Michael Crichton on G.K. Chesterton

A friend passed along a note about the latest Michael Crichton novel, Next (2006). It is about genetics and the moral issues involved, and it has a bibliography that includes the following:

Chesterton, G. K., What's Wrong with the World, San Francisco,: Ignatius Press, 1910.Bon vivant, wit, and tireless author, Chesterton lost the debate about the future direction of society to his contemporaries H. G. Wells, Bertrand Russell, and George Bernard Shaw. Chesterton saw the implications of their vision of twentieth century society, and he predicted exactly what would come of it.Chesterton is not a congenial stylist to the modern reader; his witticisms are formal, his references to contemporaries lost in time.But his essential points are chillingly clear.

Chesterton, G. K., Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized Society. ... Originally published in 1922, this astonishingly prescient text has much to say about our understanding of genetics then (and now), and about the mass seduction of pseudoscience. Chesterton's was one of the few voices to oppose eugenics in the early twentieth century.He saw right through it as fraudulent on every level, and he predicted where it would lead, with great accuracy.His critics were legion; they reviled him as a reactionary, ridiculous, ignorant, hysterical, incoherent, and blindly prejudiced, noting with dismay that "his influence in leading people in the wrong way is considerable."Yet Chesterton was right, and the consensus of scientists, political leaders, and the intelligentsia was wrong.Chesterton lived to see he horrors of Nazi Germany.This book is worth reading because, in retrospect, it is clear that Chesterton's arguments were perfectly sensible and deserving of an answer, and yet he was simply shouted down.And because the most repellent ideas of eugenics are being promoted again in the 21st century, under various guises.The editor of this edition has included many quotations from eugenicists of the 1920s, which read astonishingly like the words of contemporary prophets of doom. Some things never change -- including unfortunately, the gullibility of press and public.We human beings do not like to look back on our mistakes.But we should.

I've never read a Crichton novel and don't know how good Next is, but the novelist's take on Chesterton is excellent. As is often pointed out, Chesterton is arguably even more timely today than he was 80-100 years ago.

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Excerpts and Articles

• Ignatius Insight author page for Chesterton
• The Emancipation of Domesticity | G.K. Chesterton
• The God in the Cave | G.K. Chesterton
• What Is America? | G.K. Chesterton
• Mary and the Convert | G.K. Chesterton
• Seeing With the Eyes of G.K. Chesterton | Dale Ahlquist
• Recovering The Lost Art of Common Sense | Dale Ahlquist
• Common Sense Apostle & Cigar Smoking Mystic | Dale Ahlquist
• Chesterton and Saint Francis | Joseph Pearce
• Chesterton and the Delight of Truth | James V. Schall, S.J.
• The Life and Theme of G.K. Chesterton | Randall Paine | An Introduction to The Autobiography of G.K. Chesterton
• Hot Water and Fresh Air: On Chesterton and His Foes | Janet E. Smith
• ChesterBelloc | Ralph McInerny

Comments

[MMajor Fan]

How sad, frightening, and true. One of the greatest markers of the modern fall of humankind was the shift from an agricultural society to a scientific one. Agriculture workers are even gifted with a greater understanding of many of the parables that Jesus spoke. Agriculture is an innoculation against many spiritual and emotional imbalances and distresses. Teaching and sharing it was a glue for the generations and kept it a society of life. While I know everyone cannot go back to being farmers I would like to see every building and home with an outdoor or hydroponic garden. Without an orientation toward cultivation of plants, humankind is uprooting itself.

[Gail]

Some of his books are excellent and some are terrible. But he is a very smart guy.

[Patrick Kinsale]

I enjoy Crichton, but I have not read all his works. His Andromeda Strain was the first real novel I read, and I did like his Timeline because time travel fascinates me. He makes it all seem so possible. From what I have seen, the above does not surprise me. He is also a medical doctor, BTW.

[Patrick Kinsale]

I enjoy Crichton, but I have not read all his works. His Andromeda Strain was the first real novel I read, and I did like his Timeline because time travel fascinates me. He makes it all seem so possible. From what I have seen, the above does not surprise me. He is also a medical doctor, BTW.

[Barry Bruss]

Crichton's STATE OF FEAR is a masterful work and should be required reading for everyone.

[AmericanPapist]

I read NEXT and think it's one of his weakest titles. I did notice GKC in the biblio, but I don't recall any of GKC's brevity and wit making it into NEXT's amputated and ponderous storyline.

[JohnS]

I second Patrick Kinsale's observation about State of Fear. Simply a must read.