Aucbvax.1374 fa.sf-lovers utzoo!duke!mhtsa!ucbvax!JPM@MIT-AI Tue May 19 19:50:36 1981 SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #123 SF-LOVERS PM Digest Saturday, 16 May 1981 Volume 3 : Issue 123 Today's Topics: SF Books - The Universe Between & Alan Nourse, Humor - Mushrooms, SF Topics - Childern's TV (Astroboy and MUSHI productions and 8th Man and Prince Planet and Rocket Robin Hood), Spoiler - The Universe Between ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 12 May 1981 1003-EDT (Tuesday) Sender: Joseph.Ginder at CMU-10A From: Joe Ginder Subject: The Universe Between; Alan Nourse I remember reading several books by Alan Nourse while in grade school and junior high. The one mentioned in the sf lovers' of a few days ago was called "The Universe Between" and consisted of three novella-length stories. The first was the one mentioned in which some scientists were attempting to cool some object to absolute zero, and when it got cold enough, it "broke" through into a parallel universe. The scientists sent several volunteers up to look into the "hole" it had created; but each one went insane. Then they recruited a young woman for her psychological "flexibility". To make a long story short (and attempt to avoid a spoiler which I may already have earned), she learns how to get to the other universe without any outside aids and imparts this knowledge to her son. The rest of the story concerns the verrry cold cube and her experiences in the other universe. The following two stories are about her son and his experiences in the other universe (and this one). There are many standard sf themes touched upon in these stories -- entropy, subjectivity of senses, alienness, etc. All in all, I liked it a lot then -- like lots of juvenile sf, it still brings back fond memories. I remember several other Alan Nourse sf novels and collections of stories fondly. In particular, I seem to recall a novel "Psi High" about extrasensory perception, and another collection whose name I don't seem to recall with stories about "rejuvenation" (with a politicians named "Dan Forbes" and "Moses Tyndall"?) and other things. The stories in the latter volume were tied together by a short intro. and an epilogue in which aliens were observing mankind. Ah, I remember, one of the stories concerned "analogues" which allowed men to explore the surface of Jupiter -- in mind if not in body. I remember several other stories (by Del Rey?) which I recall much less vividly but remember enjoying. One was about a rocket race around the sun, I believe -- anyone remember this one? Another concerned aliens attacking the Earth and had something to do with Mars. (I guess that would describe a large number of juvenile sf plots....) Joe [ For more about the story The Universe Between, see the Spoiler section of this digest. -- Jim ] ------------------------------ Date: 12 May 1981 15:16 PDT From: REDDERSON.ES at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: SF-LOVERS Digest V3 #118 I don't know anything about the Mushroom Planet books, but i DO notice the trend of non-remembering associated with these books, their titles and/or authors. are you sure there maybe wasn't a little mushroom DUST in those pages????? ------------------------------ Date: 13 May 1981 1424-EDT From: LS.SEB at MIT-EECS Subject: Astroboy I, too, remember Astroboy from the late '60s-early'70s. He had feet that retracted to become rockets, and a whole lot of neat mechanical gimmicks that helped to keep the free world safe. Also, much time was spent trying to convince the viewer that robots could be human, too. Astroboy's "father" was a stereotypical absent-minded professor type. That's all I remember for sure...I think there was a girl and a pet, too. Anyone remember? Since old SF cartoons have come up, does anyone remember Prince Planet and Rocket Robin Hood (from the same era)? Have a good summer, y'all, Steve Barber ------------------------------ Date: 14 May 1981 18:08:57 EDT (Thursday) From: Morris Keesan Subject: Astroboy The original was definitely in Japanese, from the same Japanese studio that brought you such wonderful shows as Speed Racer and Kimba, the White Lion. Their characters were always recognizable by their oversized eyes. ------------------------------ Date: 16 May 1981 1437-EDT From: Steven J. Zeve Subject: Astro boy Astroboy was originally a Japanese comic strip (according to one of world encyclopedia of comics). Along with astroboy I remember such cartoons as: Gigantor, Speed Racer, and Tobor the Eighth Man. I also remember the marionette shows: Fireball XL-5, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet (only saw it once or twice), Supercar (again very vague), and Submarina (I think that was the title, one of the central character was a girl from an underwater civilization). Several of the marionette shows came from the Space1999 people (which may be why the characters in Space 1999 were so wooden). steve z. ------------------------------ Date: 15 May 1981 (Friday) 0012-EDT From: SHRAGE at WHARTON-10 (Jeffrey Shrager) Subject: Astroboy When I was quite young, I watched astroboy religiously. I used to pretend that I was a robot. I recall the image of Astroboy and his astro-family quite clearly. Others from that time frame are: Marine boy (and his oxy-gum), and ... There's a creature eating Philly [sic] It came from outter space, Created by the Martians to destroy the HUMAN NETS DIGEST. The FBI is helpless, [as usual] It's twenty stories tall... What can we do, who can we call??? Call TOBOR the 8th man... Call TOBOR the 8th man... Faster than a rocket, stronger than a jet. He's a mighty robot, he's the one to get..." [It is beyond me exactly how the FBI got into the act. Imagine trying to get a twenty story Tarauntasaourous to try to take a bribe!] I can imagine finding men 1 thru 7 in a closet in the CMU robotics cave. -- -- -- How about Ultra-man. He also had a solar power battery that needed recharging like Astroboy's. Some of the Ultra-man episodes were actually quite bizarre. This was the time frame of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space wasn't it? Maybe they came a bit later. Oh, for the days of semi-reasonable television... ------------------------------ Date: 13 May 1981 0501-PDT (Wednesday) From: Lauren at UCLA-SECURITY (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Astra Boy and Mushi Astro Boy has always been one of my all time animated favorites. The concept involved a robot boy who was built by a scientist when his real son was killed in an auto accident (the automatic traffic control system broke down and crashed the car). Another scientist named Dr. Elephant (who had a very distinctive nose, as you might imagine) sorta steered Astro Boy toward using his special abilities for the good of society. There were a number of very interesting episodes, including one involving a whole city which was moved to another planet by aliens without the knowledge of the inhabitants (much like the "Outer Limits" episode "Feasibility Study".) Astro Boy also had a great theme song, which used to show up occasionally on radio programs on the level of Dr. Demento. Astro Boy was a MUSHI production, from Japan of course. MUSHI programs have several distinguishing characteristics. Many of the main characters look alike in all the shows. Large eyes, round faces, etc. The same voices were used extensively. I learned later that the same basic face/eye layout is also used extensively in Japanese comic books (which are an art form in themselves -- some are sorta half for children and half R -> X rated stuff for adults.) One other MUSHI production which comes immediately to mind is "Kimba" (about a white lion in Africa). There are a number of other animated programs which I believe were either done by MUSHI or were associated with them. These include "Prince Planet" (an alien prince is sent to Earth to help achieve law and order), "Speed Racer" (about a young race car driver), "Marine Boy" (kind of an underwater version of Prince Planet), and maybe "The Amazing Three" (about three aliens sent to Earth to determine if it should be allowed to exist or whether it should be "removed".) One amusing sidenote about "Speed Racer" The voice of one of the primary characters ("Racer X") apparently showed up in a completely unrelated film, the soft X porn classic "The Story of O". It seems the same person who provided the English voice for Racer X did the English dialogue looping for a character in the French porn flick. Actually, this is only a rumor, but from a rather good source. Such ironies. Ah well, I'll leave you with a bit of empty history, the theme from "The Amazing Three": Spacemen with a mission, You must make a very big decision. With your solar bomb you could destroy us, Or save the world, or save the world. Spacemen, must be wise men. So we will take pains to disguise them. Bunny - Bonnie, Pony - Ronnie, last with, And then the last, becomes a duck. Spacemen, with a mission, You must make a very big decision. Earthboy Kenny Carter knows your secret, As away you go, to meet the foe, Amazing Three, Amazing Three, Amazing Three. --- I think I'm going insane. [ No comment. -- Jim ] --Lauren-- ------------------------------ JPM@MIT-AI 5/16/81 00:00:00 Re: SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING! The following messages are the last in the digest. They reveal more details about the plot development in the story The Universe Between. Those unfamilar with this story may not wish to read any further. ------------------------------ Date: 12 May 1981 17:18:17-PDT From: decvax!duke!phs!dennis at Berkeley This concerns the book (yes, by Nourse) about the entry point into the alternate universe. This other universe was sort of an "over-space" and from it you could travel into parallels to our own universe (with slightly differing physical laws, like "The Gods Themselves") by "turning the corner" just right. The opening story (it stands alone and was probably published that way, but I've never seen it other than with the rest of the tale) concerned an ultra-cold experiment in which they got very close to 0 degrees K when the temperature took a large drop. What was left was the gateway. A couple of scientists got driven the requisite crazy by trying to examine (penetrate?) this gateway; they finally got a girl who was emotionally impaired in some fashion (fewer ties to our universe, I guess) and she managed to go in and back out, and learned how to turn the corner wherever she was. The second part concerns this girl's son (this takes place several (~15-20) years later) whom she has taught to turn this corner. He eventually contacts beings who live in this other universe and sets up a flourishing transporation industry (distances are much shorter there, of course). Shipments start going haywire (a pile of pipe arrives melted on Mars, for instance) because they turn a slightly wrong corner and wind up in a place where physics is different. ------------------------------ Date: 11 May 1981 15:19 edt From: JSLove at MIT-Multics (J. Spencer Love) Subject: The Universe Between Sender: JSLove.PDO at MIT-Multics The book about the hole in space is "The Universe Between", which I think is by Alan Norse (Nourse?). Its first chapter originally appeared as a short story (I don't remember where), in which a ruthless researcher is using up experimental subjects by demanding that they look at the phenomenon he has created. The phenomenon is a roughly cubical, glowing hole in space caused by cooling a metal block or bar BELOW absolute zero. They got it very cold and then without warning it jumped to the other side of the "temperature barrier" without actually passing through absolute zero. The physics here is questionable but never pinned down enough for a physicist to object to it. Finally, they bring in subjects from some parallel research project in adaptability, or mental flexibility, and they find a woman who doesn't go mad at the sight of it. There are some quite entertaining descriptions of the geometry on the other side: "Three parallel lines met at right angles to form a perfect cube with seven triangular sides." She learns from examination of the phenomenon to be able to voluntarily go between this universe and that one without having the object around, and the relationship between this universe and that one are such that considerable displacement in one can be had for a short trip in the other. There is considerable handwaving about "angles" which is used to suggest motion in other than the usually expected three dimensions. The woman doesn't think too much of the ruthless experimenter, and splits. The short story ends where the experimenters find the empty cell she was locked into because she feigned insanity to deny him the knowledge. The story picks up again with the woman married to the ruthless scientist's protege, or perhaps the person in charge of adaptability research. They have had a child for the purpose of teaching an infant to deal with both worlds simultaneously, since dealing with the other world is very hard even for the woman. The plot gets very intricate with matter transmitters, parallel universes, and the inhabitants of the other universe thrown in. Of particular interest is a beautiful girl from the other universe who appears naked out of thin air speaking a language with no relationship to any known language as an emissary from the universe between. She thinks this universe is as wierd as we think theirs is. It even has a happy ending that will twist you 180 degrees in your chair. An excellent book. ------------------------------ End of SF-LOVERS Digest *********************** ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.