“Welcome to Jurassic Park.”

Are we being welcomed to the island? To the park? To the book that we’re already over 90 pages in to? It’s all of it. Crichton has arguably taken an obvious book idea – dinosaurs alive today – and introduced it in a way to make it immensely readable, immensely stick to the reader. It all starts with the great name, used for the great idea – a theme park, and then he had the wisdom to put it on the book’s cover.

Best Writing, Quotes

“He hoped to God the island was safe.”

Page 91, Gennaro thinks about money first, safety last

Is Gennaro the bad guy? Is the book a tale about the evils of science, the evils of sponsored R&D, or the evils of capitalism? Is it a warning about all of it? Yes, yes, and yes. The movies give us the spectacular vision of Gennaro (imdb) later abandoning the kids alone in a vehicle to be eaten by a Tyrannosaurus rex, only to be eaten by the same dinosaur while sitting on a toilet.

Isn’t this a warning about all activities? Shouldn’t safety, for all those involved, for all those who could be impacted – be considered first, not as an after thought?

Page by Page Highlights, Quotes

“He hoped to God the island was safe.” – Page 91, Genarro thinks about money first, safety last.

“Although this animal was clearly not in the water, it was moving much too quickly, the head and neck shifting above the palms in a very active manner — a surprisingly active manner –.” Page 92

• Crichton uses multiple emdashes, in the age before artificial intelligence, AI, and ChatGPT over usage of this punctuation.
• The second paragraph of Page 92 covers great technical depth on the history of brontosaurus, apatosaurus, diplodocus, etc. We get the date of discovery (1876), location (CO, UT, OK) and the name of the discoverer. Crichton is using minutia about known facts to establish the veracity of his science fiction expansion – his writing is loaded with the Star Trek TV Trope of ‘Famous, Famous, Fictional’.
• When this book came out dinosaurs were undergoing a great revision in perception of how they moved. Previously viewed as cold-blooded, slow, and plodding – they were remade to be quick, speedy, and agile. This franchise was a major driver of that shift in perception.
• In the movie this scene is not used as the initial introduction to the dinosaurs – that comes in the truck as they drive past the herd of brontosaurs. This scene is used however when the kids wake up while stuck in the tree.

“Over the path, a crude hand-painted sign read: “Welcome to Jurassic Park.” Page 93

• The branding and in-world creation of a theme park, which is then used as the title of the book is really brilliant.
• We can’t understate the value of a good title and catchy phrasing – but the usage of the theme park to then be the title of the book is wonderful in it simplicity and persuasion.