7 ms·
Michael Crichton has passed away
- ivanstojic 18y agoBummer :-(
- swilliams 18y agoPeople slag on him for his more recent work and speeches, but at least for me, his books really made me interested in the science presented in them. Even stuff like Timeline, which piqued my curiosity in everything it talked about.
- pistoriusp 18y agoI read "Next" earlier this year. Whilst it wasn't the best book I've ever read I certainly enjoyed the ideas he brought to it and it must have taken a considerable amount of research and understanding to write. Pretty sad.
- cdr 18y agoTimeline was the last book of Crichton's I read. It really turned me off. I had been a fan from a young age, but that was it. He ignored or twisted science, reason, and logic just for "cool" plot points, far more so than in any previous book.
- SapphireSun 18y agoTimeline wasn't about the mechanisms of time travel, it was about the past. He may have gotten some physics wrong, but it was the historical stuff that stuck with me. While I agree that some of his newer stuff wasn't so good, his older stuff really turned me on to certain fields like archeology, physics, nanotechnology etc. My mouth literally dropped open when I saw the headline. I wish his family well. :(
- swilliams 18y agoI enjoyed the first half of Timeline, and like I said, it was my first exposure to the quantum physics presented there. The second half (after everyone was trapped in the past) seemed kind of cliche. I didn't find Prey too interesting though. I'd already known about nanobots and at that point was a professional software developer, so the programming aspect didn't have the same "magical" appeal as the others. Perhaps if you're already familiar with the area he covered, it doesn't hold as much of an appeal?
- SapphireSun 18y agoUndoubtedly. The reason Timeline held (and does hold) such an attraction for me is that it helped me realize that the people in the past weren't stupid or maybe even misguided compared to our current selves. They were just working with different sets of information. A professional historian would not find something like this new at all, so your perspective does matter.
- Prrometheus 18y agoHis most recent work and speeches support the idea that we should be skeptical of popular opinion, as wildly popular opinions in the past were both popular and wrong. This includes opinions held by the scientific community. That strikes me as a good point to make. He gets flack because he applies that skepticism to mainstream views on Global Warming, which many people insist should not be criticized because it is really really right and ought to be beyond skepticism. I guess time will tell who was right. I was always a fan of his work. I loved the idea-centric fiction style that he pioneered and that authors like Neal Stephenson still use today.
- Alex3917 18y agoHe gets flack because he applies that skepticism to mainstream views on Global Warming, which many people insist should not be criticized because it is really really right and ought to be beyond skepticism. Most people get their views on global warming from the media, and our media is controlled by corporate interests who profit from being allowed to dump unlimited CO2 into the atmosphere. If people are discouraged from criticizing global warming, it's not because global warming is beyond reproach but because every individual criticism is picked up by the media and given equal credibility to the scientific consensus.
- byrneseyeview 18y agoHow does CBS benefit from people not thinking that Exxon should be more regulated?
- Alex3917 18y agoCompanies that benefit from the status quo won't buy ads on networks that advocate change. It's not that Americans have suddenly gotten genetically less intelligent in the last fifty years, but rather the reason our political system has fallen apart is (largely) because corporations came to control the media. Noam Chomsky has something to say about this in Manufacturing Consent. In fact until fifty years ago working class Americans used to read the paper as much or more as upper class Americans. What happened is the papers of the rich started being subsidized by advertisers, so the working class papers couldn't compete and all went out of business. (Ads are worth much more in papers that target the wealthy, so the papers of the wealthy had a bigger ad subsidy, and thus sold for less money at the newsstand than the papers of the working class.) That's why poor people are largely illiterate and uneducated today, whereas only fifty years ago it was the working class that drove the progressive movement.
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- adldesigner 18y agoA great author indeed. May he rest in peace.
- swombat 18y agoNot to be overly pedantic, but while I think he was a good commercial author and extremely successful, a great author is something else.
- mattmaroon 18y agoTotally, but relative to Dan Brown or Robert Ludlum the guy was James Joyce. He was as close to a great author as any good commercial author I've read.
- Tichy 18y agoI must admit, I had fun reading Dan Brown (Illuminati and Da Vinci) - more fun than reading Crichton. I knew that it was total nonsense, but it was entertaining. I think Crichton's main goal was also to entertain and make lots of money, so where is the big difference?
- mattmaroon 18y agoDan Brown's writing is just atrocious. It's hacky, stilted and cliche. His dialogue is ridiculous, and he uses it to expose everything. I wrote better fiction in third grade.
- Tichy 18y agoMaybe I missed out on that, because I read a borrowed copy in German translation. I found it amusing that De Vinci Code manages to attract so many fans, by using the simplest, oldest puzzles ever. I mean making those old puzzles appear cutting edge was an achievement.
- swombat 18y ago
- DanielBMarkham 18y agoRIP Michael. I recommend his biographical work Travels -- I found some parts very insightful.
- kqr2 18y agoI always thought it was interesting that he was a Harvard trained MD. It probably took a lot of work to get there and it must have been an interesting decision for him to leave that profession and start writing.
- cowmoo 18y agoWhat's more interesting is that the man started writing (finished and published) several full-length novels while he was still in med school to "make a quick buck." He also was suppose to declare English during his undergrad, but decided against it after he submitted an not-well-known essay written by George Orwell for a class assignment, and the professor gave it a B-. According to him, it was not an act of plagiarism, but a test to verify Harvard English Department's arbitrariness in critiquing literature. Afterwards, I think he dropped English in favor of anthropology (inspiration for Congo), which led him to med school (inspiration for E.R) and then later to a postdoc fellowship in infectious disease (inspiration for Andromeda Strain). Oh, did I also mention the Crichton was also a star basketball player in high school? The man is quite the renaissance man.
- kqr2 18y agoHe's a pretty tall guy at 6' 9" or 206cm.
- mikesabat 18y agoTravels is one of my favorite books. I had a beat up copy which I kept with me for years, but it's since disappeared. I am going to go buy another one and I suggest you do the same.
- prakash 18y agoThat's the only MC book I read, and found it to be fascinating.
- RobGR 18y agoThe first book I read by him was the one about the bio-terror attack with a virus. I read it because the New York Times sais that then-President Bill Clinton had read it, and this had lead to some anti-terrorism initiative that I thought was bullshit. I said to myself, if this novel is going to be resulting in bullshit I have to deal with, I better read it. What a piece of crap that book was. I much of my respect for Bill Clinton at that point, and more with the sexual scandals, although in retrospect he regained much ground and I like him more now. Then I read Andromeda Strain, and that annoyed me too. It was better written, but a book that tries to be a highly realistic science fiction can't pull a cheaters ending like that. Supposedly the whole cloud of virus just mutates . . . what, every single individual, all at the same time ? Dude, spend a couple of hours scratching your head and come with an ending. Nonetheless, one of my private dreams has always been to see a wooly mammoth cloned and alive, and if that ever happens it will be at least partly because of his Jurassic Park. RIP.
- Tichy 18y agoI don't think it is a good idea to lose respect of somebody just because of allegations against him by a third party. But to each their own.
- RobGR 18y agoWilliam Clinton had a large press office that was quite capable of correcting the New York Time's reporting on his reading. In fact, knowing what we know about how newspapers and political offices work, it is probably that Clinton's press guys passed the stuff about reading Crighton's work to the New York Times as a ready-made anecdote to be inserted into stories about the terrorism boondogle. Of course, he is still alive, and has more time now to answer correspondance. If you think the issue in doubt, email him. If you can get him to deny NYTime's reporting on the matter, I'll send you $100. If you are interested in the challenge, I'll dig up a link to the exact story in question.
- Tichy 18y agoDidn't you just write yourself that probably it was just a fabrication of his press guys? Anyway, no, I am not interested in the issue. I don't know the book in question, and I don't know Clinton.
- geuis 18y agoIts a shame he died. He wasn't a great author but he did have a few good ones. Sphere(the book) was among his better ones.
- mattmaroon 18y agoReally? I hated that one. Much preferred Andromeda Strain.
- fallentimes 18y agoThe movie absolutely sucked, but I loved the book. Edit: was talking about the 90's Sphere movie.
- ojbyrne 18y agoI loved that movie. I'm guessing you're not talking about the 1971 version. Or if you are, then maybe you had to be there.
- mattmaroon 18y agoI liked the original version. I'd put it up there with One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest on the list of best adaptations. But I've seen some god awful remakes, most notably the recent miniseries with Benjamin Bratt.
- dfranke 18y agoHaven't read the book, but I loved the movie. It's the only movie ever to succeed at giving me nightmares.
- geuis 18y agoYeah, I loved AS too. His later work has gone downhill but he was very innovative in his early career.
- rw 18y agoSphere was the first novel I ever read. The imagery is still with me.
- urajat 18y agoMost of his books appear as if they were written to be made into movies. Most of them were thoroughly enjoyable too - Jurassic Park, Congo, Timeline, Prey etc., though his recent works weren't as good as his older ones. RIP
- arien 18y agoWas so shocked to hear about this, didn't know he had cancer. RIP and my condolences to his family :(
- brandonkm 18y agoMichael Crichton was nothing short of a legend. RIP. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family.
- markessien 18y agoAnyone who says that Michael Crichton wrote bad books does not understand the point of reading. You don't read to learn, you read because it's a form of entertainment. And Michael Crichton wrote supremely entertaining books. If you are entertained only when you read Shakespeare, then you belong to a small minority of people, and you should not criticize a popular and good author who wrote books read and loved by millions of people, and was behind some of the more spectacular films of the 90s. Reading is like watching TV or movies to me. I like watching heavy stuff every now and then, but the bulk of my reading is for entertainment, and Stephen King and Michael Crichton are good examples of such work. The same people who criticize Crichton will sit in front of their TVs and watch Lost, and then proclaim it as an excellent show. For people who grew up reading, Lost is the same level as most of Crichtons works.
- jimbokun 18y ago"Lost is the same level as most of Crichtons works." You mean Chrichton's books feature a handsome male character who's shirt is always coming off for some reason or other, and an attractive female character who always seems to end up in her underwear?
- swombat 18y agoAnyone who says that Michael Crichton wrote bad books does not understand the point of reading That's a very strong statement to make. Are you sure it's not the other way around? Perhaps you don't understand the point of reading. Or perhaps there are several reasons to read? I read entertaining books too, but I do try to keep a balance between books that merely entertain and books that not only entertain but also make me a better person. I think literature serves 3 purposes: 1) entertainment, 2) exposing new ideas, 3) exposing deep, ages-old pieces of wisdom. Achieving 1 is hard. Achieving 1 and 2 is harder. Achieving all 3 is hardest. I don't think Crichton ever achieved all 3, and most of the time he achieved only 1. The same people who criticize Crichton will sit in front of their TVs and watch Lost, and then proclaim it as an excellent show I think you have a bad habit of over-generalising.
- markessien 18y ago
- zandorg 18y agoI like his milder films, like Looker and Rising Sun
- byrneseyeview 18y agoPassed away? What a relief! I heard a rumor he died. Whatever happened to him instead sure sounds ambiguously pleasanter!
- deathbyzen 18y agoMan, when I was in middle school I was so proud of myself for devouring The Lost World in like 4 days. I loved his work, and though I haven't read one of his books in some time, I will miss him greatly.
- hwijaya 18y agoI always find his work enjoyable and present enough level of detail to make me feel "reading fiction and learning heaps". RIP.
- hooande 18y agoMichael Crichton was an amazing scientific and creative mind and the world is worse off for his passing. His books inspired many from my generation to have more of an interest in science and opened a world to adults and children alike.
- demallien 18y agoOh, what a shame :-( I remember reading Jurassic Park 2, and then being appalled to see how the fairly reasonable science in the novel was just flat out massacred in the film. Worse yet, the film absolutely killed the best parts of the plot. However I was yet another turned off by Timeline. It was the next book of Crichton's that I read after JP2, and I was seriously disappointed... I don't remember the details now, but there were several glaring flaws in the logic of the story, not to mention some of the stuff about language just seemed so far fetched to me. Still, there can be no doubt that Crichton was a very talented man. His contributions to our culture will be missed.