Review of Crichton's "State of Fear"

There's a debunking review of Michael Crichton's climate fiction novel "State of Fear" in the 5 March edition of New Scientist, written by Jeremy Leggett:

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/opinion/mg18524891.600

(subscription only)

I was interested by the first two paragraphs:



I suppose this "cultural" feature of the US is not news to DUers!

I read the book this week. I found it to be a bit stupid at times. In fact quite stupid at times.

Watch for a movie soon. Something cheesy.

There was too much going on in such a short time, many loose ends, and left me a bit frustrated.

You know, the ones with little money, a lot of courage, and a lot of science to back them up.

I haven't read the book yet, but his afterword was enough.
Sure, we should keep an open mind, and it is fiction, but what got me is when he said "everyone has an agenda, except me"

Pardon me, Dr. Crighton, your agenda is to sell books. So drop that Holier-Than-Thou attitude.

Moggie's Theory: any book with footnotes is about more than sales.

"There are many reasons to shift away from fossil fuels...and we will do...without legislation, financial incentives...So far as I know, nobody had to ban horse transport in the early twentieth century."
(Author's Note: State Of Fear)

Seems to me he is saying that the government should not fund research for alternative fuels, that capitalism will find its own replacement transportation, just as it did a century ago. At first blush, this seems very logical and that is kind of scary.

A century ago we did not have an extensive infrastructure built around the horse and carriage industry, in fact, there wasn't much industry, it was far more small individually owned businesses than major corporations. Also, the auto industry grew along with the overall industrialization of our country. This had a negative impact on many farmers, but hey, that's a separate issue. And in the case of fossil fuels, our government has invested in, helped to build the infrastructure that supports it. Corporations have massive investments (property, equipment, etc) in the fossil fuel industry, and do not have the money to invest in researching alternatives, especially ones that could take years to be profitable. Being cynical, the companies don't want to invest in anything else, because they think they have a pretty good gig now, and they do, thanks in part to our government.

So, at some point I will probably read the book just to be open minded, but Crighton has really pissed me off.

Remember the Fox news taglines, like "No Spin Zone" "Fair and Balanced" etc. An author announces he has no agenda, I believe the exact opposite. It's the Orwellian times we live in.

Though I don't think that Crichton is a neocon. After all, he wrote a scathing anti-corporate book some years ago. (And it wasn't Jurassic Park, though that, and Prey, were two more paeans to corporate shortsightedness and greed). He's just hoping to ride the same anti-environmental backlash that Bush seems to be riding, and maybe cut into LaHaye's sales with the fundies a bit?

-- ArchTeryx