THE MT VOID
11/15/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 20, Whole Number 2354
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper,
mleeper@optonline.netCo-Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
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Topics:
REVOLUTIONS: THE MARTIAN REVOLUTION
(podcast review by Evelyn C. Leeper)
SPACE ODDITY by Catherynne M. Valente (book review
by Joe Karpierz)
A Television Tuned to an Unused Channel (letter of comment
by Fred Lerner)
Tajikistan/Tadzhikistan (letter of comment
by Arthur Kaletsky)
Inter-Library Loan (letter of comment
by an anonymous poster)
This Week's Reading (THE JEFFERSON BIBLE) (book comments
by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: REVOLUTIONS: THE MARTIAN REVOLUTION (podcast review by
Evelyn C. Leeper)
In 2007, Mike Duncan began a podcast called "The History of Rome".
It took five years and almost two hundred episodes to complete,
and even then it went up only through the fall of the Western
empire. (Robin Pearson picked up with thread with "The History of
Byzantium", and it is still running, having over three hundred
episodes and gotten up to the early 1300s.)
After Duncan finished "The History of Rome", he began
"Revolutions" in 2013, which covered ten revolutions (from the
English Civil War to the Russian Revolution) and ended in 2022.
Or so we thought.
A couple of weeks ago, there dropped into the "Revolutions" feed
the announcement and first episode of a new "Revolutions" season:
"The Martian Revolution".
Yes, Duncan has branched out into science fiction. Done in same
style as the others--that is, told from the point of view well in
the future of the Martian Revolution of 2247. Duncan has taken
all the recurring elements of the revolutions of the past, and
built a Martian revolution from them. The good news is that he
has entirely plotted it out, so it is unlikely to run away from
him the way the historical revolutions did, specifically the
French and the Russian Revolutions. (Duncan had expected each
revolution to be about a dozen episodes. The French Revolution
ran 54 episodes, the Russian, 105.) He has said how many episodes
he expects, but I can't recall exactly.
At any rate, part of the fun is identifying the elements Duncan
recycled. (I had thought the long-lived Vernon Bird (Byrd?) was
patterned after Augustus from "The History of Rome", but Duncan
said elsewhere he was inspired by Porfirio Diaz.) This means that
people who have listened to all the previous "Revolutions"
podcasts may get more of the "homages", but I think it would be
enjoyable for science fiction fans in general. Was this inspired
by THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS? Who knows?
"Revolutions: The Martian Revolution" can be found wherever you
find podcasts. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: SPACE ODDITY by Catherynne M. Valente (copyright 2024, Saga
Press, $28.99, Hardcover, 378pp, ISBN 978-1-5344-5452-1) (book
review by Joe Karpierz)
A funny thing happened on the way to writing this review of SPACE
ODDITY, the follow-up to Catherynne M. Valente's Hugo-nominated
novel, 2018's SPACE OPERA. Before I go any further, I
need to say that it's fitting that a funny thing happened on the
way to this review, given the subject material at hand. But I
digress. Actually, depending on how you look at it,
two or three funny things happened on the way to the review.
Look, I can't even count, because I've just realized that it's
probably only two. One them is that I ended up spending way
more time than I wanted to looking at the list of books I've
reviewed since February 17th, 1999. That's as far back as I go on
my current laptop. Not that I've had this laptop for more
than twenty-five years, it's that I've managed to keep them around
from computer to computer just in case I needed to refer to one of
them one day. Which is what I was actually trying to do when I
was preparing for this review. You see, somewhere in one of my
reviews in the deep dark past, I wrote one that contained a
statement something along the lines of "I'm not sure
whether this book is a masterpiece, one of the worst books I've
ever read, or something in between". I never did find that
review--I have been writing these things going back to at least
the mid-1990s (and to be honest, much further back than that,
since I was writing for "The Log of the SS Voyager" back in the
late 1970s/early 1980s, but stopped for several years after
that)--but I think that if I saw the book on my shelf (which I
can't because it's buried behind a bunch of books laying on their
sides because I haven't read them yet) I'd recognize it
immediately. Anyway, I wanted to pull that quote directly and use
it here because, well, I think it's relevant.
Right about now, gentle reader, you're probably yelling at me in
your head, "WILL YOU GET ON WITH IT ALREADY?"
Now go back and read that first paragraph. Rambling, sprawling,
seeming silliness. Looking like it's going nowhere. That's SPACE
ODDITY. Now look at it another way (which, by the way,
you really shouldn't do because I'm going to compare that to what
Valente has done in SPACE ODDITY and that comparison is downright
criminal and ridiculous), in which that paragraphs contains some
of the most wonderfully written comedic prose in the history of
science fiction (see, like I said, mine is not that--I told you
so). That is also SPACE ODDITY.
Let's summarize for the class. In SPACE OPERA, humanity's first
contact with aliens involved taking part in a contest called The
Metagalactic Grand Prix, an event styled after Eurovision
(yes, THAT Eurovision) which pits alien races against each other
in a contest meant to take the place of the nasty wars that
previously threatened to ravage the galaxy. Our planet's heroic
representatives, Decibel Jones and the Absolute Zeros, participate
in the 100th iteration of the MGP. If they had finished dead
last, all humanity on Earth would have been obliterated,
the planet cleansed, and the next inhabitants of Earth would be
allowed to evolve and participate again at a later date, if they
were found worthy.
I know. "WILL YOU GET ON WITH IT ALREADY?"
In SPACE OPERA, someone had to shepherd Decibel Jones and the
Absolute Zeros through the process of getting ready for and
actually participating in the MGP. In SPACE ODDITY, Decibel
(Dess) and
crew are making a galactic victory tour when they discover a
species in a hostile (to life) planetary system that heretofore
was unknown to the rest of the galaxy. According to the rules,
they must shepherd the new aliens through that same process. The
issue is that the MGP has literally just been held, and there were
no plans to hold the 101st so soon. But through the
various machinations of the aliens ostensibly in charge, a new
version of the MGP must be held, even though the new species has
no desire to participate.
Hilarity ensues. I think.
So, for a large portion of the at least the first half of the
book, nothing happens. Valente spends most of that time writing
what is mostly, but not always, hilarious prose in an attempt
to be funny. And some of it is very very funny, and some of it
falls flat. She sprinkles in all sorts of pop culture references,
from Monty Python to Pink Floyd to Douglas Adams (there's
actually a badger named Douglas in the book, and the book itself
has forty-one chapters, because as Valente herself says in the
Liner Notes, "Because you simply can never equal the greatest, you
can only hope to come close. Occasionally.", to, well, whatever
reference fit at the time. Or, it may not have fit, but it was
funny, so it's there, and after all, isn't that the point (I
wish I'd made notes of all the pop culture references so I could
share them here, but I'd be here forever, and this review is 6
weeks late anyway) of the whole thing? But we don't actually
meet the new aliens until halfway through the book, long after I
yelled "WILL YOU GET ON WITH IT ALREADY?".
But oh my goodness, does the last part of the book make up for all
the rest of the meandering, sometimes funny, sometimes not, prose.
The strength of the ending is that the language and
storytelling (maybe what came before wasn't meant to be
storytelling, which is why it fell flat for me) became much more
linear and straightforward. Maybe Valente was trying too hard to
be funny, and when she stopped trying so hard it got better. And
the ending did stick the landing.
I wanted very much to like, even love this book, and at times I
did. Laughing out loud at the gym on the elliptica machine caused
many heads to turn my way, but after a while those
occurrences were few and far between. I don't know. Maybe this
is one of these books that I'm just not meant to understand. But
I did *like* it. And that's what counts, right? [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: A Television Tuned to an Unused Channel (letter of comment
by Fred Lerner)
In response to Evelyn's comments on outdated expressions (e.g., a
television tuned to an unused channel) in the 11/08/24 issue of
the MT VOID, Fred Lerner writes:
At the Winnipeg WorldCon a few decades ago there was a hoax bid
for a future convention in Antarctica. At a party sponsored by
the hoaxers several television sets had been tuned to an unused
channel, with the explanation that it was a live transmission from
the proposed convention site. [-fl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Tajikistan/Tadzhikistan (letter of comment by Arthur
Kaletsky)
In response to Evelyn's comments on the spelling of
"Tajikistan/Tadzhikistan" in the 11/08/24 issue of the MT VOID,
Arthur Kaletsky writes:
[Evelyn wrote that what Stephenson transliterated as
"Tadzhikistan" is now "Tajikistan".]
Re SNOW CRASH: Now and then? If “then” is before 1990,
“Tadzhikistan” is correct, the official CIA-approved
transliteration of the Russian [non-ASCII here]. [-ak]
Evelyn responds:
SNOW CRASH was published in 1992, so Stephenson was probably
correct when he wrote it, and no one ever caught the "official"
change. [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Inter-Library Loan (letter of comment by an anonymous
poster)
In response to Evelyn's comments on inter-library loan in the
11/08/24 issue of the MT VOID, an anonymous poster writes:
This is a reminder to tell you one potential downside of ILL.
Because of the government invasions of privacy, many library
systems erase all information of what books you took out as soon
as they're returned. (The government can demand all it wants, but
the information no longer exists.) ILL holds onto that
information forever (or at least decades), claiming they have to
for some kind of copyright compliance. [-anon]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Merritt Parkway (letters of comment by Hal Heydt and Peter
Trei)
In response to Evelyn's comments on the Merritt Parkway in
Connecticut in the 11/08/24 issue of
the MT VOID, Hal Heydt writes:
My father used to reminisce about driving on the Merritt Parkway
after the bridges had been put in, but before the rest had
actually been paved.
For myself, I'll say that I don't know of a prettier road anywhere
I've ever been. [-hh]
Peter Trei adds:
The Merritt is indeed a pretty road, though often overcrowded.
I use it to get to NYC from central MA.
Every bridge is different, though designed by one architect.
Most are Art Deco in design, and build by the WPA. [-pt]
Evelyn responds:
Well, the drive from Flagstaff to Sedona on AZ 89-A through Oak
Creek Canyon is certainly more impressive, but I'm not sure if one
could apply the adjective "pretty", because "pretty" just isn't
enough. Indeed, most of the roads I would name as competitors
would be classified as impressive, dramatic, or in the case of
Utah Scenic Byway 12, downright scary. (See
<
https://www.terragalleria.com/america/utah/grand-staircase/picture.usut68549.html> for a photo of the Hog's Back Ridge part
of the highway.) [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
THE JEFFERSON BIBLE by Peter Manseau (Smithsonian, ISBN
978-0-691-20968-5) explains that while THE LIFE AND MORALS OF
JESUS OF NAZARETH, usually referred to as "The Jefferson Bible" is
usually described as Thomas Jefferson's editing of the Gospels to
eliminate all the miracles and present a "rational" biography of
Jesus, it is actually many different books.
The original was a literal "cut-and-paste" work by Jefferson. He
bought two copies each of the Bible in Greek, Latin, English, and
French, and proceeded to cut out the verses from the Gospels that
contain the moral teachings of Jesus and paste them into four
parallel columns.
Jefferson never published it. The original floated around until
the end of the nineteenth century, when it was finally printed in
a small edition. After that, it kept turning up, but changed:
other verses were added, introductions tried to put different
spins on it, the non-English columns were eliminated, and so on.
What I found the most interesting was the edition edited by Dr.
Henry Jackson which was specifically aimed at "social
engineering". An example of Jackson's introduction:
[Let] us suppose that the minister in beginning his
sermon should say, "I want to consider with you some
ideas of Jesus as they are recorded in the preamble
of the Declaration of Independence," would you be
shocked? You might be shocked to hear it from a
pulpit, but would you be shocked at the statement
itself? Almost all the other worshippers would.
Would you? Would it not at present be generally
regarded as sacrilegious to suggest that Jesus and
Jefferson had worked at the same task?
And yet what is the simple fact, obvious to anyone
from whom it has not been hidden by a smoke screen?
Look at the preamble of the Declaration. The three
basic rights which it treats -- "life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness" -- are not these subjects
exactly paralleled in the teaching and thought of
Jesus? First -- "life"; said Jesus, "I have come
that they may have life and may have it in
abundance." Second -- "liberty"; said Jesus, "Ye
shall know the truth and the truth will make you
free." Third -- "the pursuit of happiness"; said
Jesus, "I have spoken to you that my joy might
remain in you and that your joy might be full."
And later Jackson said in a statement to the Committee of Finance
of the United States Senate in 1935:
"Strangely enough the right to work was not among
the basic natural rights listed by Thomas Jefferson
in the great declaration which gave birth to the
Nation; only the rights to life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. But the right to the pursuit
of happiness is merely theoretical and meaningless
unless one has the right to the things which
produce happiness; the right to liberty is
theoretical and meaningless unless one is in a
position to exercise it; the right even to life
itself is theoretical and meaningless unless one
has a right to secure the means necessary to support
it. The right to work, to earn a living, to earn
enough to support a family in decency, is a prior
antecedent right, without which no other rights have
value."
One wonders what HUAC would have made of this interpretation of
the Bible. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net Future: that period of time in which our affairs prosper,
our friends are true, and our happiness is assured.
--Ambrose Bierce
MT VOID, 11/15/24 -- Vol. 43, No. 20, Whole Number 2354