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Even so, life elsewhere in the universe might resemble nothing on earth. It would almost certainly be molded by different environments and possibly by different chemistries. Says Sagan: "If we started the earth all over again, even with the same physical conditions, and just let random factors operate, we would never get anything remotely resembling human beings. There are just too many accidents in our evolutionary past for things closely resembling human beings to arise anywhere else...
...then came up with another plan--designed, in the words of its chairman, "to produce students" for the Committee. Each House Committee was instructed to select at random a panel of eleven students. The four representatives were to be selected at random from these panels...
Brautigan's strength lies in his affectionate and ingenious trivialities. He takes the random actions of strangers and old girlfriends into his musings and they come out pleasant speculations and philosophical chuckles. One four-pager describes the narrator's spring fun-ins with two of his ex-girlfriends that end with anti-climactic cups of coffee. "They say in the spring a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love," Brautigan concludes. "Perhaps if he has enough time left over, his fancy can even make room for a cup of coffee." For other stories he doesn't stop...
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? by Gilbert Rogin. 260 pages. Random House...
...search of it, of whatever it is that binds random events together to make lives, he regards with wonder his wife, his stepchildren, his potted palm, his parents and even his ineffectual sperm (under his doctor's microscope they wriggle torpidly, like sunbathers). "Singer's wife is washing Singer's socks in the kitchen sink and weeping prodigally," a fairly typical episode begins. "Singer watches . . . He pays attention to the great, submerged tangle of black socks, mid-calf length; his wife's red, vehement face; her tears dropping at intervals into the murky water. He thinks...