View source for Contact (novel)

{{Short description|1985 novel by Carl Sagan}}
{{about|the 1985 Carl Sagan novel|other literature|Contact (disambiguation)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2019}}
{{Infobox book <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name          = Contact
| title_orig    =
| translator    =
| image         = Contact Sagan.jpg
| image_size    = 200px
| caption       = Cover of the first edition
| author        = [[Carl Sagan]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| genre         = [[Science fiction]]
| publisher     = [[Simon & Schuster|Simon and Schuster]]
| pub_date      = September 1985
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover]], [[Paperback]])
| pages         = 432
| isbn          = 0-671-43400-4
| dewey         = 813/.54 19
| congress      = PS3569.A287 C6 1985
| oclc          = 12344811
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
}}

'''''Contact''''' is a 1985 [[hard science fiction]] novel by [[Americans|American]] [[scientist]] [[Carl Sagan]]. The plot of the novel concerns [[Search for extraterrestrial intelligence|contact]] between humanity and a more technologically advanced [[Extraterrestrial life|extraterrestrial life form]]. It ranked No. 7 on ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'''s [[Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1980s#1985|1985 bestseller list]]. The only full work of fiction published by Sagan, the novel originated as a screenplay by Sagan and [[Ann Druyan]] (whom he later married) in 1979; when development of the film stalled, Sagan decided to convert the stalled film into a novel. The film concept was subsequently revived and eventually released in 1997 as the film ''[[Contact (1997 American film)|Contact]]'' starring [[Jodie Foster]].

==Plot==
As a child, Eleanor "Ellie" Arroway shows a strong aptitude for science and mathematics. Dissatisfied with a school lesson, she confirms in a library that [[pi]] is [[Transcendental number|transcendental]]. In sixth grade, her father, Theodore ("Ted"), dies. Her new stepfather, John Staughton, does not support her interests. Ellie resents him and believes her mother remarried out of weakness.

After graduating from [[Harvard University|Harvard]], Ellie earns a doctorate from [[Caltech]] under [[radio astronomer]] David Drumlin. She becomes director of "Project Argus," a New Mexico [[radiotelescope|radio telescope]] array [[Search for extraterrestrial intelligence|searching for extraterrestrial intelligence]] (SETI). This puts her at odds with much of the scientific community, including Drumlin, who pushes to defund SETI. Eventually, the project detects a [[Radio wave|signal]] from [[Vega]], 26 [[Light-year|light-years]] away, transmitting [[prime number]]s.{{efn|A sequence of prime numbers is a commonly predicted first message from alien intelligence, since mathematics is considered a [[universal language]], and it is conjectured that algorithms that produce successive prime numbers are sufficiently complicated so as to require intelligence to implement them.}}{{efn|Later measurements from the ''[[Hipparcos]]'' satellite have re-established the distance to Vega at 25 light years.}} Further analysis reveals a retransmission of [[Adolf Hitler]]'s [[1936 Summer Olympics|1936 Olympic]] speech, the first TV signal to escape Earth's [[ionosphere]].<ref>Sagan 1985. p. 94.</ref>

President Helen Lasker meets with Ellie to discuss first contact. Ellie begins a relationship with Presidential Science Advisor Ken der Heer. With Soviet colleague Vaygay Lunacharsky, she ensures continuous monitoring of the signal. A third message contains plans for an advanced machine, but decoding its 30,000 pages proves impossible without a missing [[Primer (textbook)|primer]].

At the President's insistence, Ellie meets religious leaders Billy Jo Rankin and Palmer Joss. A [[Religious skepticism|skeptic]], she demonstrates her faith in science by trusting a [[Foucault pendulum]]. Dismissing Rankin's views, she finds Joss's perspective intriguing. In Paris, experts confirm the Machine is a five-seat [[dodecahedron]]. There, Ellie meets Devi Sukhavati, a doctor who lost her husband after leaving India for love. The final message piece is found when billionaire S.&nbsp;R. Hadden suggests checking for [[phase modulation]], revealing the primer.

A U.S.&ndash;Soviet race to build the Machine ensues, but Soviet design flaws leave the American version as the only option. Ellie applies as a passenger but loses her spot to Drumlin. Extremists plant a bomb in the Wyoming facility, which detonates during testing, killing Drumlin and delaying the project indefinitely. Meanwhile, Ellie's mother suffers a stroke, leaving her paralyzed. Staughton accuses Ellie of neglecting her family.

Ellie later learns Hadden has moved to a private space station. There, he reveals his company has secretly built a third Machine in [[Hokkaido]], Japan, set for launch on December 31, 1999. Ellie, Vaygay, and Devi secure seats, joined by Nigerian physicist Abonnema Eda and Chinese archaeologist Xi Qiaomu. Before departure, Joss gives Ellie a medallion, which she takes aboard.

The activated Machine transports the group through [[wormhole]]s to a station near the [[Milky Way]]'s center, where each meets an extraterrestrial in the form of a loved one. Ellie's visitor, appearing as Ted, explains their species' motives and a project to alter the universe's properties using mass in [[Cygnus A]]. The wormhole network was built by unknown precursors, and hidden messages exist in transcendental numbers like pi. Reunited, the travelers record evidence before the dodecahedron returns them to Earth.

Back home, their journey—seeming more than a day—took no time at all on Earth. Their video recordings are erased, likely by wormhole magnetic fields. With Hadden seemingly dead and the transmission halted, officials suspect a hoax. Pressured, the travelers stay silent, though Joss believes Ellie, who now relies on faith. The novel later reveals Hadden faked his death, secretly launching himself into space using [[Cryonics|cryogenics]], but this remains unknown to the characters.

Following "Ted's" suggestion, Ellie runs a program computing pi to unprecedented lengths. Before results emerge, her mother dies, leaving a final letter revealing Staughton—not Ted—is Ellie's biological father. When Ellie examines the program's output, she finds a circle formed from 0s and 1s after 10<sup>20</sup> digits in pi's [[undecimal|base-11]] representation—evidence of her journey.

==Publication history==
Reading science fiction and fantasy as a child inspired Sagan to become an astronomer. As an adult, he preferred realistic stories that helped readers understand real science and history, like [[Robert Heinlein]]'s "[[—And He Built a Crooked House—]]" and [[L. Sprague de Camp]]'s ''[[Lest Darkness Fall]]''. In 1978, Sagan predicted that because of science fiction, "I know many young people who would, of course, be interested, but in no way astounded, were we to receive a message tomorrow from an extraterrestrial civilization".<ref name="sagan19780528">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |title=Growing up with Science Fiction |last=Sagan |first=Carl |date=May 28, 1978 |work=The New York Times |access-date=December 12, 2018 |page=SM7 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In 1981, [[Simon & Schuster]] gave Sagan a $2 million advance on the novel. At the time, "the advance was the largest ever made for a book that had not yet been written."<ref name="Davidson 1999">Davidson 1999.</ref> The first printing was 265,000 copies. In the first two years it sold 1,700,000 copies. It was a main selection of Book-of-the-Month-Club.<ref>Spence</ref>

Sagan's friend, physicist [[Kip Thorne]], gave Sagan ideas on the nature of wormholes when Sagan was developing the outline of the novel.<ref name=Tech>{{cite web | url = http://contact-themovie.warnerbros.com/cmp/technology.html | title = Contact – High Technology Lends a Hand/Science of the Soundstage | publisher = [[Warner Bros.]] | access-date = September 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010304211755/http://contact-themovie.warnerbros.com/cmp/technology.html |archive-date=March 4, 2001}}</ref>

Sagan named the novel's protagonist, Eleanor Arroway, after two people: [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], a "personal hero" of Sagan's wife, [[Ann Druyan]], and [[Voltaire]], whose last name was Arouet.<ref name="Davidson 1999"/> The character is based on the real-life SETI researcher [[Jill Tarter]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/tarter_profile_991112.html |title=Dr. Jill Tarter: Looking to Make 'Contact' |website=[[Space.com]] |access-date=October 27, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005020231/http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/tarter_profile_991112.html |archive-date=October 5, 2008 }}</ref>

The novel won the [[Locus Award for Best First Novel]] in 1986.

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
* [[Communication with extraterrestrial intelligence]]
* [[Fermi paradox]]
* ''[[His Master's Voice (novel)|His Master's Voice]]''

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|2}}

== Sources ==
* Davidson, Keay.  ''Carl Sagan: A Life''.  New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.
* Sagan, Carl. ''Contact''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.
* {{Cite web |last=Spence |first=Jennifer |title=20th-Century American Bestsellers: Contact |url=http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/bestsellers/search.cgi?title=Contact |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719215112/http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/courses/bestsellers/search.cgi?title=Contact |archive-date=July 19, 2011 |department=LIS 590AB/ENGL 564: 20th-Century American Bestsellers (Spring 2006) |publisher=Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign |access-date=August 18, 2010}}

==External links==
* [http://www.coseti.org/klaescnt.htm Larry Klaes' in-depth analysis of the film and novel]

{{Carl Sagan}}
{{Locus Award Best First Novel}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1985 American novels]]
[[Category:1985 debut novels]]
[[Category:1985 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:American philosophical novels]]
[[Category:Books critical of religion]]
[[Category:Conceptions of God]]
[[Category:Fiction about wormholes]]
[[Category:Fiction set around Vega]]
[[Category:Hard science fiction]]
[[Category:Metaphysical fiction novels]]
[[Category:Novels about mathematics]]
[[Category:Novels about science]]
[[Category:Novels set in New Mexico]]
[[Category:Search for extraterrestrial intelligence]]
[[Category:Simon & Schuster books]]
[[Category:Works by Carl Sagan]]
[[Category:Science fiction about first contact]]
[[Category:Search for extraterrestrial intelligence in literature]]
[[Category:Locus Award–winning works]]
[[Category:Fiction about time dilation]]