Decadent brilliance

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SOCALIST MID EAST WAR PAGE 3 New issue of Socialist Student, paper of Socialist Students in NOLS, now out, 10p plus postage from Andy Bennet, DSU, Dunelm House, New Elvet, Americans get no further than the airport at Ho Chi Minh City where a big crowa of youths accompanied by mothers and occasionally grandmothers had gathered. Though denying that there is any official discrimination against the children, the Vietnamese Stalinist government is plainly eager to get rid of them. It is helping to round them up - including those whose mothers also have abandoned them. (Their appearance telis other Vietnamese the story of their origin).

The programme balanced well-off, concerned Jim Carroll, who whisked his son off to the stockbroker belt of London, with John Hitt. Hitt is a deep-South redneck, married. fat, mid-50s, speech-impeded He doesn't want 0512 Omen dany 83H0 100 Pyar of Socialit Sam NAN Durham. Take a bulk order to sell! AT LEAST my son liked it. especially the tall, one-eyed cyciops. (Until the cyclops got killed. Then he announced that the regular hero, Prince Colwyn, was his favourite).

But Thomas is 5½. For me, Krull was crud. I loathed it, but maybe, since Thomas didn't, I shouldn't have.

It's a mixture of fairy tale and science fiction in which fairy tale magic merges imperceptibly into sci-fi marvels and silly words to create an overall effect of the mystical and the supernatural. The hard-souled, calculating mysticism of 'Star Wars' But the Force isn't really with this one, it seems, because Krull has not done too well at the box office. The great rich seam opened by Star Wars in 1977 may be petering out. - INSIDE CLATHE VALE NAB NEWHAM N PAGE 4 THE SWI BAck:

Mick Ackersley reviews Krull' (on general release!

What's unpleasant about Krull is that it's a tongue-incheek pastiche put together with commercial-minded cynicism. Such concoctions come cynicalnasty (like TV's vile Blake's 7), cynical-funny (Star Trek) and cynical-nice.

This is cynical-nice, but with a nasty pervasive undertaste, generated by its component parts.

The language of the deepvoiced narrator: 'This it was given to me to know. The princess shall choose a prince and together they will rule the kingdom and their descendants rule the galaxy." . The trading in archetypes _ the enemy is "the beast" and his army are "the Slayers"

The wholesale pillaging and inorganic amalgamation of stories and images trom fairy tale and myths. King Arthur's sword in the stone becomes the five-bladed boomerang-like magic 'glave' (I think!) plucked out of volcanic water by Prince Colwyn, guided by the Merlyn-like "Old one" who has "come down from the grand mountain" • The high-winged Wagnerian helmets of the Slayers - who may be robots ... 'The Widow of the Web" the cyclops. Bits of Jason and the Argonauts such as eas-like blind seer, etc.

Now of course the stories pillaged here themselves pillaged and amalgamated other stories and characters. But not like this, in an undigested mess made bearable only by the maryellous special effects.

The Space Gothic hybrid of fairy tale and sci-fi combines knights in armour with 'slayers' in armour who ride horses but have ray guns on the hilts of their swords.

The Beast lives in the Black Fortress, but the Fortress flies to a new site every day. The "slayers' carry flaring torches to give them light, but their swords give off electric sparks. We have space ships and the superstitions of the 'dark forests' I think what provokes my strong animosity to Krull, as to Star Wars, which on one level are harmless and enjoyable entertainments, is their 'scientific' mysticism.

Technical brilliance creates a decadent collage of images which packages a synthetic superstition cynically manufactured and sold like spiritual glue-sniffing kits to children and others.

Predatory on better films, too: the scene in which the 'old one" perilously seeks the widow inside a giant spider's web is a rip-off from Michael Powell's wonderful 1940 version of "The Thief of Baghdad" (But then so is Darth Vadar modelled on the tall, veiled, black-cloaked Conrad Veidt villain of that movie).

"Radical' scientists such as Samuel Epstein la co-author of this book) believe that 20-40% of cancers are caused through working with carcinogens, while pollution and additives to consumer products are also significant causes of cancers.

Predictably, the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) favour the establishment view, though even on these figures, the CIA's response is inadequate.

Cancer affects all of us. With 22% of deaths caused by cancer, there can be few of us with no personal experience of its effects.

Class issue

It is a class issue, as Doyal et al amply show. The most well-off get less, and the poorest more cancers.

It is a sex issue, though less is made of this in the book. Revelations about the 'Pill' and cancer came too late for inclusion.

It is also a race issue, though the book does not deal with this. Figures from the US show that whites have a 40% higher chance of surviving ten years after diagnosis than blacks.

After a look at how carcinogens are controlled (not very well) Doyal et al present some case studies which taught me a few things. For instance:

*Even though mesotheliome is officially recognised as being caused only by asbestos, only about a quarter of its victims get compensation. Overall, compensation for industrially-caused diseases is at an even lower rate.

*Not only do PVC workers risk getting liver cancer from vinyl Finally, Doyal et al outline a personal strategy for limiting exposure to carcinogens (most effectively, give up smoking!! as well as a political strategy for fighting in the workplace and in society at large.

A quarter of the book is made up of appendices with extra information: a useful critique of Threshold Limit Values: and some of the articles by Epstein and Peto debating the causes of cancer. The language is about as calm as the average political debate!

Unfortunately, the index not as useful as it could be.

Finally, a moan! Why have Pluto Press decided to charge £6 for a 230-page book? Why have they not brought it out as one of their cheaper 'workers Handbook" series? It is a readable and useful book and deserves a wider audience.

*''Cancer in Britain _ The Politics of Prevention" by Lesley Doyal and others. Pluto Press, £5.95.

NO TO TORY BADGES 25p or £2 for 10 (plus 16p postage) from 'Mole Badges', 165, Liverpool Rd., London N1.

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Socialist Organiser no.161 January 12 1984 Pago 12 Socialist Organiser delegate meeting