Author Crichton (Jurassic Park) Tells the Truth About Clinton and Feminists in Entertainment Weekly

Entertainment Weekly Magazine ^ | 11/29/2002 | Benjamin Svetkey (interviewer)

[venturin]

In this weeks Entertainment Weekly magazine there is an interview with Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, the Andromeda Strain, Disclosure, Rising Sun, and other bestsellers. He also does other work in movies and television, including creating the show E.R.

Crichton lives in L.A. and was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly's Benjamin Svetkey.

During the interview the topic turned to attacks Crichton has received for not being politically correct in his books. Crichton explains his feelings on what has become of feminism since Clinton. It's pretty amazing to read something like this is such a mainstream magazine. In fact this magazine is part of the AOL/Time/Warner empire.

Anyway, here's the exchange;

Excerpt
Entertainment Weekly: Last question about your critics: You were attacked for racism because of the depictions of Japanese businessmen in Rising Sun. Disclosure wasn't wildly popular with feminists.

Michael Crichton: There was also a lot of discussion about whether Jurassic Park was antiscience-don't forget that.

EW: Are you surprised by the controversy you sometimes stir up?

Crichton: I was surprised by the reception Rising Sun got. But I knew that making the man the victim of sexual harassment would make Disclosure controversial. That was the idea. To stir things up and make people think.

EW: You stir up the sexual politics in this latest book, too. The stay-at-home dad is its hero, while his working wife is a villain. Not a big fan of feminism?

Crichton: I wouldn't say that. I had one of the first subscriptions to Ms. magazine. I was actually quite sorry to see feminism take the nosedive it did, to watch it commit intellectual suicide with its support for Clinton. If they like the guy, he can do anything. But if they don't-if it's Bob Packwood-they kill him. It revealed the intellectual contradiction. At least that's my reading of it.

[venturin]

Wow. This is something FReepers have known since 1998 and before. It is nice to see the truth told in such a mainstream magazine. I think the collapse of the political feminist movement in America because of Clinton is one of the great untold stories of the last decade.

Nice to see it didn't go completely un-noticed.

[joesnuffy]

If JR makes an IPO of FreeRepublic ..I'm buying stock... :)

[Clara Lou]

It revealed the intellectual contradiction.
I believe the word is "hypocrisy." That's what it was. That's what it continues to be.

[MadIvan]

Rising Sun was really amusing to read after the Japanese economy collapsed. I remember when everyone said they were going to rule the world - now they're on their knees.

Regards, Ivan

[Straight Vermonter]

Rising Sun was really amusing to read after the Japanese economy collapsed. I remember when everyone said they were going to rule the world - now they're on their knees.

I am surprised there is not more written (at least in the US) about the reasons Japan has fallen so low. We studied their successes in the 80s and it is critical that we study their failures as well.

[Pookie Me]

A MAN OF MANY TALANTS.... I was surprised to find that he attended medical school, graduated, but turned to writing instead of becoming lawsuit bait..

Pookie & ME

[goldstategop]

Michael Crichton just keeps churning out best-sellers. His latest novel, Prey is already No. 2 at Amazon.com before its street release date Nov. 25th. I'm not surprised at his flipping one up on Clinton and the feminazis. Now that's the hallmark of a good writer and its no wonder the cash register in bookstores ring up the sales - he always seem to has something topical and timely to say about whatever subject he's been writing on.

[Paul Atreides]

I had one of the first subscriptions to Ms. magazine.

I certainly wouldn't admit that, in print. However, kudos to him for telling it like it is.

[webstersII]

I am surprised there is not more written (at least in the US) about the reasons Japan has fallen so low. We studied their successes in the 80s and it is critical that we study their failures as well.

I'm not so sure we need to study their successes: the reason they were successful is because we taught them how to manufacture goods. It was done with American ideas that were shaped to fit well in the Japanese society (remember W. Edwards Demming?).

The other thing we did was give them technology for free. My father worked for a large pipe company for most of his career. In the 70's and 80's the company would allow visiting Japanese businessmen to come in and tour the plant, to take all the pictures they wanted, to ask questions. They were training their COMPETITION. Not too smart, eh? But they didn't think there was any danger. Now the Japanese steel industry dumps steel on the market and ruins the American companies.

[genefromjersey]

You may have noticed : so was Monica !

[niteowl77]

Interesting. There were cadres of Japanese and Korean engineers coming through Peoria and the Quad Cities areas in decades past, and they were frequently allowed to photograph and scrutinize virtually everything at a number of heavy equipment plants. Of course, it was merely coincidence that Komatsu, etc. turned right around and offered equipment of similar capabilities- they possessed slightly less robustness, but came at a lower price. For the same money, an operator could either buy an asian rig and replace it with another, or buy one U.S.-made machine and maintain the H out of it over the same time period.

Oddly, there are still American businessmen (I work for one) who think that asians "don't get it" because they speak our language with an accent. It is sickening to watch these home-grown smart guys chuckle about putting one over on the Chinese/Japanese/Koreans, all the while blissfully acting like they haven't been bent over and spanked (to use a less rude term) time and again.

[venturin]

It revealed the intellectual contradiction. I believe the word is "hypocrisy." That's what it was. That's what it continues to be.

Yep. It revealed the true nature of their sexual politics. The contrast between the feminists treatment of Packwood and Clarence Thomas compared to Clinton are obvious enough to slap you in the face.

[WOSG]

"Technology for free" I hate to tell you this, but we are making the same mistake with the Chinese, today, in electronics. A lot of manufacturing has already moved there, and design is slowly filtering in too.

OTOH, only the US really is focussed on getting the best and most efficient "value-chains" out there. Global sourcing of everything. The Asian mindset is still merchantilistic.

[longtermmemmory]

Ann Coulter gives some interesting revalations about Ms. Magazine in her book "Slander".

She wrote that Gloria Steinem confessed she had sex with a rich publisher in order to secure about 1 million in loans and grants to get the magazine to survive. So much for feminism.

[Paul Atreides]

I read that in the book. Funny, I always had her pegged as a lesbo. Didn't NOW, or some other feminazi group, finally buy out Ms.?

[Publius6961]

I believe the word is "hypocrisy." That's what it was. That's what it continues to be.

Hypocrisy has been abused into irrelevancy; sort of like "mean-spirited" and "racist".
I just tune those words out and dismiss the users...

We got us an intellectual desert there.

[billhilly]

Ivan, this is a funny choice of words for this topic, don't you think? " now they're on their knees. " It could apply to the feminists and Bill Clinton.

[MadIvan]

Ivan, this is a funny choice of words for this topic, don't you think? " now they're on their knees. " It could apply to the feminists and Bill Clinton.

Or I could be really politically incorrect and say given the stature of the Japanese, it's hard to tell if they're on their knees in the first place. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[billhilly]

Please, please don't be PC. Not on this page.

[The Great Satan]

No contradiction there. A lot of whores are lesbians in their private lives.