Books, Dinosaurs, and Jurassic Park

 Monster movies – a genre defined by the word “Blockbuster.” Every summer, when school holidays hit and everyone and their mother wants to go to the mall and spend their money, the theatres will be chock full of kids and adults alike waiting in line to see whatever giant animal movie is screening that week. Our grandparents watched movies like King Kong, Jaws, and the original Godzilla, all of which remain classics in cinema history with many after taking inspiration from their scares and spectacle. Nowadays we watch The Meg, Godzilla x Kong, Kong Skull Island – movies some consider to be trashy considering most people go in just to see the giant monkey fight the giant lizard (me personally, I was betting on Godzilla winning). That’s not to say there aren’t any good monster movies – the Alien series, for one, has such good worldbuilding and atmosphere. Godzilla Minus One won an Oscar award and told a poignant story of the aftermath of war and its effect on the people who lived through it. And if you dare to disrespect Pacific Rim in my presence, know that I will climb into a Jaeger and chase you like the kaiju that you are >:)

But none of these (an exception to Pacific Rim, blog post coming soon I promise) can truly hold a candle to my all-time favourite: Jurassic Park.

Which is to say, I’m pulling a 180 on y’all. Let’s talk about Jurassic Park, the novel.

Ask me anytime about this movie and I am fully prepared to speak for three hours straight

Yep, like most great movies, Jurassic Park is based on a 1990 science fiction novel by Micheal Keaton. I’ve always heard in passing that “the book is so much better than the movie” but like, the movie was already so good. How could the book possibly be better?

But with an itch for new dinosaur media to consume, as well as the news of another JP reboot coming out soon, I decided it was finally time. Good news: I found a free copy online – yeah, if a book is old enough sometimes you can just google “Jurassic Park pdf” and it’ll come up. Who knew?

If you didn’t know this story would eventually have giant dinosaurs, you’d be immediately immersed in its opening prologue. A mystery is set before us on Isla Nublar – a construction worker, cut up and bitten in a supposed “construction accident”, arrives late at night to the doorstep of the local doctor, dead before he can tell his story. Then a family picnic, ruined by the young daughter being attacked by a strange, lizard-like animal on two feet. A baby asleep in its crib, it’s face chewed off by what appears to be large rats that scurry away before her mother can see what they have done. It immediately sets up that the dinosaurs are dangerous and very much willing to hunt and hurt humans, something the park owner and workers will try and vehemently deny.

If Jurassic Park was real I'd still go like. I don't even care if I'm gonna die, if I get to see a Diplodocus it's all worth it for me.

You know, a lot of the events in these monster movies and even this book could have been avoided if people were, simply put, NOT STUPID. There’s this whole plot in the book about how the park’s computer systems, which they tout as “state-of-the-art” are actually super messed up and things have been going haywire for such a long time it’s genuinely a comedy to me. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve highlighted a part and commented “The stupidity of humanity never ceases to amaze me.” If John Hammond had hired someone with a brain rather than a scientist with a God complex to make this park I think he wouldn’t have gotten so many people killed.

“Broadly speaking, the ability of the park to control the spread of life-forms. Because the history of evolution is that life escapes all barriers. Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way.” Malcolm shook his head. “I don’t mean to be philosophical, but there it is.

Another thing that is so funny to me about this book is that it’s low-key a feminist manifesto? Like, the first person to see the pictures and illustrations of this mysterious creature that’s running around biting people is this woman called Alice, and she immediately clocks it as a species of raptor. And no one believes her? Because she’s a woman and quote unquote, has an active imagination? Like? She’s right you guys, anyway Alice from this book I love you so much thank you for being such a good mother to your three year old you can recognize a dinosaur species from a picture right away.

Other than that, one of the novel’s protagonists, Dr. Ellie Satler, who is my favourite character in the movie, is even more funnier in the book. When she arrives at the island, one of the guys exclaims, “But you’re a woman!” To which she replied, “These things happen.” Icon behaviour. So many times in this book, other (older, male, balding and ugly) characters underestimate her capabilities as a scientist and as a survivalist in life and death situations, and time and time again she proves them wrong. And it’s not in a weirdly pandering girl power! kind of way that so much of modern movies like to do. It feels realistic and refreshing.

And finally, one of the best parts about both the movies and the books – all of the dinosaurs are female. My murderous genetically engineered giant bird-like feminist icons. #girlboss.

Skin? Glowing. Teeth? On fleek. Face card? Never declines

The characters in the book are more fleshed out than in the movie, which is normal when comparing the two art mediums. The human characters in the original film were charismatic, unique, and interesting because of their differing viewpoints on the park as a whole, and in the book we get to explore that much more. Dr. Ian Malcolm, especially, gets a lot of time to shine. I could read an entire book full of his philosophical ramblings about science and ethics, and chaos theory. Honestly his entire argument throughout the book, about how science expanding without a care about the effects it leaves, is extremely compelling. To quote the book:

“But scientific power is like inherited wealth: attained without discipline. You read what others have done, and you take the next step. You can do it very young. You can make progress very fast. There is no discipline lasting many decades. There is no mastery: old scientists are ignored. There is no humility before nature. There is only a get-rich-quick, make-a-name-for-yourself-fast philosophy. Cheat, lie, falsify—it doesn’t matter. Not to you, or to your colleagues. No one will criticize you. No one has any standards. They are all trying to do the same thing: to do something big, and do it fast.”

I immediately understood the point he was trying to get across, which made it even more frustrating that the park’s creators and handlers did not. They were blinded by their need for innovation, their greed for money, that they quite literally ignored all the warning signs – Ian is almost like a prophet in this book, preaching and warning of the devastation to come.

And oh boy, is there devastation! The dinosaur kills in this book are ruthless. My jaw genuinely dropped at some of them, especially once the raptors had escaped their paddock and were getting their revenge.

Speaking of velociraptors, have I mentioned how overpowered they are? There are only a few species on this planet that can possibly compare with them, and one of those includes us. They played with their prey – not killing everything that moves like the T-rex, or protecting its territory like the triceratops – they hunt for sport, and it made me giggle like a three-year-old on Christmas eve reading their exploits. Yes, I get that it’s low-key concerning that I liked it. Keep those concerns to yourself, thank you very much.

“They were instinctive hunters, and they never passed up prey. They killed even when they weren’t hungry. They killed for the pleasure of killing. They were swift: strong runners and astonishing jumpers. They had lethal claws on all four limbs; one swipe of a forearm would disembowel a man, spilling his guts out. And they had powerful tearing jaws that ripped flesh instead of biting it. They were far more intelligent than the other dinosaurs, and they seemed to be natural cage-breakers.”

Like, read that and tell me velociraptors aren't poised to take over the world once they escape the park. They're like if killer whales had legs.

A lot of people online will tell you that the dinosaurs in the book are scarier than the ones in the movie – and I can 100% attest to this. One major detail that makes a mountain of difference is this quote:

“For one thing, they move too fast,” Henry Wu said. “People aren’t accustomed to seeing large animals that are so quick. I’m afraid visitors will think the dinosaurs look speeded up, like film running too fast.”

The dinosaurs being extremely quick is a fact that is brought up multiple times throughout the book. It makes sense for the smaller ones, but large animals? Can you imagine a 15-foot-tall T-Rex, muscles and feathers and teeth longer than your femur, barrelling towards you in the pouring rain running faster than a Lambo? Because that’s exactly what happens, and it is terrifying. Combine that with the fact that they are all almost SILENT when hunting (fun fact, go watch this video to hear what a real T-Rex’s roar would sound like. And then make sure you go to sleep with all the lights on.) and now you’re absolutely done for. We only have God to thank that most humans are too skinny and full of bones for them to particularly enjoy eating us (#gymmotivation).

Another fun fact: Dinosaurs don’t have larynxes! The sounds they make are almost otherworldly because of this. The closest thing we have are crocodile growls.

The tyrannosaur sprang silently forward, fully revealing her enormous body. In four bounding steps she covered the distance to the goat, bent down, and bit it through the neck. The bleating stopped. There was silence.

Finally, a lot of the well known quotes from the movies, like “Welcome to Jurassic Park” or “Life finds a way,” are taken directly from the text. I commented the word “iconic” like ten times because the dialogue or narration was straight up copy and pasted into the movies - which goes to show how well-written the novel was. After getting past the initial few chapters of setup I was immediately hooked, despite knowing how most of the story would end.

So, in conclusion: If you like dinosaurs, or if you like reading scary books, or even if you like monster movies, I’d highly recommend this to you. The combination of science and horror, and the themes of survival and ethics, overall make this a really intriguing read that will have your heart racing and your mind reeling long after you put this down. And please, if you haven’t watched the original movie, PLEASE DO!

RIP toilet man could never remember your name anyway

If paleontology was ever a career path option for me, I’d be deep into some remote desert brushing away grains of sand from a diplodocus skeleton. But alas, I am here, simply writing about my favourite dinosaurs behind a computer screen. Adios, World!

Yours, 

Joy (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)