Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!floyd!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!v.srt@UCLA-LOCUS
From: v.srt%UCLA-LOCUS@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: MacIntosh...Spinrad...A Movie
Message-ID: <16116@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 28-Jan-84 11:09:11 EST
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.16116
Posted: Sat Jan 28 11:09:11 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Feb-84 04:27:37 EST
Lines: 55

From:            Scott Turner 


  First of all, some (trivia) questions about the Apple commercial
or someone out there with a VCR and freeze frame:

	(1)  What is on the girl's T-shirt?
	(2)  What is written on the back wall of the large auditorium?


				*******


  Secondly, I just read a terrible book by Norman Spinrad called ``The Void
Captain's Tale.''  The surprising thing is that the cover has a good review
by Gregory Benford on it.

  Basically what we have here is the tale of a starship captain who becomes
involved with his pilot.  In this future, starships are guided through the
Void in hops of ~4.3 light years by placing a woman (the Pilot) into an
electronic circuit derived from some fortuitously available alien circuitry
and (electronically) stimulating her to an orgasm.  Pilots have mystical
experiences during the Jump, and it takes a harsh physiological toll upon
them.

  One of the things that bugged me about the book was the writing style.  It
is told in the first person by the Captain, and so he uses his ``future''
lingo.  Problem is that Spinrad blows this one big -- the lingo is neither
believable nor particularly readable.  It doesn't fade in after reading --
I stumbled through the whole book.

  Secondly, the secondary characters' reactions to the Captain are completely
unbelievable.  Spinrad invents a culture that is completely free on the face
of it and completely hidebound underneath.  Not only is that unlikely, it is
unsupported and unbelievable.

  I could go on, but I think you get the idea.  A poorly written book.  Avoid
this one.


				******

  I saw an SF film on TV once that I thought was okay.  The only scene I
remember is one in where the protagonists were standing in some kind of huge
underground cave with a line of bodies on slabs stretching off into the
distance.  One of the protagonists was some kind of guardian, and the bodies
were all of the past guardians, or something like that.  Strange how one
evocative scene can make a movie (or score, for that matter.  Would SW have
won without such a damn good theme?).

  Anyone know the title?  I thought I'd throw it into the film discussion.


					-- Scott R. Turner
					   v.srt@ucla-locus