Contact

Very well written, a love story about science. However, I like a good plot, and this book is just about what it says: the events leading up to mankind first contact with an alien race.

The story is told through the main character, a woman who overcomes the prejudices of a men dominated field of astronomy and becomes the leader of the SETI program. With the help of a new kind of radioscope she helped to develop, in the imminence of the cancellation of her work, she peaks up a signal, that turned out to be a message coming from a far away galaxy in space.

There is a lot of praise for science and scientific achievements through the story.

I am a huge fan of Carl Sagan and somehow I haven't read this book before. I have seen the movie probably in the beginning of 2000 but I really didn't remember the details of the story so I decided to finally read the book and forget the movie.

I love the idea of this book! And, of course, Dr. Ellie Arroway, the scientist genius that built her way up to being the director of ???Project Argus???, a radio telescope institute for research into SETI (???search for extraterrestrial intelligence???). The mix of real scientific research and science fiction is done brilliantly, making us wonder why we haven't received any signal from space yet? It is very plausible. Of course, SETI is a real program that still exists but we haven't any search results after more than 50 years.

Although the book was written in the 80's, with a Cold War political background, the religious, political and scientific ethics discussions are amazing. It raises questions about the purpose of humanity, the dangers (and fears) of contacting an alien species, the importance and the flaws of religion, the utopic search for peace and so on.

Another point that amazed me is that Ellie is a feminist brilliant scientist written by a man in the 80's. I identified myself with her because she is a girl that pursued her interests into a field usually dominated by men. If we look at sci-fi written around this period it's very uncommon to have a female protagonist like her.

Having re-watched the movie many times, I thought it was finally time to give the book a shot. It matches up surprisingly well with the movie, with smart cuts from the book - I was actually impressed by that. The book goes more into Elles family life, which has a different dynamic than the movie.

The part I enjoyed the most in the book were the discussions between Elle and religious leaders. The book went much more into these discussions than in the book. Probably my favorite quotes from the book was by Elle when discussing world overpopulation: “A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.”

Overall some definite differences between the book and the movie, but not so much that you're going to be surprised by what's happening.

Stories about the future are rarely about the future; they're usually about here and now. That is also often true about first contact stories as well - they're about how we see ourselves, rather than about aliens, and have been since HG Wells wrote War of the Worlds. In Contact, Sagan seems to acknowledge both of those maxims, and tells a story imperceptibly into his future and featuring aliens that are mostly absent from the narrative. Instead, he tells a story about first contact and what it would do to our culture to learn, with absolute certainty, that we are not alone - how it would frighten us, but also inspire us to grow, and to appeal to us to put aside the differences that divide us and work together for a common goal. Perhaps that - the idea of Cold War enemies coming together in 1985 - was the most fantastical element of the story. Perhaps it still is.

This was beautiful and sublime in ways that I didn't expect. I knew the story of course (I loved the film that came out in 1997), but for some reason I had low expectations of the novel. Given that the world outside our windows feels chaotic and doom-filled right now, the message of optimism and hope was very refreshing for me.

Having re-watched the movie many times, I thought it was finally time to give the book a shot. It matches up surprisingly well with the movie, with smart cuts from the book - I was actually impressed by that. The book goes more into Elles family life, which has a different dynamic than the movie.

The part I enjoyed the most in the book were the discussions between Elle and religious leaders. The book went much more into these discussions than in the book. Probably my favorite quotes from the book was by Elle when discussing world overpopulation: “A celibate clergy is an especially good idea, because it tends to suppress any hereditary propensity toward fanaticism.”

Overall some definite differences between the book and the movie, but not so much that you're going to be surprised by what's happening.

I love Sagan as a nonfiction writer, where he shines bright, but I find him lacking in his fiction writing. Go read his nonfiction, because it's amazing, for example “The Demon Haunted World” and “Pale Blue Dot” among others. He was a brilliant writer and science ambassador. I deeply admire and respect his nonfiction work.

Contact, in originale “Contact” è un romanzo di fantascienza scritto da Carl Sagan, noto astronomo, pubblicato nel 1985. Attraverso il romanzo l'autore veicola le proprie idee riguardanti molti dei suoi interessi nella vita reale, ed in particolare l'ipotesi di come potrebbe svolgersi il primo contatto con esseri extraterrestri. Nel 1997 ne è stato tratto l'omonimo adattamento cinematografico, interpretato dall'attrice Jodie Foster e diretto da Robert Zemeckis. La versione cinematografica è stata scritta a grandi linee dallo stesso Sagan e da sua moglie Ann Druyan, e successivamente adattata a script dagli sceneggiatori.

La traccia della trama è questa: Ellie è il direttore del “Progetto Argus,” nel quale i segnali provenienti dallo spazio e captati da radiotelescopi nel Nuovo Messico sono analizzati intensivamente per cercare l'intelligenza extraterrestre (SETI). Dopo un po', il progetto scopre, effettivamente, la prima comunicazione confermata da esseri extraterrestri, un'ulteriore analisi del messaggio rivela che due messaggi supplementari sono codificati all'interno di esso. Il secondo messaggio è un abecedario, una specie di manuale d'istruzioni che insegna come leggere ulteriori comunicazioni. Il terzo è il messaggio vero e proprio, i progetti per una macchina che sembra essere un genere di veicolo altamente avanzato, destinata ad ospitare un equipaggio umano. Infine, una macchina è costruita con successo ed attivata, e trasporta cinque passeggeri - compresa Ellie - attraverso i buchi neri in un luogo vicino al centro della Via Lattea, dove vengono a contatto con i mittenti del messaggio. Molte delle domande dei viaggiatori trovano risposta. Al ritorno, i passeggeri scoprono che la loro esperienza che soggettivamente per loro era durata molte ore, sulla Terra era durata solo circa venti minuti, e che tutta la loro registrazione video è stata cancellata, presumibilmente da un certo fenomeno nel veicolo. Rimangono pertanto privi di prove del loro racconto.

Il romanzo è stato adottato come modello dai fautori principali del movimento del disegno intelligente, benché Sagan fosse notoriamente agnostico e impegnato nel rigore e nell'opposizione scientifici ed intellettuali alla “nozione di un dio che ha generato tutto.” Ann Druyan, vedova di Sagan, ha detto che “non ha mai desiderato credere. Ha desiderato sapere.” I fautori di un disegno intelligente citano spesso questa frase e la conclusione di Contact come prova che Sagan credesse che, per mezzo degli strumenti della scienza, sarebbe stato possibile scoprire se ci fosse un creatore dell'universo. Questa posizione appare in conflitto diretto con il corpo ampio delle visioni di Sagan come rappresentate nelle sue opere e scritti, che sono descritte meglio come distanti dalle pretese di origini soprannaturali dell'universo e favoriscono spiegazioni di origine naturalistica.

Ma in definitiva, lasciando da parte tutte le disquisizioni teologiche, scientifiche e umanitarie il romanzo in sé com'è? Per il sottoscritto è stato molto deludente, noioso, scontato, la lettura piuttosto lenta, estremamente prolisso dove il vero e proprio decollo narrativo e scientifico avviene nelle ultime 90 pagine, su quasi 400 totali.

In sintesi, a parer mio, il libro è lento, la narrazione stanca e non brilla per nulla.

Such an amazing book. Much better than the movie, and the movie was great to begin with. I don't want to spoil anything for you, especially if you have seen the movie because there are slight differences that make the book much more entertaining. This is by far, the best book that I have EVER read!