MT VOID, 04/25/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 43, Whole Number 2377

THE MT VOID
04/25/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 43, Whole Number 2377
Editor: Evelyn Leeper, evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
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Topics:
         Middletown (NJ) Science Fiction Discussion Group
         Picks for Turner Classic Movies in March (comments
                by Evelyn C. Leeper)
         Gaia Imaging of Our Galaxy (link from Gregory Frederick)
         Strongest Evidence So Far of Extra-Terrestrial Life
                (link from Gregory Frederick)
         Have You Been Training AIs?
         STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND (letter of comment
                by Joe Karpierz)
         BRIDGERTON (and Initials) (letter of comment
                by Susan de Guardiola)
         This Week's Reading (MAROONED)
                (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Middletown (NJ) Science Fiction Discussion Group
May 1, 2025 CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) & novel by
      Steven Spielberg
<https://archive.org/details/closeencounterso0000unse_h6k2/mode/1up>
===================================================================
TOPIC: Picks for Turner Classic Movies in March (comments by
Evelyn C. Leeper)
Terry Frost, well-known Australian movie reviewer, recently had an
episode of his podcast ("Terry Talks Movies") titled "The Movies
That Best Capture the 2020s Zeitgeist" and the first on his list
was A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957).
Conveniently, Turner Classic Movies is running this twice in May;
here are Mark's comments from 2008:
Andy Griffith plays Lonesome Rhodes, a bum in a drunk tank who
gets a chance to perform on the radio.  He is amazingly popular
with his listeners and soon he is a media sensation.  As his
popularity builds he becomes aware of the political influence he
has over his audience and he makes himself the most powerful man
in the country.  The film is an entertaining essay in how the
public can be swayed and controlled.  This is a powerful film that
is timelier today than when it was made in 1957.  Directed by
controversial director Elia Kazan from a screenplay by Budd
Schulberg.  [-mrl]
And if it was timely then, it's definitely doubled down on
timeliness now.  [-ecl]
A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957), Wednesday,  May 7, 9:30 AM
A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957), Thursday,  May 29, 3:30 PM
Other films of interest (including a lot of classic Clint
Eastwood):
THURSDAY,  May 1
6:00 AM    The Green Pastures (1936)
FRIDAY,  May 2
8:00 PM    Poltergeist (1982)
10:15 PM    The Haunting (1963)
SATURDAY,  May 3
12:15 AM    Scanners (1981)
2:15 AM    Village of the Damned (1960)
4:00 AM    Children of the Damned (1964)
SUNDAY,  May 4
4:00 AM    The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
MONDAY,  May 5
12:30 AM    The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926)
4:00 AM    Walkabout (1971)
THURSDAY,  May 8
11:15 AM    Cabin in the Sky (1943)
FRIDAY,  May 9
1:00 AM    High Plains Drifter (1973)
3:00 AM    Hang 'Em High (1968)
12:00 PM    The Woman in White (1948)
WEDNESDAY,  May 14
8:45 AM    Things to Come (1936)
10:30 AM    World Without End (1955)
2:00 PM    The World, the Flesh and the Devil (1959)
4:00 PM    Soylent Green (1973)
6:00 PM    Logan's Run (1975)
THURSDAY,  May 15
1:15 AM    Kwaidan (1965)
FRIDAY,  May 16
2:15 AM    A Fistful of Dollars (1964)
SATURDAY,  May 17
12:00 PM    Finian's Rainbow (1968)
10:00 PM    The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)
TUESDAY,  May 27
10:00 PM    The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)
1:15 AM    The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
WEDNESDAY,  May 28
11:15 AM    The Man Who Could Work Miracles (1936)
FRIDAY,  May 30
8:00 PM    Field of Dreams (1989)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Gaia Imaging of Our Galaxy (link from Gregory Frederick)
Results of the Gaia spacecraft imaging effort to see our galaxy as
viewed from the outside.  This is what our galaxy looks like from
outside looking at it.  Image and article ate:
<https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Gaia/
Gaia_creates_richest_star_map_of_our_Galaxy_and_beyond>
[-gf]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Strongest Evidence So Far of Extra-Terrestrial Life (link
from Gregory Frederick)
Gregory Frederick also reports:
Looks like scientists have again found evidence from the James
Webb telescope observing the atmosphere of an certain alien planet
of the chemical signature for a compound only found to be created
by a life-forms on our Earth.  This is still not proven with
6-sigma accuracy yet but the evidence is the strongest found so
far.  Article is listed below:
<https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-hail-strongest-evidence-far-
230523715.html>
[-gf]
===================================================================
TOPIC: Have You Been Training AIs? (link)
The Atlantic Monthly has a story, "Search LibGen, the
Pirated-Books Database That Meta Used to Train AI".  The story
itself is paywalled, but the ability to search the database to see
if you are in it is not:
<https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/
search-libgen-data-set/682094/>
(I am not in it.  Mark is, from his paper on the P-function
written fifty years ago.)
[-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND (letter of comment
by Joe Karpierz)
In response to Fred Lerner's comments on STARS IN MY POCKET LIKE
GRAINS OF SAND in the 04/18/25 issue of the MT VOID, Joe Karpierz
writes:
First of all, thank you for the kind words.  I appreciate them.  I
am currently five book reviews behind, so at some point you will
get more of me.
Second, yes, I am aware that Delany was planning a sequel to STARS
IN MY POCKET LIKE GRAINS OF SAND.  I went back and forth trying to
decide if I was going to mention it in the review.  Obviously I
decided not to do so.  [-jak]
===================================================================
TOPIC: BRIDGERTON (and Initials) (letter of comment by Susan
de Guardiola)
In response to Keith F. Lynch's comments on BRIDGERTON in the
04/18/25 issue of the MT VOID, Susan de Guardiola writes:
[Keith writes,] "I wonder how many viewers of BRIDGERTON have been
left with the mistaken impression that George III's wife Charlotte
was black."  [-kfl]
That's not an example of color-blind casting.  The "Bridgerton"
and "Queen Charlotte" series are explicitly alternate history.
It's stated outright in a card on the screen at the start of the
QC series.  And the specific point of departure is that
Charlotte's family is black, and as a result of her marriage to
George the separate upper-class black and white communities in the
British Empire are united into one nobility.  So Charlotte is
played by a black actor because the character is black.  Other
members of the nobility are played by black actors because their
characters are black.  I'm not sure there's any color-blind
casting in those shows at all, though I haven't watched them in
their entirety.  They certainly qualify as F&SF to the same degree
as any other alternate history.
Separately from that issue: there's some evidence to suggest that
Charlotte might have been mixed-race, though it doesn't rise to
anything like certainty.  See, for example,
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/12/race-monarchy>.  So
"Bridgerton"'s what-if is not pure fantasy.  [-smg]
Susan adds:
Following your style: my initials are SMG, which is not obvious
since I rarely use my middle initial.  [-smg]
Evelyn responds:
Noted, though if you don't come back for several months, I can't
guarantee I'll remember.  :-)
I also label Gary McGath as "gmg", and "John Kerr-Mudd" as "jkm"
(although since his "From" line reads "Kerr-Mudd, John", this is
clearly a pseudonym that only makes sense if read last name
first).  [-ecl]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
Last week I mentioned that I had read MAROONED by Martin Caidin
(Bantam, no ISBN) for our book and movie group.  Let me just say
the movie was better; it did not have interminable stretches of
technical minutiae and personal background that had nothing to do
with the plot.  (I read the revised version of the book, written
in conjunction with the movie.  But it was not a novelization;
rather, it was re-written to bring it up to date.  Of course, now
it still seems outdated.)  [-ecl]
===================================================================
                                     Evelyn C. Leeper
                                     evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
           I don't care what is written about me so long as
           it isn't true.
                                           --Dorothy Parker