Gee, this sounds a lot like something that would be said in my Gee-Whizz intro to feminist science class.
After spending my lovely Sunday with this book (haven't finished yet though), I found myself really liking it. I don't read a lot of "fiction" (as the disclaimer at the beginning of this book claims it is, even though the "footnotes are real"). So it was refreshing and captivating.
Alright, back to the quote from the phallus that is Crichton. This quote is from a conversation Drake and Henley are having and Drake lays down the money in this sentence. Crichton is very well trying to convince us of this statement through out the book. As others have talked about in the below posts, Crichton puts some pretty good quotes in State of Fear about how much money influences your motives. Through's the materialists argument in there. In this quote though, he makes us think reality over. But, us Latourian read science studies-ists who believe in reality, plea - circulating reference! Don't grant the media too much agency there Drake. But I'm going to argue, yeah Drake, you've got a point. Let's nuance it first because I don't want to think of my reality being dictated solely by the media.
Crichton points out the risk media in this book, though not calling it that. Page 76-77 is a good set up and foreshadow (that's a term I learned high school literature class!) about risk. Peter and Janis have an argument what necessary (dietary and financially) precautions one should take to reduce their risk in assets and health. As it turns out the rest of the book is about risk. Though he points out some interesting risks that the media supposedly makes up (in this book of course not in reality -wink wink-) he uses a lot of highly exaggerated risks of floods and falling through ice glaciers, who can one trust, is that someone in a blue Prius hybrid following you etc. He puts these risks side by side and make them equally plausible. Hell if global warming is hoax then everyone you know is a hoax too. Better get a gun, man up, and disconnect yourself from society and that damned media. Oh and maybe get yourself an unarmed, no-strings-attached, blonde, exotic woman too.
Anyways. What I'm curious about is how Crichton is mixing these different types of risks into a mixing pot and replacing risk with it's twin logic uncertainty. Which all in all results in FEAR. This is where I find it gets problematic. He's using circulating reference implicitly to his advantage in this case. He's making up what risk -> fear is. Fear is an easy and powerful emotion to use in this day in age where fear is used as effective rhetoric everyday. You take x amount of pills so y doesn't happen. We just had (or have???) Bush's War On Terrorism.
I like the passage from 395 too. That whole page. In summary, it says that Peter could have never have found the truth to life if he hadn't been tried to be killed and stuck in crevasse. The truth to life is that there is unpleasant realities that surround you and that there are a lot of evil people out there. So deal with it. Now, by this point in the book, the notion of risk totally has been thrown out of the window and has been replaced mostly with fear and somewhat with uncertainty. There's a lot too hash out here still but I hope we get to that in the next few weeks.
Aaron, that is a great quote you've picked. The idea that what we believe is what we hear in the media (and don't bother double-checking) is incredibly present in the book. And the media's goal? To sell, to reach the largest audience, to have the largest impact. It makes sense that the media wants to attract attention - and what better way to gain it than reveal something that results in uncertainty and fear? Fear causes people to stay glued to the news, to not want to miss any new update or resolution of the problem. Its pretty smart. Irresponsible, but smart.
ReplyDeleteAaron - I also really like the quote that you selected. I feel it relates quite a bit to my quote that references media ( "Newspaper op-eds. Television reports...") as it relates to a war of information vs. disinformation. I feel that, fairly often, what we view as truth is simply that to which we have the greatest amount of exposure (through whatever mass-media venue we choose). Relating to the theme of fear, mass media often uses tactics that generate a sense of fear and anxiety to grasp the attention of viewers/readers. I picture the types of images (often images of war and violence) that seem to stream across popular news sites in an attempt to grasp the attention of those who are not yet completely desensitized to them.
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