One of my favorite authors passed away on November 4th.
I love reading. Especially when you can learn something from a book. However I hate studying. School was torture for me. But when a teacher was able to teach us through fun, I was in all the way. Michael Crichton was such an author. I come from a scientific background, so learning about science is part of my everyday life. His books are perfect for me because he himself studied medicine. Therefore his books are often based on recent scientific research or actual facts and it sometimes even taught you about history, like in Timeline. Often sci-fi books are based on pure imagination, but I knew that I could believe in Michael Crichton’s books because he was a scientist. I always felt a lot more knowledgeable after reading one of his books.
His books often raised questions about what can humans control or not through science. It is quite clear in his stories that Nature can’t be tempered with. Mother Nature’s scale is too big for us puny humans to try and control it.
His stories are original and also very well told which is probably why most of his novels were adapted on screen. To name a few there was Jurassic Park, The 13th Warrior, Congo, Sphere and Disclosure. He was also the creator of the hit TV series ER (which made George Clooney popular). The show is in its 15th and final season.
The movies weren’t always successful but as I am a natural born movie fan, I still dig them. The problem is not the author. It’s the producers and the fact that anything that has to do with science is stripped from the script. But that is another matter all together so I’ll write about that in a future post.
Remember, Jurassic Park revolutionised CG as much as Terminator 2 did. We were able to see dinosaurs on screen that didn’t look like frame to frame papier-mache. It even had 2 sequels and I hear a fourth one is on the way. It’s also the movie during which I kissed a girl for the very first time (that summer was awesome!). I know, it’s weird. There’s actually no romantic scenes in it. What can I tell you. I scored big time. It would have made more sense if it was during the hot scene between Demi Moore and Michael Douglas in Disclosure but that’s none of your business.
Michael was also responsible for creating cool characters such as Ian Malcom. It came out great on screen. My favorite scene in Jurassic Park is when Ian Malcom, the coolest mathematician who walked the earth (played by Jeff Goldblum) explains Chaos Theory to the other characters. That alone made me want to study Chaos Theory and Fractals. Unfortunately, studies weren’t advanced enough so it wasn’t taught in my university. However, I passed an exam thanks to his books.
If you haven’t read any of his books, and if you are interested in science I strongly recommend you to. Who knows, you might get addicted to science. You won’t spend money on movies or documentaries like the Inconvenient Truth anymore because they will sound ridiculous.
Michael was born in 1942. Needless to say that his short life was very successful and lucrative. He is my hero as he has touched and revolutionised different areas that I truly love. I will miss him from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you Michael for showing me that anything is possible in a world where prejudice is everywhere and for entertaining us for the past 30 years.
