8 - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, October 21, 1997 'X-Files' Cancer Man lands at EMU By Gabiel Smith FQr the Daily - Often clouded in smoke and mystery, William B. Davis' character has become a favorite among "X- Files" fins across the country. Aptly dubbed "Cancer Man" by the internetters, Cancer Man has served as a giant thorn in the side of chief character Fox Mulder (David Duchovny). U Ironically, the man who plays the chain-smoking nemesis is a Pe former chain smoker himself, who hasn't touched a cigarette in more than 15 years. The ciga- rettes that are smoked on the "X-Files" set are herbal. Davis is on hiatus at the moment, and will bring the crisp suits and second-hand smoke of Cancer Man to Ypsilanti and Eastern Michigan University. Davis will perform in the character of Cancer Man, cigarette in hand in Pease Auditorium at 7 tonight. Afterward, he .will moderate a debate titled "Aliens: The Truth is Out .There," featuring experts John Mack and Gentry Lee. "The aura of mystery about his character makes him a perfect choice to moderate this event," said Melissa Ginotti. Eastern's Spectrum Lecture Series Program Coordinator. John Mack is an M.D. and professor of psychiatry at Harvard.Medical School along with being a Pulitzer Prize-winner. Mack has spent four years working with 76 patients who claim contact with aliens. In a New Fork Times book review, Mack said he has "grown to w ?a believe that aliens are calling us to participate in the wisdom of a larger, more generous reality." Opposing him is B. Gentry Lee, a science fiction novelist, aerospace engineer and computer game designer. Lee has authored "Cradle" and the "Rama" series with legendary sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke. Lee's books have been national EWbest-sellers. He was also the Chief E V I E Engineer for the Galileo space- Cancer Man craft that encountered Jupiter, se Auditoruim, along with holding a variety of EMU leadership positions on Viking, Tonight at 7 - free the space mission that landed two spacecraft on Mars in 1976. Lee has also partnered with the late Carl Sagan in the cre- ation and production of the Emmy-award winning "Cosmos" television series. When the X-Files premiered in 1993, Davis' char- acter didn't even utter any lines, and it wasn't until he appeared in 20 more episodes that Cancer Man got to speak his first line. Without fail, Cancer Man grew in popularity, and that meant a greater role for Davis. Growing up in Toronto, Davis studied theater and philosophy at the University of Toronto, then trekked to Great Britain to train at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts. After a year of study, he stayed in Great Britain, directing the Dundee Repertory Theatre. In the mid-'60s, Davis found his way back to Canada where he became the artistic director of the National Theatre School of Canada. After many years of teach- ing, Davis found his way back to acting. Roles on "MacGyver" and Stephen King's "It" followed, along with the extremely short-lived series "Airwolf 2." On the big screen, Davis can be seen in the comedy hit "Look Who's Talking" and "The Dead Zone." Davis moved to the West Coast in 1985 to run the Vancouver Playhouse, and opened his own school: The William Davis Centre for Acting Studies. In an interview with the Toronto Sun last year, Davis talked about the driving force behind the enigmatic character. "I'm really saving the world. It's imperative to shut out people like Mulder because if they actually reveal what the truth is, the world would be overcome with chaos,"he told the Sun. However, many people would beg to differ, includ- ing "X-Files" creator Chris Carter. "Chris has referred to the character as the devil. So there's this kind of sense of smoke as well as of course, the malignancy of cancer," Davis said. Currently, Davis has been keeping busy with roles in television's "The Outer Limits" and "Poltergeist," along with brand new "X-Files" episodes. With Cancer Man's popularity ever increasing, that means more appearances for Davis. Davis will return as Cancer Man along with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson as Mulder and Scully in the brand new "X-Files" movie, slated for next summer. Cancer Man's character allows us a glimpse into a world where darkness surrounds us; paranoia and fear are rules of life. Davis will keep coming back on the "X-Files" with more surprises. "X Fies"'s Cancer Man brings mystery to EMU's Pease Auditorium tonight at 7. I ____________________________ ______________ 1 RAND INFORMATION SESSION Thursday October 23, 1997 4pm Michigan Union - Bates Room RAND, located in Santa Monica, CA is a nonprofit institution that helps improve public policy through research and analysis. RAND researchers operate on a broad front, assisting public policymakers at all levels, private sector leaders in many industries, and the public at large in efforts to strengthen the nation's economy, maintain its security, and improve its quality of life. They do so by analyzing choices and develop- ments in many areas, including national defense, edu- cation and training, health care, criminal and civil justice, labor and population, science and technology, community development, international relations, and regional studies. RAND has a variety of research opportunities for Ph.D. candidates and also offers summer internships for students who have completed at least two years of Ph.D. work. The RAND Graduate School of Policy Studies offers a fully accredited Ph.D. program awarding the Doctorate in,. Policy Analysis. RAND also has postdoctoral opportunities including a Professional Development Fellowship for Minority Scholars. For more informa- tion, see our Web Page at http://www.rand.org or contact Kenneth Logan, RAND 1700 Main St, PO Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407 RAND is an Affirmative Action Employer. Overworked themes plague Wenders' fragmented 'Violence' I %-F student discounts on domestic. travelytoo. 800-777-0112 www.sta-travel.com By Neal C. Carruth Daily Arts Writer The new Wim Wenders picture "The End of Violence" pre- sents an intriguing, but ultimately unsuccessful, vision of the difficulty of achieving genuine human contact in our increas- ingly wired world. The film stars Bill Pullman, Andie McDowell and Gabriel R Byrne, and is based on a screenplay by R Wenders and Nicholas Klein. Pullman plays Mike Max, a Hollywood film producer who turns out slick, violent films that give the audience exactly what they want. He manages his productions from his sumptuous oceanside home, where he sits by the pool in a specially designed contraption that allows him to take phone calls while watching the dailies for his films-in-production. Parallel to the story of Max runs the story of Ray Bering (Byrne), a computer scientist who has been hired to develop a surveillance system that will monitor the entire Los Angeles metropolitan area to increase police response time and pro-. vide clear-cut evidence in criminal cases. As one character says, "It will bring about the end of violence as we know it." But it is obvious that the project will be put to malevolent and authoritarian uses by a sinister character named Brice Phelps (played by "Murder One"'s Daniel Benzali). As the film wears on, and begins to wear on one's patience, Winders weaves together the stories of his central characters and puts them both in jeopardy. A forgotten chance meeting between Max and Bering results in a pile-up of bodies. Max becomes a murder suspect and is forced to live underground with a strong-willed, hard- working Mexican family. Max's protectors teach him that money and power are not as important as trust and decency. For a filmmaker as talented as Wenders, this material is incredibly heavy-handed What makes "The End of Violence" even more irritating is that most people already assume that the information revolu- tion has made it possible for the government to monitor our E .E lives. We have already accepted the potentially Orwelli consequences of this sea change, so there is little room for Wenders to provide a cautionary tale. To put it crudely, helhas merely given us an art-house version of "The Net." But he does not possess the right configuration of talents to craft a slick thriller, like Hollywood E V I E. W (or Mike Max) would have made with this material. Wenders is motivated by The End of different concerns. Unfortunate1y, they Violence seem somewhat jumbled in "Violence" ** as though Wenders wasn't exactly sl* At Ann Arbor 1 & 2 what he wanted to say. In addition to these by-now trite information age themes, Wenders wants to explore the nature of the medium of film. The opening images of the movie call attention to themselves as scenes in afilm. Wenders also plays around with problems of genre and makes witty references to the cinematic process. However, he does not consistently pursue this track throughout, leading his ideas to appear as something of an afterthought. On the positive side, one cannot complain about t acting, reassuring the concerned viewer that Wende still knows how to work with actors. Pullman hasa4l.the right qualities to play a contemporary noir figure, and he does a fine job here. Byrne, in line with expectations, lends his patented melancholy intensity to the character of Bering. And Andie McDowell, who is usual.ly-just short of embarrassing, is impressive as Max's wife Paige. As if his plate weren't full enough, though, Wenders throws in a "hopeful" romantic subplot involving an over-educated detective (Loren Dean) and ast woman/aspiring actress (Traci Lind). These two cto complicate the emotional register, doing violence to the film, and causing it to fragment even more. While all of the lead and supporting actors shine in their respective roles, the individual performances and overworked themes fail to fit together into a coherent whole," Wa~yne State Lkiversity FOUR URBAN LIBRARY FELLOWSHIPS AVAILABLE AT WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY Students interested in working in public, school, or academic libraries in urban areas are encouraged to apply for one of four fellowships avail- able through Wayne State University's Library and Information Science Program. The fellowships will provide tuition, fees, books and a stipend for one year. The Library and Information Science Program will provide funding for all management and project costs. To be eligible, applicants must meet Wayne State University's Graduate School and Library and information Science Program admission criteria and must plan to spe- cialize in public or academic urban librarianship. Awards are limited to ethnic and racial minorities. Upon completion of the fellowship, students will be awarded a Master of Library and Information Science degree. Fellowship applicants should forward a letter of interest, a current resume and a two-page statement that includes information on current academic status, career goals and the applicant's qualifications for this fellowship by Nov. 10, 1997 to: Dr. Robert P. Holley Urban Libraries Career Training Fellowship Library and Information Science Program Wayne State University 106 Kresge Library Detroit, MI 48202 Manguel brings History' to Shaman By Jessica Eaton Daily Books Editor The ability to read is something that comes to us magically when we are four or five years old. We look at the random symbols in front of us and know why they are there and what they mean. Suddenly, at that moment in time, the world seems to make a lit- tle more sense, yet it also expands in a frightening way. These strings of characters connect us to everything outside of our tiny realm of safety. WEE r "Oustanding...Four Stars!" --The Detroit News "One of Michigan's Top Ten!" --The Zagat Guide We grow up, and reading becomes a function as natural to us as breathing. We go through the stage when we read every word in front of us, including advertisements and street signs. We read junior-high PR young adult novels, Alb cookbooks, math books. We "read" other people around us. Most of us never actually think of the process of reading as we peer studiously into a textbook or consider the choices on the menu at McDonald's. Very few of us still gaze into a novel with the same wonder we had as we read "Good Night, Moon" when we were young. Alberto Manguel recognized that problem, and it inspired him to write "A History of Reading." He will be reading from this book, recently released in paperback, this evening at Shaman Drum. Manguel readily admits that he is not a scholar; this is not a book of literary analysis or criticism. Rather, it is simply his rambling expression of his joy in reading, a "love letter" to the creation of the written word itself. Manguel began the project with an essay, an examination of what charac- teristics classify someone as a reader and why books are written from the point of view of the writer, rather than the reader - when the reader deter- mines what will constitute a classic. He discovered that his ultimate goal was to know what a book is. Seven xarc ater. he wac nfinhrI it hi er are chapters on what exactly make reader, why people read silently, why people own books and what happens when one reads for a specifie.pur- pose. This book is by E V I E W no means.meant rto Manguei as a technical resource ,for the Tonight at 8 student of-litera- Shaman Drum nture. It is mean Free_ for the pers who loves reading as much as Manguel does and can appreciate each of his various tan- gents. "A History of Reading" also cortains a fold-out timeline displaying the high points of ... well, of the history Qf read- ing. Peppered with quotes from- Vtaire and Whitman, it covers a time spanning from 4000 B.C. to the present ;day. Though not meant for the casua reader of romance and suspense nov- els, literature lovers may find this trivia (such as the fact that Denis Diderot cured his wife's depression by reading raunchy literature to her) fascinating. Manguel, in a recent interview, said, "Readers seem (through this book) to discover that they belong to a community; they hadn't dared.* believe that they belonged to=,.ACcom- munity and that they had certain pow- ers. Now they feel ... that they have a history." And what about you, the reader of textbooks, who hasn't read ,a-novel since the seventh grade and-_would never real hook for the sheer nleasure