"...Michael Crichton, not content with making up science to debunk global warming, is now taking literary swipes at journalists who write stuff about him that he doesn't like. In his new book, Next, he introduces a character called "Mick Crowley" -- a Washington political columnist who rapes a two-year old boy. Funnily enough, Crichton was the target of a highly critical New Republic cover story earlier this year....by Washington political writer Michael Crowley, who often goes by "Mike." Which sounds an awful lot like "Mick."
A quote from the book;
Alex Burnet was in the middle of the most difficult trial of her career, a rape case involving the sexual assault of a two-year-old boy in Malibu. The defendant, thirty-year-old Mick Crowley, was a Washington-based political columnist who was visiting his sister-in-law when he experienced an overwhelming urge to have anal sex with her young son, still in diapers.
Worse, he is not even a scientist!! As a published-writer-wannabe myself, I can think of thousands of worthwhile topics to write about -- none of them are motivated by being a crybaby. I wonder what sorts of lawsuits might result from this?
Cited story.
Comments
I have a nasty taste in my mouth when I admit that I used to like to read this assassin Crichton's fiction. Once I heard about his own rape of climate science and read on his own Web site that he believes in mental spoon bending, I decided never to read anything by him again.
Posted by: Mark | December 14, 2006 2:14 PM
Mark - Me too.
Posted by: J-Dog | December 14, 2006 2:17 PM
Well, we'll always have Isla Nublar.
Posted by: Joshua | December 14, 2006 7:11 PM
It's not exactly unheard of for fictioneers to play silly buggers with real people.
Are his publishers playing the "any publicity is good publicity" game out of uncertainty about his being able to maintain an audience any more?
I'd have no idea what to think of Crichton as a scientist, not having seen anything he's done get peer review, and I haven't read any of his fiction.
Posted by: darkymac | December 16, 2006 2:32 AM
Sarah Kane's first play, Blasted, was (unfairly) mauled by a critic called John Tinker.
A later play of hers, Cleansed, featured a sadistic scientist/puppetmaster also called Tinker.
I only mention it as Kane was bipolar, which ties in neatly with another aspect of this blog. Her last play was called 4.48 Psychosis. It was written during a lengthy and severe depressive episode before her suicide. It is excellent reading for anyone looking for a glimpse into the mind of a severely depressed person.
Posted by: James | December 17, 2006 10:04 AM