Contact

[JB]

Meanwhile - back on topic...

I finished rereading this about a fortnight ago. The film (which I've
seen between the first and second reading) had, I thought, stressed the
religious conflict a lot more than I remembered. Not so. The book
actually mentions the conflict enough times to justify the film content.

Other issues I thought were missing

- Hadden's character in the film was well played by John Hurt.
Hadden's demise (or rather, exit) in the book would have been
interesting to film but maybe left it too open-ended for a film audience
("Contact II - the return of Hadden"). An understandable change

- the relationship between Galloway and her father was central - the
fact that she had deceived herself over her father left it open to
suggestion that she had also deceived herself over her hopes for the ETs
that she'd contacted. I thought this could have been better handled.
But again, maybe it wasn't something that the audience could have handled.

- the circle inside Pi (Carl's piece de resistance...) was just
excellent. The film didn't show the deep design of the universe that
this circle demonstrated. Again, maybe a non-mathematical audience
wouldn't have got it.

I'm also surprised at just how readable the book is. Carl's
"Demon-Haunted World" is still my favourite, but he was capable of
writing some easy-going fiction, obviously.

Just some comments.

Jon