Michael Crichtons State of Fear - Book Report/Review Example

of Fear Introduction: In the present age the phenomenon of Global Warming occupies a conspicuous space in our minds. Any kind of change in theweather makes us thing that the cause of the change is obviously global warming and consequently we get extremely worried. We begin to feel that our end is nearing as the world will perish soon. The media plays an important role in creating such a belief in the minds of the people. We start believing that whatever the media portrays is true. But the truth related to global warming needs to come out and the fear from the minds of the people can be dispelled only with the help of accurate information and this is what the author Michael Crichton does in his book State of Fear as he challenges the fear surrounding the phenomena of Global Warming.   Michael Crichton:  Michael Crichton was best recognized as the author of “Jurassic Park”. He was a writer and filmmaker at the same time. He was also well known for the creation of the TV series ER. Some of his famous books were the “Disclosure”, “Congo”, “State of Fear” and “Next” the most recent of his novels. Crichton was born in the city of Chicago on 23rd of October in the year 1942 and was educated in Harvard, Cambridge and Massachusetts. Apart from his creative pursuits he was also engaged in teaching anthropology in the Cambridge and was engaged in writing in MIT. It can be summed about Crichton that he was a versatile personality involved in a lot of things at the same time. The world lost the talented personality on 4th of November 2004 to Cancer in the city of Los Angeles. ( “About Michael Crichton” ). His book “State of the Fear” was a book which tried to clarify the concepts of global warming. Through the book he wanted to inform the people about those facts and figures which otherwise failed to reach the common people. He wanted to tell the people that whatever is showed by the media about global warming need not be believed as the ultimate truth instead he encouraged his readers to go to the bottom of the phenomenon and understand the intricate details. The book ‘State Of Fear’ aims at bringing the reader towards the depth of the phenomenon of global warming. He wants the readers to understand that global warming is a natural phenomenon and it cannot be always measured by science and technology accurately. Therefore people need to understand that technological measures have limitations and hence people should not take it as the ultimate tool to measure global warming. Rather we should apply our logic and rational thinking to understand the cause and effects of global warming. We should not overarch the effects of global warming and start feeling threatened at every little change that comes about in the atmosphere. Therefore we can say that the book by Crichton is an effort in the right direction to make people more knowledgeable about global warming.         Chapter 1: Akamai       The book opens with a graduate student Jonathan Marshall and a girl called Marisa. The graduate student shows the girl wave mechanics and dynamics in a laboratory near Paris. The obvious intention of the boy was to get into a relationship with the girl by impressing her with the wonders of the science. As they move about in the laboratory, conversation follows between them and as they get intimate by the way of conversation they move into an apartment near Notre Dame where they get intimately involved with each other. Suddenly after a period of intimacy three unknown persons enter into the apartment and inject an unidentified substance into the body of Jonathan Marshall which paralyzes Marshall and surprisingly enough Marisa the girl did not make an effort to save the life of Marshall on the contrary she assisted to throw his body into the river and thus Marshall realizes that Marisa played a key role in his murder.       Chapter II: Pahang In a place called Pahang in Malaysia a man wants who to buy the Hypersonic Cavitation technology, studies the technology and meets a man called Ling hiding his own identity. During the same month a man called Richard Mallory handed over a box full of Ethernet wires for anti tank missiles to an American. As Mallory delivered the box to the American he receives a threat from the woman who had accompanied the man to take the boxes. As a result Mallory gets afraid and to add to his fear he discovers the body of the American on the bridge. Kenner in the city of Tokyo attempts to check the slides of the computer data in order to find out how the matters are being tracked with the use of those data. On the other hand Nat Damon in Vancouver leases out submarines to two men after signing a deal. George Morton, the millionaire philanthropist had lent a considerable amount of money to NERF (National Environmental Resource Fund) to fight a lawsuit but he suddenly learnt that his money was being misused as it had been engaged to buy submarines. The news shocks Morton utterly and he is contacted by Kenner for a confidential meeting. Drake the director of NERF feels that Kenner can pose as a threat to the inflow of funds to NERF. Thus Drake gets upset with the entire matter. Therefore to keep the finances of NERF secure Drake requests Evans the lawyer of Morton to keep track of Kenner. On a sudden visit to NERF Evans realizes that most of his beliefs about the phenomenon of global warming were not correct. The informations which were being showed to Evans make him think that these were not strong enough to win the case. On the other hand Morton cannot be very sure about the way his funds are being used and asks for the audit of the finances. This irritated Drake the director of NERF to a large extent. After this Morton had started behaving in a strange fashion and had kept away from the town. Meanwhile Nat Damon gets killed. In the plane Morton had a desire to tell something important to his lawyer Evans but could not get a chance. In the conference Morton declared that he will withdraw all his finances from NERF and he moves out with his car under the influence of alcohol and meets an accident and surprisingly Evans discovered Kenner in the accident spot.        Chapter III: Terror       Evans the lawyer soon realizes that he is being subtly threatened by the director of Drake so that he alters the clauses of the contract that talked about the allocation of funds in parts. Margo the mistress of Morton was also attacked in the same way as was Marshall the student in Paris but fortunately she was able to survive the attack. Kenner tries to convince Evans that the lawsuit which he was fighting was a complete failure as the data which was lying with him for months showed that the level of South Pacific sea levels did not show any rise and this he tried to explain Evans both with the help of layman’s language as well as with the help of adequate evidences in the form of data and graphs.       Kenner also tries to inform Evans and Sarah about an extremist terrorist group called the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF). Kenner said that the aim of this group was to create imbalance in the environment with the help of a number of technologies. The group also wanted to create an utter chaos out of the entire issue of global warming. Kenner told them that ELF had bought highly advanced equipments from the entire world and to find out how they would use it Evans and Sarah needed to visit the Weddell Station.   After the group had reached Weddell Station they decided to visit the camp of Brewster so that they could find out more about his plans and actions. As they reached the area they discovered that Brewster was not camping in the area where he was supposed to stay. Discovering poor weather and light Kenner decided that he should move ahead alone and Evans and Sarah should stay back and return to the base. Sarah and Evans in turn discovered that the man who was posing as Bolden was not actually so and they both were left in a pathetic situation almost on the verge of death. On their way Sarah and Evans got badly stuck inside narrow crevasses and Sarah helped Evans to come out of the trap. Somehow they both survived with the help of automatic robots and returns to the Weddell Station after receiving adequate treatment.       Kenner on their return explained them how network worked and also informed them about the fact that the reports of 1988 regarding global warming were very much incorrect.        Chapter IV: Angel       In this chapter Evans was asked by his boss to meet Drake and agree to all his conditions regarding the clauses of Morton’s contract but Evans did not agree to the proposal.       On the other hand an investigator asked Evans to keep the door of his house open so that he could deliver a package into his house which Morton had asked him to deliver.       Sarah on spotting Brewster starts following him but unfortunately loses track after following for some time. Then Kenner joins her and they follow the truck which was carrying both Brewster and Bolden. As they follow them they found out that they got down at private airfield. Kenner informed Sarah that their mission was to test the parts of the plane. But their mission meets with a dangerous end as they both are locked inside the fire caused due to the testing activity.       Chapter V: Flash       At this juncture Kenner desperately tries to survive by trying to break the glass and the door but without any result. Kenner realizes that the only way which could save them was to open their clothes and cover them by keeping on the ground so that the fire is not able to harm them in any way. Ultimately they saved their lives by somehow opening the window.       Meanwhile when Evans returns home he found out that the investigator was sitting still in his house. Seeing his state Evans soon realizes that he has been paralyzed as was Margo and Marshall. Evans desperately tried to know from the investigator about the package that he wanted to deliver but the investigator is able to indicate only ‘no’. Soon the cops arrive and they were of the opinion that Evans was certainly linked with the incident of paralyzing because it was Evans who had visited Margo before she was paralyzed and again he was found. Evans tries to convince the police officers that he was no way involved with the issue of paralyzing.       As the cops left Evans soon found a DVD under the cushion of one of the chairs. As he plays it he found that it showed the fiery conversation between Drake and John Henley who was the PR person of NERF. The DVD shows that Drake is annoyed about the fact that the phenomenon of global warming could not receive as much attention as he had expected. His irritation could well be understood when Drake shouted and said, “I hate global warming…… It’s a goddamn disaster”. (Crichton, 170). Drake is heard telling that he needed an amount of forty two million dollars to run the organization successfully. Henley advises him to portray global warming just as the media does it and he also advises him to use the conference as a platform to portray the seriousness of the issue. Thus from their conversations it can be well understood that the main intention behind global warming was to raise huge sums of money.       Evans is shocked after seeing this. He again meets Drake and Drake requests him to rethink about the contract but Evans does not agree. He told Drake that the lawsuit may prove to be in danger because the level of the Pacific Sea has not risen but Drake tries to convince him that it has risen. At the end of the chapter we find that Kenner asked Evans to go for a journey.       Chapter VI: Snake       In this chapter Kenner and Sanjong informs Evans that the ELF wanted to create destruction in the atmosphere. By creating weather havoc they wanted to kill a lot of people so that they could catch the attention of the media. Kenner explained Evans that the rockets would be used by the ELF to enhance the capacity of the storm by adding lightening to it because according to Sanjong, “whoever controls the weather would control the battlefield”. (Crichton, 184) Therefore it was clear that controlling the world was the actual aim of the ELF group.       As Sarah and Evans is into the SUV they feel that they are attracting the lightning somehow and so the only option that they have in their hands is to move into the forest so that the trees could save them from lightning. Sarah is soon struck by lightning and Kenner realizes that a lightning attracting device had been implanted in the radio sets itself.       As Kenner was attacking the spider webs one by one Evans felt that it was more necessary to go the McKinley Park to save the kids. On their way again they are followed by the truck and in order to save their lives they drove the SUV into the river and thus get saved.       As they were returning they found that how the media was linking the incidents of the park to global warming.       On the other hand Evans received information that George Morton’s body was found in the Piasmo Beach. The body which was left for identification was disfigured beyond recognition and so Evans kept silent.       At the end of the chapter we come to see that even Evans was being paralyzed in the same way as was Margo and the others.       Chapter VII: Blue       Evans gets rescued by Janis and Sarah who had come to meet him. On the other hand Drake gets to know that Evans was working against them with the help of Kenner and Jennifer.       Kenner gathers the information that the ELF group had rented an aircraft, AC-47 the previous month in order to change the track of the storm. At the same time Drake spotted Professor Hoffman in the hall and arranges in such a way that the Professor is not able to join the conference. Drake also asked Evans to stop the Professor from going to the police. Professor Hoffman gets irritated and he starts explaining the conspiracy that was running behind the phenomenon of global warming. He said that after the fall of the Berlin Wall the government had nothing to keep the people in fear so they have started using the phenomenon of global warming to keep the people under the control of the government. Here we find Professor Hoffman shouting out maniacally the words “Fear mongers! Immoral Fear mongers”! (Crichton, 258). These words were said to express his disgust about those who disseminated a fear of global warming unnecessarily among the people. It was during the conference that Sarah realized that the NERF was not on the right track.       Chapter VIII: Resolution       Kenner landed in Gareda and met Henry. Henry tried to work out a plan in such a manner so that they are spotted out by the ELF but Kenner understands that pretty easily and instead put Henry into a trap whereby he is left to die.       As they were returning they got attacked by the rebels and it was Morton who rescued Evans and Kenner. Sarah and Jennifer are also saved.       Finally the group comes out from all dangers and was successful in attacking the tents of the ELF. Bolden is also killed by Evans. Ultimately every member of the group protects themselves from the waves by getting into the jeep and they happily fly into Los Angeles with Sanjong whom they previously thought to be dead.           Strength of the book:        The book is successful in the sense that it has made the readers realize that the issue of global warming is not as threatening as is thought by the people. The reference of the Y2K problem and the mention of how the media affects the thought process of the people rather influence the mind of the common people. The effect of the media in the minds of the people is well elucidated by the mention of the crime rates in USA. The dialogues between Evans and Kenner make the readers realize that they only know a part of the truth and throws light on the actual facts of global warming.       The conversation between Professor Hoffman and Evans remains to be the most important part of the book because through the conversation Crichton tries to tell his readers that the government tries to instill a fear factor in the minds of the people and then tries to pose that only they can be their saviors. Through this the government tries to secure its position of superiority. Thus we can say that the author Michael Crichton has done a wonderful job by trying to make men know the reality about global warming so that they fear it less.       Weakness of the book:        The portrayal of the characters of Evans and Sarah continues to be a symbol of weakness in the novel because they being ordinary people could travel to places like Weddell Station and Gareda but in reality it was not possible to travel to such places without a special kind of training.       The book fails to provide a strong romantic current which would have been successful in holding the attention of the readers. Some unnecessary details have also been added in the book and even unbelievable facts were also present in the book. At some point of time the author makes the readers feel monotonous with the burden of the extra information. As the author handles a topic as serious as global warming it was not much necessary to give certain unwanted details.     References 1. “About Michael Crichton” available at: http://www. michaelcrichton. net/aboutmichaelcrichton-biography. html, (accessed on 29/06/2009). 2. Crichton Michael, “State of Fear: A Novel”, HarperCollins Publishers, New York, 2004. Read More