Hold Onto Your Butts - Vol. 1 Ed. 51
Jul 14, 2021 5:32 am
World Builders' Guild Newsletter
Summer 1993. Upstate New York.
A young, scientifically-inclined grade-schooler walks into a premiere weekend showing of Jurassic Park.
He's read the pre-release promotional book. He amped for the groundbreaking cinematic effects. Spielberg is already a legend in his mind.
Show time.
Popcorn. Sno-Caps. Raisinettes. Check.
Roll film.
Everything is there. The dream of reviving the dinosaurs through ancient DNA extraction feels more science than fiction. The Disney-like pre-"ride" through the park evokes Spaceship Earth. He remembers because he was on that very attraction a mere three years prior.
Soaked to the bone in a Costa Rican monsoon. Witnessing souls, friend and foe, shredded and consumed by an ancient force not known to humanity. The youngster absorbed the tale of a hubris grown beyond control. The need to play God. Autoapotheosis in a test tube.
Jump scare. Velociraptor on the counter.
The dream is dead. Seal the gates forever.
Roll credits.
Jurassic Park was startlingly real. The sense of immersion, the genius of Crichton and Spielberg--that would endure. The two titans of worldbuilding united to draft a legacy of brilliant thrillers on and off screen.
Crichton himself penned a pantheon of so-real-it's-scary science fiction thrillers that challenged the minds and tested the boundaries of hard science-gone-wrong. It was inevitable that the mastermind would break through to the world with Jurassic Park.
There are few worlds as well crafted and almost-real.
I dare you to go back.
To future worlds,
Matt Ventre
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