BOOKS
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the sky
By Ron Schechter
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Contact
By Carl Sagan
Simon and Schuster
430 pages, $18.95
THE GENRE of science fiction has
long suffered from stagnation in
its classic theme of the ex-
traterrestial encounter. Audiences
have been so consistently barraged
by ray guns and light sabers that the
need for a new approach to the old
motif has become critical. In Contact,
Carl Sagan has resuscitated the ex-
traterrestrial encounter by using it
for a noble and novel purpose: to
study humankind. Dr. Sagan uses the
presence of an alien civilization as an
opportunity to view the Earth as the
microcosm that it literally is. What
emerges from this examination of
human relationships, politics,
philosophies, religions, fears, and
ambitions is an optimistic, though not
unrealistic, view of the human race.
The first message from an alien
society, sent via radio waves, is inter-
cepted by the novel's protagonist,
Dr. Eleanor Arroway, director of the
unpopular and often ridiculed Project
Argus, a program designed to search
for the extraterrestrial intelligence.
Originating in the vicinity of Vega,
the Message is merely a manual for
the construction of an elaborate
machine, the purpose of which is un-
disclosed.
The Argus scientists believe it will
serve as a spaceship to transport Ear-
thlings to the alien planet, but skep-
tics fear it will be a doomsday
machine, a cheap and efficient way
for Vagans to rid themselves of galac-
tic competition. Meanwhile, the
clergy debate on whether the
message is from God or Satan.
Finally, an international consensus is
CARL SAGAN: Notice the multi-function digital watch.
reached, and construction of the
Machine begins. The rest of the story
concerns the effort to build the
machine, but it concerns much more
as well.
Contact is primarily a novel about
Earth. Indeed, less than 50 of the
book's 430 pages are devoted to ex-
traterrestrial action. The emphasis is
rather on the effect of the message,
its impact on human civilization.
One effect of the Message is the
emergence of religious zealotry,
spawned by fear of what is widely
believed to be an omen of the
Judgement Day. Palmer Joss, a fun-
damentalist Christian minister,
amid this atmosphere of pious fervor
becomes influential in the in-
terpretation of the Message. Sagan
uses the minister's prominence as an
opportunity to stage a great debate
between science and religion, the
conclusion of which demonstrates the
author's mastery of irony: the scien-
tists faithfully follow the Vegan
message as if it were a revelation
from God, while the religious leaders
assume a scientist's skepticism.
Sagan, though himself an agnostic,
subtly acknowledges that at the core
of every belief system, science in-
cluded, is a faith, not only in its
method of acquiring knowledge, but
as well in the absolute validity of its
mission.
The Message produces another ef-
fect, this one restorative to the
planet's health. The importance of
world politics is subordinate to the in-
ternatonal effort to build the
Machine, and ideological conflicts are
downplayed. Sagan manipulates the
familiar theme of the world banding
together in the face of an alien in-
vasion, and adorns it with a
significant variation. In Contact, the
world bands together for the sake of
learning, though there is no apparent
threat of destruction. The author later
reveals, through the voice of an ex-
traterrestrial, that the two themes
are really one in the same: the
civilizations that cooperate are the
leaders of the galaxy, while those that
infight eventually destroy them-
selves.
Although Sagan's vision of the Ear-
th is not entirely utopian, it is marked
by two optimistic aspects. First, a
reduction of nuclear arms ensues as
nations re-allocate their resources
toward building the Machine. Second,
nationalist fervor decreases
throughout the world. People feel
small in comparison to superin-
telligent beings, although the aliens
subsequently insist that Earthlings
have much to offer the universe.
The new humility is conveyed in the
following passage: It's hard to think
of your primary allegiance as Scot-
tish or Slovenian or Szechuanese
when you're all being hailed in-
discriminately by a civilization
millennia ahead of you.
In addition to being a sociological
novel, Contact is a profound
psychological study. Sagan deftly
weaves the motifs of alienation,
abandonment, and communication
into the fabric of the novel. He uses
the protagonist's psyche as the scene
for the interplay of these themes.
Eleanor's search for extraterrestrial
life corresponds to a longing for her
father, who died when she was a girl.
Indeed, her first "religious" ex-
perience involves a romantic en-
counter with the late Ted Arroway.
Furthermore, Eleanor's disdain for
religious leaders corresponds to her
hatred for her stepfather, whose
"falsely prophetic" belief in religion
contradicted her father's
agnosticism. These correlations bet-
ween Eleanor's psychology and her
actions are not accidental. They are
subtly orchestrated by an author with
a sensitive understanding of human
nature.,
Unfortunately, some aspects of
Eleanor's character are poorly
developed. In particular, her political
opinions, which are of primary im-
portance in this novel, seem to come
from nowhere. The perceptive reader
will have no trouble hearing the
author speak through Eleanor in or-
der to propagate his own views. Ayn
Rand did much that same thing by
speaking through Howard Rourke in
the Fountainhead, among others, so
Sagan is in good litertary company.
However, he did miss the opportunity
to deepen Eleanor's character by ex-
plaining the origin of her Weltan-
schauung.
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(Continued from Page.2)
to me. The Michigan Theatre seats
thirteen hundred, if less than seven-
teen hundred tickets are sold (two
shows) I don't make any money. I'm
not making bucks on this show. I
really couldn't do it any cheaper."
(Tickets are $10.50)
"Why are you going out of your way
to make a stand-up comedy show of
national proportions work in Ann Ar-
bor?" I asked. "I always want to push
myself farther," answered Binder,
"I'm never going to say I'm done, I
made it. Mike Binder is never going to
make it. A year and a half ago all I
wanted was to pull off the Detroit
Comedy Jam, and I did it. Now I'm
writing Coupe De Ville for Rollins and
Jaffe. But I'm still saying when I
make :t. In my career there's a hole, a
gap that's never filled. I'm never
completely satisfied."
Binder's career started back in
1976 when he left his home in Bir-
mingham, Michigan (he was 18 at the
time) to go to Hollywood. "I had $700
at the time," said Binder, "and more
confidence than at any other time sin-
ce then. As far as I was concerned
there was no reason I couldn't take on
the world. I thought I'd be a major
star."
After five months of doing stand-up
in Hollywood clubs, Norman Lear
discovered him and put him in a
television pilot called Apple Pie. The
show fizzled, but despite obstacles
such as his rather poor living ac-
commodations, Binder kept pushing
himself.
On living in Hollywood Binder said:
"I lived in a sleazy place on Sunset
Boulevard. I had artsy posters with
frames, and I decorated the place. I
had this real romantic notion of life in
Hollywood. Hookers worked in the
apartments next to mine and I used to
invite them to see the place. I'd be
real suave and say, 'Hey I'm in show
business!' Usually they were too tired
to come in."
"While I was trying to break into
television I always felt like a prop,"
said Binder. "It was always 'Hire
me! Hire me!' And if they (the
producers) didn't I was just put back
on the shelf. I was fired from The
Facts of Life. I guess because they
didn't think I was funny enough. My
brand of humor just didn't click with
the girls on the show. I'm grateful
that I'm not a sitcom star though -
I'd be richer and pick up girls better
at Denny's, but now I am right where
I should be. I don't have any hard
feelings. Producers rejected me,
were rude to me, but the whole
scheme is bigger than they are
anyway..."
T WENTY-SIX YEAR-OLD
comedian David Coulier would
probably be helping hishfriend Mike
Binder pass out fliers if he didn't live
out in Hollywood. Coulier has ap-
peared on the Tonight Show, Detroit
Comedy Jam, Showtime's
Laughathon, Evening at the Improv,
Cheech and Chong's Things Are
Tough All Over, as well as on his own
prime-time show, Out of Control,
which airs on Nickelodeon. Like Bin-
der he is far from complacent. When
asked if he has made it he replied em-
phatically, "No, not at all. People will
say 'God, you've been on national
television - you've made it.' I myself
feel like a baby just starting to crawl.
If I could say where I'd like to be
ultimately, I have my own network
show or a three-picture movie deal."
And if he reached that goal? "I'd
want to be in another movie, write
another screenplay, sell another
book. Regardless of the situation I'm
never satisfied."
Coulier furnished his view of stand-
up comedy. "Stand-up is an im-
mediate fix. The crowd is right there
giving you back energy. If you're
writing a film you have to wait for
that response. The energy keeps me
in it (stand-up). Once you become a
comic you become a junkie - you
always want that fix... I think a lot of
comedians are insecure. I mean we
all are to a degree, but I think stand-
up comedians need the acceptance
every night... people saying 'God you
were great, we loved you.' I need that
too."
MY INTERVIEW with Chicago-
based comedienne Judy Tenuta
was somewhere between
metaphysical and entertaining.
On how she got started in the
comedy business Tenuta said: "Well,
actually you see, I didn't have any
choice. I had so many people wor-
shipping me. I'm like a love godess.
People kept stealing my garbage and
they always wanted articles of my
clothing. So that's how I got started."
What kind of follow up question do you
ask after you hear that?
Tenuta (who just completed a rock
video in which she falls in love with
Larry Bud Mellman from the Letter-
man show) continued, "I was born in
Oak Park, Illinois, which is also the
home of Ernest Hemingway and
Frank Lloyd Wright, so a lot of times I
like to sit in an uncomfortable chair
and shoot moose."
On her goals for the future she said:
"Well, I want to take a lot of fertility
drugs and live off a used car
salesman."
Tenuta later commented on the
relationship between audience and
comedian. "Once in a while you get
drunken people. Let's say someone's
heckling me. That kind of inflates my
wrath so I start punishing them. Most
of the audience really likes that...
Comedy should be an emotional thing.
I think it is really important to deal
with people in an emotional way
because otherwise they are just wat-
ching someone on automatic pilot.
Some comics think doing a routine
should be like delivering the news. For
me it's a live artform."
Audience participation means a lot
to the comedienne, and sometimes
she'll go to great lengths to attain it.
"Sometimes I'll bring some people up
on stage to dance to a song. If the I'
crowd is just kind of sitting there and
they are really apathetic or da
something I'll scream at them or we
come up to them. Somehow I get a ma
reaction out of them, whether it is to
positive or negative at least they're st
feeling something." ted
The idea of comedy as a business to
disturbs her. "Some comedians," dc
said Tenuta, "get up on stage and say wo
to themselves 'I'm gonna make my bu
money' and that's it. If you're just in wa
comedy as a businessman then you a
might as well sell computers, I think. de
Because you might have something
funny to say at first, in a shallow way wi
but it doesn't get to the heart of what pr
people want to know. Actually people es
want to be effected emotionally na
somehow. People want to be made to thi
feel better or to think. If it's just a p
business then you're really barely Ni
scratching the surface."Sni
In Tenuta's opinion there are many Ha
untalented personalities on television. (w
"My day will come, however," she pe
explained. "See, the more depth you m
have the more difficult it is for people ma
to accept you. Television tends to itv
make almost mediocre people look do
good. In some ways it is a two- ar
dimensional medium. A lot of times lel
(on television) they'll only give you sa
five minutes, so if you have a pretty th
basic act you can look better than you de
would in person."
R ICH HALL, a Saturday Night he
Live regular, got his start in lo
comedy be doing stand-up shows in di
the streets of Los Angeles. Hall ex- hi
plained the difference between doing SA
a scripted piece and stand-up. "In a ev
skit (like those on Saturday Night So
Live) you are working with shi
something that has been tested. With tli
stand-up you never know how the th
crowd will react. There's a lot more
energy in it... If you can take a couple bo
hundred people and make them laugh as
I consider that making it. I don't need lik
to be a household name to feel that -
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