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RIP - Michael Crichton


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Michael Crichton was a brilliant thinker, writer and director, whose works led to great movies (some directed by him) and wonderful scores by John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith.

From the start (I discovered him with Jurassic Park, as many) I have loved his science fiction novels because they were literally just that: fiction rooted in scientific facts, taken a few steps further, which raised interesting and important issues.

His other novels were just as interesting, and in both cases, he skillfully weaved facts into the narration in as unobtrusive a way as possible, and was very good at explaining complex things clearly.

If you love the movies, you must read the novels, because there is a lot more to them than a mere additional action scenes or plot points, however spectacular or clever they may be: his use of fractals in Jurassic Park was a great idea, for instance.

Thank you for your literary and cinematographic works, the movies and the splendid music they inspired, Mr Crichton!

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No, not really, it jut made a great opener to a good thriller.

Actually, it came towards the end of the book where Malcolm and Hammond are in the bunker.

Ah my bad. It's been a many years since i read it. 1994 I think.

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No kidding. It's a way of marginalizing the dangers of climate change by saying, "well, at least the earth will survive." I don't care about the earth surviving, I care about people surviving.

I care about that too. And that's exactly what I always assumed the Crichton text was about. I don't see anything marginalising about it. It's a simple fact that the planet will most likely survive anything we can do at this point, even if we wipe out nearly all life on it. And if we do manage to destroy the planet, there's still a whole universe out there that doesn't give a damn. If that line of argumentation makes anyone not care, he's pretty much hopeless to begin with.

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Damn. He was such a talented man. I know him primarily for his film work, but Eaters of the Dead was a fantastic read. He leaves yet another void in the world of art.

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No kidding. It's a way of marginalizing the dangers of climate change by saying, "well, at least the earth will survive." I don't care about the earth surviving, I care about people surviving.

I care about that too. And that's exactly what I always assumed the Crichton text was about. I don't see anything marginalising about it. It's a simple fact that the planet will most likely survive anything we can do at this point, even if we wipe out nearly all life on it. And if we do manage to destroy the planet, there's still a whole universe out there that doesn't give a damn. If that line of argumentation makes anyone not care, he's pretty much hopeless to begin with.

Agreed.

I think some miss the point. The point is that we humans have an arrogance that we can control what the planet does - good or bad - and we can't. And what's more, we really don't have a good understanding of how this planet works since we only been on it for such a short time. This planet will do what it wants to do and its not going to worry about the effect it has on anything living on it.

The most important line in that whole narrative is this - "...we only have the power to save ourselves"

In anycase, we shouldn't be arguing the enviroment here. This is a good bye to Mr. Crichton - lets leave it at that.

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No kidding. It's a way of marginalizing the dangers of climate change by saying, "well, at least the earth will survive." I don't care about the earth surviving, I care about people surviving. Crichton's novels were often all about the folly of human arrogance and experimentation, so it's ironic that his personal views* put so much faith in humanity. * I'm also referring to the pseudo-scientific downplaying of global warming in State of Fear.

Reading the words plainly, the words are simply just stating a fact that the earth will survive no matter what.

If he had specifically related views on issues himself and in his novels, is irrelevant when it comes to the text.

Because the JP text simply states a fact the earth will surive no matter what. And it will. 'We' may not. But it will.

Whether any attacks on the planet are from humans or extremely gigantic objects from space crashing into it .

That people on either the environmentalism side or opposite side may condemn or praise the text, is irrelevant (imo).

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No kidding. It's a way of marginalizing the dangers of climate change by saying, "well, at least the earth will survive." I don't care about the earth surviving, I care about people surviving. Crichton's novels were often all about the folly of human arrogance and experimentation, so it's ironic that his personal views* put so much faith in humanity. * I'm also referring to the pseudo-scientific downplaying of global warming in State of Fear.

Reading the words plainly, the words are simply just stating a fact that the earth will survive no matter what.

If he had specifically related views on issues himself and in his novels, is irrelevant when it comes to the text.

Because the JP text simply states a fact the earth will surive no matter what. And it will. 'We' may not. But it will.

Whether any attacks on the planet are from humans or extremely gigantic objects from space crashing into it .

That people on either the environmentalism side or opposite side may condemn or praise the text, is irrelevant (imo).

Well, yeah, he does a good job refuting people who believe that we have the power to literally destroy the earth... which is nobody. The fact that the earth will survive is completely immaterial. Actually, it won't. Eventually the sun will collapse on itself and turn into a red dwarf, ending all life on earth. And when the sun becomes a black hole, the earth really will be destroyed. While it's interesting philosophically to think about the ultimate fate of the universe, it really has no bearing on our lives. Invoking the Big Picture is a poor excuse to not worry about current issues.

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duel2.jpg

At first this was me.

westworld.jpg

Then a fella named Michael Crichton changed me into a different machine.

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I was 'updated' once again in the 1980's.

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Then they turned me into a human.

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I read about his passing wednesday evening RIP

the weird thing was that same day i went into a second hand book store for no reason to lok for an english laguage version of Jurasic park (i only had a translated copy on my shelf) and found and bought it, only to found out a few hours later he had died the same day :)

once again rest in piece Michael!

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I heard this being reported on a local radio station and they were playing the Island Fanfare from Jurassic Park during the blurb. It made it sound like great news that Crichton had passed.

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I heard this being reported on a local radio station and they were playing the Island Fanfare from Jurassic Park during the blurb. It made it sound like great news that Crichton had passed.

they should have used remembering pettycoat lane, not the fanfaric music :)

Blume you tastes amaze me everyday.

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Blume you tastes amaze me everyday.

As do yours, for Crichton was the Hans Zimmer of literature.

:)

sorry, he did not write several novels in a year, and definately did not have ghostwriters.

there are more comercial and prolific authors out there.

Not saying Crichton wasnt commercial, though comparing it to zimmer is madness.

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Crichton was the Hans Zimmer of literature.

I reserve that title for James Patterson. Though if Dan Brown were more prolific I'd give it to him. Crichtons works have some merit, Patterson is pure pedestrian trash and lots of it.

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I would never compare Crichton to Zimmer...that is such an insult really. He wrote intelligently and worked hard on his novels to become basically an expert in the subject he was writing about. He may have dumbed some things down for his readers and may have presented some views people may not agree with, and sometimes his novels had a very "popcorn" feel to them - but they were quality. The work and knowledge behind his novels is always evident.

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I would never compare Crichton to Zimmer...that is such an insult really. He wrote intelligently and worked hard on his novels to become basically an expert in the subject he was writing about. He may have dumbed some things down for his readers and may have presented some views people may not agree with, and sometimes his novels had a very "popcorn" feel to them - but they were quality. The work and knowledge behind his novels is always evident.

I agree. Jurassic Park (the book) presents a timeless technology vs. nature debate wrapped up in an effective thriller.

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Life itself survived the massive Cretaceous extinction that eliminated the dinosaurs, that much is certain.

But is that any consolation to the dinosaurs?

Some day there will be some species that tries hard to get you back to life.

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  • 4 months later...

you should say it's one full novel and one third of a novel to be completed with another author

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I'm not too worried about that. I don't really read Crichton novels for good writing. I read them because they're good stories. And as far as I can tell, the story is 100% Crichton.

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I wonder who they are going to get to complete the second novel....suggestions, people? Stephen King has a similar writing style and is a Crichton fan I believe, but not sure that he possesses Crichton's pounding feracity and pacing....

I ws only thinking about this again today....and am re-reading "Prey" for the umpteenth time at the moment....

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I wonder who they are going to get to complete the second novel....suggestions, people? Stephen King has a similar writing style and is a Crichton fan I believe, but not sure that he possesses Crichton's pounding feracity and pacing....

I ws only thinking about this again today....and am re-reading "Prey" for the umpteenth time at the moment....

Maybe Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child or Dan Brown.

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Something can have a good story but can be badly written.

Angels and Demons

wrong. of all the Dan Brown books this one is fairly well written.

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The man can't write. A&D is thrilling as hell, but at times it reads like a well-done school essay. DVC is slightly better written than A&D, but of course it's only marginally exciting. Digital Fortress is on the same writing level as A&D, an excitement level somewhere between the two, and has some of the most absurd plot twists I've ever seen.

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I dunno. Digital Fortress was way more compelling for me than A&D, but still not as satisfying as any of Crichton's books. I read those two once each and called it good. I will admit to having read DVC more than once, but I was in a foreign country at the time and my reading material was limited. On the other hand, Sphere, Andromeda Strain, JP, etc., etc., I read, re-read, re-re-read.... Like LOTR, my copies are falling apart!

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Fortess was certainly entertaining, but every three pages he came up with another assumption about cryptography or plain simple math or computer basics that was so out there... I thought he couldn't top it anymore, but then the final chapters revolved around the supposed impossibility of space characters in passwords...

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