Jurassic Park

Steven Spielberg’s adaptation opening scene shows us that not everything is good with the park, and then switches to a more cheery and positive theme.

Even before introducing us to the park, the novel piles up on failures of the entreprise. We get children getting maimed, and children getting killed. We see the inefficiency of bureaucracy and are treated to a rather cynical depiction of capitalism.

The catchphrase “we spared no expense” is uttered only after they explain all the ways they are going to cut costs (mainly, by minimizing workforce and automating everything). The computer systems are constantly being described as buggy and unreliable. They also reveal that they have a generally accessible key logger as a “security feature”.

Malcolm’s description of the scientific power as inherited wealth, for which the owners have no respect, reminded me of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. More specifically, the reasons he gives for the compulsory military service before people become citizens and are granted the right to vote. Both Crichton and Heinlein criticize power that is simply given to people, without first having obtained respect for this power by means of self sacrifice.¹

Overall I liked listening to Jurassic Park. One gripe I had was the incessant stream of “he said”, “she said”, there are so many synonyms, at least Crichton could have used “she asked” when there were questions or “he screamed” when people were in panic.