The Michigan Daily-Sund,

Page 2-Sunday, April 9; 1978-The Michigan Daily

RAMBLINGS/george lobsenz

Ego torn from
interstellar spy

T HE SCENE remains etched in my
mind. I had just arrived - a
somewhat wide-eyed freshperson from
Connecticut quite conscious of his
foreigner status in a dorm full of people
from - "uh, a Detroit suburb." I had
made my way down to my first sum-
ptuous dorm feast and parked my tray
at a table with my Michigan roomie and
his high-school pals: One voluble type,
complete with jaunty beret, started
describing a rock concet in terms that
suggested a heavenly chorus or, at
least, very good marijuana. The con-
cert was - he groped for adequate
words - simply "bomb." That was it -
bomb. The concert was bomb.
Which was just dandy with me except
for the fact that I hadn't the slightest
idea what, precisely, bomb meant.
When I peeped out this concern, my hip
acquaintance transfixed me with a look
somewhere between complete disbelief
and immense amusement. "Where," he
asked incredulously, "are you from?"
Connecticut, he concluded, must never
have repealed the Dark Ages.
This incident was to serve as an
ironic backdrop to my years here in the
Midwest. For, although it may be a par-
ticularly influential figment of my
imagination, it seems Midwesterners

have some peculiar notions about the
east. They generally characterize the
East through the liberal use of a few
key words like "snobby" or
"sophisticated" or, among my more
elevated acquaintances, "culturally
superior." In short, if life were a'
restaurant, the Midwest might be a Mr.
Steak - solid, stolid, heavy on the
meat-and-potatoes. And the East? Why,
a snooty French establishment,
positively~reeking of fancy sauces and
high-priced class, complete with a wine
list the length of a Bible. In short, they
have some manner of chip on their
collective shoulders that becomes all
too apparent when someone learns
where I am from and inquires, "What
in the world are you doing here?" as if I
just stepped off the 9:54 train from Nir-
vana.
WHAT, I think to myself, do Mid-
westerners find so alluring
and/or threatening about the East? Or
perhaps more accurately, what is so
"different" about the East. If there is
any real "difference" in life-style, I
(neither the most nor least observant
person I know) have not been aware of
it. Granted, I've been in Ann Arbor, not
Bad Axe, Michigan, so I may be making

gross generalizations. But there are
certainly Bad Axes of the East. And if
there is any difference between where
I've been in the East and where I've

outnumber libraries in Detroit, life for
John Q. Abnormal is much the same in
the Midwest as in the East. No matter
where you are, you are doomed to

. it seems Midwesterners have some peculiar
notions about the East. They generally characterize
the East through the liberal use of a few words like
"snobby" or "sophisticated" or, among my more
elevated acquaintances, "culturally superior".'

in bloody

SinZs

By Marty Levine

been in the Midwest, it has to be a dif-
ference of quantity rather than quality.
Take, for example, the bete noir of
the East, New York City. Does Detroit
have theatres that show "Sodom and
Gomorrah" at 3 in the morning on a
Sunday? Does Detroit have 23 eateries
where you can get indigestion over
steaming piles of Serbo-Croatian fare?
Does Detroit have as many small, in-
consequential dusty museums which
nobody ever goes to? No. But I'm
willing to bet Detroit has at least one in
each category and any other you'd like
to mention.
Let's face it. Although factories may

hearing "You Light Up My Life" every
15 minutes on any AM radio stations.
Cheryl Tiegs may bounce only at
Manhattan's exclusive discos, both of
Detroit's newspapers put together may
not equal The New York Times and the
Renaissance Center may not be as tall
or as useless as the World Trade Cen-
ter, but this is but icing on the cake.
Whatever you'll find there, you'll find a
reasonable facsimile here. If you want
a place that's really "different", go to
Bolivia.
And furthermore . . . what? What's
that you say? And what about Califor-
nia? Uh, no commpnt.

ALL MY SINS REMEMBERED
By Joe laldeman
St. Martin Press, 184 pp., $7.95
DESPITE SOME wonderful excep-
tions, characterization has never
been the strong point of most science
fiction. Characters tend to become lost
in the fantastic worlds they inhabit;
this becomes painfully obvious when
the main character of a story never is
himself.
Otto McGavin is "chosen" to be a
prime operator for the ultra-secret,
CIA-like TBII Bureau-an arm of
mankind's interstellar Confeder-
acion - because of his excellent
physical and mental condition. Like
protagonist William Mandella in his
earlier, Hugo-winning The Forever
Man, Joe Haldeman's character, Agent
Marty Levine is a Daily staff
writer.

McGavin, is a member of an elite group
who is being used and abused by his
government for low-or no-purposes.
But unlike the earlier work, in which
Private Mandella's fighting suit merely
extended his physical powers, All My
Sins Remembered finds Otto McGavin
subjected to 34 Personality Overlays
during his lifetime that involve plastic
surgery and hypnotic conditioning. Otto
assumes the shapes of 34 different
people so he can infiltrate whatever
criminal activities these unsavory in-
dividuals may be perpetrating and
correct them according to the Con-
feracion's Charter.
This involves him with the lowest
forms of human being and the most
powerful men on various planets
(usually one and the sanie) in an en-
dless array of political intrigue and
bloody slaughter. And throughout all of
this very realistic action Otto struggles
to remain Otto. He can only emerge
See HALDEMAN, Page 12

v


sundaY mimagazine CEiiSTI PUZZLE

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1 L2 020 I20 W20 X2 1420 r206C20 3208R209N210G211,JZ1ZW213I21'4P215V21

BY
STEPHEN J.
POZSGAI
Copyright 1978
INSTRUCTIONS
Guess the words defined at the
left--and write them in over
their numbered dashes. Then,
transfer each letter to the cor-
responding numbered square
in the grid above. The letters
printed in the upper-right-hand
corners of the squares indi-
cate from what clue-word a
particular square's letter
comes from. The grid, when
filled in, should read- as a
quotation from a published
work. The darkened squares
are the spaces between words.
Some words may carry over
to the next line. Meanwhile,
the first letter of each guessed
word at the left, reading down,
forms an acrostic, giving the
author's name and the title of
the work from which the quote
is extracted. As words and
phrases begin to form in the
grid, you can work back and
forth from clues to grid until
the puzzle is complete.
Answer to previous puzzle



L UCIFICER 'S HAMMER:

Pounding out technolitera

'

A. Sordid; stingy;
grudging
8. Self-evident;
indisputably true ,,
C. Routine endorsement;
stereotyped copy (2 words)
D. Put to death by
summary process
E. Pay up; hond over;
disburse (2 words)
F. Overwhelmed:fHooded
0. Lighting electrician on aotfion
picture or television set
14. Co~nfounded. discomifited:
1. er.ne.recterized
1. A mck-: eqwhqle t
f. bcrfese:neseaat:
L. Fortifies: estelishes
solidly
M. Most voluabl
precious stone

7 28 53 113 136 168 39 151
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N. Reflect on;
refer back to
0. Reduce in force.
effect or amount
P. Enjoyment;
satisfaction
Q. Occasion; chance
R. "To do two things at once is
to do-"Publius Syrus
S. Calculating tool mode obsolete by
electronic clculators (2 words)
T. Comptrising a large number of
items orparticul.rs.
U. Pltt'seese ddby4deca
of 11110stem near-lb.
rod (24w.rd)
V.Oentlst Concernmdw th
diseases of thePulp
wN.'Title o*Ilermcin Mafsse
X. Picture to oneself
Y. Prodder: goader'

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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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215
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14 25 34 5t 191 120 T2

LUCIFER'S HAMMER
By Larry Niven
and Jerry Pournelle
Playboy Press, $10.00
WE LIVE IN a time of science
fiction: our's is an era so strewn
with evidence of future shock, so
wrought with chockablock lifestyles,
that no Verne, Wells, Burroughs or
Stapledon could have accurately depic-
ted our everyday existence. Cloning,
reusable spacecraft, artificial in-
telligence, home computers, cryonics,
bionics, sub-atomics, supersonics and
"May The Force Be With You"...-
Science fiction is also experiencing
upheaval. Today the authors in the field
must not just contend with the standar-
ds of the writing craft; they must com-
pete with the very world they try to ex-
trapolate. New concepts are at
a premium.
In Lucifer's Hammer Larry Niven
and Jerry Pournelle-two of the very
best "idea writers" of the genre--ham
sought to create a.feeling of sweepngt
technoogical awe. .t is a shame the
book cannot be measured by the num-
ber and boldness of the concepts it em-
ploys.
This book has everything, including
the end of Civilation-As-We-Know-It. It
has cannibalistic army officers, and
businessmen who will kill for a can of
food. It has global tsunamis, ear-
thquakes and floods, all caused by the
R. J. Smith is a Daily staff writer.

By R. J. Smith
'The authors wear their sensibilities on their
labcoat sleeves. They are both very accomplished
science writers, but .they show here an almost

1 41 96 .1$ 132 147 "169 10 190 216.M

.

For some four decades.
the government's intelligen-
ee and police agencies have
broken the la and violated
the Constitution. Out of
view of the governed,
an American police state has
evolved, operating in the
shadows side by side with
the legitimate system -of
government.
David Wise
The American Police State

childish-if not to say
machines.'
impact of a tremendous comet striking
the earth. It has prepubescent sex in the
Rockies when a group of 13-year-old
Cub Scouts decides to live with a pack
of Browntes; it has a Muscle Beach
bum hanging ten on a miles-high tidal
wave, riding to his death over Southern.
California. Indeed, Lucifer's Hammer
could have been a hair-raising look at a
frightening alternative reality. But in-
stead, in the end, the book--if not the
world-ends not with a bang but with a
whimper
-ET FM THEmost part in Cali-
& (rnia, the story deals with Ahe
attempts of some fifty-odd characters
to cope with the growing panic before
the arrival of the comet. After the
comet hits, we watch as some of the
survivors left on the North American
continent struggle to live and establish
order from their stronghold in the
Sierra Nevada. They have taken to the
mountains to avoid the rising ocean

child-like-affinity for
which has drowned Los Angeles and
miles of inland California. Hardships
are overcome quite valiantly, skir-
mishes are fought, and in the end a
working atomic power plant becomes
the hardly-unexpected savior of
civilization, and a symbol of man's
destiny.
The authors wear their sensibilities
on their lab-coat sleeves. They are both
very accomplished science writers, and
although they have produced an ex-
Ceentb of so-caed "hard science
fiction" wotwe n tem, they
show here an alrt childish-not to
say child-like-affinity for machines.
Throughout the book are little remin-
ders about what man's glorious destiny
should entail: a blind technological
growth, sort of a galactic imperialism
which would exploit all the cosmos.
Examples dot the book. Anyone who
criticizes technology is at least muddle-
headed, if not a wild-eyed lunatic.
Machines don't merely blink and buzz;

they "hur
like a lover
"There'
character
off. Coloni
planets in
it's less lik
cident-or
as the h
something
J UST /
somei
turiessofm
because nm
tors or s
'Technolog
the only
Man's woj
Pournelle.
Far fron
preaching
and explo
convincini
our COWlt
tive art
eautiul'
is silly on
thorough
te-ooi
itself ser
so pages,
down sorn
monosodi
brand-ne
cruise aw
Plymouth
rolled do
kiddie paj

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