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Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton Book Club
29 Plays9 hours ago
In this special bonus episode of the Book Club Podcast, Carly, joined by Andrene and Joel from the Rewind Rewatch Podcast, delves into Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. They explore themes of genetic engineering, human arrogance, and scientific discovery, discussing character developments such as Hammond's moral irresponsibility, Nedry's sabotage, and Malcolm's philosophical insights. The episode examines the narrative role of Lex and Tim, the depiction of female characters, and the contrast between the book and the movie. The hosts reflect on the story's relevance to contemporary issues like technological progress and environmental exploitation. They also highlight the 1993 film's enduring visual impact and influence on millennials, wrapping up with recommendations for Crichton's sequel, The Lost World.
Listen to the Rewind Rewatch episode on the movie Jurassic Park on Apple Podcasts.
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Timestamps of conversation topics:
00:00 Life Finds a Way
00:13 Welcome to the Book Club Podcast
00:31 First Impressions of Jurassic Park
03:02 Diving into the Plot
10:07 Hammond's Delusions and Grandchildren
14:23 Character Dynamics and Development
25:58 The Arrogance of Humans
39:59 Living Systems and Chaos Theory
41:32 Automation and Nedry's Role
43:08 Nedry's Betrayal and Consequences
47:40 Hammond's Hubris and Park's Flaws
50:33 Children in Jurassic Park
53:39 Millennial Nostalgia and Connection
57:35 Female Characters in Jurassic Park
01:02:42 Modern Reflections and Genetic Power
01:08:39 Impact of the Movie on Millennials
01:14:33 Final Thoughts on Jurassic Park
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Transcript
Introduction to Guests and Jurassic Park
00:00:26
Speaker
Welcome to this special bonus episode of the book club podcast. I'm Carly and I am an elder millennial. Today, my guests are Andrine and Joelle hosts of the rewind rewatch podcast. And today we are discussing Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Welcome and tell me what is your history with this book.
00:00:45
Speaker
Hi everyone, this is Andrine. I want to start off by saying that I am an avid reader, and Jurassic Park has been on my To Be Read list, or we like to call it the TBR list, for quite some time. But as you know, Carly, just you read a lot as well.
00:01:02
Speaker
Different books will come out. Book talk will recommend different things. Your favorite author might release something. And so over time, it kind of just kept being moved further down the list. And so when you invited us to do this podcast, I was very excited because Joel and I have seen the movie. We talked about the movie in one of our podcast episodes. And so I was very thrilled to finally sit down and read it. It was my first go at it, but I absolutely loved it. And I'm sure I'll talk about it a lot more as we discuss it. But first read for me, but a great read.
00:01:31
Speaker
Wonderful.
First Impressions of the Book vs. Movie
00:01:33
Speaker
Joelle? My name is Joelle. I'm also on the Rewind Rewatch podcast and this is also my first time reading the book. This is a favorite movie of mine for sure. A movie that I've never gotten tired of watching. I'm not sure that I even knew that it was a... I feel like I probably did know that it was a book, but I definitely never read it before.
00:01:52
Speaker
I was like pleasantly surprised by it. There was a lot of consistencies with the book and a lot of things that obviously did not make it into the movie, which I'm sure we'll talk about. But yeah, this is my first read as well. Excellent. So I first read the book as a kid. When the movie came out, I was about 10 years old and my dad refused to let me see it in the theater. And it's like one of the big disagreements we had in my childhood. but could It rarely happened that I had such a disagreement with my father.
00:02:20
Speaker
but this is one of them and it really stuck with me. So I read the book in protest because I couldn't watch the movie and then we rented the movie eventually when I was out on video. I've read the book many times. It was one of my favorites growing up. Freshman year English class, we read Jurassic Park as one of the first books and I was so excited.
00:02:36
Speaker
And I completely destroyed the curve. I don't know how I had any friends in high school because I got 100% correct on the test and destroyed the grading curve because I knew the book so well by then. Good for you. I mean it never ever occurred to me to not answer the questions if I didn't answer. like i just Why would you? yeah I appreciate your support. So yeah, one of my favorites of all time. and then i haven' it But I haven't read it in Oh man, definitely more than a decade. And so coming back to it, I definitely picked up different things this time around that I want to talk about with you. So as usual, we will spoil the entire book, Jurassic Park and the movie. And we'll start with
Plot Overview: Beginning with Mysterious Incidents
00:03:15
Speaker
a summary. The story opens with short descriptions about lizards, biting children and babies in Costa Rica.
00:03:21
Speaker
Various doctors and scientists try to identify the lizards and someone sends an X-ray of a specimen to paleontologist Dr. Alan Grant. He and paleobotanist Dr. Ellie Sattler are invited by Hammond to consult on Hammond's new resort on his privately owned island off the coast of Costa Rica. They pick up Donald Genaro, an attorney for Hammond's investors, Dr. Ian Malcolm, a mathematician who specializes in chaos theory,
00:03:46
Speaker
and Dennis Nedry, the programmer who built the computer system that allows most of the park to be automated. Nedry has made a deal with the competitor to steal dinosaur m bureaus to steal dinosaur embryos while he's on the island fixing bugs in the computer system. When they arrive, they are joined by Hammond's grandchildren, 11-year-old Tim and 8-year-old Lex. They take a tour of the labs and meet Dr. Henry Wu, the geneticist, who explains how dinosaur DNA is extracted from insects fossilized in amber prepared with powerful computers and grown in artificial eggs.
00:04:22
Speaker
Grant Sattler, Malcolm the Kids, and Ed Regis, who is the PR director of the park, take a tour in driverless electric vehicles that run on a track throughout the park. They get out to get a closer look at his six stegosaurus and meet the veterinarian, Hardy. Grant then finds a egg. Malcolm has a conversation over the radio with Arnold, who was the head engineer,
00:04:46
Speaker
and Hammond using the tracking technology to determine that five of the dinosaur species were actually breeding.
Crisis Unfolds: Storm and Power Shutdown
00:04:52
Speaker
The system then counts 37 velociraptors where there should only be eight. A big storm rolls in at the same time that Nedry shuts down the electricity. The electric cars are stalled in front of the Tyrannosaurus Rex enclosure. The kids watch a supply ship pull away from the island in the distance and see two young velociraptors on board. Nedry shut down the radios and phones so they have no way to contact the ship or the control room. Both T-Rexes escape from the enclosure because the fences are not electrified. The big T-Rex attacks the cars, kicking the car with Tim still in it, feet into a tree. Regis and Malcolm run away and hide, although Malcolm is seriously injured.
00:05:36
Speaker
Grant figures out that the t-rex can't see him when he's not moving and gets away. When the dinosaurs are gone, Grant finds Lex and Tim. They hear Regis come out of hiding, but see him get killed by the juvenile t-rex. They run into the park to get away.
00:05:51
Speaker
Nedry breaks into the freezer and steals the embryos and takes a gas-powered Jeep. In the Jeep was a rocket launcher that Muldoon, a big game hunter who worked for the park, had placed there in case of emergency. Because Nedry takes the Jeep, no one can drive out to find the kids and the scientists.
00:06:08
Speaker
An injury gets lost in the storm and becomes dinner for poisonous Dilophosaurus. Harding, Sattler, and Gennaro drive back to the control room in another gas jeep. Muldoon and Gennaro use that jeep to find the kids. Instead, they find Malcolm and take him back to the lodge where Harding can treat his injuries. Grand the kids cross the fence out of the T-Rex territory and find a storage shed to sleep in. When they wake up the next morning, the power's on.
00:06:36
Speaker
But they don't have time to find a motion sensor because the big T-Rex attacks the hydrosaurs near the storage shed. They find a raft and decide to ride it back to the lodge. Park staff work to put the dinosaurs back into their correct paddocks. The phones are still down because of Neji's program, so they can't call for medical help from Malcolm. Arnold discovers they are running on auxiliary power just before the electricity goes out again. They realize the electric fences were never turned on again and the velociraptors have escaped.
00:07:04
Speaker
Arnold tries to go to a maintenance shed to manually restart the system but gets caught by the velociraptors. Grant and the kids ride the raft into the pterosaur aviary, where they are attacked by the flying dinosaurs. Then they pass by the delaphosaurs, practicing a mating ritual.
00:07:19
Speaker
that gets interrupted by the big T-Rex. The big T-Rex tracks Grant and the kids until they come to a waterfall. Walden manages to shoot a tranquilizer dart into the T-Rex, although he doesn't know it's hunting Grant and the kids. The T-Rex gets knocked out just before he eats Tim, who's hiding behind the waterfall.
00:07:38
Speaker
Harding, Sattler, and Malcolm are in Malcolm's room at the lodge, watching velociraptors chew through the steel bars above the skylight. Muldoon and Gennaro try to get to the maintenance shed to turn on the electricity, but the velociraptors find them. Muldoon hides in a pipe and Gennaro runs away. Grant finds a young male velociraptor in a tunnel, along with a gas vehicle.
00:08:01
Speaker
and drives back with the kids to the visitor center. When they arrive, they find a dead security guard and use his radio to talk to the others in the lodge. They tell Grant that he needs to turn on the electricity and reset the computer
Resolution: Restoring Order and Aftermath
00:08:14
Speaker
system. The kids stay in the cafeteria its to find food while Grant goes to the maintenance shed. A raptor finds the kids and Tim manages to trap it in the freezer. Grant finds an injured gennaro in the maintenance shed surrounded by compies, which are little scavenger dinosaurs.
00:08:30
Speaker
they turn on the electricity and go back to the visitor's center. Back at the lodge, Sattler goes out to the fence to keep the Velociraptors distracted so that they don't attack Grant. But Wu notices that the raptors seem to just be playing with Sattler. So Wu goes to call her inside and one of the raptors on the roof grabs him. Ellie Sattler runs to another part of the building, but the raptors don't chase her, they just go towards the visitor center.
00:08:54
Speaker
Tim and Lex go to the control center to restart the computer system, and three raptors jump to the second floor balcony to find them. Grant and Gennaro come to the rescue. Grant uses powerful poisons in the hatching area to poison eggs and teases the raptors into eating them. Tim then figures out how to start the computer system and turns on the electric fences just as the raptors were about to get through the skylight in the lodge. They call back the ship before it docks and the crew finds the juvenile raptors there and kills them. Hammond goes for a walk and falls into a ravine. He injures his leg so he can't climb back up the walking path and no one can hear him calling for help.
00:09:35
Speaker
As he struggles to get back up the hill, a group of compies surround him and start eating him. grant sattler janeiro and muloon tagged the young millal raptor that grant found to follow it to the nest They need to count the eggs to figure out if raptors have gotten off the island. They fall into an underground nest with two grown raptors and a crowd of juveniles and infants. The raptors notice when the ship comes back and anticipate boarding the ship to migrate. Grant is observing the migratory formation of the raptors on the beach when the Costa Rican military arrives
00:10:05
Speaker
in helicopters to take them off the island. The remaining survivors have already been picked up and the military bombs the island as they fly away. Grant learns that animals have been tracked moving into the jungle where they would be very difficult to find. So that last part is completely new, not in the movie. So I do want to talk a little bit about that. But my favorite difference between the movie and the book is how Hammond is treated.
Character Analysis: Hammond's True Nature
00:10:28
Speaker
And halfway through the book, the electricity is out. Arnold's trying to fix it. They're still looking for Nedry, I think.
00:10:35
Speaker
And Hammond and Woo have a conversation about the future of the park. And Hammond says, Jurassic Park's really made for children. The children of the world love dinosaurs and the children are going to delight, just delight in this place. The little faces will shine with the joy of finally seeing these wonderful animals. But I'm afraid I may not live to see it, Henry.
00:10:54
Speaker
I may not look to see the joy on their faces." Quote really stood out to me because at this moment his very own grandchildren now are are out in the park and Hammond has had no interest in seeing the delight on the faces of his very own grandchildren as they see dinosaurs, real life dinosaurs for the first time. So I wanted to start there and talk a little bit about Hammond and his villain role in the book really. I've come to think of him as he's the real villain of the story and just that dynamic of Hammond in the book.
00:11:25
Speaker
Well, yeah, I mean, I feel like Hammond in the book and Hammond in the film are both equally responsible, I guess. You could argue that Nedry's responsible, I guess, but he is equally delusional, I would say. And one of the things that stands out, I think, even more in the book is the level of his delusion. Because there's multiple times throughout the story where people on his team, people who work in the park,
00:11:53
Speaker
are like noting like different things that need to be troubleshooted, trouble shots, I guess is the right phrase, things that need to be corrected, and he just basically brushes them off. Not to mention Dr. Malcolm, who's telling him repeatedly over and over, like, this is a bad idea, this is not gonna work. And even when everything kind of falls apart,
00:12:13
Speaker
And they're like stuck in this shed and they're hiding from the Raptors and he can't find his grandchildren. He still is like continually trying to justify why he's doing this. And even down to the last moments where he's about to die, he keeps thinking in his head,
00:12:32
Speaker
Oh man, I shouldn't have hired Wu, he wasn't good enough, and I shouldn't have hired Arnold, and they if only I had done it differently, or if only I had different people on my team, and it's like, he still really hasn't come to terms with the fact that this was a bad idea. Yeah, I wonder what you guys made of that, and like, why do you think he just doesn't get it still?
00:12:50
Speaker
Well, I kind of thought of him as a very juvenile character because even when we're talking about at one point, he you know, he invites Dr. Sattler and Dr. Grant and Malcolm over into the island and he's making it seem as though it's this fun, like jam-packed weekend getaway to come see my island and enjoy the dinosaurs. When in reality, he's being investigated.
00:13:15
Speaker
Like the whole reason why they're there is because, you know, the one of the Raptors had gotten out and it basically sliced and diced a number of construction workers. And there's a lot of concern that what they're doing isn't exactly, you know, maybe not legal, but morally right and or safe. And it's like he seems to just completely disregard the fact that this is not a fun vacation and he's like sitting in a chair swinging his legs and like just picturing him in the book he seemed but like a child getting ready to have this fun play date with his friends and it's like this is a very serious matter he doesn't seem to quite get it. Going back to Carly's question about you know the grandchildren and why they were there. I did find it odd that you would bring your children your grandchildren on this particular weekend when there's an investigation happening and people have died. So already it's like this disconnect, like why did you think it was okay to bring your grandchildren here? And I'm sure if their parents knew what was going on, they would not have allowed it.
00:14:16
Speaker
So that definitely was like, I don't understand why he did that. And then if it's so safe and you want to see the look on their faces, why aren't you with them to see the look on their faces? It just, I don't know. He's like this guy, the way that he does things just really blew my mind because I just couldn't quite get his motivation behind a lot of things that he did. Well, you talk about the grandchildren and I think that was another departure from the film because number one, they kind of swapped who was the eldest. So in the movie, right, Lex is older than Tim or at least she's taller in this book.
00:14:54
Speaker
He is around, I guess, 11, and she's like seven. And she's like very juvenile, but Tim also seems to be pretty ma a pretty mature 11. Even not only the fact that like he knows so much about the dinosaurs, but also in the way that he's able to essentially like help fix the computers. And he gets him out of a lot of jams as an 11-year-old boy. And that's like that's a side that we don't really see from him in the film.
00:15:21
Speaker
um And Lexi, I actually kind of found Lex a little bit annoying at certain points of the movie. Or the movie, I'm talking about the movie. In the book, it felt like a movie as I was reading it. But yeah, like she was, I feel like she wasn't scared enough. um You're a seven year old girl surrounded by these killer dinosaurs. You've seen people get murdered before your very eyes.
00:15:42
Speaker
But she still was like trying to like make fun of her brother and trying to play with certain things. like This is kind of a life or death situation. I don't feel like a seven-year-old would be reacting that way. like They'd probably just be like, balled up in a corner crying. But she was still like on playtime at certain points where I was like, girl, just please, just listen to what Granz is telling you. Well, she's just like her grandfather, right? Yeah, that's actually a good comparison. They just want to have a good time.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, I really like that they aged up Lex and gave her the computer knowledge in the movie because yeah, I really don't know what purpose seven-year-old Lex was serving in the book. She was just just an annoying package that Grant had to deliver to safety.
00:16:24
Speaker
at some point. um But yeah, that's yeah there are there are moments where like they just escaped or, oh, when they're on the raft and the T-Rex is hunting them and they're trying to be super quiet and she starts to cough and she's like, I didn't mean it. Actually, I mean, I don't have kids, so I don't know for sure, but that felt like a very true to life, like kids, just not really yeah understanding the consequences of their actions and being very self-centered, like especially younger kids of like,
00:16:53
Speaker
No, I had a tickle in my throat and I had to cough and it doesn't matter that there's a T-Rex over there that we're hiding from, you know? But there are also parts where she's like just not listening to Grant, who's very clearly the adult that's keeping you alive. And I'm like, girl, please just get it together. um And you can see him kind of getting annoyed by it. um And then which is also a bit of a departure from the film where he's like very anti-children at the beginning and he he like he has some kid and in ah at one of his dig sites and he basically scares him with this story about how raptors would slice him open. And then by the end he's like saving the children and it's a very nice change of his character development whereas in the book he like takes to the kids immediately.
00:17:41
Speaker
And then obviously goes on to to save them. and They have a much longer adventure with the waterfall and the raft and all this other stuff. um But I thought that was like interesting the way that they framed him as a little bit more of a curmudgeon in the movie. He says that little kids like in the book that little kids like dinosaurs because they are like parents. They're just big and powerful and that's that they're like parents and that's the area of why kids like dinosaurs I wonder more sense for the movie to paint him in that way because this way there was some kind of character arc whereas in the book I just feel like he came into it he even says that he loves kids so it's it's like okay I love kids there's kids I'm gonna immediately take to them they have this great relationship he saves them but it just seems like I don't know I didn't really
00:18:31
Speaker
get a lot of character development um from really any of them. Like, I feel like they kind of all came in with one way and they left the same way. I mean, by the end, I guess Hammond realized how dangerous they were because they ended up murdering him. But ah I mean, i would argue that hes there is a part. yet Well, at the part towards the end, he does make a statement to to ah Malcolm about how um he's worried if the dinosaurs get off of the island, they'd be able to destroy the world.
Thriller Elements and Lack of Character Development
00:18:59
Speaker
He does say that. So at at one point, he does realize it is dangerous. It's very close to the end of the book, but he does somewhat have a change. But I feel like everyone else is just kind of just existing along the same way they started. So I did like the fact that the movie added some nuance.
00:19:19
Speaker
That wasn't quite there in the book. You know what though? I feel like you're right. like There wasn't a lot of character development, but I didn't necessarily even notice as I was reading it. um And I think if if I'm watching a movie or a drama series, I certainly look for that with a little bit more of a critical eye.
00:19:38
Speaker
um But with this book, I was just kind of just, you know, what's going to happen next. And I'm just looking at the action of it. But I wasn't really paying as much attention to the development of the characters. It was more so like, how are they going to get out of this jam? And then once it ends, it's like there's something else that comes right behind it. So I thought i thought the way that the book was written.
00:19:59
Speaker
was very action-packed, and it like kept my attention. It starts off kind of scientific, actually. um we're like There's a lot of explaining. There's a there's like probably 100 pages of exposition. But once it goes, it just it starts going pretty fast.
00:20:15
Speaker
Yeah, i think so I try to talk about genre on this podcast. And so this is a different genre than than any of the books I've read before on the podcast. And I was looking at thriller and the the attributes of a thriller book. And character development is not necessary. It's having the having a time, having a deadline, right? The counting clock is is a big trope in thriller. And then having a lot of bloody death can be another component of that. I think it's interesting in this book that the the killers are um extinct dinosaurs and not like a murderer or a psychopath or something. So yeah it's a new realization in this read-through that like yeah wait a minute none of the characters do actually develop. do Is there a pattern do you think of the characters who get eaten? is that Is there like a moral component to like which characters get eaten and which characters survive?
00:21:07
Speaker
Because it seems like even Wu, the geneticist, has some moments of, oh, we should we should create domesticated dinosaurs and we should destroy the really dangerous dinosaurs. And Hammond is very much against that. like There's something with Hammond. he he was He likes the power of the dinosaurs, but he doesn't respect the power. I think that's part of it is that he wants he wants the power to belong to himself in a way and make him money. And he he doesn't really respect the power, which you know I would say Grant does having loved and studied dinosaurs his whole career.
00:21:45
Speaker
so it's i mean it's is there Is there a pattern there of like which characters respect the power of dinosaurs? And are those the ones that get to survive? Well, I would say no because Malcolm ends up dying. Or does he? He definitely dies in this book. And then he's miraculously brought back to life in the next book.
00:22:06
Speaker
which is so bizarre. ah But yeah, I mean, in this book, I'll say that Malcolm dies. And it could be argued that out of everyone in the book, Malcolm was the one with the most respect for dinosaurs and for nature as a whole. And he's constantly warning Hammond that This is not a good idea. The park is going to have to get shut down. And Hammond, of course, is completely against this. He just cannot understand why Malcolm does not share this vision. And there's one thing about Hammond that I wanted to bring up, and it's ah not something that's mentioned at all in the movie. But when they're describing who Hammond is and you know the way he's able to get investors to even open up this park,
00:22:51
Speaker
they tell this story about how Hammond is walking around with this like tiny little elephant. And it's like a nine inch high, one foot long elephant that he keeps in a cage. And he would basically bring this thing around to fundraising meetings to talk about, you know, different prospects for developing consumer by biologicals. And um'm I'm reading the book and I'm just picturing this older man walking around this tiny little elephant and I'm laughing to myself because it's like, this is the most showy thing you can possibly do would be walking around to investors with a little elephant in the cage. And it goes to show that like he's telling people like, yeah, this is what I can do with my new, you know, ah genetic biological stuff. But he fails to mention to them that like the elephant was not actually made from any genetic procedure.
00:23:37
Speaker
it was already like a dwarf elephant embryo that was raised so it's like he starts off lying to people and he does this to basically just put forth his plans to make this park with these dinosaurs and he completely disregards the fact that you have poisonous dinosaurs that can shoot poison to a range of 50 feet which is like why would I even want to have this type of dinosaur in my park you have velociraptors which are intelligently smart they can learn how to were candles in the doors and exactly they hunt in packs, which is very dangerous. And I believe the book mentions at some point that like when they're creating these um dinosaurs and they're basically buying together DNA, they are not sure what kind of dinosaur
00:24:20
Speaker
they're going to create until the dinosaur comes out. And my thought was, OK, I understand maybe at the breeding part, you don't really know what's going on. But once the dinosaur comes out and you see that it's a velociraptor or you see that it's the velophosaurus that can shoot poison.
00:24:37
Speaker
Like, do you allow the dinosaur to keep growing to its full adult height? Or do you say, maybe we shouldn't have these kind of dinosaurs here and stick to just the herbivore and get rid of these dangerous dinosaurs? And of course Don Hammond sees it as, we want to have the most amazing park, so we want everything here. But reading it, I was like, why would I just not just get rid of the ones that are dangerous?
00:25:00
Speaker
So then they would have been like, oh, this this baby comes out the shell and it's a Dilophosaurus. And then you're like, oh, we just created Dilophosaurus. And then you just kill it.
00:25:12
Speaker
Well, once you once you know the DNA sequence for the species, then you then then you don't have to create anymore, right? But like, yeah, so like, once the Dilophosaurus reach a point where they're you it's apparent that they're they're spitting poison, um then you destroy the ones that are alive and you stop you stop making new ones. So yeah, I don't know.
00:25:31
Speaker
Didn't they say something in the book too about how they were like they had explored the option of removing the venom sac? I don't remember what they what but the reason was why they didn't do it.
00:25:43
Speaker
Yeah, so they tried to do it, but apparently they couldn't quite figure out where the sacks were located in the dinosaurs. So they were just like, what? We tried. Well, no, they, no, they wanted to just, they would need to dissect, they would need a full dissection of, of a dead Dilophosaurus. And Hammond refused to let them kill a Dilophosaurus to do that.
00:26:03
Speaker
Yeah. So this is what I'm saying. And like this guy, man, um it's just, it felt like there was a complete delusion. And, you know, one of the conversations that we had, you know, before we started recording was like this whole thing about the humans in this book. Were they just like, silly, incompetent idiots? um Or was it something else at play? Because for me, it it almost felt like there was this air of Arrogance, um not only in in Hammond, but at various points, also Wu, also um Arnold. And really, I mean, if frankly, there was also a bear a bit of arrogance from Malcolm as well. He just he just was right. um But I think that that was one of the biggest reasons why Hammond just really didn't like him.
00:26:54
Speaker
is because he also didn't like somebody coming into his space and telling him why he was wrong. um And everybody else who's in his space are basically his employees. So whatever he says pretty much goes. And Malcolm was like, no, that doesn't work for me. So I think, anyway, I'm i'm getting a little bit off track, but I think the original question is is more so like, were these people just stupid or was it the fact that they were too arrogant to see where their flaws were. I think it's arrogance. I think with Hammond, it's very clearly arrogance. I think with his like with Arnold and Wu, I don't think it's as clear. like just to go So there's a lot of like thoughtlessness like going on. And that beginning part of the story, that's a lot like, Joel, you said exposition going on in the beginning.
00:27:46
Speaker
This time i was when I was reading it, it really irritated me. There were these these moments of someone found a lizard on the beach and it bit a child, and they or they found they tested the venom. but the they couldn't figure it out and they'd like leave off information when they're reporting to other agencies and scientists or I helped them solve this mystery. Like every step of the way someone is like no it can't be that so I just won't share that piece of information that must be a mistake. Like one of them they find a ah piece of compi carcass and they send it for genetic testing and the lab that does the gen genetic testing finds the marker that marks it as a genetically engineered animal that
00:28:27
Speaker
Like, you know, so there was some policy put in place, maybe it's legal policy that says, if you're genetically engineering an animal, put this marker in place so people know. Well, then people find the carcass and they test it and they find it and they assume it's a lab error. And so they dismiss that, like all of these little things. So I'm going to keep, I'm going to keep going. In the park, the electricity goes out and Arnold talks to everyone in the control room and he's like, we have these radios, they're for emergencies. Of course, no one has charged them. And that, I was like, are you kidding me? No one charged the emergency radios. But all of these little things, I think Creighton does a really good job of, of just slipping those in the story of like just this thoughtlessness. And I think it goes, I mean, Joe, you've used the word hubris, and I think that's definitely part of it, that it's a special kind of hubris that especially is, is
00:29:16
Speaker
Um, it affects intelligent people, right? People who think that they're smart enough to have thought through all the contingencies and therefore have even bigger blind spots, right? That, you know, they think they're too smart to have things go wrong. And then of course, no one is too smart to have things go wrong. And that, that has really stuck with me a lot.
00:29:36
Speaker
like as As growing up, at like feeling like no one is exempt from the worst possible thing to happen, I i wonder if I learned that from this book when I read it when I was like 14 years old. you know Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, even like touching on what you were saying about how they didn't have, you know, certain things in place. um They were talking about how they were counting the different animals in the park, right? Initially, I believe Hammond had had said that he was going to have like 12 different animals in the park. But he ends up with, which is like, you did way more than you said you were going to do.
00:30:13
Speaker
And then the how they used to different count the different animals in the park. The problem is they were counting a number based on what they think they had. So like if the number dropped below the 238, they would automatically know.
00:30:29
Speaker
But the animals started breeding, which they thought couldn't be done because they're all supposed to be females. When the animals started breeding, they had no idea this was going on because their count wasn't putting into account the fact that the number might possibly go up. ah So that was like a whole thing where it's like, you guys even, they weren't concerned about it, number one. and And then number two, I believe that the cameras that they have were only set up in like 92% of the park.
00:30:56
Speaker
So there still was eight percent where they had no idea what was going on. They couldn't see if the copies were going out there. They couldn't see there were other eggs being hatched out there. And they just kind of ah shoulder shrug like, oh, yeah, it'll be fine. Like, oh, they can't possibly be out there. And it's like, why aren't you guys taking the time to see how serious this is? it And it goes back to my earlier point. If you had all like herbivores, then it wouldn't be that much of a big deal. Like, OK, it's a dinosaur, but it can't possibly hurt anyone. But you have very dangerous things here. And it's like, apart from, yes, Wu did come back and mention having docile animals. But I feel like they all, they all like even like Robert Muldoon, who's the park warden, it's like, why like you said, why aren't we making sure that that things are charged?
00:31:44
Speaker
that we have more than one strong weapon that can fight these dinosaurs. like It really doesn't make any sense. And I also think a big part of it was that they're kind of they're doing a rush job. um And it's also just like greed and capitalism at play.
00:32:02
Speaker
because the whole point of this park is really just to make money. like it's not It doesn't really have anything to do with seeing the beautiful smiles on the children's faces. like This is just some nonsense that he puts together for whatever reason, but you know to Carly's point, he's not even with his grandchildren. So whatever whatever whatever smiles that was on their faces, he didn't see them. So really, this is all just like, let me see how much money I can make from people who want to see dinosaurs. Which, you know, yeah, sure, they will want to see dinosaurs, but you're rushing to get this park open. The only reason that you're basically being investigated because they're like, you know, we invested mad money in this and now we're not even sure that it's gonna even be open. So like, despite all of this, you would think, okay,
00:32:47
Speaker
The lawyer's coming, the investor's coming, I got these doctors, this pathologist, like, I'm gonna have everything buttoned up. But it's like, no, he still doesn't. Despite all of these people coming to investigate your part, to make sure that it's actually still legitimate enough to be able to be opened, he still is carrying on in a very nonchalant matter, as if, like,
00:33:10
Speaker
Oh, once they see the dinosaurs, they'll be so blown away that they'll just stop asking me questions. Like, it didn't really make any sense for someone who's an accomplished businessman who's in, like, his 70s. Like, you know, childish is the word I think Andrew used. And that's, like, spot on for me. So Malcolm, this readthrough, I had a very different reaction to Malcolm than I have in the past. like um it seemed to like I if he doesn't quite fit the the sort of like respecting, that if we're dividing characters into who respects the power of the dinosaurs and who doesn't. I don't know that Malcolm actually fits into that respecting column.
Philosophical Themes: Science and Technology
00:33:48
Speaker
it's like It seemed to me the way he spoke
00:33:51
Speaker
felt very much like a certain kind of Twitter user who likes to lecture people. you know So a Twitter user. Sure. Yeah. I'm trying to see if I can find a quote specifically. Oh, yes. There's at one point where he says,
00:34:07
Speaker
in the information society nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we banished thought. Like that could be a tweet. And it sounds, it's not, I thought that was smart previous times I've read this, but now I'm just like, oh, come on. Like, what are you, you're just talking to talk. You just want to hear your own voice. It's not clear whether he actually knew that they were trying to make a dinosaur park went before they arrived. I'm not, it's not, I'm not really sure. Cause that, cause he does ask when he sees a dinosaur, he's like, that's not animatronic, is it?
00:34:36
Speaker
He just knew that Hammond wanted to do this big brand new park. And he his mathematical models told him it wouldn't work. And he it's seemed like he just wanted to infuriate Hammond and prove himself right. So I don't know how much moral credit I give him. I mean, he says a lot of interesting things and thoughtful things. um But I don't know that necessarily makes him like a good character like Grant, I would say is a good person. So so you're not T Malcolm.
00:35:03
Speaker
No, I'm team Jeff Goldblum. I'm not team Malcolm. That's two different things completely. On your point, I can see what you're saying because I found another quote where he says, discovery is the rape of the natural world, right? I was actually just about to bring up this entire page here. So yeah, he keep So when you read that quote, on the one hand, it's like, yes, like scientists have done some really outrageous and really harmful things over the years in order to, you know, advance our knowledge of how the world works, how the planet works, how animals grow and all of that.
00:35:39
Speaker
um But I actually read a whole book about this and it's interesting because on the one hand, it's like we have all these great discoveries and it's really good that we were able to figure this out. But then it's like, but at what cost, right? It's like, for instance, like you want to go really dark and talk about, you know, different testing they've done on different humans to see, you know, how long a human could withstand being exposed to carbon dioxide or things of that nature.
00:36:05
Speaker
It's like, this is really bad and we clearly shouldn't be killing people or animals in order to test this thing. But then the flip side of it is like, well, because of these tests, we now know X, Y and Z. So it's it's not as black as and white as Malcolm makes it seem, um but it does prompt a good conversation because it's like, yeah yes, you you do want to advance and you do want to be able to accomplish all these things.
00:36:30
Speaker
But Malcolm's question is more like, well, just because you can do something doesn't mean you should do something, which I think is a great thought. And, you know, it it it definitely, when it comes to Hamid, is something that's very important because it's like, yes, you did all these dinosaurs, but like, really, should we be doing this?
00:36:46
Speaker
I feel like a lot of times when I read a book or I watch a movie, there's usually a character that it provides almost like the moral compass moral compass with the storyline. And it oftentimes comes off to me as like the author using this person as a proxy of like getting out all of their ideas and like their stance on XYZ thing. And as I was reading Jurassic Park, it did feel Crichton was like using Malcolm to kind of be like his mouthpiece to give his thoughts against like the concept of cloning, which was happening in the early 90s, or his thoughts against like, you know, science imposing itself on nature.
00:37:34
Speaker
And some of these monologues that Malcolm goes on are really, as Andre said, like thought provoking and kind of like gives a different way of looking at things. And, you know, maybe he's just maybe he doesn't believe any of this and he's just a very creative writer, but it did come off to me as like this is him trying to like hit the reader with a message to be like hey look this is kind of the point of this story and i'm gonna make sure that at the end of the day Malcolm is correct which obviously he is
00:38:06
Speaker
um But, you know, going back to the quote that you were talking about, about Discovery, um like he goes in, I actually made a note of these pages 317 to 319 because he just goes on this epic rant as he's like super high on morphine and on the edge of death. um But he goes on this rant where he's basically saying that like people who are scientists who have this, you know, um this school this school developed intelligence are always constantly thinking about ways to push the limits of what they know and what they understand in order to create the next big thing or in order to um have the next discovery. um But almost kind of like this is all kind of rooted in people's own self-interest and not really thinking about like the effect
00:38:59
Speaker
that all of their testing and discovery has. And it it felt very much to me that he and he um is kind of using some of these monologues throughout the book to kind of be like, yo, know this is actually trash and this is actually a microcosm of a bigger issue because obviously nobody's cloning dinosaurs in real life.
00:39:21
Speaker
But I'm really trying to point the finger at the concept of animal cloning and the concept of like science for discovery's sake. That's, that definitely seems true. I do want to bring up, um, there's a conversation that Arnold has with Janaro and I, like until this read through, I always associated this conversation with Malcolm, but I was like, Oh, wait a minute. Malcolm's not at this conversation. It's Arnold who talks about.
00:39:46
Speaker
the difference between a mechanical system and a living system. And he makes the point that a living system is constantly changing and always on the brink of collapse. That is something that has stuck with me my whole life of thinking about when things feel chaotic or like that, that it's it's just, it's just the way life works that like temperature is constantly changing. Your body temperature is constantly changing. You're always evaluating and responding to the situation.
00:40:12
Speaker
And that's what living systems do. There's always just so much input and then the living system responds to to whatever is going on. and it's always on the brink of collapse. And that also feels like a but like a lecture direct from Crichton, right? um But he's disagreeing with Malcolm. He's saying, Malcolm, mathe mathematicians are talking about mechanics and this is a living system. And it's it's interesting because it's also kind of this, like Malcolm's saying with chaos theory, you're incorporating the idea of unpredictability, but Arnold is saying it doesn't matter in a living system because a living system will respond
00:40:49
Speaker
and and bring things back into equilibrium. I mean, this is, I mean, maybe this is like getting too philosophical, but I think it also, it also like starts to ask the question about, I guess like the stability of instability, right? um There is, like you, you really can't control everything. um And even if you could, then that system by proxy then kind of becomes unhealthy because then it's not like living things kind of have to screw up.
00:41:19
Speaker
because that's the way that life continues to evolve. um And by trying to like put these two stringent um conditions on life, ah you're either going to A, fail, ah which is the most likely ah um the most likely option, or B, like you're going to automate it so much so that it no longer becomes real life.
00:41:44
Speaker
I love that you use the word automate. I mean, I love everything you just said, but speaking of automation, like one of the major weaknesses of Jurassic Park is that they want things to be automated. And that's, that's repeated over and over again. And that's why Nedry was hired.
00:41:59
Speaker
So this maybe is a segue engine. Did you want to say something about Nedry? Oh, boy, do I. I should i just also want to note before you go on that because I've seen this film multiple times, like as I'm watching this, I'm just picturing like Samuel R. Jackson and Sam Neill. And I'm picturing all these people as I'm reading the book. So I'm I'm certainly seeing Newman from Seinfeld as every time the name Nedry gets mentioned. So but go ahead.
00:42:25
Speaker
So, yeah, so it's funny because when you say that, I i feel like for Grant and Sattler, I kind of was trying to picture different characters, but Nedry's always going to be human. Like, that's for sure who Nedry is. So so one of the big flaws with the park is that I believe Hammond said that it has minimal personnel and it could be run by only 20 people, which is which obviously it cannot be by 20 people.
00:42:51
Speaker
Well, like, why you want that small of a staff God only knows? And you have one person who is Nedry who was in charge of the, you know, computer system. Nedry, they describe him in the book as being like this overweight person who's like constantly eating candy bars for some reason. Candy bars are good. So you just see like this. Yeah, he's he's just, you know, kind of like a slob is how they how they describe him.
00:43:17
Speaker
And he is basically the computer project supervisor. He is the only person that knows how to operate all the computer systems, which as we see is a huge problem because he gets approached by this other company to basically give them the embryos of different types of dinosaurs in exchange for a huge pay up. And the reason why Nedry even agrees to this is because He feels as though he's been underpaid and overworked by Hammond. um The book does go into a little bit of detail explaining that ah he went ahead and set it up the way he was told to. And then he was later on told that he had to do additional work when he pushed back and asked for money to do the additional work.
00:44:03
Speaker
You know, he was told by, I believe, Enjin is the company that Hammond runs. Enjin basically was like, no, you're going to do this work um without the additional pay. So he's already kind of annoyed. And then when he gets approached, um I'm trying to see the name of the company.
00:44:20
Speaker
Dotson, Louis Dotson, thank you. Yeah, Louis Dotson is one of the geneticists at Biosyn. And so, you know, he finds out what Enjin is doing. And he's like, okay, if we can get examples of these dinosaurs, then we can then reverse engineer them, and then make their own with enough modification to the DNA so that they can basically avoid Enjin's patents.
00:44:44
Speaker
So at this point, they're thinking if we can get what what they're doing, it can be like a race. We can do our own stuff. We can still make money because if Enjin becomes successful in what they're doing, Bison is going to lose out. And basically, Dodson meets Nedry. And in the book, he talks about how he's been working on him for six months. So apparently, there's been multiple meetings or conversations between the two. And he realizes that Nedry's, you know, this, you know, upset, disruptive employee.
00:45:13
Speaker
Employer of the company employee of the company and I believe he stands he stands to gain like was it 1.5 Million dollars for the embryos of 15 species, which I mean that's crazy money um and so that you decides yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and get this get this money out and get these things out and get the money and I I mean, on the one hand, you can kind of see that he feels like, you know, I'm underappreciated. Hammond doesn't really care about me as an employee. He overworks me. Nobody cares about me. And also, like, the park just isn't really well put together.
Nedry's Betrayal and Consequences
00:45:50
Speaker
But what confused me about Nedry is, OK, so you turn everything off. So now the gates aren't working. You're basically allowing the dinosaurs to get out.
00:46:02
Speaker
We know the dinosaurs somehow are breeding, although we found out we thought they couldn't, but they can. They're out. And you're deciding you're going to run run around in the park um to get down to the dock and in the snow reels and leave. Yeah, it starts raining like crazy.
00:46:18
Speaker
And he gets turned around, he gets lost, he can't figure out where he is. And he's at like he gets out of the car, he sees a dinosaur. It's one of the smaller ones. And instantly, as people who've read the book, like we know certain dinosaurs can spit poison, this, that, and the other. and We also learned earlier on in the book, when the dinosaurs were out you know biting other kids, that there's poison.
00:46:42
Speaker
My thing is, if Nedry works at the park, would I not try to figure out what dinosaurs are here? like wouldn't i I would be privy to this information, so wouldn't I make it my point to be like, okay, I'm going to turn off these gates in order to escape. Let me make sure that I'm going the route of where the herbivores are.
00:47:01
Speaker
You know what I mean? like Like, why am I getting out of the car? I'm seeing this dinosaur. I have no idea what kind of dinosaur it is. He gets sprayed in the face of poison and he's like shocked by it. And I'm like, you don't know what kind of dinosaur is in front of you right now? I just couldn't understand like why he doesn't have more knowledge about animals. And you answered the question earlier because you basically said he's running this entire park with 20 people.
00:47:23
Speaker
They're all over work. So if he's spending 14 hours a day working on this um system of how to basically operate the park from a computer, he's not going to be taking time during his lunch break to be like, let me go learn about dinosaurs.
00:47:39
Speaker
So he doesn't actually know anything about the science, he's just there to work the security system. And he's basically created the whole thing from scratch and is the only one who knows how to do it. i don't I'm not saying that's necessarily a good answer, but like I think that's that's that's why. no it's Yeah, it's the same it's the same hubris. I mean, it's interesting you point out how Hammond treated Nedry because Hammond does the same thing with everyone. He thinks that that he chooses the people and he expects them to perform in ah in exactly the way he wants and he expects the same thing of the dinosaurs. When they find out that there are 37 velociraptors,
00:48:17
Speaker
At that moment, why didn't everyone just get into a safe container and get the helicopters to get them the hell off that island? 37 Velociraptors. 31 Velociraptors are running loose around that island and no one believes that it. It's bizarre. yeah no It's pretty strange behavior. yeah It's that same magical thinking of this something this bad couldn't possibly happen because we're so smart. we We've figured everything out already.
00:48:46
Speaker
And I've spent like five years building this park. So I'm also just unwilling to see the fact that, yeah, this is not going to work out for me. There's like a momentum that builds up. You have all of this money and all this money puts this pressure on making sure this happens. And then all this money and then all this time and then this, this great, um,
00:49:06
Speaker
discovery that you can actually genetically engineer dinosaurs. Like it all just builds up this momentum and this pressure and no one is willing to stop it. um People are just too overwhelmed by all of that.
00:49:20
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, that definitely makes sense. I was thinking a little bit about your point that Hammond expects people in the company to, you know, basically work a certain way. And I was thinking about Ed Regis. So Regis is supposed to be the head of public relations for Jurassic Park. And it turns out that he's doing all these different jobs that really don't relate to his position.
00:49:45
Speaker
So the first time we see him, it's very early in the book, and he is basically escorting this injured construction worker off the island after he was attacked by a velociraptor. And great du that's an emergency, so someone has to do it, and he did. But then later on, you have when everyone comes to the island, he ends up being like the babysitter for Tim and Lex, and he starts complaining about it to himself, because he's like,
00:50:10
Speaker
you know i'm the I'm the head of PR for the company. I'm not a babysitter, but that's essentially what he gets demoted to because Hammond's like, oh, my kids are here. like You handle it. And it's also like, these are your grandchildren. Aren't they spending time with you? But Hammond just sees people in this company as like little minions that he can just, okay, you do this, you do that, you do this, and doesn't stop to think that maybe I should get more people here. Maybe there should be more than one person who knows how to unlock the computer system.
00:50:37
Speaker
So I'm not relying on an 11 year old to figure out how to turn the electric fences back on. Like the whole thing was just so ridiculous. Tim was definitely the man though. But speaking of the kids, like what do you think is the reason that they're being included in this story at all? Because you could have written this book without any child characters and had a very similar story. um Obviously there's like the famous kitchen scene from the movie that's also in the book where the children are by themselves. But theoretically like the terror is not so much like these children are gonna get hurt. It's the fact that there are dinosaurs loose and everybody's gonna die. So why do you think he decides to use these grandchildren characters at all?
00:51:26
Speaker
Tim is a perspective character. We get parts of a lot of stories told from his perspective. That's true. Would you say even more than Grant maybe? I mean Grant feels like the quote unquote main character. I mean there's a number of different storylines happening at the same time but that he does feel like the like story A and then everybody else is kind of like filling in the gaps. But he spends majority of the book alone with these two children.
00:51:55
Speaker
Yeah, i like my first thought is Tim is the most endearing character. He's innocent. He's a child. like You can't blame him for anything that's going wrong. And it's like Grant is also, he's he's you can't blame him for anything going wrong in the story either. But yeah, it's an interesting idea. like What does the perspective of a child, it brings this whole other level of innocence. And he's just like a really admirable character because he figures things out.
00:52:21
Speaker
um protects his sister who is super annoying and Tim in the movie is really endearing too like I think Tim in the movie has all the funny lines that we always quoted at each other like it's just an endearing Well, my favorite is, hold on to your butt. That's probably the one I quoted. Yeah. But yeah, no, I think that's a good point um because it does add a level of intrigue to the book, knowing that there are two characters that are like completely innocent. Grant and Sattler are certainly innocent as well, but they did show up on this island voluntarily, although they didn't really know what they were showing up to. So I guess they are fully innocent because he's not really even forthcoming with them about what this island is.
00:53:03
Speaker
But in any event, I think with having two children, maybe it it adds a little bit more higher stakes of like, you know, you don't want to see two innocent kids get mauled by a T-Rex. And so then it's like, you're actually a little bit more invested in seeing them get away versus a room full of adults um where you're like, you know, you still want them to live, but like, if they don't, then it's like, all right, well,
00:53:29
Speaker
You don't feel as bad about it. as yeah and there's a moment of Yeah, there's a moment of horror where the T-Rex is destroying the car that the kids were in and Grant can hear the kids screaming, but he can't see very well what's going on.
00:53:43
Speaker
and he hears like screaming and then she's not screaming anymore. And it's just like, oh, that moment of horror. I'd like to move on to genre themes if we're ready to- Let's do it. Yep. All right. So um so the the genre we're talking about is millennial nostalgia. And I think for the most part, the movie has a bigger role in millennial nostalgia than the book does. But again, they do have a lot in common. And the main genre theme we've talked about is connection. How do we connect, you know especially since millennials had a childhood for the most part where there wasn't an internet connection and learned how to connect to each other over the internet. And now social media is such a huge part of connecting. And and you know right now we're talking over the internet. So so are there are there is there anything that the story tells us about connection?
00:54:33
Speaker
i mean
00:54:36
Speaker
I would say in the, there's a love of dinosaurs that Grant shares with Tim. And so there's a connection there. Well, and I'm gonna actually go back to something that you mentioned earlier about the way that um Malcolm Speaks is like a know-it-all Twitter user. And I made a joke about how people talk on Twitter, but I think there's a larger point to be made in terms of effective communication. I think when we talk about the bad side of the internet, right, and like this social media era that we're in,
00:55:12
Speaker
where people are kind of just like talking at each other. And I think especially when we talk a lot about Gen Z and like the internet mixed with the pandemic has led generations younger than us to have less ability to connect on a human level. And I think a big part of that has to do with being able to relate and communicate to one another. This is Obviously not the same thing because this book was written in the 90s, but I do think that there is a connection there between how we, in today's day and age, oftentimes it feels like we are missing the mark when we're trying to make points with one another, whether that's on Twitter or whether that's political discourse or just being able to kind of communicate and understand each other's perspectives. That is like rampant in this book.
Communication Failures Among Characters
00:56:04
Speaker
right People are constantly—Malcolm and Hammond are kind of the the templates for it, um but even the other characters are oftentimes not really making the points that they're trying to make to one another. And Crichton does this thing where he will have the character's dialogue and then he'll say like, this is actually what's going on in Wu's head and this is what's happening in Sattler's head to give us ah more of a comprehension of what they're thinking and their line of thinking. But
00:56:36
Speaker
there does seem to be a disconnect when you talk about genuine connection with one another. I think one of the parts of the reasons why they fail to have genuine connection is because the communication is poor and also because people aren't really listening to each other. I have so much more to say about that. I was like, i started think now it's like yeah, no, it's, um, I wonder too if, I mean, if you're talking about communication, maybe just like when Sattler is at the fence trying to distract the raptors and then Wu is watching and he's like, I think the raptors are trying to distract her. Like that that kind of communication and that the chilling effect it has that these creatures, these extremely powerful creatures with very sharp claws.
00:57:26
Speaker
have that level of communication, like that that's terrifying. And is it because of of how many millions of years of evolution that separate humans and dinosaurs? like that is There's no way to breach that. like You can't you're not going to domestic can't domesticate a dinosaur like you would a dog, although woo seems, maybe we could speed that along. I don't know. um The next genre theme is female characters. And and but do we have good examples of female characters?
00:57:56
Speaker
um I mean, Ellie is awesome. she Yeah, she's she's great. I mean, ilthough I will say that the the way that she's described as is great. I like the way that she's written in the sense that she knows her stuff. And I believe when um she's described in the novel, does the part where they say that she's um not a woman who's disposed to unnecessary panic?
00:58:21
Speaker
So it's like she knows her stuff. She would be well equipped to deal with the situation more than a regular person who doesn't really know, you know, dinosaurs and plants and all that. But I found that the way that she was treated wasn't always the best. Like, for instance, when she first meets Gennaro, she makes a comment like, oh, you're a woman. And she says like, oh, these things happen with a shrug.
00:58:50
Speaker
Which made me laugh because it's like, this is what we have to do. It's like, if you're ah a woman, a lot of times in certain areas of work, like, you know what it's like where people are surprised when you show up and you're not the, you know, you're not the receptionist, you're actually the boss. Like, there's this idea that if you hear doctor, well, it must be a man, you know? So I did like the fact that she kind of came back from it but very quickly and was like, not, you know, nonplussed.
00:59:16
Speaker
But even when Malcolm starts talking to her, there's a part where he um he comes in, he's wearing like all black, and she makes a comment like, it's so hot outside. Why are you wearing all black? And his response is like, oh, you have beautiful legs. I can look at them all day long. And I was like, what? Why? Why did he say this?
00:59:33
Speaker
But again, it's like, you know, she's the woman character. So there's a lot of times where, you know, they have these men who are hitting on her saying inappropriate things. Whereas that wasn't happening in the movie version, at least not that I recall. I know that Malcolm was like interested in her, but I don't remember it being a situation where he said something inappropriate about her legs. No, but she has that line. She has that line. You know, Malcolm's talking about God creates dinosaurs. This is quoted a lot, I think, growing up. God creates dinosaurs, God destroys dinosaurs, God creates man, man creates dinosaurs, dinosaurs, you know, or man creates dinosaurs. And then Ellie says, dinosaurs eat man, woman inherits the earth. Like, she's definitely representing the 90s feminist in the movie. And it makes me think that that was really good. Because like you said, the the preconception that you hear doctor and you imagine you imagine a man, did Dr. Ellie Sattler help us as kids to broaden our expectation of
01:00:32
Speaker
when we think of a scientist and when we think of ah a doctor and ah and a competent person did it help us think broaden that because I don't know I'd like to say I'd like to say yes maybe there's also a doctor in this story who a medical doctor who treats or tries to treat the the young man who's killed by the rapture. I kind of forgot about all of those people. like But yeah, that that is there is a lot more outside of the park in the setup of the book and then once we get to the park we don't leave again.
01:01:03
Speaker
Yeah. And then I also think as far as the movie switch versus the book. So in the book, Lexa was really annoying, ah mostly because of the fact that she was just very young. And she seemed to be like a young seven or eight year old. Like she just had, you know, not enough terror, in my opinion. But in the movie, since they aged her up, Lexa was the one who knew how to hack into the computer system. And she was the one who was able to turn the power back on in the movie version.
01:01:31
Speaker
So I definitely think that they made a strong female child role in the movie, which was good to see because, again, now it's gotten better, but you think about computer programmers back in the 90s, like, I would just think, oh, that's what, like, quote-unquote, nerdy guys do. You know, you don't really think that it would be a girl or a woman who would be able to hack into the system and knew a lot about computers. So I did like that that nice flip in the movie to have Lex be the one who could figure the system out.
01:02:00
Speaker
yeah I don't know. I mean, there's really only two female characters in the book. So yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, there's definitely some a little bit of that misogyny at the beginning, but so much of the book is based on them trying to um survive.
Expertise Reliance During Crisis
01:02:17
Speaker
that I think everybody's kind of relying on each other's skills. And again, because the park is so um adequately staffed, you really only have one person that knows whatever specific thing you need.
01:02:32
Speaker
Um, and so like she's kind of the only or anyone even similar that knows about plants there. So there, there's a certain amount of like required reliance that happens just based on the fact that nobody else knows what anybody else there knows. Um, but yeah, that's, that's probably all I really have to say about that. Um, does this story reflect the claim from one in a millennial, which was the first book we read for this season?
01:03:01
Speaker
that millennials were raised for a world that no longer exists. I mean, did this book have less? Well, first of all, the first part of the book makes the claim that genetic power is gonna change society in the way that industrial power changed society. And I don't know if that's true. Like, do we think that genetic, I mean, it's hard to say,
01:03:26
Speaker
I mean, when I think about just what's been going on lately in terms of, you know, scientific development, um and we're not talking about like, I'm not talking about genetics per se, but even something like, you know, right and you think about like the last this actor strike strike that happened because they wanted to use people's images and likeness.
01:03:44
Speaker
um essentially without using the actors themselves. And it can be kind of scary when you think about it. like Nowadays, going back to social media, it's like you'll click on a picture of something or and it's like, wait, is this did someone actually take a picture of this? Or is this an AI drawing or AI rendering of something? It's it's very hard to determine what's real and what's not.
01:04:06
Speaker
and That is kind of scary because it's like, what exactly am I looking at? Can I trust this source? um And I don't know, I feel like so many times, that even to watch a video of something, it's like people can fake videos now. So it's like, I'm seeing this person saying these things, but did they actually say this or did someone just put this clip together?
01:04:26
Speaker
it It makes for an era where I feel like I am way more distrustful of things than I was when I was younger. Because growing up, it's like if we were to watch the news or read a news article, like we knew that it was fact, right? There was really no question.
01:04:44
Speaker
and we believed it was anyway. Well, but generally speaking, it's like all of the news cycles reported the same thing. Like, you know, you could flip from one channel to the next and get essentially the same type of thing. And I feel like nowadays, everything is like so driven on what kind of message I want to put forward based on the different news station that I'm on. um Everything is so curated. um Even when you're scrolling on your social medias, everything is made for you. So um I had a friend once show me a post where it was like, we can all look at the same exact post right now in our social media. And depending on what it is you've clicked on or bought or liked, different comments will show up at the forefront for you than it will for me.
01:05:25
Speaker
So it's like we're looking at the same clip, but like you might get all positive comments and I might see all the negative ones based on how our views are, which is mind blowing to me. So it's like the internet and the way things have changed, I feel like we're definitely as millennials, this is not the world we grew up in.
Millennials and Technology Adaptation
01:05:41
Speaker
I guess we saw when the internet came up.
01:05:43
Speaker
and we were like on AOL and we kind of started on it. But now I like seeing where it is now and where it was when we were kids, it's like, it's bizarre. And ah yeah, i I don't think we were we were raised for the world that we're in we're in now. The Gen Zers tend to, I think thrive more in the online platform than we do. They know all the latest things, all the latest apps, had even more computers. They grew up on computers. We had to kind of adjust and figure out how to do things. Whereas from the time that they were toddlers, they're running around with tablets in their hands. yeah Yes, but that doesn't teach them how to eat how to work and troubleshoot issues at the computer. I've seen that that teachers have had issues with younger students that they don't know how to save a file or find a file that they saved. Really? They know how to serve YouTube. Right. But I wonder if Jurassic Park
01:06:33
Speaker
It's definitely in my mind a lot. like Whenever there's some new innovation announced or some like idea proposed, it all I feel like Jurassic Park taught us to be a little bit skeptical. of light that It's that question of just because you could doesn't mean you should. And and I think that is really valuable in our in our social consciousness for for making us think that regularly. So like I think there's two aspects to this book. One is the concept of like cloning, right? Which he writes this in 1990. We have the whole Dali cloning that happens in 96. So I do feel like in the early 90s and even going into the mid 90s towards Y2K, like this was a conversation that was happening a lot in terms of like,
01:07:17
Speaker
whether it's moral or not. um But I think the other part of it that I think does reflect in modern times is the idea of how humans impose themselves on nature. um So whether that's like,
01:07:34
Speaker
the global warming debate, um the fracking debate, a lot of the things that we're seeing people continue to argue about in today's day and age, I think a lot of those roots are still in this story in terms of like, should we be imposing ourselves on on the earth around us. and are And if we do, are we willing to come to terms with the effects of that? um And even thinking about some of the um ah the ways that the characters in this book Hammond chief among them
01:08:11
Speaker
are kind of neglectful and they kind of just brush off. um I think we also see that in the way that some of these things are discussed today, where people are on different sides of it, some people are like, this is a huge issue, and then other people kind of play it down. and like This is not really a big deal. um And so I would be obviously, you know, Crichton's no longer with us, but I would be interested to see like if he had any quotes or thoughts around some of those um man versus nature debates when he was still living. Because I feel like I based on some of the quotes from Ian Malcolm, I kind of feel like I know where he would land on that.
01:08:52
Speaker
We've talked about the movie throughout, which is, I mean, of course the movie was so impactful. um I mean, the the the ideas that we talked about, the lasting ideas that have impacted us came from the book originally, expertly recreated in the movie. Is there anything else we want to say about the impact of this movie on the millennial generation?
Cultural Impact of Jurassic Park
01:09:15
Speaker
I mean, this movie, I feel like when you look at it, I remember looking at the dinosaurs as a kid. And even now looking back at older movies, a lot of times the like CGI and stuff just looks like it's really outdated. And you kind of laugh at it because it's like we used to find this interesting or scary, but it looks crazy now. But Jurassic Park still holds up. Like when you watch this movie, it's like, oh, I'm looking at a T-Rex.
01:09:40
Speaker
I'm looking at a velociraptor. They did such a good job in creating this world that when you're watching it, like you're just immersed in everything that's going on. ah One scene that sticks out to me, and you believe you mentioned it earlier, was the part when Tim and Lex are in the car, and the T-Rex is there, and then it spins off the edge, and the car ends up being stuck in a tree, and then it starts falling down. like That was actually all in the book.
01:10:04
Speaker
And reading it, I was, again, like playing it out in my mind in the movie. And I'm like, this was so well done. like They just really made you believe you were there. And the one scene where the kids are in the cafeteria and Lex is holding the jello, and it starts to shake because the T-Rex is stomping. And with every step, the jello moves. I mean, you're just never going to forget that. it was just It was just so well done that you had to drop everything.
01:10:33
Speaker
and watch it. Like it's one of those movies that watching it back, like my cell phone was down, which says a lot because oftentimes your cell phones up. Yeah, that's a new movie rating that we can have. So was it a cell phone up movie or a cell phone down movie? This is the cell phone down movie because like the action is it's so good. You don't want to miss you don't want to miss any of it. Yeah.
01:10:56
Speaker
Yeah, I had to I had to pause the movie because I had to join a meeting. But I it happened to be right around where the Raptors like it's like we've reached the point where Ellie and is trying to go turn the electricity is like I knew the Raptors were going to be in the story now. And I was like afraid to turn the movie back on. I was like, Oh, which goes back to my dad was right. The movie is too scary for me.
01:11:21
Speaker
you know it's so funny you telling that story because i feel like the book is a lot more terrible like there's just a lot more death for sure and even the threat of the of the animals like in the movie we kind of get our parts with each of them right like we get our delafisaur we get our t-rex we get our but i feel like in the book it's like they keep coming back. like There's like multiple T-Rex scenes where it's like, oh, we thought we've escaped him, but now we have to deal with the T-Rex on the river. Now we have to deal with the T-Rex at the waterfall. um We have to deal with the raptors multiple times. And so I feel like the threat of death um and actual death ah happens so much more in the book um where, yeah, it's it's it's... It's equally, if not more, terrifying than watching the movie because um there's just so much more that happens and way more of the characters don't make it. Just terror to actors and even the compies, um which end up eating Hammond in the book. I feel like the book starts with them and also ends with them. Like they kind of feel like the grounding dinosaur in this story. um But I don't remember them being in the film at all unless I just didn't recognize them.
01:12:37
Speaker
No, they are they weren't. The copies are my favorite. I love Hammond being eaten by the copies. It is like the most delicious part of this of the copy. I love it. Yeah. ye Yeah. The other thing about the movie is the music.
01:12:54
Speaker
which it wasn't until I started playing the DVD, and I was like, oh, the music. Now, I wasn't in band, but my sister was in my high school band. like i that music Every band played that music. Did you have that experience too? Don't think our school did. But yeah, you hear the music for Jurassic Park and it's like, you're just ready to strap in for the ride. like It just brings you back to, oh, I'm i'm about to watch this movie. in I mean, definitely, definitely a happy thoughts for me because I love the kind of like thriller and like what's going to happen next anticipation. So yeah, the sound I think the music for that movie was was spot on. Like everybody watched it and everybody knows the music. When you start playing Eye of the Tiger, you think of Rocky and when you play this music, you think of Jurassic Park or you think of
01:13:42
Speaker
my heart will go on or don't want to miss a thing. You think of Titanic or Armageddon, like I feel like you don't. Maybe I'm just not thinking of them right now, but I can't think of movies in the past 10 or 15 years where it's like everybody's watched it and there's some musical piece of it that is like forever connected to that film. um Even movies that are really popular, like, you know,
01:14:08
Speaker
your Oppenheimer or what have you. like It isn't the same sort of all-encompassing spectacle where it's a part of your happy meal at McDonald's and it's you know they're talking about it on MTV when you watch TRL and it's like it was literally everywhere. You go to a baseball game and they're playing Jurassic Park music. It's just like everything was was encompassed in everything else.
01:14:32
Speaker
um And I think our culture is a lot more sub-genred now to the point where you don't have that interwoven connection the same way that you would have with a movie like Jurassic Park.
01:14:46
Speaker
Any final thoughts on the book, Jurassic Park? I had a lot of fun with this book. um Like I said, I never read it before, but um at first, you know, like I said, the the expectation expectation the exposition takes a little bit of a while. I wasn't bored by any measure, but it was kind of just like, okay, like they're giving us more of the the thinking behind the park and who are all the people that are involved and who's being affected. um But once he starts ramping up the action, it really goes and um it It is definitely a page turner, so I had a lot of fun reading this book.
01:15:19
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. I was into it from the very beginning, um you know, having the little girl on the island getting bit by this lizard-like thing. And I was like, oh my God, is little girl gonna die, like, right off of the bat? Like, it really had me invested very quickly. And Hammond, I mean, yeah, they he went into Hammond. He was a lot more negligent ah than he was in the movie. Like, I feel like in the movie, we didn't really care for him. But after reading the book,
01:15:47
Speaker
I was like, oh, justice was served at the end because this guy. Yeah, I had a ah lot of fun with it. I mean, it's it's very easy to read in the sense that you just want to see where it's going and they take their time to explain everything. So you don't feel like you're lost. And like this came from someone with no science background. um I was an English major in undergrad, which means science is and not my thing. And I was a little like, oh, no, they're going to get too technical in here. But No, they didn't really. They explained everything in a way that someone who, you know like me as a lay person, could understand it and enjoy it. um Yeah, this this was a very strong read for me. I enjoyed every moment of it.
01:16:29
Speaker
So glad. i It's nice to revisit a book that you loved when you were a kid and find that it isn't terrible, right? It holds up. So definitely still love this book. um And I strongly recommend the sequel, The Lost World. The movie The Lost World is not nearly as good. And the book is pretty interesting to continue some of the philosophical questions that we touched on. So I enjoyed that book to listeners. what Oh, please go ahead. Oh, no, I was going to say I'll have to add that book to my TBR. Yeah, hopefully it doesn't sink to the bottom. Yeah. Listeners, what did you think of Jurassic Park? Have you read any any books by Michael Crichton? You can comment on my sub stack at bookclubpod.com. You can also contact me on Twitter. I'm one of those tweets at book underscore club underscore pod.
01:17:15
Speaker
and on threads at Sea Rose Jack. Also, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help new listeners find the show. The Book Club Podcast is produced by me, Carly Jackson, music and audio production by