Michael Crichton's novel State of Fear is a fictional novel. It discusses the current world issue of global warming and technically adds real citations to his book, but I simply cannot take anything to be factual or substantial by any means. In his novel, there are several mistakes on even the basic science and he often presents the data and citations with his own angle. One example is on page 211 when the average yearly temperature for Punta Arenas from 1884 to 2004 is presented and this is the closest city to Antarctica in the world. It shows that the average yearly temperature is actually decreasing and Sanjong says "There's your global warming" (221). This claim in itself is narrow and inaccurate because global warming looks at the global temperature increase of the earth's surface. A few pages later (215-216) there is a chart of references with short, one-sentence descriptions that supposedly go against global warming. Overall, Crichton's book attempts to claim that the global warming issue has been built up and methodically constructed by large environmental corporations and media to be a looming problem yet he himself is doing the same things with his data and citations.
Along with the inaccuracies of the science in State of Fear is the quality of the written text. Throughout the book, the awkwardly constructed dialogue either made me want to rip my eyes out or cry from tears of laughter. My personal favorite quote is on page 129 when the porky football player William says "fuck this noise (129)!" Though this novel is a fast read the poor dialogue, the frighteningly jumping plot lines without incremental build-up, and the generally ludicrous relationships (specifically Marisa and William) makes this book seem almost pointless to read. Sarah seems to be the only sensible, cool-headed character who defies her rich family to do as she pleases and work for Morgan while being an attractive woman who also has intelligence and cunning.
One aspect of this book that I do respect in particular, however, is Crichton's ability to see environmental organizations as organizations who can be enveloped in money, politics, and law along with being inhuman, big corporations. One conversation in particular highlights this point when Evans is talking to Drake about the lawsuit. "Please understand me: We are all in danger, Peter. Don't you understand what this lawsuit means if we win? Trillions of dollars that industry must pay in the coming years, to halt their emissions that are causing global warming. Trillions. With those stakes, a few lives don't matter. So: Be very damn careful (178)."
Overall, there were many things that I found troubling with this book and I am interested to hear more about what other people have to say and what potential implications this book has had or will have.
I like how you pointed out the way Crichton's rhetoric works. He basically criticizes the way in which huge corporations work... while doing the same type of work himself.Also, I think the quote from Drake you pointed out is particularly useful. It is a type of synthesis of the way everything in our culture informs everything else, although the corporations threatening to kill Evans is a laughable extreme. As we see later in the novel, Drake is being a huge hypocrite here, but overall its a good takeaway from this part of the book, how corporations and environmental organizations work within a certain context.
ReplyDeleteI although I don't agree with your analysis of Crichton the writer, I do agree with what you said as Crichton the researcher/scientist! Its hard to take his "real" footnotes seriously in an obviously fictional novel. I am SO not surprised that his factual footnotes are often wrong.
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