Still Not Over Michael Crichton's Death By Arlyn M. Valencia, M.D.

NOTE: I reiterate: I wrote this in November 2008. The Obama delusion has since blurred down)


I can't believe I didn't even have a chance to mourn for Michael Crichton. Weird that this politico-legal-media obsessed world didn't even thrive on this "event" even after the global excitement over "rise of a real/legitimate, biethnic, multicultural, with some- real- ASIA- exposure HERO" died down. I was beyond excited/euphoric over Obama's triumph (esp. now, with some promise of economic repair, look at the market today, and with the naming of his economic team and some introduction, too, today of the economic rescue operation--- (couldn't wait for that jolt in economy), BUT then not to give Crichton the mourning he deserves is beyond comprehension.


Well, I still think he's the best doctor-writer even though he went straight to do fellowship in public policy, and his discipline of choice (maybe not first choice) was computer ops/prog, whatever.

STATE OF FEAR is one of the best contemporary books I read in 7 years, it is like a reference book with a complete bibliography on global warming, ecoterrorism, politico-legal-media agenda. I still would have loved to see him debate Al Gore. The latter sort of maligned him in the latter's book AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, which I had the misfortune of reading maybe 3 times (it was my son's choice for his book report).

Just to think that I thought Crichton was very corny. I had the misfortune of reading his very first novel (was it really his first?): A CASE OF NEED. He even developed a habit of NOT including this novel in his list. For me that novel big-time sucked. And I really think that ER is so made-up.

He wrote ANDROMEDA STRAIN when he was a medical student. How and when did he do that? During his radiology rotation?

TIMELINE was so believable you'd think Crichton time-machined himself to the medieval period.

DISCLOSURE disclosed the malignancy of corporate and human competitiveness.

NEXT had the twists and turns of a DNA molecule.

AIRFRAME proved that benign neglect is an oxymoronic phrase.

THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY robbed me of my belief that there is always an iota of goodness in everyone.

JURASSIC PARK and THE LOST WORLD... well, other people would have a better one-liner to these. But both novels are so imaginative and anxiety-provoking. This was when science scared the living shit out of me.

I guess I'm writing all these because I know nobody would tolerate my mental diarrhea.

I guess this is just my way of quasi-expressing some kind of mourning, albeit disjointedly, over a hero of mine. Too bad my literary love affair with him was just of late.

Arlyn M. Valencia, M.D.

INDEPENDENCE FROM OPPRESSION By Arlyn M. Valencia, M.D.

So sweetly explosive is the idea of freedom that John Adams had written to his wife Abigail: "The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more." And generations after that, American Independence Day, has been celebrated, on fourth of July. Nobody really cared about the 2 day difference. The "Fourth Of July" even took a more profound meaning when the two founding fathers of the United States, the only two authors of the "Declaration of Independence" to become presidents, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on the same day, the fourth of July 1826.

With bells, whistles, fireworks, guffaws, merriment, love and festivities have we all chosen to celebrate the freedom from oppression! It is this day that I would take time to celebrate my own freedom from the oppressive ties, that a majority of us know too well: the searing ties of loneliness and discontent. They restricted me from experiencing life as I did when I was a wide-eyed kid growing up, from having gratitude for all the blessings I had and had to share, and from loving to wake up, every morning, just for the sheer pleasure of it.

For the enjoyment of freedom can not be attained unless we are free from our oppressive selves.

"The Nearness Of You" By Arlyn Valencia