The book’s Introduction is a pseudo-epistle of a legal memo, Chapter 8 brings us back to the lawyer’s office where we hear counsel discuss their client, Ingen and their plans for Jurassic Park. Counsel will be sending an attendee along with the audit that is bringing Alan Grant and Ian Malcolm to the island.

A common author method is to introduce a major character, or major plot point, in a belittling, condescending way. Nedry brings down the park while attempting to steal dinosaur DNA in camouflaged shaving cream cannisters. His faulty designs are at the heart of the chaos that Ian Malcolm predicts will emerge from this effort. His designs are faulty because he’s the low bidder – because his requests for more funding are denied, Ingen drives him to sell their secrets.

Nedry – an obvious anagram for ‘N E R D Y’ – is obviously not a ‘just’ anything. He’s the lynchpin for Crichton’s warnings about technology and the heart of multiple plot mechanisms that lead to the horrors on Isla Nubar. However, neither Crichton nor the movie directors attempt to make him sympathetic – he’s simply a cog in the wheel of a machine, and the readers can immediately tell that this is the cog that will fail.

Best Writing, Quotes:

“Just a technical person: the computer system analyst [Nedry].  Review the park’s computers and fix some bugs.”

Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, Page 58

Page by Page Highlights:

“We can’t trust Hammond any more.” Gennaro says to Ross.

57

“We’ve got to inspect that island right away.”

58

“Just a technical person: the computer system analyst.  Review the park’s computers and fix some bugs.” Here we meet Nedry, whose actions will doom the park and these visitors.

59

“Perhaps I can even get it delivered to the island while you’re all down there,” Gennaro said.  Gennaro wants to get the Compsognathid specimen from the bite attack away from the risk of public exposure.