Crichton

“It is not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw.”

Best opening line for a book, ever.

This comes from Travels, Michael Crichton biography, spanning from his days in medical school to his trips around the world and his explorations into the New Age.

I mentioned last week how I considered him to have one of the longest influences on me.  I first read Jurassic Park when I was ten and read the sequel, Lost World, the next year.  While his bibliography is not as long as my arm, he wrote enough to keep me occupied through high school and college.

A few of his books were just entertaining, like The Terminal Man, Eaters of the Dead, Sphere, The Andromeda Strain, Prey, and Congo, although with each of these, I was constantly impressed with the amount of research brought into each creative work.

But the ones that still stick with me are Rising Sun, Airframe, and Disclosure.  They’re not just well-researched and inventive, they were powerful social commentaries.  Rising Sun was a fascinating look into Japanese culture and how it relates and clashes with the United States.  Airframe was breathtaking in its exposure of fear and how the media will manipulate to enhance and make money off of that fear.  And Disclosure gave me much to think about when it comes to sexual harassment and the insane drive those in power have to secure even more power.

Having been very impressed with his works, it was about time that I started reading some of his non-fiction, and being able to read about his own life has been quite the experience.

The first section on his days at Harvard Medical School was the most interesting for me.  He talks about what it was like to have to cut into the cadaver, his rotations through the different fields, his conversations with doctors and patients, and why he quit medicine right after he graduated.

Frankly, my hat is off to him for sticking all the way through into getting the degree at all, despite the fact that he never used it afterwards.  I know for myself I would not have survived the years that he put in.  There was a time when I pictured going into the medical field, and given my own mentality, I’m confident I would have done well in that profession—if I were willing to put in the hours.  The shifts doctors work while they’re in school are incredible.  No thank you.

Fortunately for him, Crichton not only had himself established as an author before he graduated, but he also had a Hollywood deal and would soon get work as a movie director along with his novelist career as well.

The rest of the book deals with his traveling.  I will admit, there was a little envious at the places he got to go.  I’ve always wanted to travel but time and responsibilities crop up and I know it would be difficult to afford to go to all the places he went: Africa, New Zealand, Hunza, Ireland, New Guinea, etc.  No matter how old I live, I doubt very much I’ll get to see half of these wonderful places.  On the other hand, it’s great to read about them.  That hike up Kiliminjaro sounds incredible.

What surprised me was his fascination with New Age.  Crichton was an atheist and highly scientific.  So as I read about his explorations with psychics, spoon-bending, meditation, seeing auras, having an exorcism performed on himself, visiting mediums, and a host of other stuff, I realized I didn’t know who this author was at all.

It certainly piqued my curiosity.  Even though he went to the end of his life denying the existence of a God, it’s fascinating to me that he still explored spirituality and the metaphysical as a way to better understand himself and his role in the universe.  It leads me to think that there is a longing in all human individuals to seek out something that is beyond them, like there’s a void inside that we are reaching out and trying to fill.

If his fiction is not your cup of tea, I still would highly recommend Travels.  It was difficult for me to move on from one chapter to the next, not because it wasn’t good, but because each chapter left me with something new to think about and I wanted the extra time to mull his experiences, beliefs and testimonies through my mind before marching onward to the next.