Hello, dinolist
I've been reading with great interest the thread on "Crichton's science"
(!) and the Jurassic Park series, and I couldn't help been tempted to add
my two argentine pesos to the matter:
Even though Deinonychus (oops, sorry, velociraptors) are a little bit too
human for my taste, Crichton generally depicts dinosaurs as animals, not
monsters, with animal behaviour and no superpowers, like other dinosaur
movies where all dinos are carnivorous and innately hostile to the human
being (even sauropods), or impervious to rifle bullets and tank shells!!!
I find JP series more related to the classic movies about the african
sabana, more than Godzilla genre. In fact, the hunt sequence in JP II is a
direct hommage to "Hatari!", a classic of the '60s with John Waine, where
they chase rhinos from a Land Rover, equipped with lassos... sound
familiar?
This "animality" is what makes the JP books and movies realistic and
likeable, even though their scientific deviations, which are noticeable
only to scientists.
After all, we all have swallow the Sherman tanks with balkenkreutz painted
to make them look as german Tiger tanks (ughhh) in movies like The Longest
Day, The Big Red One and many other, or the AT-6 Texan planes painted as
japanese Zeros in Pearl Harbour and Midway, or the Hispano Messerschmitt
in the Battle for Britain, etc., etc., Not to mention the so called peplum
films of the sixties, or the more recent Troy, with its blonde Achillles,
doing Jackie Chan stunts in his elvish armour, wearing boots instead of
greaves (ughhh and more ughhh)...
But this is about dinosaurs, and I wish to express my loving for the
creatures in JP... even though sometimes they are not exactly they way we
now believe they were or act (it can change tomorrow and change again the
day after: What if we find a spinosaur fossil with a T-rex byte neck wound
that has healed? ).
About the science.., Well, they are novels, not textbooks... And I don't
feel like blaming Crichton for taking some detours from orthdoxia to fit
the plot.
If they are not doing JP IV, couldn't give it a try at Raptor Red??
Pleease?...
Luis Oscar Romero, lor@fibertel.com.ar
2008-12-13