Talking with Michael Crichton

As Thanksgiving approaches, I remember with deep gratitude the month of November 2005. I had the honor of participating in a month-long online discussion on State of Fear with Michael Crichton through the Barnes & Noble website. Here are a few snippets of my conversations with him.

I wrote:

May we have a sequel to Travels soon please?

Michael:

Actually, I have been trying to get a sequel to Travels finished for quite some time. I don't know how it happened but it has been almost twenty years since that book...

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I wrote:

I find it interesting that NERF and ELF, the two sinister organizations, have acronyms that remind me of things from childhood: nerf balls and other nerf toys, and elf, one of Santa’s little helpers. It’s an amusing and ironic contrast. Michael, was that intentional?

Michael:

That never occurred to me while working! Interesting. I was aware that ELF was the same initials as an actual organization. And I was aware that the book SPHERE was at one time titled "ULF"---don't ask me why, I can't remember now.

And there is a slang meaning for nerf, which is kind of hipster-childish, but not widely known, so I figured it would not influence most readers. But as for the similarities between the two...never crossed my mind.

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Another participant in the discussion, J, wrote:

OMG! You wrote to me!!!

I wrote:

He wrote to you! He wrote to me too! (Virtually hold hands and scream together) :-0

J:

LOL!

Michael:

Yes, and I could do it again...

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Crichton commented numerous times during the discussion on a wide variety of topics. I never got to meet him in person, but I am still very thankful I had the opportunity to communicate with him in some manner.

Related posts:

Michael Crichton – Favorite Holiday Recipes

Thank You, Michael Crichton

Celebrating Michael Crichton - Part 3: Favorites

My favorite of all of Michael Crichton’s works is his autobiography Travels. (See the letter I wrote to him about it.) Travels was also Crichton’s favorite book. During an online discussion in 2005, Michael Crichton told me he was working on a sequel. I hope we get to read it someday.

My favorite of his novels is Timeline. I love the combination of science and history. Plus Andre Marek is one of Crichton’s best characters.

What are your favorite Michael Crichton books?

Celebrating Michael Crichton - Part 2: Discovery

When I was nine years old, my father decided the family was going to see the 1971 film of The Andromeda Strain. (Dad tended to just come home and tell us we were going to see a particular film. I hadn't heard of Star Wars before Dad informed us we were going to see it.)

From my father I inherited a love of both science and science fiction. When I saw The Andromeda Strain, I was enthralled. I pestered my dad with questions all during the movie and for the next several weeks.

Two years later, I read my father’s copy of the novel. And I've been hooked on Crichton's work every since.

How did you discover Michael Crichton and what was the first book you read?

Celebrating Michael Crichton – Part 1

Today would have been Michael Crichton’s 70th birthday. He died on Tuesday, November 4, 2008, the day of the last presidential election. Hearing about the upcoming election makes me feel sad, and not for any political reasons. It reminds me that we lost Michael Crichton.

In the Jan. 1994 Vanity Fair article “The Admirable Crichton”, Zoe Heller described a memento of Crichton’s 50th birthday celebration. It is a hand-dawn card from a friend. The framed card depicts 50 of Michael Crichton’s favorite things. Heller shared a few of them:

• Theater

• Blondes

• His wife

• His daughter

• Aspen

• Film

• Computers

• Harvard

• Good wine

• Balance

• Clarity

• Brevity

• Vision

• Global thinking

• Strategy

• Direction

• Elegance

• Excellence

• Beauty

I’d love to know what the other 31 things were, and to see the card myself someday.

To celebrate Michael Crichton, I’d like to come up with 70 words that describe and represent him. Unfortunately, I can’t come up with 70 words today, not if I want to do him justice. So I’ll just share one.

What word comes to mind when I think of Michael Crichton?

Stimulating

Crichton had the most stimulating mind I have ever encountered.

What word comes to mind when you think of Michael Crichton?

Michael Crichton News 9/3/12

Gene Patents back in court

On March 26 the Supreme Court threw out the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals 2011 decision upholding gene patents in the case Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics. The case was sent back to the lower court for a do-over, with instructions to review the case in consideration of the Supreme Court’s decision in the March 20 case Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc. Analysis, which held restrictions on genetic patents.

On August 16, the Federal Circuit Court again upheld gene patents, with the vote going along the same 2-1 lines as in the 2011 decision. Now we’ll have to see if the case goes back to the Supreme Court.

(Thank you, John, for keeping me up to date on this case!)

Remake of Coma

A new TV remake of the 1978 Crichton film Coma will air in two parts—Monday Sept. 3 (tonight) and Tuesday Sept. 4. Based on the novel by Robin Cook, Michael Crichton wrote the screenplay and directed the original film.

Official website for remake

Jurassic Park Book Cover Designer Chip Kidd

In a March 2012 talk, book cover designer Chip Kidd shared his experience of designing the cover of Jurassic Park. Kidd also designed the covers for The Lost World, Rising Sun, Disclosure, Airframe, and Timeline.

After Michael Crichton died in November 2008, Kidd remembered Crichton in an interview:

When 'The Lost World' (the 1997 sequel to "Jurassic Park") came out, I saw him at the book-release party and he posed for pictures with my family," Kidd said. "He was very gracious. And he was really tall. He seemed like he stepped out of his own TV show. He was literally larger than life, beyond smart and very good-looking.

Hello Again!

Hello Again!

I’m so sorry I was away for so long. But I have a little treat that you may enjoy.

The latest edition to my Michael Crichton archives is an April 1972 issue of Harper’s Bazaar. On p. 138 is an article by Betsy L. Freund titled “Is Michael Crichton Superman?” Freund interviewed Crichton for the article. A couple of highlights:

“Crichton says The Terminal Man was written as a direct result of the reviews and letters he received after the publication of The Andromeda Strain.”

“His next book, Leading Women, is a series of interviews with 13 Hollywood actresses, none of whom he identifies. ‘It will probably be very weird.’”

I’ve been researching Michael Crichton for decades and this is the first I’ve heard of this nonfiction former work-in-progress. Crichton has mentioned other unrealized projects in his writings and interviews. I’ll work on compiling a list.