In appreciation of Michael Crichton
By Marjorie Kehe | 11.05.08
“Michael Crichton may puzzle or annoy in his occasional lapses in taste, but he cannot be dismissed. Serious questions and important issues often lurk beneath what can seem to be a slick commercial surface,” wrote Lorraine Hirsch in a 1981 Monitor interview with author, film producer, film director, medical doctor, and television producer Michael Crichton in 1981. The words continued to ring true throughout the rest of Crichton’s career.
Crichton’s death today at the age of 66 leaves millions of fans in mourning. Crichton is known worldwide for his science fiction and techno-thriller novels, films, and television programs. His books – which include “The Andromeda Strain,” (1969) “Congo,” (1980) and “Jurassic Park” (1990) – have sold over 150 million copies worldwide.
Crichton was born in Chicago in 1942. He attended Harvard as an undergraduate and also graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1969. It was while he was in medical school that he began writing novels, publishing two under assumed names.
His big success, however, came in 1969 with the publication of “The Andromeda Strain,” a thriller in which a team of scientists investigate a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism.
Crichton often wrote about technology and its failures. It was a theme he puzzled on throughout his life. In 1980 he told Hirsch, “It’s amazing that, among all the lessons of the Vietnam war, we didn’t have our faith in technology challenged. Here we were, the greatest technological nation on earth , and we marched into a little jungle nation – and lost! Obviously, technology doesn’t have all the answers.”
He also told Hirsch, “I am not a science fiction writer. My books are all set in the past and they are all about actual possibilities. I don’t write about fantasies. I write about near-reality.”
Crichton was very tall – 6′ 7″. Hirsch wrote that in meeting him in person he had “the most patient, shy curiosity of a giraffe.”
Crichton married five times in his life, but on the day that Hirsch met with him in 1980 he was single. She asked him at the end of the interview what would make him happiest in life.
“To get married again,” he told Hirsch. She wrote, “His response is as quick as it is soft. ‘I’d like to get married again and have children and live like a normal person,’ he continues. ‘I can’t explain it. It’s like being hungry for a certain food. I’d like to be like the wild gorillas in ‘Congo,’ sitting back and watching my children play in the sunshine.’ ”
Crichton got his wish. He and his fourth wife Anne-Marie Martin had a daughter named Taylor Anne in 1989.
Comments
2. J Rose | 11.05.08
Whatever his talent as a writer, for me he will be remembered with distaste for how he questioned the legitimate science of global warming.
3. meccano | 11.05.08
I read most of Crichton’s novels and had a great deal of fun with them. I don’t agree with his views in State of Fear and global warming in general, but I enjoy his ability to raise questions within his novels. Perhaps my skin is thicker than some. I wonder people who remember him “with distaste” really read the book State of Fear (or any of his books) or whether they perhaps heard a sound bite that fit into their ideology; ironically that is what State of Fear is about more so than the science of global warming.
4. babs | 11.05.08
I remember interviewing Michael for a major newspaper about 20 years ago. I was a budding journalist working as a secretary at 20th Century Fox and he had a production deal for his book Congo.I sat across the hall from him. I most remember Michael as being modest and rather shy. But he also had a sense of humor. The “chair” I sat in during the interview was a giant sized leather catcher’s mitt about 1/2 the size of his office. I wonder now how I ever got out of the thing.
5. jackie c | 11.06.08
J Rose says above: “…for me he will be remembered with distaste for how he questioned the legitimate science of global warming.”
Sigh. The good dr Crichton might well chuckle at your comment. Science IS questioning, and then questioning some more.
Proof is the essence of science, and if you rely on belief rather than on proof, you are not engaging in science. Belief is a lovely thing, but don’t confuse it with *science.*
Just because you believe in unicorns doesn’t make them real. (And oddly enough, those who worship global warming are often very critical of the religious. Go figure.)
6. Mattie | 11.06.08
It’s odd no one in the press has mentioned Crichton’s autobiography “Travels” in which he relates all sorts of strange things like his experience with Uri Geller, who Chichton said, with straight face, could bend spoons with his mind. Subsequently, Chichton bent spoons himself the same way. “Travels” was a very woo-woo book, which seemed unlike something a physician/scientist like Dr. Crichton would write. Perhaps it was all part of his questioning stance.
7. todd anderson | 11.06.08
The now marching realities of global warming are destined to drag Mr. Chrichton’s legacy down to the level of Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter et al: tragic.
8. Black Barack | 11.06.08
I am glad he stuck it to the far left on global warming, the newest religion. Although it is heart-warming to see the left worships something.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. LTC Paul Dixon | 11.05.08
Michael Crichton’s books like “looker” “Pray” “The Andromeda Strain” helped me get through some tough times during the war in Iraq in 2003. As my company with the 101st Air Borne Division moved North from Kuwait through Baghdad to Mosul, Iraq, I found time to mentally get away from battle by reading books which helped calm me. Thank you. I don’t forget. God Bless and may God take you on exciting travels.