Dinosaurs & Writing

So, my son is crazy about dinosaurs. All kinds. He is almost 4 years old and can pronounce the name of every dinosaur that ever lived. He has about 100 different dinosaur toys and he usually plays "dinosaurs and Barbies" with my daughter. In addition to this he loves dinosaur movies. No, not the Land Before Time - he likes Jurassic Park 1, 2, and 3. We watch those movies 7 - 10 times a week. No, he isn't afraid of the movies at all. In fact, he wants me to skip over the "nice" dinosaurs and just right to the T Rex eating the lawyer part. Crazy.

So, after watching these movies over and over I decided to read one of the books by Michael Crichten. I just so happened to have "The Lost World" in my bookshelf. I don't remember where I got it - perhaps from my sister. I never read it, but this seemed like a perfect time to crack it open. Not only did I want to read it so I could explain the movie better to Drew, but I also found the 2nd Jurassic Park movie (The Lost World) to be mediocre compared to the 1st one. It seemed WAY to Hollywood, and I couldn't believe that it was really based on a book (since the 1st one was directly based on Crichten's book and was very well written with a deep story).

Ok... so I read the book and the movie has more in common with this blog than Crichten's book. I did some digging and apparently Steven Spielberg wanted to make a second Jurassic park movie (since they all made so much money on the first one) and wanted Crichten to write a sequel novel with which he could base the movie. Crichten replied that he didn't write sequels, but after some cajoling he ended up writing the book I read. The book was very good. Very good. So good, in fact, that I am now reading a different Crichten book because I enjoyed this one so much (reading "The Sphere", which was also turned into a movie). It is really interesting how LITTLE Spielberg used of the novel in the movie. What was the point of getting Crichten to write the book? Why not just take him out for drinks, get him talking about possible book ideas, and then make the movie with your own story? Really, aside from the fact that there is a "site B" (a second island with dinosaurs) and actual dinosaurs there is very little in common between the book and the movie. Spielberg could have used the story from Ringo Starr's "Caveman" movie and it might have better aligned with the book. Suffice to say, the book was vastly superior to the movie.

One cool thing that I learned from this experience (other than the fact that Crichten was a very entertaining writer) was the depth that these authors go to understand what they are writing. The theories and formulas and hypothesis that Crichten used to bring his story to life were pretty interesting. Seemed like a lot of work! I mean, he is writing a totally made up story about dinosaurs on an island, but to make the story seem plausible he backs up the plot with some very convincing science. I don't know to what extent the information was accurate or pseudo-science, but it went a long way to bringing me into the story (and believing it was possible).

Dan Brown's work falls along the same lines. I found myself (while reading the DaVinci Code and Angels and Demons) really wondering if the history he was using to tell the story was REAL, simple HYPOTHESIS, or completely FABRICATED. I still don't know! But, I do know that he must have spent some serious time researching the information for his fiction.

This is why I will focus on writing pure science fiction/fantasy. I can make up whatever I want and nobody can challenge me. What would someone say? "Hey, your elf can't be 7 feet tall" or "Why would a dwarf use a two-handed sword"? No way. I can do whatever I want, with no research what-so-ever. Isn't that what writing is all about anyway? Just making stuff up to entertain? If I wanted to do research I'll stay in my current job.

By the way - speaking of challenging information in a science fiction/fantasy story, have you watched the 1st Jurassic Park lately? Well, I have! And I can't figure out how the T Rex gets into the building at the end of the movie to save the people from the Velociraptors. How did he get in? He couldn't have! But, hey, that's Hollywood.