迈克尔·克莱顿xiě zuò shēng yá
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn chū shēng yú yī lì nuò zhōu zhī jiā gē， zài niǔ yuē zhōu cháng dǎo zhǎngdà。 yòu liǎng gè zǐ zǐ， yī gè dì dì。 yòu guò 5 cì hūn yīn jì lù， shēng yòu yī nǚ。
1964 nián jiù dú hā fó dà xué wén xué xì， hòu lái zhuǎn niàn rén lèi xué xì， bìng xuǎn xiū yī xué yù kē kè chéng， gé nián chóngxīn jiù dú hā fó yī xué yuàn。 kè lāi dùn zì chéng dà xué shí qī céng jīng chāo xí qiáo zhì · ōu wēi 'ěr， jiāng tā de wén zhāng dāng zuò zì jǐ de bào gào jiāo liǎo chū qù， hòu lái hái zhǐ dé liǎo gè“ B”， kè lāi dùn xuān chēng nà shì duì xué xiào de cè shì， jué fēi kè yì qī mán。 jiù dú wén xué xì shí， kè lāi dùn jiǎo jiāo de bào gào zǒng shì ná dī fēn， tā rèn wéi shì jiào shòu yòu yì diāo nán， cái yǐ cǐ jǔ lái cè shì jiào shòu de shuǐ zhǔn， ér hòu duì hā fó wén xué xì de shī wàng， shǐ tā zhuǎn niàn rén lèi xué xì。 1969 nián yī xué yuàn bì yè hòu， dān rèn jiā zhōu shā kè shēng wù yán jiū zhōng xīn（ SalkInstituteforBiologicalStudies） bó shì hòu yán jiū yuán， 1988 nián chéng wéi má shěng lǐ gōng xué yuàn kè zuò zuò jiā。
jiù dú yī xué yuàn qī jiān， yǐ bǐ míng JohnLange jí JefferyHudson kāi shǐ zhuàn xiě xiǎo shuō， 1969 nián《 sǐ wáng shǒu shù shì》 huò dé de 'ài lún pō zuì jiā xiǎo shuō jiǎng。 tā yǔ dì dì dào gé lā sī（ Douglas） yòng bǐ míng MichaelDouglas hé zhù de xiǎo shuō《 Dealing:OrtheBerkeley-to-BostonForty-BrickLost-BagBlues》 hòu lái yě bèi hǎo lāi wù gǎi biān chéng diàn yǐng。 tā de liǎng gè bǐ míng， dōuzài 'àn shì tā de shēn gāo。 jù tā zì jǐ suǒ shù， 1997 nián shí tā dà yuē yòu 206 lí mǐ。 Lange zhè gè zì zài dé wén、 dān mài yǔ gēn hé lán yǔ lǐ， dōuyòu“ shēn cái gāo dà” de yì sī， ér jié fú ruì · hǎdé xùn jué shì（ JeffreyHudson） zé shì 17 shì jì yòu míng de zhū rú， shì yīng gé lán hēng lì yǎ dá · mǎ lì yà wáng hòu de tíng chén。
1969 nián tā yòng běn míng chū bǎn de chàng xiāo shū《 tiān wài bìng jūn》（ yòu yì《 ān dé luò mò dá pǐn xì》）， mài chū liǎo diàn yǐng bǎn quán， jù dà de chéng gōng shǐ tā xià dìng jué xīn qì yī cóng wén。 zhè bù zuò pǐn shǐ tā chéng wéi měi guó zuì chéng gōng de xiǎo shuō jiā zhī yī。 cóng cǐ mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn xiě chū liǎo yī bù yòu yī bù chàng xiāo xiǎo
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn
shuō。
kè lāi dùn zǎo nián zài fēi wén xué lǐng yù de yán jiū wèitā jī lěi liǎo rén lèi xué、 yī xué、 shēng wù xué hé shén jīng xué děng yuān bó de zhī shí， wèitā rì hòu de wén xué chuàng zuò diàn dìng liǎo jiān shí de jī chǔ。 tā yě dǎo yǎn guò jǐ bù diàn yǐng， rú tā 1979 nián yǔ shǐ 'ēn · kāng nà lāi hé zuò， zhí dǎo liǎo zì jǐ 1975 nián de zuò pǐn《 huǒ chē dà jié 'àn》。 kè lāi dùn shēng wàng dá dào zuì gāo shì zài 20 shì jì 90 nián dài， tā de zuò pǐn《 zhū luó jì gōng yuán》 bèi hǎo lāi wù dǎo yǎn shǐ dì fēn · shǐ pǐ bǎi bān shàng yín mù。 lìng wài tā hái chuàng zuò bìng zhì piàn liǎo huò dé 'ài měi jiǎng de diàn shì lián xù jù《 jí zhěn shì de chūn tiān》。
kè lāi dùn de xīng qù shí fēn guǎng fàn， tā de cái huá bù jǐn tǐ xiàn zài wén xué shàng， suǒ dǎo yǎn de yǐngpiān《 zuàn shí gōng》（ yòu yì《 xī fāng shì jiè》），《 bā hào fáng jìn dì》（ yòu yì《 hūn mí》）、《 huǒ chē dà jié 'àn》 děng huò dé liǎo jù dà chéng gōng。 tā shì gè jì suàn jī yè de hángjiā lǐ shǒu， yōng yòu zì jǐ de FilmTrack ruǎn jiàn gōng sī， yú 20 shì jì 80 nián dài kāi shǐ wéi diàn yǐng pāi shè shè jì duō zhǒng diàn nǎo chéng xù， tā suǒ zhí dǎo de《 zuàn shí gōng》， jiù shì shì jiè shàng shǒu bù yìng yòng diàn nǎo tè jì de diàn yǐng。 tā hái xiě guò guān yú xìn xī jì shù de shū《 ElectronicLife》， zì jǐ shèn zhì hái shè jì liǎo yī tào jiào《 yà mǎ xùn》 de diàn zǐ yóu xì。 kè lāi dùn zài zhè xiē lǐng yù de shè liè， yě wéi tā de wén xué chuàng zuò tí gōng liǎo fēng fù de yuán quán。
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn tóng shí zài měi guó zuò jiā xié huì、 měi guó dǎo yǎn xié huì、 diàn yǐng yì shù hé kē xué xué huì děng duō jiā xíng yè xié huì zhōng rèn zhí， tā shì měi guó wéi yī yī gè tóng shí zài chàng xiāo shū、 diàn yǐng、 diàn shì jù sān gè lǐng yù qǔ dé fēi fán chéng jiù de rén。 1992 nián de《 shí rén》（ People） zá zhì jiāng tā píng wéi quán qiú 50 wèi zuì gāo yǎ rén shì（ FiftyMostBeautifulPeople） zhī yī。
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn - zhù yào chéng jiù
xiǎo shuō lèi
jǐn yǐ luó liè mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn běn míng chū bǎn de xiǎo shuō zuò pǐn yòu：《 sǐ wáng shǒu shù shì》、《 ān dé luò mò dá pǐn xì》、《 zhōng duān rén》、《 huǒ chē dà jié 'àn》、《 chéng zhù yè wù de 'è mó shí shī zhě》、《 gāng guǒ jīng hún》、《 shén mì zhī qiú》、《 zhū luó jì gōng yuán》、《 shēng qǐ de tài yáng》、《 pàn nì xìng sāo rǎo》、《 shī luò de shì jiè》、《 zuì gāo wēi jī jī shēn》、《 chóngfǎn zhōng shì jì》、《 shā liè wù》、《 kǒng jù zhuàng tài》、《 wēi jī dāng qián》 děng
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn
fēi xiǎo shuō lèi
chú xiǎo shuō wài， kè lāi dùn shàng yòu jǐ bù yǐ kē xué wéi tí cái de zhù zuò， qí zhōng《 mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn lǚ xíng kāi mài lā》 yī shū， zé yòu piàn duàn de zìzhuàn nèi róng。 kè lāi dùn yǔ xīn dá dá zhù yì yì shù jiā jiǎ sī péi · qióng sī（ JasperJohns） sī jiāo shèn dǔ， tā jiāng qióng sī de zuò pǐn shōu jí chéng cè， chū bǎn yī běn tóng míng de jīng zhuāng tú wén shū《 JasperJohns》， cǐ shū hái céng zēng dìng gǎi bǎn guò yī cì。
kè lāi dùn chū bǎn guò yī běn shū， shì jiè shào BASIC diàn nǎo chéng xù yǔ yán de《 ElectronicLife》， céng yán， jiāng diàn nǎo chéng xù huà jiù xiàng yī zhǒng jiě fàng：“ yǐ wǒ de jīng yàn， yào kòng zhì diàn nǎo， ràng tā xiǎo dé shuí shì lǎo dà， jiù dé tòu guò yī zhǒng dú tè de fāng fǎ， jiù shì chéng xù huà … huā jǐ gè xiǎo shí jiāng yī tái xīn de jī qì chéng xù huà， huì dài gěi nǐ yī zhǒng huàn rán yī xīn de gǎn shòu。”
dāng rán tā zài shuō zhè jù huà shí， diàn nǎo bù guò shì xiàn chéng diàn zǐ líng jiàn de zǔ hé， zhǐ yào xué xí jǐ shí gè zhǐ lìng jiù néng yòng nèi jiàn de BASIC yǔ yán xiě chéng xù。 dāng shí de dú zhě bù nán qí dào diàn nǎo tóu shàng。 ér wéi liǎo zhèng míng zì jǐ de guān diǎn， kè lāi dùn zài shū zhōng fù shàng xǔ duō zì jǐ yòng BASIC yǔ yán xiě de chéng xù。 kè lāi dùn kǎo lǜ guò yào zēng dìng zhè běn shū， bù guò hòu lái sì hū dǎ xiāo liǎo zhù yì。
yǐng shì zuò pǐn
《 zuàn shí gōng》（ yòu yì《 xī fāng shì jiè》） shì shǒu bù yǐ 'èr wéi diàn nǎo shēng chéng tú xiàng jì shù（ 2DCGI） wéi mài diǎn de diàn yǐng， ér shǒu bù yìng yòng sān wéi diàn nǎo shēng chéng tú xiàng jì shù（ 3DCGI） de diàn yǐng， qià qiǎo yòu shì zhè bù piàn de xù jí《 fěi cuì wō dà yīn móu》（ yòu yì《 wèi lái shì jiè》）。 nà xiē yǐ diàn nǎo shēng chéng de shǒu liǎn tú xiàng， shì yóu yóu tā dà xué bì yè shēng 'ài dé wēn · kǎ miù（ EdwinCatmull， pí kè sī zǒng cái） hé fó liè dé · pà kè suǒ zhì zuò de。
kè lāi dùn zhí dǎo guò gǎi biān zì luó bīn · kù kè（ RobinCook） xiǎo shuō de diàn yǐng《 bā hào fáng jìn dì》。 jiù mǒu fāng miàn lái shuō， liǎng zhě jù yòu bù shǎo gòng tóng diǎn， shí jì shàng kù kè hé kè lāi dùn dōushì yī shī chū shēn， nián jì xiāng dāng， zuò pǐn lèi xíng yě xiāng dāng。 kè lāi dùn wéi diàn yǐng《 ExtremeCloseUp》 hé《 lóng juàn fēng》（ yǔ dāng shí de qī zǐ hé zuò biān jù） xiě guò jù běn。 kè lāi dùn yī shǒu dǎ zào jiān zhì liǎo diàn shì jù《 jí zhěn shì de chūn tiān》， bù guò tā zhǐ wéi《 jí zhěn shì de chūn tiān》 biān xiě guò dì yī jì qián sān jí de jù běn。
1994 nián 12 yuè， tā yī jǔ dá chéng tè shū de zhuó yuè chéng jiù， yōng yòu dì yī míng de diàn yǐng《 táo sè wēi jī》， dì yī míng de diàn shì jù《 jí zhěn shì de chūn tiān》 gēn dì yī míng de chàng xiāo shū《 táo sè wēi jī》（ yòu yì《 dà bào guāng》）。 qí tā zhù yào yǐng shì zuò pǐn bāo kuò：《 xī fāng shì jiè dǎo yǎn》、《 hūn mí》、《 huǒ chē dà jié 'àn》、《 pī lì zhuī hún dàn》、《 xiàn jǐng biān yuán》、《 zhū luó jì gōng yuán》、《 xù rì zhuī xiōng》、《 rén xīn rén shù》、《 lóng juàn fēng》 děng。
diàn nǎo yóu xì
《 yà mǎ xùn》（ Amazon） shì yī kuǎn mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn chuàng zào de tú xiàng wén zì mào xiǎn yóu xì， yǐ AppleII、 AtariST、 Commodore64 hé DOS xì tǒng zuò wéi zhí xíng píng tái， 1984 nián yóu Trillium gōng sī de yuē hàn · wēi 'ěr sī（ JohnWells） fù zé fā xíng。《 yà mǎ xùn》 wéi wén zì mào xiǎn yóu xì jiā rù cǎi sè tú xiàng hé yīn xiào de zuò fǎ， zài dāng shí xiāng dāng hǎn jiàn， yīn cǐ dà mài shí wàn fèn， kě yǐ shuō xiāng dāng de chéng gōng。
dào liǎo 1999 nián， kè lāi dùn yǔ dà wèi · shǐ mì sī（ DavidA.Smith） gòng tóng chuàng lì shí jiān xiàn diàn nǎo yú lè gōng sī（ TimelineComputerEntertainment）， jìn guǎn gēn EidosInteractive qiān dìng liǎo bù shǎo fā hángjì huá， dàn zuì hòu zhǐ chū guò yī kuǎn yóu xì《 shí jiān xiàn》， 2000 nián 12 yuè 8 rì fā xíng yú gè rén diàn nǎo， kě xī zhè kuǎn yóu xì bù guǎn zài píng jià shàng huò shì xiāo shòu shù zì dū xiāng dāng de nán kàn。
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn - zuò pǐn tè sè
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn zuò pǐn de yī gè shǒu yào zhù tí shì kē xué chéng jiù de qǔ dé yòu shí shì bù fù zé rèn de。 kē xué jiā hé jì shù rén yuán qǔ dé liǎo jīng rén、 bù kě sī yì dàn què jí duān wēi xiǎn de chéng guǒ wǎng wǎng bìng bù bèi zhì yí。 zhè xiē chéng guǒ shǐ wǒ men rén lèi huò dé liǎo quán lì dàn què dài lái liǎo wèn tí。 suǒ yǐ kē xué zài kè lāi dùn de zuò pǐn zhōng， jīng cháng bàn yǎn zǒu huǒ rù mó de juésè， jí shǐ shì 'àn bù jiù bān wán chéng de kē xué chéng jiù， tā yě néng jǔ chū zuì zāo gāo de yìng yòng fàn lì。
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn de xiǎo shuō yòu yī xiē gòng tóng diǎn： shǒu xiān， tā tè bié shàn cháng yǐ yī gè shàng cún zhēng yì de lǐ lùn hé jì shù lái gòu sī yī bù xiǎo shuō， wéi rào zhù zhè zhǒng lǐ lùn kè huà rén wù xíng xiàng。 qí cì， tā de xiǎo shuō qíng jié guǐ mì， xuán niàn bù duàn， gāo cháo dié qǐ， kòu rén xīn xián。 dì sān jiù shì zòng héng chí chěng de xiǎng xiàng lì。
yòng zuò pǐn biǎo dá gè rén yì jiàn， yě zhú jiàn chéng wéi kè lāi dùn de tè sè， zài tā yòng bǐ míng fā biǎo de tuī lǐ xiǎo shuō《 sǐ wáng shǒu shù shì》 zhōng， kè lāi dùn yòng dì yī rén chēng bàn yǎn yī wèi bō shì dùn de bìng lǐ xué jiā， wéi wǎn jiù péng yǒu de míng yù， jiè rù diào chá yī chūn duò tāi zhì sǐ suǒ yǎn shēng de yī liáo shū shī 'àn jiàn。 zhè běn shū zài 1968 nián chū bǎn， yuǎn zǎo yú 1973 nián měi guó quán guó xìng duò tāi hé fǎ huà biàn lùn de luó duì wéi dé 'àn（ Roev.Wade）。 tā huā liǎo 160 yè zhuī chá mì mì bāng rén duò tāi de zhù xián fàn， zhè gè juésè de dēng chǎng jiù shì wèile biǎo dá zuò zhě gè rén de yì jiàn， rán hòu， kè lāi dùn yòng 3 yè ràng zhè gè juésè wèitā de fēi fǎ xíng wéi biàn hù。
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn
kè lāi dùn de bù fèn xiǎo shuō yě shǐ yòng jiǎ zào wén shū de wén xué jì fǎ。 lì rú，《 zhōng jí qí bīng》（ yòu yì《 shí shī zhě》） jiù shì gǔ yīng gé lán shǐ shī《 bèi 'ào wǔ fū》 de wán xiào bǎn， tā yǐ xué shù de biǎo xiàn fāng shì， chóngxīn quán shì 'ā mǎ dé · yī běn fǎ dé lán（ AhmadibnFadlan） xī yuán shí shì jì de shǒu gǎo。
ér zài qí tā xiǎo shuō， rú《 tiān wài bìng jūn》 gēn《 zhū luó jì gōng yuán》 lǐ， yě yòu bù shǎo yǐ tú biǎo、 diàn nǎo xìn xī、 DNA xù liè、 zhù jiě yǔ cān kǎo shū mùdì xíng shì chéng xiàn， gēn xiǎo shuō hùn hé zài yī qǐ de kē xué wén jiàn。
dú mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn de xiǎo shuō， pū miàn 'ér lái de shì měi guó wén huà jiān shōu bìng xù de bāo róng xìng。 zhè zhǒng bāo róng xìng bù jǐn tǐ xiàn zài tā de xiǎo shuō yǔ kē xué lián yīn， dà liàng yǐn yòng yòu guān wù lǐ xué de、 yī xué de、 yí chuán xué de、 tiān wén xué de kē xué zhī shí， ér qiě zá róu liǎo gè lèi xiǎo shuō de pǐn zhǒng yōu shì， tí liàn chū tā de xiǎo shuō tè yòu de nà zhǒng shén qí、 dà dǎn de xiǎng xiàng fēng gé， jiān ruì、 tòu chè de sī wéi lù xiàn， kāi kuò、 hóng dà de xù shì shǒu fǎ hé jiǎn jié、 yòu lì de yǔ yán tè sè。 tā zǒu de shì liú xíng yǔ tōng sú de lù xiàn， què yòu néng tiào chū tōng sú， zài gāo kē jì xiǎng xiàng lǐng yù chén diàn xià yī xiē yòu guān rén lèi、 kē xué、 wèi lái děng wèn tí de sī kǎo， zài chù jí xiàn shí tí cái shí duō néng tòu guò rén wù、 shì jiàn de biǎo xiàng， qù yáo hàn měi guó shè huì zhōng yī xiē sì hū shì bù kě dòng yáo de zhì dù yǔ zhǔn zé， jù yòu yán sù de xiàn shí pī pàn jīng shén。 kè lāi dùn shì xī fāng shǎo shù jǐ gè néng jiāng tōng sú xiǎo shuō de jīng xiǎn、 huǒ bào yǔ gāo yǎ wén xué de sī xiǎng yì yùn róng wéi yī lú de zuò jiā。 kè lāi dùn zài zuò pǐn zhōng wèiwǒ men zhǎn shì liǎo yī fú fú gāo xīn kē jì de shēng dòng jǐng xiàng， qí suǒ shè lǐng yù zhī guǎng， miáo shù zhī jīng què， lìng rén tàn wéi guān zhǐ。 zhè xiē zuò pǐn duì kē jì wén huà chǎn shēng liǎo bù kě hū shì de yǐng xiǎng。
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn - dé jiǎng jì lù
1969 nián， ài lún pō zuì jiā xiǎo shuō jiǎng（《 sǐ wáng shǒu shù shì》， yǐ JeffreyHudson wéi bǐ míng）
1970 nián， měi guó yī liáo zuò jiā xié huì jiǎng（《 FivePatients》）
1980 nián， ài lún pō zuì jiā diàn yǐng jù běn jiǎng（《 huǒ chē dà jié 'àn》）
2006 nián， měi guó shí yóu dì zhì xué jiā xié huì xīn wén jiǎng（《 kǒng jù zhī bāng》）
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn - yǎn jiǎng jì lù
yì xíng yǐn qǐ quán qiú nuǎn huà
2003 nián， kè lāi dùn zài jiā zhōu lǐ gōng xué yuàn jìn xíng liǎo yī cì fù yòu zhēng yì de yǎn jiǎng“ yì xíng yǐn qǐ quán qiú nuǎn huà”。 tā biǎo shì dān yōu“ yú lùn kē xué” de wēi xiǎn xìng， tè bié shì nà xiē pǔ biàn liú xíng， dàn shì réng zài zhēng lùn zhōng de lǐ lùn， lì rú hé dōng tiān、 èr shǒu yān de wēi xié jí quán qiú nuǎn huà zhēng yì。 duì yú yī bān wài xīng shēng mìng hé yōu fú de pǔ biàn kàn fǎ， tā yě biǎo dá liǎo bù mǎn， tā zhǐ chū mù qián bìng wú wài xīng rén cún zài de jué dìng xìng zhèng jù。 kè lāi dùn shuō：“ dé ruì kè gōng shì wú fǎ bèi jiǎn yàn， yīn cǐ sōu xún dì wài wén míng jìhuà（ SETI） bù shì kē xué， zhǐ néng suàn shì kuáng rè zhě de 'àihào。” kè lāi dùn píng lùn， xiāng xìn méi yòu shì shí zuò yǐ guī de kē xué lǐ lùn， gēn ná kē xué dāng xìn yǎng bìng méi yòu liǎng yàng。
huán bǎo zhǐ shì xìn yǎng
kè lāi dùn zài jiā zhōu lián bāng jù lè bù（ CommonwealthClubofCalifornia） yòu jìn xíng liǎo yī cìxiàng guān de yǎn jiǎng“ huán jìng bǎo hù zhǐ shì xìn yǎng”， kè lāi dùn biǎo shì， bù shǎo xiàn dài dū shì de wú shén lùn zhě， duì dà zì rán hé wǒ men de guò qù yòu zhù bùqiè shí jì de kàn fǎ， tā men xiāng xìn yī diàn yuán、 rén lèi yòu zuì hé shěn pàn rì， zhè gēn mǒu xiē zōng jiào zǔ zhì de guān diǎn（ tè bié shì yóu tài jī dū jiào yì） xiāng dāng lèi sì。 tā míng bái de shuō， xiàn dài huán bǎo rén shì zhèng zhì tuán tǐ， wú shì yú xiāng duì de kē xué zhèng jù， wán gù mò shǒu tā men de xìn yǎng。 kè lāi dùn yě yǐ dà jiā duì DDT、 èr shǒu yān hé quán qiú nuǎn huà de wù jiě wéi lì， jìn xíng liǎo yī fān biàn lùn。
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn
méi tǐ de fàn làn tuī lùn
2002 nián zài guó jì lǐng dǎo lùn tán（ InternationalLeadershipForum） de yǎn jiǎng“ wèishénme yào tuī lùn？” zhōng， kè lāi dùn pī píng méi tǐ huá zhòng qǔ chǒng， kōng dòng de tuī lùn bào dǎo yuǎn duō yú chuán dá shì shí。 tā ná niǔ yuē shí bào 3 yuè 6 rì de tóu bǎn biāo tí wéi lì， nèi róng tuī cè liǎo měi guó zǒng tǒng qiáo zhì · bù shí duì gāng tiě jìn kǒu zēng jiā guān shuì hòu de kě néng yǐng xiǎng。 kè lāi dùn yǐn shù sū shān · fǎ lè dì（ SusanFaludi） de shū《 Backlash》 shuō：“ diàn jī yú yī gè lì chǎng， zhì zuò shàng bǎi yè de tǒng jì zī liào lái shuō míng zhù zhāng， zhè zhǒng zuò fǎ gēn běn jiù shì zào jiǎ， shuō liǎo děng yú méi shuō。” tā yòng“ mò lǐ · gài 'ěr màn jiàn wàng zhèng hòu qún” lái xíng róng yī zhǒng dà zhòng qū shì： míng míng yǐ zì jǐ de xiāng guān zhī shí， zhī dào bào shàng mǒu gè xīn wén kě néng shì jiǎ de， kě shì què cǎi qǔ mò shì de tài dù， jì xù qù xiāng xìn tóng yī zhāng bào zhǐ shàng tā men bù shú xī de yì tí。 kè lāi dùn yòng lā dīng lǐ yǔ“ falsusinuno,falsusinomnibus”（ yì sī shì“ yī zì zhī chā， mǎn pán jiē yí”） lái shuō míng tā rèn wéi yīnggāi yào yòu de zhèng què tài dù。
mài kè 'ěr · kè lāi dùn - huā xù
20 shì jì 70 nián dài mò， zhōng guó rén fēng yǒng jìn rù zhōng guó yǐng yuàn， qù kàn yī bù jiào《 wèi lái shì jiè》 de kē huàn piàn。 nà shì zhōng guó rén dì yī cì kàn dào kē huàn diàn yǐng。 ér zhè bù diàn yǐng zé shì lìng yī bù kē huàn diàn yǐng《 xī fāng shì jiè》 de xù jí， zhì zuò rén jiù shì kè lāi dùn。
2000 nián， quán qiú fā xiàn kǒng lóng shù zuì duō de zhōng guó zhù míng gǔ shēng wù xué jiā dǒng zhī míng céng jiāng yī gè zài yún nán fā xiàn de kǒng lóng zhǒng shǔ yǐ kè lāi dùn de xìng shì mìng míng， yǐ zàn yáng tā“ zài《 zhū luó jì gōng yuán》 jí qí xù jí《 shī luò de shì jiè》 zhōng duì kǒng lóng xǔ xǔ rú shēng de kè huà”。 tā hái shuō：“ kè lāi dùn suǒ zuò de， shì duì xǔ xǔ duō duō rén fù yú kǒng lóng yǐ shēng mìng。 wǒ men zhè xiē yǔ kǒng lóng dǎ jiāo dào de rén， dū yìng gāi gǎn jī kè lāi dùn， yīn wéi tā shǐ wǒ men de gōng zuò zhòng suǒ zhōu zhī。” kè lāi dùn zì háo de shuō：“ duì xiàng wǒ zhè yàng de rén lái shuō， zhè kě bǐ 'ào sī kǎ jiǎng hǎo dé duō。”，“ xiāng xìn wǒ， dāng wǒ hái shì yī gè zhàn zài bó wù guǎn de kǒng lóng de jù dà gǔ jià xià níng wàng de hái tóng shí， cóng wèi xiǎng dào guò yòu yī tiān qí zhōng de yī zhǒng jiāng yǐ wǒ de míng zì lái mìng míng。” dàn cì nián， dǒng jiāng zhè zhǒng kǒng lóng chóngxīn guī lèi chéng wéi lù fēng biàn shì lóng de yī zhǒng。 jīhū měi yī běn kè lāi dùn de xiǎo shuō lǐ， dū huì yòu yī gè juésè jiào lāi wén（ Levine）。
His literary works are usually based on the action genre and heavily feature technology. His novels epitomise the techno-thriller genre of literature, often exploring technology and failures of human interaction with it, especially resulting in catastrophes with biotechnology. Many of his future history novels have medical or scientific underpinnings, reflecting his medical training and science background. Among others, he was the author of Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Travels, Sphere, Rising Sun, Disclosure, The Lost World, Airframe, Timeline, Prey, State of Fear, Next (the final book published before his death), Pirate Latitudes (published November 24, 2009), and a final unfinished techno-thriller yet to be released. Forbes listed Crichton in tenth place in its list of "Top-Earning Dead Celebrities" of 2009.
Early life and education
John Michael Crichton was born in Chicago, Illinois, to John Henderson Crichton, a journalist, and Zula Miller Crichton, on October 23, 1942. He was raised on Long Island, in Roslyn, New York, and had three siblings: two sisters, Kimberly and Catherine, and a younger brother, Douglas. Crichton showed a keen interest in writing from a young age and at the age of just 14 had a column related to travel published in The New York Times. Crichton had always planned on becoming a writer and began his studies at Harvard College in 1960. During his undergraduate study in literature, he conducted an experiment to catch out a professor[citation needed] who he believed was giving him abnormally low marks and criticizing his literary style. Informing another professor of his suspicions,[citation needed] Crichton plagiarized a work by George Orwell and submitted it as his own. The paper was returned by his unwitting professor with a mark of "B−". His issues with the English Department led Crichton to switch his course to biological anthropology as an undergraduate, obtaining his bachelor's degree summa cum laude in 1964. He was also initiated into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He went on to become the Henry Russell Shaw Traveling Fellow from 1964 to 1965 and Visiting Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom in 1965.
Crichton later enrolled at Harvard Medical School when he began publishing work. By this time he had become unusually tall. By his own account, he was approximately 6 feet 9 inches (2.06 meters) tall in 1997. In reference to his height, while in medical school, he began writing novels under the pen names "John Lange" and "Jeffery Hudson" ("Lange" is a surname in Germany, meaning "long", and Sir Jeffrey Hudson was a famous 17th-century dwarf in the court of Queen Consort Henrietta Maria of England). In "Travels", he recalls overhearing doctors discussing the flaws in his book "The Andromeda Strain", unaware that he was its author. "A Case of Need", written under the Hudson pseudonym, won him his first Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1969. He also co-authored "Dealing" with his younger brother Douglas under the shared pen name "Michael Douglas". The back cover of that book carried a picture, taken by their mother, of Michael and Douglas when very young.
Crichton graduated from Harvard, obtaining an M.D. in 1969, and undertook a post-doctoral fellowship study at the Jonas Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California, from 1969 to 1970.
At Harvard he developed the belief that all diseases, including heart attacks, are direct effects of a patient's state of mind. He later wrote: "We cause our diseases. We are directly responsible for any illness that happens to us." Eventually he came to believe in auras, spoon bending, and clairvoyance.
In 1988, Crichton was a visiting writer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
[edit]Writing career
[edit]Fiction
Odds On was Michael Crichton's first published novel. It was published in 1966 under the pseudonym of John Lange. It is a 215-page paperback novel which describes an attempt of robbery in an isolated hotel on Costa Brava. The robbery is planned scientifically with the help of a Critical Path Analysis computer program, but unforeseen events get in the way. The following year he published Scratch One. The novel relates the story of Roger Carr, a handsome, charming and privileged man who practices law, more as a means to support his playboy lifestyle than a career. Carr is sent to Nice, France where he has notable political connections, but is mistaken for an assassin and finds his life in jeopardy, implicated in the world of terrorism. In 1968 he published two novels, Easy Go and A Case of Need, the second of which was re-published in 1993 under his real name. Easy Go relates the story of Harold Barnaby, a brilliant Egyptologist who discovers a concealed message while translating hieroglyphics, informing him of an unnamed Pharaoh whose tomb is yet to be discovered. A Case of Need, on the other hand was a medical thriller in which a Boston pathologist, Dr. John Berry, investigates an apparent illegal abortion conducted by an obstretrician friend which caused the early demise of a young woman. The novel would prove a turning point in Crichton's future novels, in which technology is important in the subject matter, although this novel was as much about medical practice. The novel earned him an Edgar Award in 1969.
In 1969 Crichton published three novels. The first, Zero Cool, dealt with an American radiologist on vacation in Spain who becomes caught in a murderous crossfire between rival gangs seeking a precious artifact. The second, The Andromeda Strain, would prove to be the important novel in his career that established him as a best selling author. The novel documented the efforts of a team of scientists investigating a deadly extraterrestrial microorganism that fatally clots human blood, infecting the sufferer and causing death within two minutes. The microbe, code named "Andromeda", mutates with each growth cycle, changing its biologic properties. The novel became an instant success, and it was only two years before the novel was sought after by film producers and turned into the eponymous 1971 film under the direction of Robert Wise and featuring Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid as Leavitt, and David Wayne. In September 2004, the Sci Fi Channel would announce a production of a miniseries, executive-produced by Ridley Scott, Tony Scott and Frank Darabont, premiering on May 26, 2008. Crichton's third novel of 1969, The Venom Business relates the story of a smuggler who uses his exceptional skill as a snake handler to his advantage by importing snakes to be used by drug companies and universities for medical research. The snakes are simply a ruse to hide the presence of rare Mexican artifacts. In 1969 Crichton also wrote a review for the New Republic (as J. Michael Crichton), critiquing Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut.
In 1970 Crichton again published three novels: Drug of Choice, Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues and Grave Descend. Grave Descend earned him an Edgar Award nomination the following year.
In 1972 Crichton published two novels. The first, Binary, relates the story of a villainous middle-class businessman who attempts to assassinate the President of the United States by stealing an army shipment of the two precursor chemicals that form a deadly nerve agent. The second, The Terminal Man is about a psychomotor epileptic sufferer, Harry Benson, who in regularly suffering seizures followed by blackouts, conducts himself inappropriately during seizures, waking up hours later with no knowledge of what he has done. Believed to be psychotic, he is investigated, electrodes are implanted in his brain, continuing the trend in Crichton's novels with machine-human interaction and technology. The novel was adapted into a film directed by Mike Hodges and starring George Segal, Joan Hackett, Richard A. Dysart and Donald Moffat, released in June 1974. However neither the novel nor the film were well received by critics.
In 1975, Crichton ventured into the nineteenth century with his historical novel The Great Train Robbery, which would become a bestseller. The novel is a recreation of the Great Gold Robbery of 1855, a massive gold heist, which takes place on a train traveling through Victorian era England. A considerable proportion of the book was set in London. The novel was later made into a 1979 film directed by Crichton himself, starring Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland. The film would go on to be nominated for Best Cinematography Award by the British Society of Cinematographers, also garnering an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture by the Mystery Writers Association of America.
In 1976, Crichton published Eaters of the Dead, a novel about a 10th century Muslim who travels with a group of Vikings to their settlement. Eaters of the Dead is narrated as a scientific commentary on an old manuscript and was inspired by two sources. The first three chapters retelling Ahmad ibn Fadlan's personal account of his journey north and his experiences in encountering the Rus', the early Russian peoples, whilst the remainder is based upon the story of Beowulf, culminating in battles with the 'mist-monsters', or 'wendol', a relict group of Neanderthals. The novel was adapted into film as The 13th Warrior, initially directed by John McTiernan, who was later fired with Crichton himself taking over direction.
In 1980, Crichton published the novel Congo, which centers on an expedition searching for diamonds in the tropical rain forest of Congo. They discover the legendary lost city of Zinj and an unusual race of barbarous gorillas. The novel was loosely adapted into a 1995 film, starring Laura Linney, Tim Curry, and Ernie Hudson. Seven years later, Crichton published Sphere, a novel which relates the story of psychologist Norman Johnson, who is required by the U.S. Navy to join a team of scientists assembled by the U.S. Government to examine an enormous alien spacecraft discovered on the bed of the Pacific Ocean, believed to have been there for over 300 years. The novel begins as a science fiction story, but rapidly transforms into a psychological thriller, ultimately exploring the nature of the human imagination. The novel was adapted into the film Sphere in 1998, directed by Barry Levinson, with a cast including Dustin Hoffman as Norman Johnson, (renamed Norman Goodman), Samuel L. Jackson, Liev Schreiber and Sharon Stone.
Crichton's novel Jurassic Park and its sequels made into films would become a part of popular culture, with related parks established in places as far afield as Kletno, Poland.
In 1990, Crichton published the novel Jurassic Park. Crichton utilized the presentation of "fiction as fact", used in his previous novels, Eaters of the Dead and The Andromeda Strain. In addition, chaos theory and its philosophical implications are used to explain the collapse of an amusement park in a "biological preserve" on Isla Nublar, an island west of Costa Rica. Paleontologist Alan Grant and his paleobotanist graduate student, Ellie Sattler, are brought in by billionaire John Hammond to investigate. The park is revealed to contain genetically recreated dinosaur species, including Dilophosaurus, Velociraptor, Triceratops, Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex. They have been recreated using damaged dinosaur DNA, found in mosquitoes that sucked Saurian blood and were then trapped and preserved in amber.
Crichton had originally conceived a screenplay about a graduate student who recreates a dinosaur, but decided to explore his fascination with dinosaurs and cloning until he began writing the novel. Spielberg learned of the novel in October 1989 while he and Crichton were discussing a screenplay that would become the television series ER. Before the book was published, Crichton demanded a non-negotiable fee of $1.5 million as well as a substantial percentage of the gross. Warner Bros. and Tim Burton, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Richard Donner, and 20th Century Fox and Joe Dante bid for the rights, but Universal eventually acquired them in May 1990 for Spielberg. Universal paid Crichton a further $500,000 to adapt his own novel, which he had completed by the time Spielberg was filming Hook. Crichton noted that because the book was "fairly long", his script only had about 10–20 percent of the novel's content. The film, directed by Spielberg, was eventually released in 1993, starring Sam Neill as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler, Jeff Goldblum as Dr. Ian Malcolm (the chaos theorist) and Richard Attenborough as the billionaire CEO of InGen. The film would become extremely successful.
A mosquito preserved in amber. A specimen of this sort was the source of dinosaur DNA in Jurassic Park.
In 1992, Crichton published the novel Rising Sun, an international best-selling crime thriller about a murder in the Los Angeles headquarters of Nakamoto, a fictional Japanese corporation. The book was instantly adapted into a film, released the same year of the movie adaption of Jurassic Park in 1993 and starring Sean Connery, Wesley Snipes, Tia Carrere and Harvey Keitel. His next novel, Disclosure, published in 1994, addresses the theme of sexual harassment previously explored in his 1972 Binary. Unlike that novel however, Crichton centers on sexual politics in the workplace, emphasising an array of paradoxes in traditional gender functions, by featuring a male protagonist who is being sexually harassed by a female executive. As a result, the book has been harshly criticized by feminist commentators and accused of anti-feminism. Crichton, anticipating this response, offered a rebuttal at the close of the novel which states that a "role-reversal" story uncovers aspects of the subject that would not be as easily seen with a female protagonist. The novel was made into a film the same year under the helm of Barry Levinson, and starring Michael Douglas, Demi Moore and Donald Sutherland.
Crichton then published The Lost World in 1995 as the sequel to Jurassic Park. It was made into a film sequel two years later in 1997, again directed by Spielberg and starring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, Vince Vaughn and Pete Postlethwaite. Then, in 1996, Crichton published Airframe, an aero-techno-thriller which relates the story of a quality assurance vice-president at the fictional aerospace manufacturer Norton Aircraft, as she investigates an in-flight accident aboard a Norton-manufactured airliner that leaves three passengers dead and fifty-six injured. Again, Crichton uses the false document literary device, presenting numerous technical documents to create a sense of authenticity. In the novel, Crichton draws from real life accidents to increase its sensation of realism, including American Airlines Flight 191 and Aeroflot Flight 593; the latter flew from Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport (SVO) and crashed on its way to Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport in 1994. Crichton challenges the public perception of air safety and the consequences of exaggerated media reports to sell the story. The book also continues Crichton's overall theme of the failure of humans in human-machine interaction, given that the plane itself worked perfectly and the accident would not have occurred had the pilot reacted properly.
In 1999, Crichton published Timeline, a science fiction novel which tells the story of a team of historians and archaeologists studying a site in the Dordogne region of France where the medieval towns of Castelgard and La Roque stood. They time-travel back to 1357 to uncover some startling truths. The novel, which continues Crichton's long history of combining technical details and action in his books, addresses quantum physics and time travel directly. The novel quickly spawned Timeline Computer Entertainment, a computer game developer that created the Timeline PC game published by Eidos Interactive in 2000. A film based on the book was released in 2003 by Paramount Pictures, with a screen adaptation by Jeff Maguire and George Nolfi, under the direction of Richard Donner. The film stars Paul Walker, Gerard Butler and Frances O'Connor.
In 2002, Crichton published Prey, a cautionary tale about developments in science and technology; specifically nanotechnology. The novel explores relatively recent phenomena engendered by the work of the scientific community, such as artificial life, emergence (and by extension, complexity), genetic algorithms, and agent-based computing. Reiterating components in many of his other novels, Crichton once again devises fictional companies, this time Xymos, a nanorobotics company which is claimed to be on the verge of perfecting a revolutionary new medical imaging technology based on nanotechnology and a rival company, MediaTronics. Elements of the novel were utilized in the 2008 film The Day the Earth Stood Still[citation needed], in which a swarm of nanobots escape from a secure military facility.
In 2004, Crichton published State of Fear, a novel concerning eco-terrorists who attempt mass murder to support their views. Global warming and climate change serve as a central theme to the novel, and in Appendix I of the book, Crichton warns both sides of the global warming debate against the politicization of science. He provides two examples of the disastrous combination of pseudo-science and politics, the early 20th-century idea of eugenics, which allowed for the Holocaust, and Lysenkoism. The novel had an initial print run of 1.5 million copies and reached the #1 bestseller position at Amazon.com and #2 on the New York Times Best Seller list for one week in January 2005.
The last novel published while he was still living was Next, printed in 2006. The novel follows many characters, including transgenic animals, in the quest to survive in a world dominated by genetic research, corporate greed, and legal interventions where government and private investors spend billions of dollars every year on genetic research.
His last novel, Pirate Latitudes, was originally scheduled for a release date of December 2, 2008. However, it was postponed until November 24, 2009. Additionally, an unfinished untitled novel is tentatively scheduled for publication in late 2010.
[edit]Non-fiction
Crichton's first published book of non-fiction, Five Patients recounts his experiences of practices in the late 1960s at Massachusetts General Hospital and the issues of costs and politics within the American Healthcare Service.
Aside from fiction, Crichton wrote several other books based on medical or scientific themes, often based upon his own observations in his field of expertise. In 1970 he published Five Patients, a book which recounts his experiences of hospital practices in the late 1960s at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. The book follows each of five patients through their hospital experience and the context of their treatment, revealing inadequacies in the hospital institution at the time. The book relates the experiences of Ralph Orlando, a construction worker seriously injured in a scaffold collapse; John O'Connor, a middle aged dispatcher suffering from fever that has reduced him to a delirious wreck; Peter Luchesi, a young man who severs his hand in an accident; Sylvia Thompson, an airline passenger who suffers chest pains; and Edith Murphy, a mother of three who is diagnosed with a life threatening disease. In Five Patients, Crichton examines a brief history of medicine up to 1969 to help place hospital culture and practice into context, and addresses the costs and politics of the national healthcare service. As a personal friend to the artist Jasper Johns, Crichton compiled many of his works in a coffee table book, published as Jasper Johns. It was originally published in 1970 by Harry N. Abrams, Inc. in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art and again in January 1977, with a second revised edition published in 1994.
In 1983, Crichton authored Electronic Life, a book that introduces BASIC programming to its readers. The book, written like a glossary, with entries such as "Afraid of Computers (everybody is)," "Buying a Computer," and "Computer Crime", was intended to introduce the idea of personal computers to a reader who might be faced with the hardship of using them at work or at home for the first time. It defined basic computer jargon and assured readers that they could master the machine when it inevitably arrived. In his words, being able to program a computer is liberation; "In my experience, you assert control over a computer—show it who's the boss—by making it do something unique. That means programming it....If you devote a couple of hours to programming a new machine, you'll feel better about it ever afterwards". In the book, Crichton predicts a number of events in the history of computer development, that computer networks would increase in importance as a matter of convenience, including the sharing of information and pictures that we see online today which the telephone never could. He also makes predictions for computer games, dismissing them as "the hula hoops of the '80s", and saying "already there are indications that the mania for twitch games may be fading." In a section of the book called "Microprocessors, or how I flunked biostatistics at Harvard," Crichton again seeks his revenge on the medical school teacher who had given him abnormally low grades in college. Within the book, Crichton included many self-written demonstrative Applesoft (for Apple II) and BASICA (for IBM PC compatibles) programs. He once considered updating it, but the project was canceled.
Then, in 1988, he published Travels, which also contains autobiographical episodes covered in a similar fashion to his 1970 book Five Patients.
[edit]Literary techniques
Crichton's novels, including Jurassic Park, have been described by The Guardian as "harking back to the fantasy adventure fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Edgar Wallace, but with a contemporary spin, assisted by cutting-edge technology references made accessible for the general reader". According to The Guardian, "Michael Crichton wasn't really interested in characters, but his innate talent for storytelling enabled him to breathe new life into the science fiction thriller". Like The Guardian, The New York Times has also noted the boys adventure quality to his novels interfused with modern technology and science. According to The New York Times,
All the Crichton books depend to a certain extent on a little frisson of fear and suspense: that’s what kept you turning the pages. But a deeper source of their appeal was the author’s extravagant care in working out the clockwork mechanics of his experiments — the DNA replication in Jurassic Park, the time travel in Timeline, the submarine technology in Sphere. The novels have embedded in them little lectures or mini-seminars on, say, the Bernoulli principle, voice-recognition software or medieval jousting etiquette ...
The best of the Crichton novels have about them a boys’ adventure quality. They owe something to the Saturday-afternoon movie serials that Mr. Crichton watched as a boy and to the adventure novels of Arthur Conan Doyle (from whom Mr. Crichton borrowed the title The Lost World and whose example showed that a novel could never have too many dinosaurs). These books thrive on yarn spinning, but they also take immense delight in the inner workings of things (as opposed to people, women especially), and they make the world — or the made-up world, anyway — seem boundlessly interesting. Readers come away entertained and also with the belief, not entirely illusory, that they have actually learned something"
— The New York Times on the works of Michael Crichton
Crichton's works were frequently cautionary; his plots often portrayed scientific advancements going awry, commonly resulting in worst-case scenarios. A notable recurring theme in Crichton's plots is the pathological failure of complex systems and their safeguards, whether biological (Jurassic Park), military/organizational (The Andromeda Strain), technical (Airframe) or cybernetic (Westworld). This theme of the inevitable breakdown of "perfect" systems and the failure of "fail-safe measures" can be seen strongly in the poster for Westworld (slogan: "Where nothing can possibly go worng ..." (sic) ) and in the discussion of chaos theory in Jurassic Park.
The use of author surrogate was a feature of Crichton's writings from the beginning of his career. In A Case of Need, one of his pseudonymous whodunit stories, Crichton used first-person narrative to portray the hero, a Bostonian pathologist, who is running against the clock to clear a friend's name from medical malpractice in a girl's death from a hack-job abortion.
Some of Crichton's fiction used a literary technique called false document. For example, Eaters of the Dead is a fabricated recreation of the Old English epic Beowulf in the form of a scholarly translation of Ahmad ibn Fadlan's 10th century manuscript. Other novels, such as The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, incorporated fictionalized scientific documents in the form of diagrams, computer output, DNA sequences, footnotes and bibliography. Some of his novels included authentic published scientific works to illustrate his point, such as in The Terminal Man and State of Fear.
At the prose level, one of Crichton's trademarks was the single word paragraph: a dramatic question answered by a single word on its own as a paragraph.
[edit]As a film director and screenwriter
Crichton wrote or directed several motion pictures and episodes of TV series. In the 1970s in particular he was intent on being a successful filmmaker. His first film, Pursuit (1972), was a TV movie both written and directed by Crichton that is based on his novel Binary.
Westworld was the first feature film that used 2D computer-generated imagery (CGI) and the first use of 3D CGI was in its sequel, Futureworld (1976), which featured a computer-generated hand and face created by then University of Utah graduate students Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke.
Crichton directed the film Coma, adapted from a Robin Cook novel. There are other similarities in terms of genre and the fact that both Cook and Crichton had medical degrees, were of similar age, and wrote about similar subjects.
Other major releases directed by Crichton include The Great Train Robbery (1979), Looker (1981), Runaway (1985), and Physical Evidence (1989). The middle two films were science fiction, set in the very near future at the time, and included particularly flashy styles of filmmaking, for their time.
He wrote the screenplay for the movies Extreme Close Up (1973) and Twister (1996), the latter co-written with Anne-Marie Martin, his wife at the time. Although Jurassic Park and The Lost World were both based on Crichton's novels, Jurassic Park III was not.
Crichton was also the creator and executive producer of the television drama ER. ER was originally slated to be a movie, directed by Steven Spielberg. However, during the early stages of pre-production, Spielberg asked Michael Crichton what his current project was. Crichton said he was working on a novel about dinosaurs and DNA. Spielberg subsequently dropped what he was doing to film this project. Afterwards, he returned to ER and helped develop the show, serving as a producer on season one and offering advice (he insisted on Julianna Margulies becoming a regular, for example). It was also through Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment that John Wells was contacted to be the show's executive producer. In 1994, he achieved the unique distinction of having a #1 movie, Jurassic Park,[citation needed] a #1 TV show, ER,[citation needed] and a #1 book, Disclosure, atop the paperback list.
Crichton wrote only three episodes of ER:
Episode 1-1: "24 Hours"
Episode 1-2: "Day One"
Episode 1-3: "Going Home"
[edit]Computer games
Amazon is a graphical text adventure game created by Michael Crichton and produced by John Wells under Trillium Corp. Amazon was released in the United States in 1984 and it runs on Apple II, Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, Commodore 64, and the DOS systems. It sold more than 100,000 copies, making it a significant commercial success at the time. It featured plot elements similar to those later used in Congo.
In 1999, Crichton founded Timeline Computer Entertainment with David Smith. Despite signing a multi-title publishing deal with Eidos Interactive, only one game was ever published, Timeline. Released on December 8, 2000 for the PC, the game received poor reviews and sold poorly.
[edit]Speeches
Crichton delivered a number of notable speeches in his lifetime.
[edit]Intelligence Squared "Global Warming is Not a Crisis" debate
On March 14, 2007, Intelligence Squared held a debate entitled Global Warming is Not a Crisis. Crichton was on the for the motion side along with Richard Lindzen and Philip Stott against Gavin Schmidt, Richard Somerville, and Brenda Ekwurzel. Before the debate, the audience were largely on the Against the motion side at 57% vs 30% in favor of the for side, with a 12% undecided. At the end of the debate, there was a notable shift in the audience vote at 46% vs 42% in favor of the for the motion side leaving the debate with the conclusion that Crichton's group won.
In the debate, although he admitted that man must have at some point contributed to Global Warming but not necessarily caused it, Crichton argued that most of the media and attention of the general public are being dedicated to the uncertain Anthropogenic Global Warming scares instead of the more urgent issues like poverty. He also suggested that private jets be banned as they add more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for the benefit of the few who could afford them.
Global Warming is Not a Crisis Intelligence Squared debates March 14, 2007
[edit]Genetic research and legislative needs
While writing Next, Crichton concluded that laws covering genetic research desperately needed to be revised, and spoke to Congressional staff members about problems ahead. A Talk to Legislative Staffers Washington, D.C. September 14, 2006
[edit]Complexity theory and environmental management
In previous speeches, Crichton criticized environmental groups for failing to incorporate complexity theory. Here he explains in detail why complexity theory is essential to environmental management, using the history of Yellowstone Park as an example of what not to do. Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy Washington, D.C. November 6, 2005
[edit]Testimony before the United States Senate
Crichton argued for independent verification of research used for public policy, and criticized the so-called "hockeystick" study, for reasons that were the subject of intense debate by U.S. Legislators Committee on Environment and Public Works Washington, D.C.
[edit]Caltech Michelin Lecture
"Aliens Cause Global Warming" January 17, 2003. In the spirit of his science fiction writing Crichton details the fallacy of Carl Sagan's nuclear winter and SETI Drake equations relative to Global Warming alarmism.
[edit]The Case for Skepticism on Global Warming
Crichton's detailed explanation of why he criticizes global warming scenarios. Using published UN data, he reviews why claims for catastrophic warming arouse doubt; why reducing CO2 is vastly more difficult than we are being told; and why we are morally unjustified to spend vast sums on this speculative issue when around the world people are dying of starvation and disease. National Press Club Washington, D.C January 25, 2005
[edit]Science Policy in the 21st Century
We need better mechanisms to determine science policy. Crichton outlined several issues before a joint meeting of liberal and conservative think tanks. Joint Session AEI-Brookings Institution Washington, D.C. January 25, 2005
[edit]Environmentalism as Religion
This was not the first discussion of environmentalism as a religion, but it caught on and was widely quoted. Crichton explains why religious approaches to the environment are inappropriate and cause damage to the natural world they intend to protect. Commonwealth Club San Francisco, California September 15, 2003
[edit]Why Speculate?
In recent years, media has increasingly turned away from reporting what has happened to focus on speculation about what may happen in the future. Paying attention to modern media is thus a waste of time. International Leadership Forum La Jolla, California April 26, 2002
[edit]Ritual Abuse, Hot Air, and Missed Opportunities: Science Views Media
The AAAS invited Crichton to address scientists' concerns about how they are portrayed in the media. American Association for the Advancement of Science Anaheim, California January 25, 1999
[edit]Mediasaurus: The Decline of Conventional Media
A 1993 speech which predicted the decline of mainstream media. National Press Club, Washington, D.C. April 7, 1993
[edit]Reception
[edit]Criticism of Crichton's Environmental Views
Many of Crichton's publicly expressed views, particularly on subjects like the global warming controversy, have been contested by a number of scientists and commentators. An example is meteorologist Jeffrey Masters' review of State of Fear:
Flawed or misleading presentations of Global Warming science exist in the book, including those on Arctic sea ice thinning, correction of land-based temperature measurements for the urban heat island effect, and satellite vs. ground-based measurements of Earth's warming. I will spare the reader additional details. On the positive side, Crichton does emphasize the little-appreciated fact that while most of the world has been warming the past few decades, most of Antarctica has seen a cooling trend. The Antarctic ice sheet is actually expected to increase in mass over the next 100 years due to increased precipitation, according to the IPCC."
Peter Doran, author of the paper in the January 2002 issue of Nature which reported the finding referred to above that some areas of Antarctica had cooled between 1986 and 2000, wrote an opinion piece in the July 27, 2006 New York Times in which he stated "Our results have been misused as 'evidence' against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novel State of Fear." Al Gore said on March 21, 2007 before a U.S. House committee: "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor [...] if your doctor tells you you need to intervene here, you don't say 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem'." This has been recognized by several commentators as a reference to State of Fear.
[edit]Michael Crowley
In his 2006 novel Next (released November 28 of that year), Crichton introduced a character named "Mick Crowley" who is a Yale graduate and a Washington D.C.-based political columnist. "Crowley" was portrayed by Crichton as a child molester with a small penis. From page 227 as quoted in the New York Times: “Alex Burnet was in the middle of the most difficult trial of her career, a rape case involving the sexual assault of a two-year-old boy in Malibu. The defendant, thirty-year-old Mick Crowley, was a Washington-based political columnist who was visiting his sister-in-law when he experienced an overwhelming urge to have anal sex with her young son, still in diapers.” The character is a minor one who does not appear elsewhere in the book.
A real person named Michael Crowley is also a Yale graduate, and a senior editor of The New Republic, a liberal Washington D.C.-based political magazine. In March 2006, the real Crowley had written an article strongly critical of Crichton for his stance on global warming in State of Fear. Crowley responded by saying that he was “strangely flattered” by his reference in Crichton’s novel. “To explain why, let me propose a corollary to the small penis rule,” he wrote. “Call it the small man rule: If someone offers substantive criticism of an author and the author responds by hitting below the belt, as it were, then he’s conceding that the critic has won.”
[edit]Awards
Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Novel, 1969 — A Case of Need
Association of American Medical Writers Award, 1970
Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Motion Picture, 1980 — The Great Train Robbery
Named to the list of the "Fifty Most Beautiful People" by People magazine, 1992
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Technical Achievement Award, 1995
Writers Guild of America Award, Best Long Form Television Script of 1995
George Foster Peabody Award, 1994 — ER
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, 1996 — ER
Ankylosaur named [[Crichtonsaurus bohlini]], 2002
The American Association of Petroleum Geologists Journalism Award, 2006
[edit]Associations
Phi Beta Kappa
Author's Guild
Writers Guild of America
P.E.N. America Center
Directors Guild of America
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
Member of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Board of Directors, International Design Conference at Aspen, 1985–91
Board of Trustees, Western Behavioral Sciences Institute, La Jolla, 1986–91
Board of Overseers, Harvard University, 1990–96
Board of Directors, Drug Strategies, 1994–2008
Author's Guild Council, 1995–2008
Board of Directors, Gorilla Foundation, 2002–2008
Board of Trustees, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2006–2008
[edit]Personal life and death
Wikinews has related news: American author Michael Crichton dies at age 66
As an adolescent Crichton felt isolated because of his height (at 6'9"). As an adult he was acutely aware of his intellect which often left him feeling alienated from the people around him. During the 1970s and 1980s he consulted psychics and enlightenment gurus to make him feel more socially acceptable and to improve his karma. As a result of these experiences, Crichton practiced meditation throughout much of his life. Crichton was a workaholic. When drafting a novel which would typically take him six or seven weeks, Crichton withdrew completely to follow what he called "a structured approach" of ritualistic self-denial. As he neared writing the end of each book, he would rise increasingly earlier each day, meaning that he would sleep for less than 4 hours by going to bed at 10pm and waking at 2am.
In 1992 Crichton was ranked among People magazine's 50 most beautiful people. Crichton married five times, four of the marriages ending in divorce. He was married to Suzanna Childs, Joan Radam (1965–1970), Kathy St. Johns (1978–1980), and actress Anne-Marie Martin (1987–2003), the mother of his daughter Taylor Anne (born 1989). At the time of his death, Crichton was married to Sherri Alexander, who was six months pregnant with their son. John Michael Todd Crichton was born on February 12, 2009.
Crichton had an impressive collection of 20th Century American Art, which was auctioned by Christie's in May 2010.
In Nov 2006 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Crichton jokingly considered himself an expert in intellectual property law. He had been involved in several lawsuits with others claiming credit for his work. In 1985, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard Berkic v. Crichton, 761 F.2d 1289 (1985). Plaintiff Ted Berkic wrote a screenplay called "Reincarnation Inc.," which he claims Crichton plagiarized for the movie Coma. The court ruled in Crichton's favor stating the works were not substantially similar. In 1996, Williams v. Crichton, 84 F.3d 581 (2d Cir. 1996), Geoffrey Williams claimed that Jurassic Park violated his copyright covering his dinosaur themed children's stories published in the late 1980s. The court granted summary judgment in favor of Crichton. In 1998, A United States District Court in Missouri heard the case of Kessler v. Crichton that actually went all the way to a jury trial, unlike the other cases. Plaintiff Stephen Kessler claimed the movie Twister was based on his work "Catch the Wind." It took the jury about 45 minutes to reach a verdict in favor of Crichton. After the verdict, Crichton refused to shake Kessler's hand. At the Press Club in 2006, Crichton summarized his intellectual property legal problems by stating, "I always win."
Given the private way in which Crichton lived his life, his battle with throat cancer was not made public until his death. According to Crichton's brother Douglas, Michael was diagnosed with lymphoma in early 2008. He was undergoing chemotherapy treatment at the time of his death. Crichton's physicians and family members had been expecting him to make a recovery. He unexpectedly died of the disease on November 4, 2008.
Michael’s talent outscaled even his own dinosaurs of 'Jurassic Park.' He was the greatest at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs again walking the earth. In the early days, Michael had just sold 'The Andromeda Strain' to Robert Wise at Universal and I had recently signed on as a contract TV director there. My first assignment was to show Michael Crichton around the Universal lot. We became friends and professionally 'Jurassic Park,' 'ER,' and 'Twister' followed. Michael was a gentle soul who reserved his flamboyant side for his novels. There is no one in the wings that will ever take his place.
—Steven Spielberg on Michael Crichton's death.
[edit]Works
[edit]Fiction
Year Title Notes
1966 Odds On as John Lange
1967 Scratch One as John Lange
1968 Easy Go as John Lange (also titled as The Last Tomb)
A Case of Need as Jeffery Hudson (re-released as Crichton in 1993)
1969 Zero Cool as John Lange
The Andromeda Strain
The Venom Business as John Lange
1970 Drug of Choice as John Lange
Dealing as Michael Douglas (with brother Douglas Crichton)
Grave Descend as John Lange
1972 Binary as John Lange (re-released as Crichton in 1993)
The Terminal Man
1975 The Great Train Robbery
1976 Eaters of the Dead
1980 Congo
1987 Sphere
1990 Jurassic Park
1992 Rising Sun
1994 Disclosure
1995 The Lost World
1996 Airframe
1999 Timeline
2002 Prey
2004 State of Fear
2006 Next
2009 Pirate Latitudes posthumous publication
2012 Title not yet revealed (Techno-thriller) posthumous publication
[edit]Non-fiction
Year Title
1970 Five Patients
1977 Jasper Johns
1983 Electronic Life
1988 Travels
[edit]Film and television
[edit]Novels adapted into films
Year Title Filmmaker/Director
1971 The Andromeda Strain Robert Wise
1972 Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues Paul Williams
1972 The Carey Treatment (A Case of Need) Blake Edwards
1974 The Terminal Man Mike Hodges
1979 The First Great Train Robbery Himself
1993 Jurassic Park Steven Spielberg
1993 Rising Sun Philip Kaufman
1994 Disclosure Barry Levinson
1995 Congo Frank Marshall
1997 The Lost World: Jurassic Park Steven Spielberg
1998 Sphere Barry Levinson
1999 The 13th Warrior (Eaters of the Dead) John McTiernan
2003 Timeline Richard Donner
2008 The Andromeda Strain (TV miniseries) Mikael Salomon
[edit]As a screenwriter and/or director
Year Title Notes
1972 Pursuit (TV film) Co-Writer/Director
1973 Westworld Writer/Director
1978 Coma Writer/Director
1979 The First Great Train Robbery Writer/Director
1981 Looker Writer/Director
1984 Runaway Writer/Director
1989 Physical Evidence Director
1993 Jurassic Park Co-Writer
1993 Rising Sun Co-Writer
1996 Twister Co-Writer/Producer
[edit]TV series
Year Title Notes
1980 Beyond Westworld Creator/Writer
1994–2009 ER Creator/Writer/Executive Producer