Joe Haldeman's Blog, page 43

a big gal

Had a really big model at open studio yesterday . . . not particularly sexy, but fun to draw . . .

Joe

feel the hunger

Yesterday Gay and I went to see The Hunger Games, and we both liked it.  Maybe I liked it a little more, but then I find more entertainment in blood & gore than she does.

The movie wasn't extreme in that regard.  Realistic but not exploitational.   The violence expertly controlled.

(I can see why they wanted to hold back for the sake of ratings, though god knows a little nudity and sex, or a lot, might have made the movie more appealing to a certain degenerate coterie.  To which I enthusiastically belong.)

You probably know the situation:  in a dystopic future two youngsters, male and female, are drafted to go into a primitive combat situation with other pairs from other regions, to fight to the death.  Only one person will be allowed to live.

Of course our pair falls in love.  The girl, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is most impressive.  Pretty but not glamorous, with very little or very subtle makeup, acting with wonderful smoldering energy, pent up and then exploding.  The guy, Josh Hutcherson, becomes a male version of the damsel in distress, and does a good job in that more limited role; Woody Harrelson has a sharp extended cameo as their mentor, one of the few surviving veterans of the games.

The sets and crowd scenes in the beginning are good zany filmic science fiction, amusing horrific shoddiness in a future that has gone wrong in so many ways.

It wouldn't do to examine the logic behind the story too closely.  But then it's not presented as a realistic future.  As an extended brutal metaphor it works well.  Highly recommended.

Joe

the bike! the bike!

Rode my new bike home from the store yesterday.  It's a white Raleigh touring Revenio 3.0, described at http://www.raleighusa.com/bikes/road/... . . . I got it for $1250, fifty bucks off list price.   (Just found it online for $1199, though.)  It's amazingly light, 19 pounds,  and responsive.  I'm riding it with excessive caution for awhile, sort of like driving a new sports car.  Do not want to leap over a curb and achieve orbit.  Out to do a few miles now, before writing.Joe

ancient humor

Discussion in sff.net has turned to old jokes . . . 
  

If I were at home I'd pull out the Joe Miller Joke Book (or  "the Wit's Vade-mecum") for some really horrible oldies.  Here's a typical thigh-slapper:

A Lady's Age happening to be questioned, she affirmed she was but Forty, and called upon a Gentleman that was in Company for his Opinion; Cousin, said she, do you believe I am in the Right, when I say I am but Forty? I ought not to dispute it, Madam, reply'd he, for I have heard you say so these ten Years.

Going through an eighteenth-century book of jokes a few years ago, I was struck by how often the jokes centered on losing control of one's bowels.  I wondered whether this might reflect sanitation and cooking procedures in those old days.  Perhaps public health in general.

The ICFA get-together is clocking right along.  I'm going to some panels, and mainly hanging out with other writers and academics.  Nice bicycling in the morning cool.

Joe

End of the world? What world?

Here's the story Elizabeth Miller wrote after she interviewed me by phone a few days ago.  Copyright © Elizabeth Miller (or the Tampa Bay Times, I don't know)  USF series to explore 2012 apocalypse theory, feature fiction apocalypse authorsBy Elizabeth Miller, Times Correspondent
In Print: Sunday, March 18, 2012  Even if you're not up on ancient Mayan history, you've probably heard something about the 2012 apocalypse theory.  Some believe the Earth will experience a cataclysmic event this year as depicted in the blockbuster disaster film 2012.  So what's the deal with 2012? Why now?  The Maya, who lived 1,200 years ago, marked Dec. 21, 2012, as the end of their calendar."A lot of new age religions, astrologists and astronomers are looking for a correspondence between the ancient Maya calendar and the alignment of the planets," said Christian Wells, associate professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida.  The Maya were an American Indian civilization that occupied southern Mexico and upper central America. They were known as brilliant astronomers and mathematicians who measured the planets' movements with astounding accuracy, Wells said.  A Mayan artifact, a tablet known as "Monument 6," contains the famed date of Dec. 21, 2012. It's a slab of limestone with Mayan hieroglyphic inscriptions that archaeologists have interpreted. Experts agree that the date marks the end of the Mayan calendar.    Some today believe it is also prophetic of a significant global event — or an apocalypse.Wells will discuss this idea Monday evening at USF in his lecture "The Ancient Maya Doomsday Prophecy: Helpful Tips for Surviving the End of the World."  "Some say we could see devastating comets, others have said we'll have increased solar flares," said Wells. "A lot of people do believe there'll be some sort of spiritual awakening."As an expert on Mayan culture who has been on archaeological excavations in upper central America, Wells will explain the history and science behind their calendar and the theories surrounding its meaning.  From his studies, Wells concluded that the end of the calendar has nothing to do with the end of the world.  "The ancient Maya calendar is like an odometer on a new car: When it hits its maximum, it goes back to zero. A new cycle begins. They were really talking about natural cycles in their environment," he said. "Their narrative has been taken out of its cultural context."Wells' lecture is part of USF's annual science fiction symposium. Co-sponsored by the USF Humanities Institute, School of Mass Communications and English department, this year's theme is Visions of the Apocalypse.  "An apocalypse is one of the handiest themes in science fiction. You can make it funny, tragic, heroic — it's a great trope," said Joe Haldeman, author of nearly 30 science fiction novels and short story collections.  His latest novel Earthbound deals with the catastrophic effects when aliens deprive Earth of electricity and all technology stops.  Haldeman and science fiction writer Nancy Kress, author of After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall, will have a reading and book signing Tuesday as part of the USF series.
  Haldeman says people are drawn to the idea of an apocalypse because it asks: "How do you prepare for the end of the world, spiritually and practically?"  "The attraction of that kind of prophecy and the power it holds on the human psyche," is a recurring theme in his books, he said. "You're dealing with earth changing events, but you're also dealing with normal human beings who have to get through the day."  Haldeman and Kress will also be part of a panel discussion Wednesday about these themes. The events are free and open to the public.  As for whether or not we'll have to get through another day come Dec. 22?  "Astrologically, the (Earth's) position in the Milky Way is pretty much the same as it was in the 1980s, and will stay in that position for at least another 20 years," Wells said.  "Ultimately, there's nothing to be worried about," he said. "Go ahead and buy those Christmas and Hanukkah gifts."  Elizabeth Miller can be reached at hillsnews@tampabay.com.

Get into Dodge!

I just finished DOC, by Mary Doria Russell, a fictionalized bio of Doc Holliday.  A good read and I think an accurate retelling of the second-most-interesting part of the man's life.

A matter of opinion, of course.  DOC is mostly about Doc Holliday's tenure in Dodge City, where he hung around with the Earp brothers and Bat Masterson.  Doc was a dental surgeon and Faro dealer, but apparently most of his income came from high-stakes card games, mostly poker.  The impression from the book is that he was totally honest, but nevertheless won much more often than he lost.

Sometimes the card games would end in violence, usually fisticuffs.  Every now and then a knife or gun would come into play.

I think most saloons made you check your guns at the door.  When Wyatt Earp was sheriff of Dodge, for some time he evidently made cowboys turn in their weapons as soon as they came into the city, to retrieve them on the way out.  (In a scene I think is based on fact, Doc gets in trouble with Wyatt because he wouldn't turn in the Derringer he hid away as a last resort.)

People like me, who only know a couple of things about Doc, probably know that he was a gifted young Southern gentleman who had to leave the South because his developing tuberculosis required the dry heat of the West.  We know that he survived the shoot-out at the OK Corral in Tombstone.  Those parts of his life comprise only two short chapters of the 394-page book.

It's mostly about his daily life in Dodge City, arranged more or less chronologically.  I found it fascinating, and perhaps more than complete.  The cast of characters, printed in the front, runs almost three pages.

(A number of prominent characters, printed in italics in that list, are completely fictional.  That's the author's right in this freewheeling genre, and I'm glad she identifies them, but perhaps it gives one too many degrees of freedom.  Art thrives on limitations, after all, and an obvious limitation in this particular form would be to only use people of whom there is some historical record.)

One of my favorite western movies is the 1993 Tombstone, where Val Kilmer does a wonderful ironic turn as Doc, dying and deadly.  By odd coincidence we happened to be driving through Arizona the month that movie came out, and toured the reconstructed Tombstone right after we saw it. 

It was kind of a little boy's dream, reinterpreted through tourism and Hollywood illusion.  Kilmer's Doc may have been an invention that owed more to fiction than biography, but what a wonderful fiction.  Heroism, pathos, wry realism, I think a very American archetype. 

So it's a good subject and a good book.

Joe

time trippin'

JJ Pierce sent me an amusing Gene Autry serial, the first installment of the Phantom Empire – unconstrained by genre boundaries, it combines science fiction, the Western, cheesy heroics, radio miracles, and Gene Autry pickin' and singin', when he's not after mad scientists and aliens from the center of the Earth --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEbTWHpuXsU

Released in 1935.  The same year, coincidentally, as a favorite Woody Guthrie song – "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh" – which was the first song I ever learned, maybe fifteen years later.

Joe

Moebius

Sorry to see by the rose that Moebius has died.  A fine artist who more or less defined _Metal Hurlant_, and thus _Heavy Metal_ on this side of the Atlantic.  Gay and I met him at a convention in Timisoara, Romania, I guess in the late eighties.  Charming and tremendously energetic.  We went to the French embassy together and had an elegant meal with the beautiful Parisian consul -- as a simple science-fiction writer I probably wouldn't have had the cachet to be invited, but of course les bandes desinees (excuse horrible French spelling) were actual art.  Moebius was very hot stuff at the time, and I was very impressed with how _un_impressed he was with himself.  A hard worker with very high standards, but he knew how much of fame was just dumb luck.It surprised me to learn from the obituary that he was 72.  My impression was that he was my age or younger.  I could wish he's found some lurid Valhalla, where Jack Kirby and Harvey Kurtzman are hoisting steins and telling yarns.Joe

loose the dogs of Mars

Last night we went to see John Carter, not-of-Mars.  You should Google it to see the producers' argument for the name change.  I think it boils down to "you don't want people to think it's science fiction," even though it's set on Mars and is full of characters who have green skin and too many arms. 

Arguably it isn't science  fiction, at least not the pure quill.  The part of Utah where it's filmed doesn't look too much like Mars, though I liked the cute bits at the beginning where they had Carter clumsily flying around in the low gravity.   There's nothing like extrapolation; it's all quasi-Victorian machinery reinventing steampunk. 

It was a fun movie, though it would have been more fun if it had been about twenty minutes tighter.  Really fine aliens and a Deja  Tharsis worth having déjà vu over.  The guy who plays John Carter is a good lantern-jawed hero, the bad Martians are perfectly nasty, and the alien doggy is a hoot!  A mega-hoot.  They should give the dog its own series.

I'm unhappy about what the movie does to the perception of high-budget sci-fi movies.  It's resoundingly bad opening box-office is not good news for THE FOREVER WAR.  The previews we saw of Ridley Scott's new sci-fi epic, PROMETHEUS, have good production values, and that might help the subgenre.   Pity it's the wrong story.

Joe

war is the province of death . . .

I'm getting lots of mail this morning about the Keith Olbermann show last night, where a guy talked about THE FOREVER WAR in some detail, noting that it predicted the psychological effects that Afghanistan is having on returning American troops.  Very nice bit of publicity, but really it's just plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

It's at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APP_-U... . . .

People are reacting to an American soldier who went berserk and started kicking down doors and murdering random people just because they were The Other.  Not one person I've seen or read has noted that that is just what we train soldiers to do, carried to an extreme.  The same thing happened in my war, and it's probably been going on since the Punic Wars – though fully automatic weapons up the ante.  No centurian ever went berserk and killed sixteen civilians with a spear.  Most of them children.

This guy  evidently did three combat tours in Iraq and recently had a (non-combat) head injury.  He was a "trained sniper," in newspaperspeak, as opposed to an amateur sniper who only shoots people on weekends and holidays.

Like it takes a lot of training to machinegun a two-year-old.

But I hope that amidst all the hand-wringing and justifiable remorse, people don't lose sight of the fact that this is one soldier in a hundred thousand, in the longest war this country has ever fought – and the most public.  Misconduct – even gross misconduct and war crimes – that would have gone unreported in earlier wars is instantly reported now.

It's a horrible thing, but ask any soldier or any civilian who lives in a war zone:  war is one horrible thing after another, until one side runs out of ammunition, or money, or will.

Maybe this time it will be us.

Back in the eighties, a magazine article about the Soviet army withdrawing, beaten, after nine years in Afghanistan, noted that the country was called "the graveyard of empires."  Evidently not enough people knew, or believed, that.

Joe