Next by Michael Crichton (Entry 4)

Next by Michael Crichton     (Entry 4)

Carl Jeong

English 11

June 2 2012

       This story arc is about a bird named Gerard that is given genes to allow him to talk and have the same brain function as a human. It turns out that his ability to talk, learn, and to act as a human was all caused by genetic testing. He has genes that allow him to act like The scientist who created Gerard, Mrs. Gail Bond, loved Gerard, more than just a test subject, rather a companion. They became great friends, until her husband hated Gerard for getting into his wife. One day, he took Gerard in a cage and set him free into the wild, however, because he has the special genes that if dispersed, Gerard could reproduce and can spread his genes, potentially making talking birds with capacities that of a human, but if this spreads out into the news, the scientists may have to deal with issues with the media and the government. He then gets taken in by another man in California who wants to show Gerard to his aunt, but he irritates the man to the point where the man leaves Gerard in the middle of the desert. He breaks free and flies around desert until he comes across a plaza in California. He then gets found by one of Mrs. Gail Bond's friends and is brought back later on.

       Gerard's persona is described as a funny talkative bird with an attitude. His character from a genetic test subject into a bird with knowledge of movies and references to funny shows makes him a great character in the novel. This novel has a lot of science, ethical values, and we can debate whether what scientists did to Gerard is considered beneficial or unethical. I really like Gerard for his silly attitude for a parrot, and how he is a great example of is bioengineering transgenic tests like this morally right or is it wrong. He no longer can be counted as a normal bird, because he can't communicate with other birds with his human voice. He is funny for bringing up references and sometimes even songs of certain poems. Him being funny, sassy, and being the main idea of what humans can do with science.

       Overall, this book is a great book. This book is all about how companies can own your genes and you don't know about it. This story brings the idea of genetic testing that can affect human behaviour and make animals act like humans. This novel is about changing science for the better of the world, but maybe the cost of morality will be an issue. I definitely recommend this book to everyone and if people want to know about company's rights to property and how the world is rapidly enhancing because of biochemical studies, this book is the first choice.

Next by Michael Crichton (Entry 3)

Next- Michael Crichton    Entry 3

Carl Jeong

June 1 2012

English 11

       Another story arc is where BioGen takes blood cells from a man named Mr. Frank Burnet. His cells contains genes that suppress and fight cancer cells, tumors, and can be extracted to make medicine. However, Mr. Burnet makes the mistake of allowing BioGen to take his cells by right. This gives the company authority to take Mr. Burnet's cells any time, that eventually gets the company to think that they also have privileges to take or kidnap him, or his biological children from anywhere and take a blood sample from them. Mr. Burnet's daughter, Alex Burnet, a lawyer and her son Jamie Burnet (Frank's grandson) become targets of BioGen's agents for blood samples and this is the story of a mother and child becoming fugitives and have to run for their safety. The story goes further where Alex Burnet and Jamie Burnet are running from home and into California from the agents who are trying to get their blood sample.

       This story arc focuses the parallelism of the events of this story and in real life. There are companies out in society who trick people into signing into their resources. In the real world, there are people out there who are fooled into thinking that some companies would aid them into their personal services, instead they end up as fools, paying money and getting tricked into what companies want. In the story, when Mr. Burnet was fooled into allowing BioGen to have rights to take his blood, he was trapped into BioGen's thinking.

    This part of the story is about the company demanding more blood samples to study. That made me ask myself whether companies have the right to take more blood samples, sometimes getting drastic enough to kidnap someone for blood even if that someone was willing to donate some blood for science. The question is raised into how would we feel if some scientists or businesspeople took our blood samples and when they want more of it, they find ways to grant rights to own our cells and blood samples. The sad part is that it is true in real life. There are companies out there who want to control people and their rights for the money. This story arc does tell us that companies should not interfere in human rights through scientific research.

Next by Michael Crichton (Entry 2)

Next-Michael Crichton    Entry 2

Carl Jeong
May 30 2012
English 11

     One of the story arcs, is about an orang starts talking in French in the jungle of Sumatra. This story goes with people keep hearing the Orang cussing out vulgar language out to the visitors. This breaks it to the news and hundreds of people worldwide soon travel to Borneo, in Sumatra Jungle all to hear the orang talk, but when they do, the orang insults the people in French. The scientists at the institute want to learn further about this orang that speaks, leading them to eventually to kidnap the orang from the jungle and proceed to tests and find out what makes the orang talk. They perform tests on the orang with genetic testing. There were genes in the orang, modified human genes that allowed the orang the ability to speak. It turns out that the orang has throat and larynx structures of a human, and not of an ape. The news breaks out and people are shocked to hear about this.

      This story arc presents a lot of analysis or exegesis of the talking orang. The narrator has added in fictional newspapers advertisements about bio genetic engineering based on real life. I can say that he has made a detailed interpretation into new discoveries. By making an analogy of real life research and the story's, we are extremely close, in terms of how we are advancing further in to the future, how we test our test subject, and our wanting to find out new discoveries and breaking that to the news around the world. This story of the talking orang further explains in detail about how willing we are to learn further about amazing things of our own planet.

      This story arc of the novel starts out shocking, I did not expect a talking ape to appear. I believe that Michael Crichton wants the reader to believe that this is how scientists and the media work. They discover an interesting species, but proceed to perform unethical tests and study it so they can send this to the social networks and become data worldwide. However, the real question they should be asking is, how or where did the orang get such an ability to talk? There are even fictional newspapers based in real life and is added in the story to make the story seem serious. This story arc leads readers discussing about what can cause such amazing discoveries to appear.

Next by Michael Crichton (Entry 1)

Next- Michael Crichton Entry 1

Carl Jeong
English 11
May 29 2012

        The book Next by Michael Crichton is a science fiction novel based about how biochemical engineering and medical studies for genes can affect people's daily lives. The story begins with two CEOs, Rick Diehl and Jack Watson, who have been working at their company "BioGen", on gene patenting and genetically splicing genes on different animals. however, the story reveals further debates about whether bioengineering science does benefit the world or is unethical to animals and raises issues. It turns out later that BioGen later takes blood samples from patients with special genes that can suppress diseases and viruses and BioGen fools the patients into allowing the company to take more blood cells, eventually, owning their genes. This raises the question, can you own a gene? There are other companies who actually want to steal some of BioGen's data and this leads to spies from both companies attacking each other in the story.
 
        The story has a lot of exposition. The events between the people talking each other in the story are interesting in that something new has happened but because these scientists have genetically changed the name of science and this could get the media's attention. Meanwhile, there is a dark shady story of a 16 year old girl selling her eggs and reproductive body structures to companies for cash, when the mother finds out about this, she is furious about this. The question is, even though the girl has rights and she can sell her own eggs to companies, what about the mother?, she thinks this is wrong, so what can be done? The main idea of the novel is that the future is changing and humanity is advancing greatly, but what are the consequences of new laws and new scientific studies that can make new laws.

         I do like the beginning section of the book. There are many story arcs in this book, all relating to genetic studies and how do companies having access to human genes and how do experimenting with the natural course of life can actually be a serious issue to society. I like the narrator's way of showing that the world is like this because of how companies are trying to take over everything. Cloning, Genetic biochemistry, medical research, and even law, Michael Crichton did a good job on how we are close to entering the future of science of the 21st century and how we need to be careful.