Comments on: ‘Jurassic Park’ Novelist Dies at 66

By: Stupid Dinosaur Lies · The Boneyard XXV

Stupid Dinosaur Lies · The Boneyard XXV — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:44:51 +0000

[...] author of Jurassic Park have passed away at the age of 66 after secretly battling with cancer. From Dinosaur Tracking– “I will simply assert that because of its pure brilliance, Jurassic Park will be the [...]

By: When Will There Be Herds of Mammoths? | Surprising Science

When Will There Be Herds of Mammoths? | Surprising Science — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:31:50 +0000

[...] genome has been sequenced, it seems natural to ask when we will finally see live mammoths. Since Jurassic Park, we’ve been tantalized by “promising” research that could some day soon lead to [...]

By: The Great Dinosaur Mystery and the Big Lie » Blog Archive » The Boneyard XXV

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:34:56 +0000

By: Dinosaur Tracking

Dinosaur Tracking — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 12:32:00 +0000

[...] of killer dinosaur. (Michael Crichton, the author of the source novel and screenwriter of the film, passed away on [...]

By: Traumador the Tyrannosaur

Traumador the Tyrannosaur — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:00:34 +0000

i too also felt that Crichton wasn’t so much anti-science, but anti-misuse of science.

there was nothing wrong with cloning dinosaurs. it was cloning them and putting them into a theme park where their sole purpose was to make money that was the problem.

one of my favourite little bits in the book was when ingen was talking about selling small dinos as pets that had to eat special ingen food or die. they weren’t thinking of these clones of theirs as animals. simply products. i always pictured the first wave of these pet dinosaurs ending in the deaths of the world’s richest kids… again no thought into what they were selling beyond the concept.

which is the problem with a lot of big science these days. its not discovery for the purpose of discovery. its discovery to meet the bottom line, and no worry about the LONG term consequences.

By: Michael Stearns

Michael Stearns — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 21:56:40 +0000

Re: the Villainy of Science, isn’t it simply a literary staple that science gone wrong is more interesting than science gone right? If Frankenstein’s monster had been a model human citizen with no girl-tossing or mob-attracting qualities, well, that wouldn’t have been very interesting!

By: Erin

Erin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 13:47:12 +0000

I second Glendon’s point – it always seemed to me that we were the villain, in most of Crichton’s stories. From “Jurassic Park” to “Prey” they seemed like warnings against irresponsible applications of science. But they were always thrilling in the possibilities they explored.

By: Glendon Mellow

Glendon Mellow — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:52:30 +0000

I always enjoyed how the wonder of living dinosaur clones was juxtaposed with the trivial idea of a theme park. I don’t know that the science is meant to be scary exactly, it feels to me more like it’s the over-merchandised, overly-capitalist impulse that was the villain in many ways.

Although I always found his endings awkward, he was a great writer. Good for cottages and camping, which is a high compliment in my books.

By: Brian

Brian — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 23:02:15 +0000

Jurassic Park was the first “real” book I read the summer I graduated the 5th grade. I couldn’t put it down.

Last summer I re-read it and and the sequel The Lost World, and I was definitely struck by Crichton’s somewhat anti-science bent. This unfortunately came out in recent years in his denial that human-caused global warming is real, and I know there was some unpleasantness involving him skewing a critic in a particularly egregious way in one of his books. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Crichton#Michael_Crowley)

Another thing that made me go “Hmmm…” was that Jurassic Park was essential a do-over for Crichton. In 1973 he wrote and directed Westworld about (get this) a futuristic amusement park where robots stop doing what they are told and run-amok. Jurassic Park seemed like the same story, albeit with dinosaurs, so there’s a loss of some originality points there.

Anyway, regardless of Crichton’s personal philosophy, he did help introduce a lot of people to science. We can debate the net effect on the public, but I know that there are plenty of people who became more interested in dinosaurs because of Jurassic Park. If it weren’t for the novel, there wouldn’t have been the movie, which still looks good even 15 years after it came out. My condolences to his family, and if nothing else I can admire that he helped people like me better appreciate science (even if his intent was something different).