THE MT VOID
12/29/23 -- Vol. 42, No. 26, Whole Number 2308

Co-Editor: Mark Leeper, mleeper@optonline.net
Co-Editor: Evelyn Leeper, eleeper@optonline.net
Sending Address: evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
All 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 eleeper@optonline.net
The 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:
Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion
Group
Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in January
(comments by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
TRANSLATION STATE by Ann Leckie (audio book review
by Joe Karpierz)
Will Science Fiction Conventions Ever Be the Same?
(comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
"Happy Birthday to You" (letters of comment by Kip Williams
and Gary McGath)
BLIND WILLOW SLEEPING WOMAN (letter of comment
by Gary McGath)
This Week's Reading (Agatha Christie and G. K. Chesterton)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)

===================================================================

TOPIC: Middletown (NJ) Public Library Science Fiction Discussion
Group

The only local meetings left are in Middletown, and they are
in-person. The best way to get the latest information is to be on
the mailing list for it.

Jan 4, 2024 ARRIVAL (2016) & "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang
(1998)
<https://tinyurl.com/Chiang-StoryOfLife>
Feb 1, 2024 METROPOLIS (1927) & novel "Metropolis" by Thea
Von Harbou (1925)
<https://tinyurl.com/Metropolis-Harbou>

===================================================================

TOPIC: Mark's Picks for Turner Classic Movies in January (comments
by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)

The first "Godzilla" movie was called simply "Gojira". (When it
was released in the United States, it added a bunch of Raymond Burr
and was renamed "Godzilla, King of the Monsters".) It would
probably be impossible to find any film series with as many twists
of style or intended audience as even just the original "Godzilla"
series(*). The style included a film that was deadly serious, and
then descended into buffoonery, though towards the end improving
somewhat.

TCM is showing eight of the original series on January 1; here is
the schedule (with the various alternate titles these films
appeared as):

6:00 AM Godzilla (1954) (Godzilla, King of the Monsters
[US edit])
8:00 AM Godzilla Raids Again (1955) (Gigantis the Fire Monster
[US edit])
9:30 AM Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) (Godzilla vs. the Thing)
11:15 AM Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
1:00 PM Monster Zero (1965) (Godzilla vs. Monster Zero)
2:45 PM Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)
4:30 PM Son of Godzilla (1967)
6:15 PM Destroy All Monsters (1969)

(*) There have been six sub-series; the first four Japanese, all
Toho Pictures, and the last two American:
- Showa era (1954-1975)
- Heisei era (1984-1995)
- Millrennium era (1999-2004)
- Reiwa era (2016- )
- TriStar Pictures (1998-2000)
- Legendary Pictures (2014- )

[-mrl/ecl]

And some comments on some other films:

THE VANISHING (1988): Turner is showing the original classic Dutch
film about a man's search for his wife, who disappeared from a
roadside stop. (The American 1993 remake is an abomination, even
though it is the same director for both.)

INSOMNIA (1997): This is the original Nordic noir film with Stellan
Skasgard. In this case the American remake (directed by
Christopher Nolan) may be just as good, but you should definitely
watch the original.

THE POWER OF FILM (2023): The first four parts of a six-part
original documentary on film.

And there are also four Marx Brothers films.

[-ecl]

Other films of interest include:

MONDAY, January 1
6:00 AM Godzilla (1954)
8:00 AM Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
9:30 AM Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964)
11:15 AM Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
1:00 PM Monster Zero (1965)
2:45 PM Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966)
4:30 PM Son of Godzilla (1967)
6:15 PM Destroy All Monsters (1969)
8:00 PM Monkey Business (1931)
9:30 PM Horse Feathers (1932)
10:45 PM A Night at the Opera (1935)

TUESDAY, January 2
12:30 AM A Day at the Races (1937)
2:30 AM Room Service (1938)
4:00 AM At the Circus (1939)
6:00 AM Children of the Damned (1964)
7:45 AM The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)
9:30 AM 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)

THURSDAY, January 4
3:00 PM The Body Disappears (1941)
8:00 PM The Power of Film: Episode 1 (2023)
11:15 PM The Power of Film: Episode 1 (2023)

FRIDAY, January 5
4:00 AM The Great Dictator (1940)

MONDAY, January 8
2:00 AM The Vanishing (1988)
4:00 AM Insomnia (1997)
11:00 PM Film: The Living Record of Our Memory (2021)

TUESDAY, January 9
1:15 AM America America (1963)

THURSDAY, January 11
10:15 AM The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)
6:00 PM The Time Machine (1960)
8:00 PM The Power of Film: Episode 2 (2023)
11:15 PM The Power of Film: Episode 2 (2023)

FRIDAY, January 12
12:15 AM Network (1976)

SATURDAY, January 13
12:00 AM The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)

TUESDAY, January 16
8:00 AM Kismet (1955)

THURSDAY, January 18
7:15 AM The China Syndrome (1979)
8:00 PM The Power of Film: Episode 3 (2023)
11:15 PM The Power of Film: Episode 3 (2023)

FRIDAY, January 19
2:00 AM A Night at the Opera (1935)
4:00 AM Modern Times (1936)
6:00 AM Jalopy (1953)

MONDAY, January 22
7:30 AM At the Circus (1939)
9:00 AM House of Wax (1953)
1:00 PM The Face of Fu Manchu (1965)
4:45 PM The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
6:45 PM Man Alive (1946)

TUESDAY, January 23
6:00 AM The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018)
6:00 PM The Glass Bottom Boat (1966)

THURSDAY, January 25
8:00 PM The Power of Film: Episode 4 (2023)
11:15 PM The Power of Film: Episode 4 (2023)

FRIDAY, January 26
12:15 AM Psycho (1960)
2:30 AM King Kong (1933)

WEDNESDAY, January 31
1:00 PM Tarzan, The Ape Man (1981)
3:00 PM Tarzan and His Mate (1934)
5:00 PM Mighty Joe Young (1949)
6:45 PM The Gorilla (1939)

===================================================================

TOPIC: TRANSLATION STATE by Ann Leckie (copyright 2023, Orbit, 12
hours and 3 minutes, ASIN: B0BJ4DTXSB, narrated by Adjoa Andoh)
(audio book review by Joe Karpierz)

I was taken a bit by surprise when I discovered that it's been four
years since Ann Leckie's last novel, THE RAVEN TOWER (which I did
not read), six years since her last Imperial Radch novel
PROVENANCE, and *ten* years since her debut novel, ANCILLARY
JUSTICE, which you may remember won all sorts of awards, including
the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel in 2014. TRANSLATION
STATE, Leckie's latest novel, marks a return to the Imperial Radch
universe, but stands neatly to the side of the original "Ancillary"
trilogy.

The story follows three characters: Enae, who lived under the thumb
of an elderly relative, and who was cast out of the house when the
relative died, although not without a purpose; Reet, a mysterious
orphan found as an infant on a spacecraft, adopted by a loving
family who makes a habit of taking in orphans; and Qven, whose
story we follow from her very beginnings as a very young Presger
Translator. As is the way of stories with characters that are
wholly different from each other, the lives of the three characters
eventually intertwine within the confines of this engaging novel.

Enae is offered a diplomatic position in which she is assigned the
task of finding a Presger Translator who went missing 200 years
prior to the event of the novel. It is meant to be a nothing
posting, as the person who took over the estate where she lived
just wants her out of the way. It's meant to be easy, with not
many tasks or responsibilities. No one expects her to find the
missing Translator, whose trail has gone cold in the last 200
years. What we learn about Enae is that she has a great amount of
ambition and a feeling of duty. She wants to earn the money she is
getting paid, and thus no one has expected that her determination
to find the lost Translator will bear fruit.

Enae makes some educated assumptions about where the missing
Translator may have traveled to all those years ago, and ends up on
the same planet as Reet. Reet has never really felt that he's fit
in anywhere or with anyone. Reet is a bit strange, having urges to
eat people. He is approached by a group that believes that he is
the descendant of the rulers of a political faction to which they
belong. He's never had a job that would allow him to amount to
anything, but through this group he gets a job escorting visiting
dignitaries, which results in him meeting Enae. Enae is curious
about his background, which leads her to believe he may be a
descendant of the missing Translator (this really isn't much of a
spoiler, because that fact only leads to the main storyline, and is
not the main storyline itself).