arts&entertainment Right.-The good folks at the Nexus — how many newspapers, by the way, sound like a cosmetic soap? — the good folks at the Nexus h ave asked me to tell you about another terrific novel by a hot con­ temporary writer that I discovered long after the rest of the world knew about him. Maybe this is their subtle revenge for all those grade changes I didn’t approve, we weisstl Anyway, with all the lunatic glee of someone who has just discovered the Pythagorean Theorem, allow me to introduce you to Orson Scott Card, and to Ender’s Game, w h ich is one of the best science fiction novels you’re ever going to read. Cancel that: it’s one of the don’t know the end of the best novels you’re going to book, and it’s so brilliant that read. "Science Fiction,” I wouldn’t give it away for after all, is a ghetto term — the world. like “lady novelist,” "Black But even from this short newsman,” or "Polish Pope” summary, you should see — that says more about the how brilliant is Card’s basic prejudice (read: goofiness) concept. Good God, all the of the person using it than it cliches of trash science does about the subject to fiction rolled into one book: which it is applied. Anyway: buggy invaders, heroic and "Ender’s Game” is a novel baffled male hero, battles in about the initiation of a space. Etc. Etc. And Card young man into a sense of simply takes them, reworks his own role as individual, as them, and shows you that savior of the human race, as there’s life in the old cliches member of society, and yet. finally as a fully mature Ender’s Game. If you know human being. In other chess, you hear endgame in words, it's about what all the title, the last part of any novels worth reading are chess game, the part where about, which is to say, the most strategies fall down, story of your own life the where the game reveals its way you wish it would turn real and terrifying psychic out. It’s also got spaceships, violence, where you win or laser guns, telepathy, some lose and where whether you class-A violence and armed win or lose, at least in chess, combat, plus an invading there is no one to blame for losing horde of buglike aliens from except yourself. Chess is the beyond the stars who are all first war game, the model for but omnipotent, absolutely all computer games, and — devoid of human emotion if you’ve ever played it and — well, hell, neat. seriously — the game that These aliens — called, more than any other naturally enough, the reminds you that there are, "buggers” — have already Rambo/Buddha, and who is that he cannot afford to lose ultimately, no games — just twice had battle with Earth taken to an orbital station for a single game, that he more or less close ap- spaceships, both times battle training — zero-gee cannot be less tha perfect, proximations of the indecisive, but now the pitched battles of young boys and also that he doesn’t like hazardous reality in which whole Earth — united, for and girls, games described to be perfect, if that means we all live our waking lives, once, against a threat from with all the violence of a pro hurting other people: St. The novel is, simply, Out There (Reagan wouldn’t football game and all the Francis forced to act like stunning in its interweaving even have known this was cold logic of chess (the Alexander the Great. (Mr. of personal fate, cosmic fate, fiction!) — the whole Earth, I meanest game in the world) Card is, actually, a pretty gameplaying as the central say, knows its only hope is to — so that the teachers/- subtle moralist.) stuff of life and, finally, breed and train a perfect conditioners/trainers can So he wins and wins and something like a religious warrior to command its fleet decide if he is really The wins, finally defeats all the perception of the final shape in the last, climactic battle: to One. Ender, who is buggers — every damn one of human experience and grow its own messiah, in preternaturally wise — as of’em — and then has to live the final possibility of that other words. Enter Ender are most five year olds with his own greatness (he’s rarest of rare elements, Wiggin,a boy of five who has before the school system not yet 17 by the time he charity, been monitored since birth tells them now dumb they does this). Now you know as this potential synthetic really are — understands the end of the story, but you (See e n d e r ’s , p.3) humor is an attempt to find sanity amidst the insanity of our world. Tickets for the most fun there's been in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall for a long time are only $3 for UCSB students and are available now at the Arts & Lectures Ticket Office; any remaining tickets will be sold at the door. There will also be a free panel discussion with the artists in the UCen Pavilion at 4 PM on the day of the show. U krainian Poetic Cinema International Cinema forges ahead with the SoCal premiere of A Spring for the Thirsty on Sunday, February 19 at 8 PM in Campbell Hall. Splendidly shot in black and white, Ukrainian Yuri Ilyenko's 1965 work is one of the more important films recently released in the USSR. It offers an austere impression of an old man and his family on the edge of a desert. Ilyenko's expressive images sometimes veer toward surrealism, while others take on an almost documentary realism. Marga Gomez W o m e n ' s C o m e d y depending on the audience and the laws of the state... " Tune in to N i g h t KTYD's morning show from 7 AM to 10 AM tomorrow, which Gomez will Three very funny comedians from the co-host.) San Francisco Bay Area will bring their experiences as women and their Linda Moakes' (rhymes with jokes) thoughtful humor to UCSB for an specialty is "serious comedy"; she Coming Soon To A evening of laughter, fun and insight presents a world where humor is on Friday, February 17 at 8 PM in Lotte healing and empowering, and where Recital H all. .. Lehmann Concert Hall. sneakers and pearls are a way of life. Although you'll find out more about "Yes, I've always been cool," she jokes. the duo concert to be given by virtuoso Despite their diverse cultural "I was cool as a fetus. I lived alone, violinist Joshua Bell (who's only 21) backgrounds, Marga Gomez, Linda danced, played and ran around naked and French master pianist Jean-Yves Moakes and Karen Williams share a all the time. I had food sent in and Thibaudet (who's only 26) in next similar perspective: the unique vision garbage taken out..." week's paper, it is important to note of being women. that the piano lecture-demonstration Thibaudet will give in French has been Karen Williams is a "self-proclaimed m oved. Marga Gomez' comedy reflects being socialite" who escaped her native New Latin, female and a general misfit. She York to confront her fears on won the San Francisco Bay Area The originally scheduled time and Southern California's beaches. "I date (that's Wednesday, February 22 at Cabaret Gold Awards for Entertainer of recall being paralyzed with fear by the the Year and Outstanding Female 4 PM) are the same, but the location is sound of the crashing waves at Malibu now Campbell Hall. This lecture- Comedy Solo. Her humor isn't and yet, I'd ridden the subway with conventional; she says "I try to aim my demonstration is free and a great muggers daily and didn't bat an eye — opportunity to engage your rusty (or cut at people in power. I talk about it was culture shock." Williams personal stuff as much as I can, your perfectly fluent) knowledge of French in an exciting and meaningful context. M o n d a y Tuesday W e d n e sd ay Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday UCSB 16 17 18 19 Martin Bemheinter 8 PM/Lotte Lehmann Women’s Comedy Night Spring for the Thirsty Concert Hall 8 PM/Lotte Lehmann 8 PM/Campbell Hall Concert Hall Gonza the Spearman 8 PM/Campbell Hall 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 C e c il W ilh a m s Jean-Yves Thibaudet J o s h u a B e ll & 4 PM/Girvetz 1004 lecture-demonstration Jean-Yves Thibaudet 4PM/Campbell Hall 8 PM/Campbell Hall ARTS & LECTURES Charge tickets by phone: 961-3535. f nTnOmn —- 02* 16*89 — u u . z ^ u SA INDIA'S SIGN OF THE TIMES A Film Review of the Vic's Salaam Bombay! his forced withdrawal. Manju, another of the main characters, is the eight- year-old daughter of Baba and a prostitute. Living in JONATHAN BOLT'S the whorehouse, she wanders around seeking a playmate, seeking a childhood, where none is to be found. Eventually she gives up at the house and joins Chaipau on the street. We are struck with their THREADS capacity to enjoy whatever small amount of pleasure is to be found. As an Indian native, director Nair is thoroughly DIRECTED BY familiar with life in the periphery.