I woke up pleased to hear them talking about Michael Crichton on NPR this morning. I was later chagrined to learn that they were talking about him because he died! I am SO sad; I JUST discovered his wonderful, wonderful science fiction (and that's science as in medicine and environmentalism and stuff, not aliens and planets), and was wondering if he'd be writing anything else soon. I guess not. :(
Crichton's works are frequently cautionary in that his plots often portray scientific advancements going awry, commonly resulting in worst-case scenarios. A notable recurring theme in Crichton's plots is the pathological failure of complex systems and their safeguards, whether biological (Jurassic Park), military/organizational (The Andromeda Strain), technical (Airframe) or cybernetic (Westworld). This theme of the inevitable breakdown of "perfect" systems and the failure of "fail-safe measures" can be seen strongly in the poster for Westworld (slogan: "Where nothing can possibly go worng .." (sic) ) and in the discussion of chaos theory in Jurassic Park" (taken from Wikipedia).Turns out he also wrote under a couple of pseudonyms, which I am going to seek out: John Lange, Jeffery Hudson, and "He also co-authored Dealing with his younger brother Douglas under the shared pen name Michael Douglas."
Meanwhile, we have a new President Elect, and I'm pleased as punch. My 88 year old granny is absolutely delighted, thinks he's just as cute as cute can be and wouldn't mind taking him home. You gotta LOVE 88 y/o grannies, don't you?????
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