Damien Kane: Review: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton (1990)

I mentioned the novel Jurassic Park in an earlier review of Michael Crichton's novel Prey. He employs a constant theme of perfect systems being found imperfect, through chaos, human error, or otherwise. Not only are his novels good reads, but they are also informative, and indicative of what possibilities the future may hold. It is easy to forget that Jurassic Park is a novel; a classic work of fiction and fantasy. Believability can make the difference between a good writer and a great writer, and Crichton is a great writer.

Crichton is controversial and thought-provoking. What if dinosaurs roamed the earth at a time in the not-too-distant future, with DNA dismembered from the past to make animals and pets? A futuristic zoo of possibilities in our control, the control of human beings, who are at best, flawed. It is practical to suggest then, that humans cannot create a perfect system, as imperfection can only create imperfection. Crichton goes even further, by using imperfect DNA to create 'better than' dinosaurs.

Whatever your opinions on flawed systems, the aspect that Crichton brings to the mix isn't about human error, but the framework of chaos. I watched a film called A Sound of Thunder a few years ago which would enhance my argument about Crichton's novel being intrinsically flawed. Without a certain order through chaos, there would be no story. It's like tossing a coin that has two heads. Crichton capitalises on our fears, our intellectual arrogance, and the wonders of the distant past colliding with the near-future of humanity to once again put us at the bottom of the food chain.

Jurassic Park has, at it's core, a magnificent plot.

The characters in the novel are easy to relate to, although difficult to follow at times, as Crichton brushes over what is happening at various points of the story. Suffice to say, it was difficult to get attached to specific characters for any length of time (with one exception - Ian Malcolm), in fact, the movie created the characters for me. can't remember how old I was when I first read Jurassic Park but it was before the film. Today, it is difficult to clearly establish what I thought about the characters without Sam Neil and Jeff Goldblum. Upon reading the novel recently, I formed pictures in my mind based on these real-life characters, although I can't recall the novel ever giving specifics about what colour hair, eyes, even ethnicity they are. There are tips, for example, we know that Nedry is obese and contradicts the weasel-thin nerdy stereotype of a computer programmer.

Yet, that is the power of effective writing. Jurassic Park is unique in many respects for a reader, whether one has read it previously or not. Although the characters didn't leave me as much to dwell on as Prey, the storyline and theme did. I have to wonder whether Crichton draws contention to place the knowledge of potential in the hands of the unaware public, or whether he is a visionary.

One could argue that the novel should have a faster pace, and I would disagree. There is a clarity to Crichton's work that suggests familiarity to the extent of process; that the order must arrive at disorder to become orderly again, such as chaos theory itself. If Crichton did speed up the text, the characters would have to embrace the reader more than they did and the essence of the novel would be lost.

My last comment must be about Ian Malcolm. Despite being under constant verbal and intellectual attack, he is the only person to maintain that Jurassic Park is destined to fail. Despite the technological advancements, both computerised and genetic, Malcolm remains determined to his theory that the park will not work; it is inevitable. At times, he reads like a conscience and in my opinion, is the more interesting character and quirky. Permit me to elaborate.

When we first meet Malcolm, he steps off a plane and meets Hammond, Grant, et al. He is bald and dressed completely in black, and we know he is around 35 years of age. Not your average mathematician. When he steps off the plane:

Malcolm shook hands with everyone, saying quickly, 'Ian Malcolm, how do you do? I do maths.' He struck Grant as being more amused by the outing than anything else.

How perfect is this meeting and this paragraph! The next thing Malcolm says (to a stewardess when asked if he wants a drink) is, 'Diet Coke, shaken not stirred'. There is a typical genius lunacy under Malcolm's brow that I was keen to get to know, and as the novel progressed, not only did the genius come out, but an obsession for knowing and believing he is right about the park being insecure. He is as devout to his theory as a Christian who has seen Christ. The constant iteration from other characters to the effect that he is wrong never worried him, although he found it obsessively annoying, and as the novel grew, so did his frustration.

Not long after the first meeting, Hammond sums up Malcolm by saying out loud that he is a man of strong opinion (and Malcolm himself adds, 'And mad as a hatter'). I had to grin at that. I had read less than a page of this character, and I wanted to know more about him!

Overall, Jurassic Park embarks upon a typical Crichton journey about perfect systems causing catastrophic outcomes because of what one may consider human ingenuity. Crichton slyly reminds us that we're merely at the beginning of technological evolution, and perhaps we should rely more on ourselves as we are, rather than who we should be. Ambition, it seems, can be a dangerous occupation.