Apatt's Reviews > Contact

As far as I know Contact is Carl Sagan's only novel. This makes him almost the Harper Lee of sci-fi (though he did write boatloads of sci-fact books). Not being much of a nonfiction reader this is my first encounter with Carl Sagan's writing, I already feel like it is a shame that he only wrote the one novel; though I am sure the world is more than compensated by his other output.

Contact piqued my interest immediately with a vivid portrayal of Ellie Arrowway, a two years old genius, figuring out how a radio works and fixing a tube by straightening a bent prong. The girl’s thought processes throughout this scene are very clearly described. From there we follow Ellie’s growth into adulthood and becoming the director of “Project Argus”, a radio telescope institute for research into SETI (“search for extraterrestrial intelligence”). One day a message ostensibly from the Vega system, 25 light-years from Earth is received. Initially, it seems like just a looping series of prime numbers, remarkable in itself but of no practical value. Later a careful analysis of the modulations in the transmission reveals hidden messages, making the broadcast a kind of space palimpsest. One of the hidden messages turns out to be a blueprint for a mysterious machine containing five comfy chairs. Well, nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

I was fascinated by the hard sf aspect of Contact. Sagan’s popular science writing skills serve the readers well here, the science expositions in this book are generally understandable and often fascinating. I also had a feeling that Sagan is enjoying the relative freedom of writing fiction, even though he clearly seems to have a preference for writing nonfiction. In any case, this novel is partly autobiographical in that SETI was an important part of Sagan’s career. He has clearly thought out the worldwide implications of humanity receiving a communication from an undisputed extraterrestrial intelligence. The hitherto impossible level of cooperation between unfriendly countries to use their radio telescopes to help pick up and compile parts of “The Message” received as the Earth rotates. The panic and condemnations from some religious leaders are all too believable.

Contact is also a platform for Sagan to explore religion from his agnostic point of view. I really appreciate that he is not overbearing about his agnosticism, and it is just one aspect of this book of many facets. The diametrically different viewpoints between Ellie and a religious figure are articulately argued on both sides, but the agnostic view seems more convincingly presented (Ellie is basically a mouthpiece for the author at this point). It is interesting that Sagan seems to think that both atheists and Christians presume to know too much, taking their conjectures as fact. Agnosticism is presented as the happy medium.

Even though I had a sense that Sagan enjoyed writing Contact very much, it does not mean that the novel is a romp or a hoot. It is mostly narrated at a deliberate, thoughtful pace, and only ramps up a bit when the alien designed Machine is activated and weird sci-fi-ness ensues. I thoroughly enjoyed and admire Contact, it is thought provoking, fascinating and even educational. I wish he had written a sequel.

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A word about the 1997 Movie Adaptation

I remember quite liking the movie, and Jodie Foster is always great. However, while I enjoyed the movie for what it was, I was disappointed in it as a sci-fi movie. For the longest time, it dissuaded me from picking up the source material. Having just read Sagan’s novel it seems as if the filmmaker has somehow de-sci-fied it, making the movie rather ambiguous about whether the aliens really did send a message or Ellie is simply off her rocker. In a single brief scene the movie clearly implies that the aliens are indeed real but by then I think the damage is already done. The movie feels more like a fairly decent human drama than an intelligent sci-fi film.
Carl Sagan was also not happy about the adaptation, though he passed away before it was finished.

The book is overtly, spectacularly, unapologetically sci-fi.