10 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 10, 1998 Two Gen-X books slack off' Courtesy of Universal Tom Hanks, pictured here spacing out with Kevin Bacon in "Apollo 13," is generating controversy for the HBO miniseries he produced, "From the Earth to the Moon," a 12-part account of NASA's Apollo missions. Netw-ork ee wa t HOLLYWOOD - Even before its launch last Sunday, Home Box Office's splashy docudrama "From the Earth to the Moon" was generating Earth-bound controversy regarding its classification for the nighttime Emmy Awards. Specifically, top executives at NBC, CBS, ABC and the USA cable network have written the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, the body that governs the Emmys, vehemently objecting to the 12-hour production being entered as a candidate for out- standing miniseries. Also taking part in the campaign is Robert Halmi Sr., the producer of several major miniseries, including last year's Emmy winner, "The Odyssey," as well as USA's recent "Moby Dick," starring Patrick Stewart, and NBC's upcoming "Merlin," with Sam Neill. "I find it outrageous that HBO is able to call this series a miniseries" said USA Networks President Rod Perth. "They are in direct violation of Emmy rules." Halmi and representatives at the other networks declined comment, but a source said the consensus among them is that this represents another case of HBO "manipulating" the Emmy process, having used its success garnering awards as a market- ing tool for the pay channel. Under Emmy guidelines, the net- -works contend that "From the Earth to the Moon" qualifies as a series, not a miniseries, because it features dif- ferent directors on each episode and chronicles various stories from the space program in a less linear fashion than is the norm on miniseries. The program's chances of winning would doubtless diminish in the series category, which features more formi- dable competition, including such programs as "ER," "NYPD Blue," "The X-Files" and "Law & Order." A spokesperson for the television academy said it was premature to dis- cuss the matter because "From the Earth to the Moon" has yet to be for- mally submitted for Emmy considera- tion, with April 24 as the entry dead- line. But, sources say there has already been considerable discussion within the organization about how to handle the situation. In addition, HBO confirmed that the network's intention is to submit the program for consideration as a miniseries. "For anyone who has read the rules, it is obvious that 'From the Earth to the Moon' qualifies as a miniseries. To suggest otherwise is ludicrous," a network spokesperson said Friday. The spat highlights a larger issue - what one network executive described as "real displeasure" with the academy regarding award poli- cies. Some network officials, in fact, have pressed for the academy to establish a separate category for cable movies, noting that HBO, as a sub- scription service, doesn't rely on advertising and generally spends far more than broadcasters to produce and promote its films. HBO films have won the Emmy for best movie five consecutive years. HBO officials have countered in the past by pointing out that higher budgets provide no assurance of qual- ity, and that network owners Disney (ABC), General Electric (NBC), News Corp. (Fox) and Westinghouse (CBS) clearly have the resources to compete with the Time Warner-owned channel. Halmi and NBC, for exam- ple, spent nearly $30 million on their four-hour "The Odyssey," and at least as much has gone into "Merlin." The priorities are different at H BO, however, whose prestige projects - including Emmy-nominated comedy "The Larry Sanders Show" and movies such as "Miss Evers' Boys,' "Don King: Only in America" and the abor- tion-themed "If These Walls Could Talk" - draw attention to the service, which is half the battle in helping con- vince people they should subscribe. The next Emmys will be presented in September and televised on NBC, in the final year of an agreement in which the show has rotated among the four major networks. Emmy nomina- tions will be announced in July. Despite their complaints, the net- works continue selling commercial time to HBO, including recent nation- al or local ads for "From the Earth to the Moon" that aired during the Academy Awards and coverage of the NCAA basketball championship. Sources say HBO has spent from $8 million to $10 million promoting and advertising the project. The Siege of Gresham Ray Murphy AK Press * The world only needs one Thomas Pynchon, a writer who brilliantly manages to balance modern-day cynicism, decay, commercialism in some of this half century's best writing. But Ray Murphy, in his new book, "The Siege of Gresham," seems to think we need two. "Many were lost," Murphy declares about the state of society in his opening chapter, preaching to his readers in an abusive, post-apocalyptic style mastered by movies "Blade Runner" and. writers like William Burroughs. Murphy picks 14 alcoholic anti-heroes, whose meaning- less, boredom-drenched lives are painfully similar to Pynchon's "whole sick crew" in his novel "V" Similarities aside, Murphy's plot is impotent com- pared to the intricate plots of Pynchon's novels. This group decides after a few drinks too many to embark on a war against Portland's suburb of Gresham. Gresham is a false Eden embodying consumer cul- ture's cookie-cutter excesses and the middle class' rejection of the 14 friends. And all too typically, their quest ends in postmodern anti-climax, reminding the reader once again that life is strange and everything is meaningless. This quest pits them against an array of stereotypical villains of modern day drudgery: skinheads, bureaucratic post-office workers and gang-members. These confrontations are punctuated by supposedly uncon- sciously spoken bits of apocalyptic wis- dom reminding the reader of all the little problems of modern life. Murphy abandons characterization for flat, theme-pointing lines like "'Why can't I even say what I mean half the time,' said Debbie querulously" Murphy struggles to evoke immedi acy and confusion with disjointed diction and hor- rible punctuation abuse -techniques that only suc- ceed in producing frustrating lines. Without a solid character base, Murphy resorts to revealing his themes through the strange, dictionary- aided cynicism of his supposedly muddled narrator: "I experienced a sense of renewal coexistive with a rising dread." Along with his uninteresting characters, Murphy lets incoherent violence remind the reader again how desensitized and purposeless modern audiences are. "Sex and violence never appeared so vital," the book's cover cheers, hoping to herald the work as revitalized pulp fiction. Finally, his barely concealed themes remind one of an apocalyptic TV evangelist who just won't stop reminding us about the horrible state of the world. "Siege" is self- consciously obscene, reducing Murphy's message to such trite, garbled phrases as "I realized now, viscerally, that the great conviction of my adulthood was that I stood on ethics shortly to be resolved as severely flawed, blinded, by self-interest." With all of its problems, Murphy's book is a reminder, at best, of two things: Yes, the world is a dark place with little meaning, but there are vastly better ways of dealing with the crisis of the MTV generation in art. -Jason Boog Are you sick of stupid "information superhighway" jokes? You will be. And the author who will bring it to you? Bruce Bethke. Bruce Bethke's newest novel, "H eaderash," is a humor- ous look at the cyberpunk genre, but the book does not stay true to its satirical intentions. Somewhere around the middle of the novel, the plot takes over and all satirical pretensions fall away exposing the book as a cheap and unoriginal clone of better cyberpunk works. The protagonist, Jack Burroughs, is by day a drone at an enormous computer company and by night hacker extmor- dinaire Max Kool Jack spends his time playing Doom- esque virtual reality games in his office and slumming with his best friend, Joe LeMat, aka Gunnar Savage, on the Internet. Here is where the awful "information superhigh- way" jokes come in. The Internet is depicted, when Bethke observes its virtual representation, as a large highway. The larger the bandwidth, the more lanes on the highway. The plot, such as it is, is a warmed over rehash of every bad detective cliche in the book. The swell-looking dame, the shady underground figures, the plot twists that no one but the narrator can follow. However, the book has a few saving graces. In attempting to replicate textually the form of hypertext, Bethke uses sidebars very simi- lar to Coupland's "Generation X." "Headerash" begins with Jack being fired from his job, abused by a pack of street-toughs in varsity jackets and being contacted by the swell-looking babe, Amber. After a gratuitous sex scene or two, Amber explains that she has been ripped off by a John Grisham/John Clancy type novelist' and wants the money he owes her. After a few more gratuitous sex scenes, she hires Jack and Joe. The novel is full of seemingly beautiful women who throw themselves at Jack. His co-workers, on-line ex-girlfriends and mys- tery women all desire Jack, for no discernible reason. Every woman in the novel, except, thank God, for Jack's Mom and Joe's girlfriend, try to get into Jack's pants. The real kick comes when Jack becomes an Internet super-user, more specifically, how he becomes a super- user. Jack receives a buttplug that allows him to become a super-user and therefore a superhero. Unfortunately, his enhanced senses are glossed over too soon and the reader is left wanting more. From this point on, the novel gives itself over to mechanically drawing out the plot and insert- ing twists that can be seen a mile off. The novel is rife with puns. From the aforementioned visual highway pun to a couple dozen plays off of the word "cyberpunk, including a group of teenage Afghanistani punks called "Khyberpunks." The original cyberpunk book, "Neuromancer," had carved out an interesting new niche in the science fiction canon and paved the way for more authors to experiment and create. No new ideas were fed into the genre and it withered on the vine. "Headcrash," is the obvious result: cliched, confusing and predictable. - Morgan Johnson a Headcrash Bruce Bethke Vintage 60 U U 4 Professors Tale Plaries _ , mot, S .. ' " mK ' ,.. 1 '.: SK. yS . v'e y 4 ,? Need a little separation from the establishment? How does 30,000 feet sound? Well, thanks to our special Amtrak@ student discounts, there's never been a better time to choose the cool, casual comfort of an Amtrak train. As a special offer, show us your face, a student ID to match, and give them the code "Y814" and you get 10% off. Better yet, if you have a Student Advantage Card stuffed away in your book bag, you get 25%. Go home. Visit friends. Even go back for summer classes if you have to? All at up to 25% off regular fares. You do the math. 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