Michael Crichton : Dragon Teeth

I have been fascinated by Crichton's writing since the day I started reading him. And the first book I read was of couse 'Jurassic Park'. The book was not available in my local library for years, so I read it about 6 years after I watched the movie. And I was surprised that only about one-third of the book made it into the movie. The book has more characters, more action, and a slightly different ending than the movie.

So it was clear to me that Crichton was not writing for the screen, although he can, if he wants. He is writing the most realistic version of what could have happened in his fictional world. And I was hooked. Over the next many years, I found out and read every fiction he wrote. Last I read was Pirate Latitudes.

So it was eye-opening when I found out about Dragon Teeth, which also deals with...Dinosaurs ! And it is clear that he wrote this book before he wrote Jurassic Park. Many ideas hinted upon in DG have been refined into JP. It is a fascinating read, not only because of the dinos, but because it is a mix of genres. It is a fictional travelogue, an american wild-west adventure, and a scientific expedition & rivalry all into one. Themes of wealth disparity , race differences and privilege are also touched upon. 

Crichton uses real historical people, Othniel Marsh and Edward Cope , two duelling palaeontologists who were active a century ago, in the plot to highlight all the various ideas in  the field at the time. These people were passionate about this field, they were trying to become the best by finding and naming the most number of dinosaur species. But they were also not averse to stealing each others finds, and causing harm in other ways, to stop or at least slow down their competition.

And into this duel is thrust a privileged young man, a student at Yale, who lost a bet and has to accompany Marsh to a dig site. Having never done a day's hard work in his life, this expedition into the wild west is something William Johnson cannot comprehend. With no respect or interest in the field of palaeontology, William has no idea why anyone would risk their lives to dig up these bones in the unexplored western America. And the journey ends up changing William forever, not only physically, but one can assume, mentally, on a psychological level. The book is about his journey, told in third person, across the many months he travels, gets lost, and finds his way back into civilisation , dragging crates of rocks with him. Useless for most, the rocks are priceless artefacts for the scientific community.

Crichton finds a way to merge two different worlds this way - the long lost era when these huge giants walked this planet, and also the recently lost world of the wild, wild american west. Sitting in the comfort of today's air conditioned homes, readers today would find both of these world equally distant. But we are indebted to these pioneers of palaeontology, who helped humanity better understand the world we now inhabit, for a very short time. 

Crichton also tries to explain the way of life of people back then, he spends paragraphs documenting what people wore, ate and how they spoke out there. For example he describes how photography worked back then. Before the invention of automatic cameras and photographic film, photography was achieved on bulky camera on glass plates. The equipment was faulty, and needed detailed knowledge of lighting, exposure, and the chemical treatment needed immediately after a glass plate was exposed. Today people take photography for granted, every phone sold today, even the most cheapest ones, feature an electronic camera, which automatically adjusts these parameters for the best results. Its had to fathom the first versions of photography, and the immense planning and work needed to capture the simplest pictures.

I don't think writers today write stories like these anymore. The work here is pure fiction, but the narration makes it sound like William Johnson really existed, and really had a life changing experience when he went on this journey. Marsh and Cope were real and they found brontosaurus fossils. The Earp brothers, Custer and  Sternberg are real as well.

Thank you, Michael Crichton. Thank you for taking with you on these travels. You will be missed.