[mainepatsfan]

I wonder if this Crichton book will be made into a major motion picture? I guess it's not that kind of book to begin with but a movie dealing with the books premise would be nice.

[Dave S]

Wolfe also did a half hour or longer interview on Fox News this weekend. I think it was New Years Eve. Interesting guy.

P.s. Im reading State of Fear also and its great.

[bd476]

Great post, and commentary on two favorite authors! Right now I'm reading "Air Frame" by Crichton. He's fun reading and now there's another Crichton book to enjoy. Thanks for the recommendation.

Wolfe is sharp edged, the way an entertaining writer should be. God bless his conservative soul. :)

[bubman]

I got Wolfe's latest for Christmas from my sister-in-law. Lookinf forward to reading it.

[JFK_Lib]

Thanks for the heads up on these tow books; they sound very interesting and deep.

I read Wolfe's 'A Man in Full' and it was fantastic as well as entertaining. He deserved every penny he made off that one, certainly. Through the art of telling an interesting story he presented four contrasting characterizations (stereotypes if you will) of manhood that are quite illustrative and enlightening. Suggestion though if you haven't yet read it, consider 'Zeus' to be code for 'Christ' and I think you will get the full message.

We Christians today do have to go back to using code to represent our bleifs, and Wolfe is the first in a long time I think to have done this to avoid persecution.

Maybe we can also use the Sun to represent the Son, and the Joshua Tree to represent the Cross, but Wolfe has set an example, I think. of how to reference Christianity subtley and not register on the leftist radar..

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

I enjoyed "I Am Charlotte Simmons" quite a bit. For anyone who thinks that colleges aren't like this, allow me to assure you that they are. Mine wasn't quite as bad as the book depicted, but most of the description of rampant sex, alcohol, drugs, and childish behavior rang very true. I thought Wolfe explored the issues of a conservative student in a den of liberalism quite well.

[Rockingham]

Tom Wolfe and Michael Crichton are two examples of British Tory Chris Patten's saying that "the facts of life are conservative." They are not conservatives who became writers, but writers whose respect for facts has led them to express conservative views.

A key element of Wolfe's credo as a writer is to make his fiction 'true' by grounding it on observed fact, as if he were a reporter describing what is happening rather than a literary figure spinning a tale. Indeed, Wolfe began as a reporter and was one of the pioneers of the "new journalism" that energized reporting in the 1960's through colorful detail and dramatic stories.

Similarly, Crichton's fiction relies on carefully researched scientific facts. Crichton, who trained as a doctor at Harvard Med, has sometimes anticipated scientific developments that were contrary to expert opinion.

[Mamzelle]

bump

[hershey]

Excellent!

[SuziQ]

After it went around the table and they looked at Woolfe, he said, "Well, if all else fails you can vote for him." According to Wolfe, "They looked at me like I had admitted to being a child molestor."

ROTFL!! I just love eccentric Southrn gentlemen!

[gaspar]

Three Stooges indeed! Unlike the fatally neurotic Mailer, the fussy oldmaidenly Updike, and the prissy qua preppy John Irving, TW is perfectly comfortable in his skin. He is a wonderful interview because he is wonderfully honest. May he live another 70 years.

[Rummyfan]

He further went on to detail how, for the first time in his memory, living "legend" authors like John Updike, Norman Mailer, and John Irving publically have attacked Wolfe for his previous hit, "A Man In Full," mainly (in his view) because it sold 1.4 million and they are envious. He refers to them as the "three stooges." Good characterization. He wants to create a "Hippocratic Oath" for writers, with the central principle being, "First, ENTERTAIN." Good advice.

Now I'm reading Michael Crichton's "State of Fear," another book sure to send the Liblits into paroxisms of denial and hate. Crichton's is the first novel I've ever seen with scholarly footnotes! He actually has the scientific papers noted in the book, and he KNOWS THIS STUFF. Forget for a moment the plot, or whether he has a hit as "entertainment." This is going to be a hugely important book because it is the first to really break from the environmental whacko mindset among the Liblits. Moreover, according to Crichton, the studies often have as their conclusions things that are not supported at all in the EVIDENCE! If he is correct, either the scholars themselves, or the journal editors in the abstracts and conclusions actually "massage" the conclusions to a pro-warming message when in fact, overwhelmingly, the science does not come CLOSE to supporting such nonsense.

Wolfe covers the criticism of Updike, Mailer, and Irving in a portion of his previously released HOOKING UP. He hilariously and savagely takes them down.

And you're right about STATE OF FEAR...... just finished it yesterday and it was an excellent read as well as an analytical and thorough debunking of the global warming cabal in particular and the Culture of Fear in general. I particularly agreed with his assessment of the new PLM complex (Politico - Legal - Media).

[RobFromGa]

State of Fear is great so far...

[monkapotamus]

Now I'm reading Michael Crichton's "State of Fear," another book sure to send the Liblits into paroxisms of denial and hate. Crichton's is the first novel I've ever seen with scholarly footnotes! He actually has the scientific papers noted in the book, and he KNOWS THIS STUFF. Forget for a moment the plot, or whether he has a hit as "entertainment." This is going to be a hugely important book because it is the first to really break from the environmental whacko mindset among the Liblits.

Got this for my father for Christmas, after I saw it ranked #1. I was also highly entertained by the mental breakdowns by liberals occurring in the 'reviews' section at Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0066214130/qid=1104687479/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-8677135-3382555?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

[Sam Cree]

read later

[syriacus]

I've learned a lot from this thread. Thanks for starting it!

[Ronzo]

FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ "STATE OF FEAR" BUT WANT TO, DON'T READ ANY FURTHER...SPOILERS AHEAD...

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED....

A bizzare thing happened regarding my reading of "State of Fear" that just blew me away....

I finished reading the book on Christmas Eve, and enjoyed almost every page of it. Of course the last part of the book details a plot by eco-terrorists to create a huge TSUNAMI in the Solomon Islands by the use of under-water explosives and hypersonic cavitation generators. They were hoping the tsunami would hit the coast of California on the last day of a "catastrophe" conference about global warming. The tsunami would add a real exclamation point to the end of the conference!

Crichton goes into great detail explaining the physics of a tsunami, and how they operate--it was absolutely fascinating! The eco-terrorists were unable to create a wave large enough to reach California, but they certainly were able to create one big enough to ravage the Solomon Islands!

Upon reading this, I thought it would be a LONG TIME before I ever saw a tsunami with the kind of force and power that the eco-terrorists wanted to create in the Solomons...

...just two days later, what should be reported all over the news but a GIANT TSUNAMI killing thousands of people along the coast of the Indian Ocean!

Crichton must have one hell of a publicity firm....

[Atlas Sneezed]

I highly recommend both books.

"Fear" may have a real effect. I found the "rant" by the old "nutty" professor toward the end to be very powerful stuff, filled with extremely thought provoking ideas about what motivates the government, lawyers, and enviro activists.

The rant is worth of a scan and post some day, or a link to whoever first posts it on the web.