{"id":901,"date":"2021-11-21T13:45:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T13:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/54.193.232.42\/technology\/web-design\/classic-lily-tomlin\/?post_type=reviews&p=901"},"modified":"2022-05-11T19:13:34","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T19:13:34","slug":"quotes_from_critics","status":"publish","type":"reviews","link":"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/technology\/web-design\/classic-lily-tomlin\/reviews\/quotes_from_critics\/","title":{"rendered":"quotes from critics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe <\/a>is a compendium of pop history, a living anthropological exhibit<\/a>. That makes it funny, grab-your-sides funny. But it is also a chronicle of the human heart,<\/a> trying to mend its bruises<\/a>, and ease its disappointments<\/a>. And that makes it sublime — catch-your-breath sublime.<\/a>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–David Richards, Washington Post<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is a dazzling, divinely human comedy!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Jack Kroll, Newsweek<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Miss Wagner <\/a>. . . sums up a generation of social history into a tightly compressed<\/a> saga. The audience is drawn completely into the goosebump experience<\/a>, and who can stop tingling long enough to resist?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Frank Rich, New York Times<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is a work of genius and compassion.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Gloria Steinem<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s decidedly upbeat <\/a>and affirming social history, a kind of Gulliver’s Travelogue of the latter half of the 20th century. All the disparate characters<\/a> are tied together like some masterfully wrought bracelet,<\/a> stones that make less of an impression apart suddenly dazzle<\/a> when they reflect one another<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Serving as narrator is Trudy<\/a>, a mad bag lady who has befriended aliens from outer space<\/a> here to take a look at “a planet in puberty.<\/a>” She alone is alert to the wonders of the universe (because she practices “awe-robics”<\/a>). “Language”, she says, “developed out of our deep inner need to complain<\/a>. . . . What’s reality, anyway? Nothin’ but a collective hunch.<\/a>” Trudy threads her way<\/a> through the play, giving it an oddly appealing spirituality<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s Agnus Angst<\/a>, the 15-year-old precocious punk performance artist<\/a> who girds herself in zippers <\/a>and chains and tells a radio psychologist that she’s been kicked out of her house by her bioengineer <\/a>father and wants to know if it’s legal. She confesses that when she looks at her family, she feels “like a detached retina.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are her grandparents, Lud and Marie,<\/a> who both look “like Don Knotts, only plumper<\/a>.” They sadly lament that Agnus has “the manners of a terrorist,”<\/a> yet remember her best as a little girl with a chocolate milk mustache<\/a>, and don’t know where things went wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s Kate<\/a>, the jaded socialite stuck under a hairdryer that’s drying her heart’s blood as well, whose equally jaded husband doesn’t even notice she’s lost the tip of a finger to their Cuisinart.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s Paul,<\/a> a used-to-be swinger and sometime sperm donor, who peaked <\/a>during the disco days<\/a> a decade ago. Now a health nut <\/a>by day and coke head<\/a> by night, he finds his libido in limbo<\/a> and his life on hold<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there’s Lily Tomlin<\/a> the actress<\/a>, who worries “no matter how cynical we become, it’s never enough to keep up.”<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The climax<\/a> is a dazzling job of writing by Wagner, a barbed but compassionate evocation of the changes wrought by feminism<\/a>,4 a hilarious saga of dreams collapsing, sexual arrangements<\/a> backfiring, good intentions souring and bandwagons careening<\/a> off the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s\u00a0Edie<\/a>, a ‘70’s radical feminist<\/a>\u00a0who thought she was going to\u00a0change the system<\/a>, but now has the post-feminist realization that the system’s changed her. And\u00a0Marge<\/a>,\u00a0a casualty<\/a>\u00a0of\u00a0casual sex<\/a>. And\u00a0Lyn<\/a>, who marries Bob,\u00a0the perfect feminist’s mate\u00a0<\/a>(“he was the only man I ever met who knew where he was when Sylvia Plath died”). Reading The Wall Street Journal\u00a0on acid<\/a>, Bob resolves to become a “holistic capitalist whose only profit motive is that everybody profits.” But utopia\u00a0crumbles<\/a>: “it’s hard to be politically conscious and upwardly mobile at the same time,” sighs Lyn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The intellectual fireworks are illuminating<\/a>. It is genuinely a comedy about the way we are.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— Clive Barnes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-901","reviews","type-reviews","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nquotes from critics - Lily Tomlin's official web site<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alleewillis.com\/technology\/web-design\/classic-lily-tomlin\/reviews\/quotes_from_critics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"quotes from critics - Lily Tomlin's official web site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"“The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe is a compendium of pop history, a living anthropological exhibit. That makes it funny, grab-your-sides funny. 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