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Michael Crichton Passes On  

post #1 of 53
Thread Starter 
post #2 of 53
Nice write-up. Question:

Quote:
"died unexpectedly after a courageous and private battle against cancer...."
Is that journalist code for "offed himself"?
post #3 of 53
Damnit. Jurassic Park was the first real novel I ever read and one of the reasons I developed an enjoyment of reading. I devoured the man's works after that and only stopped reading everything he wrote a few years ago. Sphere remains one of my favorite, bizarre books to this day and I always hated that the movie was so shitty.

RIP, Mr. Crichton.
post #4 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by Devincf
Good news: Global warming denier and bad writer Michael Crichton is dead.
Fuck you, Devin...he may NOT of been the most eloquent or sophisticated of writers, but he got a lot of kids READING.

Seriously, take your head out of your arse.
post #5 of 53
It still amazes me that this guy was a director.
post #6 of 53
But he's dead, so it's HILARIOUS!

Seriously, he wasn't a great author, but come the fuck on. Good news?
post #7 of 53
Forget it my french canuck friend, it's Devin.
post #8 of 53
I don't remember posting in this thread.
post #9 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
Forget it my french canuck friend, it's Devin.
Bless!
post #10 of 53
So I guess Crichton finally figured out how to end something.
post #11 of 53
sad news! this is the man that got me into reading. Except for Congo, I enjoyed his books.
post #12 of 53
When the day Grisham dies. I'll feel the same way. Never cared for his books, but if it got you into reading, more power to ya.

Just please tell me you moved onto to far better stuff.
post #13 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
When the day Grisham dies. I'll feel the same way. Never cared for his books, but if it got you into reading, more power to ya.

Just please tell me you moved onto to far better stuff.
Like Clive Cussler?
[runs away]
post #14 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
It still amazes me that this guy was a director.
He did pretty good on this.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079240/

Edit:

And this
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070909/

And this
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077355/
post #15 of 53
I was into his material when I was in middle school. I slowly came to realize that none of it was very good.
post #16 of 53
I remember Looker being retarded fun. Westworld was a chore, let's be honest. It's two cool scenes (ripping off Peckinpah) and a lot of dull. Not everything with killer robots is awesome. Yeah, I said it.
post #17 of 53
Boo, Phil!

Come on, unrelenting robo-Yul is awesome!

Also, doesn't Dick Van Patton get laid?
post #18 of 53
There was this one book (I don't know which one since I haven't read any of his works for years) that had a thinly veiled parody of one of his detractors being mentioned as a small-dicked child rapist.
post #19 of 53
I didn't give a rat's ass about him, one way or the other, but then he wrote Rising Sun, which a lot of chumps took as gospel because of Crichton's dinosaur cred. I don't recall him apologizing for that shit afterwards.

Oh, for the days when a xenophobic fear of Japan was our largest problem.
post #20 of 53
Say what you will about Westworld, that movie had a pretty cool poster and some great Simpsons parodies.

"He's like some not giving up....school guy."
post #21 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianM View Post
So I guess Crichton finally figured out how to end something.
(Tucks this away for the day Stephen King reaches the clearing at the end of the path)
post #22 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
Say what you will about Westworld, that movie had a pretty cool poster and some great Simpsons parodies.

"He's like some not giving up....school guy."
post #23 of 53
He was not much of a novelist but he did have a knack for making entertaining yarns that made complex scientific concepts accessible to a mass audience.

Too bad his contrarian impulses led him down the path of global warming-denying, though.
post #24 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by Schwartz View Post
(Tucks this away for the day Stephen King reaches the clearing at the end of the path)
hahaha!
post #25 of 53
This unapologetic dinosaur fan will always be grateful for Jurassic Park (both book and movie) and the inadvertent encouragement of bioengineers to tamper in God's domain.
post #26 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianM View Post
So I guess Crichton finally figured out how to end something.
Harsh but totally true.

Guy made great openers though.
post #27 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by EdHocken View Post
When the day Grisham dies. I'll feel the same way. Never cared for his books, but if it got you into reading, more power to ya.

Just please tell me you moved onto to far better stuff.
of yeah, that was back in middle school i was reading him. of course I do read Jurassic Park now and again for the hell of it.
post #28 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by MoonBaseNick View Post
of yeah, that was back in middle school i was reading him. of course I do read Jurassic Park now and again for the hell of it.
WHY?
post #29 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by nekkerbee View Post
This unapologetic dinosaur fan will always be grateful for Jurassic Park (both book and movie) and the inadvertent encouragement of bioengineers to tamper in God's domain.
In what kind of sick fucking world would one have to apologize for loving dinosaurs?
post #30 of 53
Bad phrasing on my part; unapologetic for loving Jurassic Park, and unapologetic for loving when scientists tamper with nature.
post #31 of 53
I've been seeing a number of people around the internets saying he "got them into reading". Didn't realize he... did that.
post #32 of 53
Graham,

I meant this

post #33 of 53
Damn. His novels were some of the first novels I started reading back when I was in elementary school. I got to meet him briefly when he spoke at Cal Tech and he signed my copies of Jurassic Park and The Lost World. The inscription in The Lost World reads "Billy, I'm glad you enjoyed this book." I was in middle school at the time and totally geeked out when I saw that on the title page.
post #34 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham View Post
WHY?
I saw the movie when I was in the 6th grade. The film was a big influence in me selecting my current career path. Now I'm a fine arts grad student with the hope of doing concept work once I'm finished. so in turn, the movie led me to the book and I have found memories of both.

oh and I love the hell out of dinosaurs.
post #35 of 53
Yeah, his writing never was very good. Not at all. But I read Jurassic Park in the fifth grade and it opened the door to "adult books." Now, reading of one of my passions. Although I've moved on to more sophisticated work, Crichton truly was a "gateway" author for a lot of young readers.
post #36 of 53
The only Creighton book I could get through was Rising Sun.

Some nice detective work there. Plus some interesting faux facts about the Japanese.

"The Japanese are some of the most racist people in the world."

Who knew?
post #37 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by Count Floyd View Post
I've been seeing a number of people around the internets saying he "got them into reading". Didn't realize he... did that.
Thanks to JURASSIC PARK. I'm another of the "read the book at age 9" folks.
post #38 of 53
For some reason my dad gave me DISCLOSURE at age 12. I don't quite remember what went on.
post #39 of 53
Never a high quality lit guy but I found his novels compulsively readable

This news shocked me since I had no idea he was ill.

This perhaps explains the direction his later novels took. State of Fear was just awful, and I detected a bitterness that wasn't present in his earlier work (he was a contrarian by nature: but that novel just had a meanness to it)
post #40 of 53
Jurassic Park also was one of my first "real" books. As was ANDROMEDA STRAIN which I had picked up by chance and loved it quite a bit. Had this "Half-Life" esque military research base gone to hell" feeling about it I really liked.

btw is there a decent movie out there based on that?
post #41 of 53
The newer mini-series wasn't horrible. Bout the best I can say about it.
post #42 of 53
He certainly wouldn't condone it, but we could always clone him.

1st Stan Winston and then Crichton? Who's next Goldblum? The Beard?

Nope... SL Jackson. To complete 2 different 2008 Death Triumvirates. Hold onto your butts.
post #43 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by DARKMITE8 View Post
He certainly wouldn't condone it, but we could always clone him.

1st Stan Winston and then Crichton? Who's next Goldblum? The Beard?

Nope... SL Jackson. To complete 2 different 2008 Death Triumvirates. Hold onto your butts.
You probably have a better shot at Richard Attenborough.
post #44 of 53
Crichton had a few good thriller novels, but the bigger loss to me is the fact he was one of the few writers that non-readers would still pick up. To me, any author who can get individuals who otherwise wouldn't be buying books to read is A-OK in my book.

And I remember being fairly entertained when I read Timeline. That doesn't really have anything to do with anything, but it wasn't terrible.
post #45 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt Turner View Post
Sphere remains one of my favorite, bizarre books to this day and I always hated that the movie was so shitty.

RIP, Mr. Crichton.
Roger that. Though I don't hate the movie that much, I never understood why -apart from many other things- Barry Levinson scaled down the scope in order to differentiate it from other undersea epics such as 20.000 Leagues... or The Abyss. As if that was a bad thing, motherfucker!

And The Lost World book wasn't that bad, IIRC (apart from the shitty "well, the Jeff Goldblum character wasn't actually dead, y'know" retconning). Hadn't they wasted the 2nd movie trying to cram it with the 1st novel's discarded stuff, we could've had an even superior flick... Um, instead of "Rex takes San Diego".

post #46 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by Blueharvester View Post
Jurassic Park also was one of my first "real" books. As was ANDROMEDA STRAIN which I had picked up by chance and loved it quite a bit. Had this "Half-Life" esque military research base gone to hell" feeling about it I really liked.

btw is there a decent movie out there based on that?
Have you seen the 70s version of Andromeda Strain directed by Robert Wise?
post #47 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by DarthLowbudget@ View Post
Have you seen the 70s version of Andromeda Strain directed by Robert Wise?
One of the most 'achingly-faithful-to-the-source-material' films I think I've EVER seen*...whether you view this as a boon or not, I'll leave to the viewer.




*bar the ending...there was NO giant squid.
...oh, and a chick.
post #48 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham View Post
One of the most 'achingly-faithful-to-the-source-material' films I think I've EVER seen*...whether you view this as a boon or not, I'll leave to the viewer.
Keyword: "achingly"
post #49 of 53
Quote:
Originally Posted by BrianM View Post
Keyword: "achingly"
Well caught.
post #50 of 53
I was shocked when I read about this. Jurassic park, Congo, Eaters of the dead and Sphere were fun reads.
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