Peter Evans: Pwn'd by John Kenner

This is the first book by Michael Crichton that I've read, although I have heard praises of him and his work before (mostly from my dad), I'll admit - It's a pretty quick and easy read. And the fact that it doesn't take me three times going over the same page to try to figure out what the F he's saying, is a definite breath of fresh air. Especially at this point in the semester!

Right at the end of the introduction, Crichton cites an excerpt from the Internal Report of the AASBC, which the full name is labeled as "classified", to the National Security Council (NSC). The first sentence of this little note is, "In retrospect, the conspiracy was extremely well-planned". This first sentence, along with his mentioning on the fourth page of the book that although "This is a work of fiction. Characters, corporations, institutions, and organizations in this model are the product of the author's imagination OR, IF REAL, are used fictitiously...However, footnotes are real", immediately sets up what Crichton's whole message and purpose of the novel is going to be: To prove that global warming is a hoax, and he has the REAL information to prove it.

Crichton's narrative and use of characters helps him formulate his rather compelling argument of facts against global warming. Along with his footnotes, which he seamlessly uses to legitimate his "smart" characters (namely Kenner and Sanjong, who can recite case studies and scientists like they were listing off what they ate for breakfast). However, my issue so far with the book, is how Crichton makes his main-ish character, Peter Evans, look like a total dumbass just halfway through. On first learning and reading along with his character, Peter Evans is clearly meant to be taken as a serious, intelligent, and well-informed lawyer. After all, he is the lawyer and basically right-hand man to George Morton, who is a seriously rich and powerful man/client of his. Evans also has a strong foundation of beliefs of global warming, which we see sprout out of him when he's interrogated by John Balder's team on the Vanutu case. Jennifer Haynes states, "Tell us what you know about the evidence for global warming." To which Peter Evans replies, "Well, I know that temperatures around the globe have risen dramatically in the last twenty or thirty years as a result of increases in carbon dioxide that is released by industry when fossil fuels are burned." Evans also states many other reasons for his beliefs of global warming throughout that part of the chapter, informing and convincing us, the audience, that he knows what he's talking about.

So when Crichton does a 180 with Evans' character is when I started getting thrown off. As soon as Kenner makes more of a presence about halfway through the book, and starts correcting all of Evans' facts, opinions, and beliefs on global warming, I started to think that this was Crichton's way of not only getting his personal message across, but convincing the audience to adapt to Kenner's way of thinking by pulling the rug out from underneath us. All this time we were comfortable while we were being led to believe that Evans' was this smarty-pants lawyer that had it all down and was the best protagonist ever, yada yada. But then Kenner shows up, basically tells Evans that he doesn't know anything (and Crichton plays into that perfectly, with Evans' responding "What?" "I don't know what that means" or "I wasn't aware of that" several times throughout conversations with Kenner about the actual foot-noted facts of global warming) and we're left scratching our heads, questioning who is more legitimate: The basic lawyer, or the MIT professor, Harvard Law grad, civil engineering PhD. One such instance in which Kenner hands Evans his bum on a platter is when they're talking about Antarctica and whether or not it's melting:

Evans said, "Come on, guys. Antarctica is melting."

"Actually, it's not," Sanjong said. "I can give you the references, if you like."

Kenner said, "While you were asleep, Sanjong and I were talking about how to clarify things for you, since you seem to be so ill-informed."

"I'll-informed?" Evans said, stiffening.

"I don't know what else one would call it," Kenner said. "Your heart may be in the right place, Peter, but you simply don't know what you're talking about."

"Hey," he said, controlling his anger. "Antarctica is melting."

"You think repetition make something true? The data show one relatively small area called the Antarctic Peninsula is melting and calving huge icebergs. That's what gets reported year after year. But the continent as a whole is getting colder, and the ice is getting thicker." (241)

Kenner, and Sanjog to an extent, make Peter Evans look dumb and ignorant like it's their job. Which makes me wonder if Crichton's inspiration for the character of Peter Evans is the majority of society, while he identifies himself as John Kenner. Sneaky sneaky.