Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Might have to start on my (oft-discussed, much-neglected) novel again

I ended up reading Crichton's _Disclosure_ in about a 4 hour period and it almost makes me want to devote my life to being a novelist. Why? Because I'm shocked by how many discussions that book sparked. So many conversations and scenarios come nearly word-for-word from that book. Discussions from the teenage roundtable I did for the News Journal back in the day to Criminal Law in law school. As a novel, it was incredibly influential on pop culture. Reading it made me feel like I was surrounded by these sexual harassment discussions all over again.

The book is no literature masterpiece. But it consistently trickled down time-and-time again into pop culture discussions. Now that's impact.

2 comments:

Jenn said...

Do you think the pop culture references came from the book or the movie? I'd wager the movie. Often it seems people don't even know there were books before the movies were made. Anyway I thought it was a good book. You should also show the wife Indecent Proposal.

BA said...

I think it is probably both. We had some scenarios in law school that seemed to be word for word with what I read in Disclosure. So that has to be from the book. On the other hand, you have to be right that immediate cultural impact is stronger from a movie than a book.