State of Fear by Michael Crichton
Recap: Our main character, Peter Evans, an L.A. based lawyer. His newest client is George Morton, a filthy rich man who earns all his money from the National Environmental Resource Fund. Peter's job is to represent this organization as they are suing the U.S. government for enabling harmful corporations in Vanutu and ultimately causing massive amounts of damage from rising sea levels. Peter soon drops this case when he meets Dr. John Kenner, a geoenvironmental engineer who informs him that global warming isn't real and NERF is involved with an extremist organization who creates fake data and disasters. They venture off together to stop these extremists and they end up looking for them in Antarctica.
Character Overview:
Peter Evans: George Morton's lawyer and our main character
George Morton: A wealthy philanthropist who does work for NERF
John Kenner: Professor of geoenvironmental engineering who seems to know a lot about global warming and has a mission to stop NERF
Sarah Jones: Morton's assistant who falls in love with Peter
Sanjong Thapa: Kenner's assistant who follows along as is repeatedly described as attractive.
Moving Forward: The story starts moving pretty quickly at this point. The rest of the novel focuses on four planned disasters by the extremists. While in Antarctica, the crew can't track the extremists down in time and a series of explosives go off, creating a 100 mile wide iceberg. Peter and Sarah get trapped in an ice cavern and are rescued by Dr. Kenner, who had gone off on his own to disable key explosives. They go back to L.A. for a while to investigate and Sarah and Dr. Kenner get stuck in a lightning machine where Sarah loses much of her hair and clothes. They then travel to the Southwest where they hear rumors of the extremists setting up shop. This is where the second disaster takes place: extreme flash flooding. The organization uses a series of rockets to amp up an existing storm and make it go haywire, flooding several neighborhoods. Thanks to the all-knowing Dr. Kenner, many of the civilians are warned and are able to escape prior to the floods. During the storm, Peter and Sarah's car get struck by lightning multiple times. One of the times, Sarah gets a direct hit and has to be revived via CPR by Peter and is left with scarring on her torso. They have a little bit of downtime after this as the third disaster, which was supposed to be a hurricane, never happens due to the conditions not being right. During this downtime, the extremists break into Peter's apartment and paralyze him by having a very small but venomous octopus bite his armpit. After the fact, Sarah shows up and takes him to the hospital, where he recovers in mere hours. The fourth disaster is a giant tsunami that is planned to be caused by more bombs going off on an island off of California. The crew plus some bonus friends travel there to stop them but are caught by a third party group that knows about and supports NERF--and are also cannibals. An actor and environmentalist who tagged along with them is chopped up and eaten but the rest are rescued just in time by George Morton, who has apparently switched sides. They all hurry back to the beach where a fist fight between them and the extremists takes place and they are able to disable all but one bomb, which crates just a small wave. They head back to the U.S. and celebrate. Peter and Sarah share their love for each other and Dr. Kenner gives a final lecteur on the falsehood of global warming and Morton starts an organization to create unbiased research.
Themes and Ideas:
-Women represented poorly
-John Kenner as a genius
-This book as a thriller
Questions:
1. How many disasters were there?
2. How does Sarah lose most of her hair?
3. What is used to paralyze Peter?
4. What kind of group captures the crew right before the fourth disaster?
Discussion:
-How does treating women better connect, literally or figuratively, to treating the earth better?
-Can lying to the public ever be justified?
-Are there any known examples that can be compared to NERF and how are they justified?
"How does treating women better connect, literally or figuratively, to treating the earth better?" Perfect metaphor, even if we don't take "Mother Earth" (or "Gaia") literally... if we don't respect, preserve, and cherish the source and sustaining agency of our lives - and that's just what maternity, like the good earth, embodies - what good are we?
ReplyDeleteSarah seems to be on the brunt end of most of these disasters. She gets stuck in an ice cavern, loses most of her hair, and gets struck by lightning multiple times. Seeing as women are represented poorly in this novel and the main female character is physically hurt in many of these disasters, do you believe there is a correlation between violence against women and environmental destruction? Treating each other with respect is the beginning of sharing that same respect with the environment. Women especially represent a group that is vulnerable and life-giving just as planet earth is. What other conclusions can you come to with regard to the representation of women and the environment?
ReplyDeleteIt’s a cautionary tale really comes alive in this Cli-fi. State of Fear is centered around a plot by eco-terrorists to bring world attention to global warming by blowing up half the world. On the other hand this story has some radical environmentalists/ scientists who are not above manipulating the environment. I mean people will dig deeper into their pockets if they have been personally impacted by global warming. It seems that every turn to stay ahead of these ecological terrorists is a filthy rich, environmental philanthropist, his lawyer and Kenner, a professor of geo-environmental engineering at MIT and secret agent for an unnamed national security organization.
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