State of Annoyance

Before I begin my review, I feel like I should make something clear first. I really don't like this book, so I feel that I'll probably have a strong bias against it. Also, there is a high probability I will swear in this post. If this offends you, turn away now! This is largely due to the fact that as I read State of Fear, it's playing out like a bad made-for-TV movie in my head. I feel very frustrated that I don't have the option to stop reading it.

In the assignment, Ben says that the whole novel is incredibly cliched. I would say that this is an understatement. I mean, there's a goddamn Mount Terror. That's something I'd expect in a most a novel for pre-teens. What in Crichton's mind made him think "Hey! Mount Terror! Now that's a cool name." The characters are flat, and thus I feel no sort of empathy with any of them. The plot is not just as dull as the characters, and is insanely predictable. I don't think that there has been a single part, with the possible exception of the first guy being killed, where I have though to myself "Oh, that was unexpected" or "How interesting."

Now, usually none of this would bother me all that much. I've read my fair share of drivel before. But the fact that, literary-wise, it's trash is only made even more unbearable by what people have said on the internet about it and the review quotes on the back. I got the book off of Amazon, and was surprised by the comments I saw about it. The vast majority of were along the lines of "Stick it environmentalists! You see? Global warming doesn't exist. There's a book about it now. And if you disagree, you're just sheep who will believe anything 'science' tells you." Okay, that wasn't an actual quote, but you get my drift. I was pretty biased against the book before I even received it.

The fact that I felt so strongly against before even seeing it just proves how much of a hybrid it is. The hybridity of it and the fact that Crichton uses the novel to contest a global phenomena that I feel has been pretty well proven, frustrates me to no end. I mean, really, aren't there enough people in the world who are skeptical about global warming and thus are slowing progress down for rest of us already? I'm all about sharing your opinion, and there is no reason why Crichton shouldn't have written this book. What upsets me most is that this novel (which was #1 at Amazon when it came out and #2 on the NY Times Best Seller List) is probably the only seeing device through which many people look at global warming. (Well, and maybe Fox News.) The fact that Crichton panders off the science in the book as being well-researched means that for those people, they will never question what he said. They'll never even do enough of their own research to see that most the scientists Crichton quotes in his novel and appendices say the science was erroneous or distorted. And even if someone told them, the fact that Crichton has been so legitimated as an authority on global warming (he's even been called to testify before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works and State of Fear was even required reading for them from 2003-2007) there's a good chance they would not listen. Even the quote on the inside flap of the hardcover version states "Only Crichton's unique ability to blend scientific fact with pulse-pounding fiction could bring such desperate conditions to a heart-stopping conclusion." Right there, before the book even starts, Crichton is lifted above the heads of us lowly humans with the promise that he alone will bring us the truth about global warming all the while wrapping it in seduction, suspense and mystery. How exciting!

A lot of people have brought up Crichton's quote "Everyone has an agenda. Except me", and justly, I'd say. Of course you have an agenda, Mr. Crichton. Otherwise you wouldn't be writing your damn book. Even supposing that I didn't believe that your out to push a way to look at global warming, with your pseudo-science and misleading statements, you are at least out to make a buck, which definitely counts for something. Who are you trying to get to read your book? Who are your publishers and what do they think? How are you going to convince people your novel is worth reading? Each of these questions has huge implications that shouldn't be ignored.