to the Movies: Ancient
Rome" (Part 2: The Fall of the Roman Epic) (comments by Evelyn
C. Leeper)
CLEOPATRA (1963):
CLEOPATRA is best known as the most expensive film ever made ($49
million dollars, the equivalent to $400 million today, and coming
in at 35 times its budget), squandering money, changing the cast,
discarding sets. It killed both the studio system and the cycle
of ancient epics. Envisioned as a six-hour duology, it was cut
down, first to four hours and then to three. The DVD version is
the four-hour cut). But is it accurate?
Unlike some of the other epics, it takes place at a pivotal period
and is full of with famous people. Also unlike the other epics,
it is not Christian versus pagan, and indeed there are no
references to Christianity (even films set before Christianity
usually managed to work one in).
There is a lot that is accurate, but there were still mistakes
made, as Aldrete enumerates. In real life, Caesar never
recognizes Caesarion as his son. The film also ignores
Cleopatra's three children with Marc Antony. The film also
misrepresents the office of "dictator" and Caesar's attitude
towards it.
While the "testudo" formation shown is accurate, a lot of the
other military imagery is wrong. In general, the costumes are
more like Hollywood conventions (e.g., leather cuirasses instead
of metal or chain mail, giant plumes on helmets, etc.) One
somewhat accurate touch are the leopard-skin decorations on Marc
Antony's costumes, which links to his self-identifying himself as
Dionysus.
One bad touch is that Caesar is wearing what looks like long
underwear under his toga or cuirass. No self-respecting Roman
would have been caught dead in such clothing. But Rex Harrison
had scrawny arms and legs, and the long sleeves and leggings
concealed padding to make him look more muscular.
Cleopatra's golden dress and headdress for her grand entrance were
inspired by an actual carving at Dendara. Her other costumes,
though, are more like 1950s negligees and the then-fashionable
wig-toque skullcap hats decorated with feathers. The make-up is
more accurate, but the bottom line is that Cleopatra did not look
like Elizabeth Taylor--the real Cleopatra had a prominent jaw and
a large hooked nose.
As for the sets, Aldrete says that the Harbor of Alexandria
conveys the "fusion" feel of the period, with Roman, Greek,
Egyptian, and other influences on the buildings as well as the
costumes, mannerisms, and so on.
The Roman Forum was built at three times the size of real Forum
(and then used for only one seven-minute scene!). The African
dancers look more like 18th century Zulus, and the Arch of
Constantine hadn't been built for over another two hundred years.
The barge on the Nile was a real seaworthy ship, and cost
$250,000.
As far as characters go, Harrison is reasonable as Caesar. On
the other hand, as Antony, Richard Burton is ineffectual,
indecisive, moody, and much less of a general than Antony actually
was. Taylor shows little of Cleopatra's intelligence,
shrewdness, political savvy, etc. In Aldrete's opinion, Malcolm
McDowell is the best character as Octavian, scheming and
maneuvering, but also sickly and relying on Agrippa in military
matters.
CLEOPATRA was followed by THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. The
financial failure of the two basically killed the ancient Roman
epic for forty years.
THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (1964):
Professor Aldrete says this presents the most accurate portrayal
of Marcus Aurelius in film, which leads me to ask how many
portrayals of Marcus Aurelius there have been? All I can find
(other than television documentaries about the Roman Empire) are
GLADIATOR and REBEL GLADIATOR. But the box office failure of
CLEOPATRA and this film ended the Roman epic film for forty years,
until GLADIATOR came along.
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mark Leeper's Biography (a la Raymond Chandler, from
ChatGPT)
Mark R. Leeper was the kind of guy you’d miss if you didn’t know
what to look for. Quiet, thoughtful, like a rainy night that just
sits outside your window, dripping time away. He had the air of a
man who knew a lot but didn’t need to tell you. But make no
mistake: beneath the understated demeanor was a mind sharper than
a switchblade and twice as quick. If you wanted to talk science
fiction, well, you better have your facts straight, because Leeper
wasn’t the type to suffer fools.
He got his start early, back when most kids were chasing baseballs
or dreaming of astronaut suits. But Leeper, he was hooked on the
other side of the stars--the fiction of it all. Aliens, rockets,
time machines--he gobbled them up like a hungry stray. By the
time he hit college, the University of Massachusetts, he was
knee-deep in fandom, dragging his soon-to-be wife, Evelyn, into
the murky depths of sci-fi subculture. If fandom was a crime,
they were Bonnie and Clyde, but instead of robbing banks, they
stole imaginations.
In 1978, they built their little empire--a science fiction club at
Bell Labs. It wasn’t much at first, just a few geeks huddled in a
room talking shop about their favorite novels and films. But they
weren’t just reading--they were creating. That same year, the MT
VOID was born. A weekly fanzine that didn’t just scrape the
surface, but drilled down into the bone of sci-fi, exposing its
marrow. Leeper was behind it, along with Evelyn, and together,
they churned out issue after issue. No flash, no frills, just
pure, uncut commentary. If you wanted the good stuff, the real
science fiction critique, you knew where to look.
But the MT VOID was just part of the puzzle. Leeper had something
more up his sleeve. He started writing movie reviews--tight,
no-nonsense critiques that could strip a film down to its skeleton
in just a few words. The kind of reviews that didn’t give a damn
about your feelings. If a film was good, he said so. If it
wasn’t, well, he wasn’t going to sugarcoat it. Leeper was
old-school like that, one of the first to take to the internet to
publish his reviews. He wrote with the kind of honesty that could
make a director sweat. No wonder people kept coming back for more.
But it wasn’t just the reviews. Leeper had a love for the
strange, the quirky--like fannish origami. Folding paper into
shapes only his mind could see. A hobby, sure, but also a
metaphor. Leeper could take the ordinary--whether it was paper or
a mediocre sci-fi flick--and twist it into something worth a
second look.
He and Evelyn were honored guests at conventions--Novacon,
Windycon, and the like. But if you asked him, Leeper probably
wouldn’t have cared about the accolades. He wasn’t in it for the
applause. No, Mark R. Leeper was a man who saw science fiction
for what it was: a mirror to the world’s soul. And he wasn’t
afraid to tell you what was looking back.
===================================================================
TOPIC: The Search for Life on Europa (comments by Gregory
Frederick)
The search for life on Jupiter's moon, Europa has begun in earnest.
"NASA plans for launch of Europa Clipper: What to know about
craft's search for life"
<
https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-plans-launch-europa-clipper-181629642.html>
[-gf]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Biblical Verse (letters of comment by Gary McGath and Jay
E. Morris)
In response to the Biblical verse at the end of the 09/27/24 issue
of the MT VOID, Gary McGath writes:
[In regard to the quote:]
"Thus says the Lord of hosts: Render true judgments,
show kindness and mercy to one another; do not oppress
the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do
not devise evil in your hearts against one another.
--Zechariah 7:9-10
There's a Biblical verse I hope we can all agree on. Which
translation is that, using the word "alien"? [-gmg]
Jay E. Morris responds:
New King James, Christian Standard, New International Version, and
New American all use alien but that exact verbiage appears to be
the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. [-jem]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Turner Classic Movies in October (letters of comment by
Peter Trei, Gary McGath, and Scott Dorsey)
In response to Mark and Evelyn's comments on Turner Classic Movies
in the 09/27/24 issue of the MT VOID, Peter Trei writes:
Some thoughts:
They're showing BIRTH OF A NATION? Pair it with INTOLERANCE,
Griffith's response to criticism of the first film.
I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG, has sometimes had some odd
censorship. At one point, a character says 'I'm free, white, and
over 21', which was an idiom at the time the film was made. I've
seen showings where the word 'white' was silenced.
As for THE WICKER MAN, what's the length? It was originally 100
minutes, but the full version has been lost, and there are cuts
ranging from 87 to 99 minutes out there. The shorter ones lose a
lot. [-pt]
Evelyn replies:
The listing says 97 minutes. [-ecl]
Gary McGath notes:
The best thing about BIRTH OF A NATION is Woodrow Wilson's
endorsements of it as accurate history. They make it clear what a
scumbag he was. [-gmg]
But Scott Dorsey notes:
Yeah, but ... he kept us out of war! Almost, anyway. [-sd]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
MATH IN DRAG by Kyne Santos (a.k.a. Kyne) (Johns Hopkins, ISBN
978-1-4214-4874-9) caught my eye in the library. I have no
problem with drag queens, and I have no problem with math--I just
was at a loss as to the connection, particularly in such a
non-visual medium as a book whose only illustrations are graphs.
It turns out that Kyne is a math educator who has 800,000
followers on TikTok for a series of math tutorials. ("Math
educator" seems to be a parallel term to that of "science
popularizer" or similar, often used to describe such writers as
Isaac Asimov. These days I suppose that Martin Gardner would be
described as a math educator.)
Anyway, the book makes more sense, given Kyne's following, and the
examples in the books follow the themes. Cardinality is
illustrated by matching queens and wigs. There is also a fair
amount of drag history, and LGBTQI+ history in general. (For
example, Kyne points out that the film A BEAUTIFUL MIND completely
ignores the persistent rumors that John Nash was gay.)
But the problem is that for the person who wants a book about
math, the side comments are just an interruption. When Kyne is
discussing exponential growth (and savings) they go into a long
digression about how gay people were often short-changed by
inheritance laws. I suppose "Math with Christ" (if such a book
existed) might have a digression on laws forbidding leaving an
estate to the Church. While both are interesting, they aren't
math, and while a brief aside on a non-math subject is fine,
sidelining math for several pages to cover history seems to
short-change both.
But maybe as a mathematician I'm not the target audience. I
suppose anything that gets people interested in math should be
encouraged. I would be curious to see one of Kyne's tutorials,
but I'm not joining TikTok just for that (or for any other reason).
On the other hand, holiday season is coming up, and if you know a
drag queen who wants to learn more about math, this is clearly the
perfect gift. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net The second law of thermodynamics holds, I think,
the supreme position among the laws of Nature.
If someone points out to you that your pet theory
of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's
equations - then so much the worse for Maxwell's
equations. If it is found to be contradicted by
observation, well, these experimentalists do bungle
things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be
against the second law of thermodynamics I can give
you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse
in deepest humiliation.
--Arthur Eddington
MT VOID, 10/04/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 14, Whole Number 2348