There are two introductory ‘chapters’ to Jurassic Park, with the first being the forementioned pseudo-epistle that brings the reader into the world with a salting of truth. Crichton wants the readers’ experience to be realistic, he doesn’t want a book of magical realism and fantasy. This is why in a time of dinosaur-mania, Jurassic Park became the dominant brand. The first introductory chapter was numbered with roman numerals, we are now reading modern hindu-arabic numbers.

How big is the Jurassic Park media franchise? In this chapter a physician has to look up the word ‘raptor’ – something which seems totally implausible 30 years later because this book series so popularized the term.

Best Quotes, Best Writing

“And the wound had a strange odor, a kind of rotten stench, a smell of death and decay. She had never smelled anything like it before.” Page 4

This is the most significant passage because smell becomes a big part of how Crichton makes his dinosaurs more real – something that was carried over into the film universe.

Page-by-Page, Chapter by Chapter

“The tropical rain fell in drenching sheets, hammering the corrugated roof of the clinic building, roaring down the metal gutters, splashing on the ground in a torrent.” Page 1

“Bobbie could imagine it – one of those huge American resorts with swimming pools and tennis courts, where guests could play and drink their daiquiris, without having any contact with the real life of the country.” Page 2

Dr. Roberta “Bobbie” Carter imagines the future efforts of InGen when their two year project is completed. She’s set the perfect ideal, the reader will spend the next 456 pages living a nightmare in this ‘resort’ brought on by science.

“Because it almost looks as if he was mauled,” Bobbie Carter said, probing the wound. Page 3

The word ‘Raptor’ is only used in the chapter title. There’s important information never mentioned in the text of the book. The word ‘Raptor’ has not yet appeared. Crichton gives a character that immediately can smell something is fishy. We see the corporate representative of InGen immediately appearing shifty, insisting it was a backhoe accident, when the reader knows this is not the case – not because of what the characters can observe, but because of the reader’s awareness of the chapter title. Crichton doesn’t have to give any back story, he doesn’t have to give Ed Regis any kind of self-awareness or self reflection because of the five words he’s used to name the chapter, “the bite of the raptor.”

“And the wound had a strange odor, a kind of rotten stench, a smell of death and decay. She had never smelled anything like it before.” Page 4

Dr. Carter is inspecting the wound, which presents as unusual. The smell is another layer of ‘unusual’ and is used by Crichton throughout to describe the dinosaurs. He puts them in scenarios where they are pooping and feeding. This was a common trope in the movie as well. Crichton is using the feeling to make the creatures real.

“It means hupia.” Page 5

The wounded worker whispers the word ‘Raptor’ – which is interpreted to a local creature of myth by Manuel.

“Bobbie was even grabbing for a stick to put in the boy’s clenched jaws, but even as she did it she knew it was hopeless, and with a final spastic jerk he relaxed and lay still.” Page 6

“But when she turned back to the table, she saw that her camera was gone.” Page 7

InGen has removed the body and evidence of the body. InGen is the super-antagonist in the book, who produces the antagonist that goes on the killing spree. Is InGen a bad actor or simply incompetent? Crichton begins with an example of Hanlon’s razor.

“Raptor \ n [deriv. of L raptor plunderer, fr. raptus]: bird of prey.” Page 8

Throughout the book, Crichton compares the dinosaur movements to that of a bird, here he does it with a formal definition as Dr. Carter looks to a dictionary to understand what a raptor is. How big is Jurassic Park? In this chapter a physician has to look up the word ‘raptor’ – something which seems totally implausible 30 years later because this book series so popularized the term.