52 pages • 1 hour read
Michael CrichtonState of Fear
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2004A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 6 (Pages 435-503)Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 6: “Blue”
Pages 435-470 Summary
Drake and Ted discuss their suspicions about Kenner, Jennifer, and Evans, who they think has “gone over to the dark side” into global warming denial. As they wrap up, Ted promises to keep watch over Evans at the conference. To himself, Drake thinks “then again, he might not make it,” proving that he is aware of the attack with the blue-ringed octopus (441).
In the hospital, the cause of Evans’ paralysis has been discovered. As he recovers, Kenner divulges that there have been several attacks of the same nature. Sanjong shares ELF’s next planned catastrophe: The group has rented a large aircraft, and Kenner suspects they will use it to spray ammonia-oxidizing bacteria and hydrophilic nanoparticles to control the path of a hurricane. Ironically, due to weather conditions, the plot has been cancelled.
The NERF conference begins in Santa Monica. Professor Norman Hoffmann, an academic famous for his critiques of environmental views, claims to have been invited by Morton, but is turned away. Evans follows him and listens to his theories. Norman studies “in a rigorous statistical fashion the media and its effect on society,” or what he deems the ecology of thought (446). He tells Evans that ideas have the capacity to profoundly influence human behavior. Sometimes, ideas shift and so does behavior, but at other times behavior remains constant even in the face of contrary facts. In his most recent research project, Norman is researching how the “excessive use of terms such as crisis, catastrophe, cataclysm, plague, or disaster” has compelled a widespread public belief in global warming (453). He marks the turning point as being around 1989, and attributes the dramatic uptick in the use of this terminology to a need to fill the lack of a global enemy that result with the fall of major Communist states that occurred around the same time. Normal tells Evans this situation is immoral, and also condemns universities for playing a role in the situation as “factories of fear” (458). Ted pulls Evans away as Norman continues ranting.
At the conference, Sarah listens as a speaker mentions the recent “calving of the world’s largest iceberg” and the flash flood in Arizona, then quickly corrects himself to say the calving of an iceberg in 2001 that was “larger than many American states” (461). Horrified, she realizes this means that the speaker had inside knowledge about both recent ELF eco-attacks. News reporters make the correction with no mention of what the speaker initially said. Meanwhile, Sanjong continues to track ELF activity, including the lease of a submarine and ship from a bogus company, and the transport of some mysterious machinery. Drake’s internal thoughts continue to reveal his connections to ELF, most damningly in his statement that the next planned act is in “professional hands” to ensure it is fully realized (467).
Pages 471-503 Summary
After fighting with Lowenstein over the use of Morton’s plane, and against Drake’s protests, Kenner has gathered his entourage to go on a mission to thwart ELF’s next planned catastrophe. He initially keeps the details hidden from them. NERF associate Ann Garner accompanies them on Drake’s command, “sticking with” Sarah, “just as he had asked” (466). En route, Kenner debates with Ann about the veracity of global warming, discrediting the Kyoto Protocol and renewable energy while simultaneously criticizing her consumerism and wastefulness.
He then lectures Ted about the first National Park, Yellowstone. As Kenner explains, the Park has a long history of being mismanaged by officials attempting to keep it in balance: first killing elk predators because they were suspected of going extinct, then shooting elk when their populations soared, for instance. He asserts that “in this case there is no evil corporation or fossil fuel economy to blame. This disaster was caused by environmentalists charged with protecting the wilderness, who made one dreadful mistake after another” (486). For every instance Ted provides of a supposedly good environmental decision, like banning CFCs to protect the ozone layer or DDT to protect birds, Kenner points out unintended but negative consequences.
Kenner and Sanjong fill the group in on their plan. They are headed to Resolution Bay on Gareda, in the Solomon Islands, where the mysterious machinery (hypersonic cavitation generators) has been located. Customs officers warn them that violent, cannibalistic rebels are active on the island. Upon learning of this danger, Ann promptly abandons the expedition. Kenner explains that the Solomon islands are geologically active, and a prime location for triggering an undersea landslide and in turn a tsunami. The group will again attempt to stop ELF’s plot. As they land, Ted comments on the island’s pristine beauty, unspoiled by white colonialists, while Kenner mocks him, foreshadowing Ted’s imminent death at the hands of natives.
Part 6 (Pages 435-503) Analysis
“Blue” is roughly divided into two parts. The first centers on the NERF conference that Drake has been preparing for. At the conference, Evans’ conversation with Professor Hoffmann is one of the most important passages in the novel (and the one that gives rise to its name). Norman’s comments provide a systematic theory explaining the general suspicions that Kenner and others have had about the media’s role in characterizing global warming. Norman’s theory implies that the misrepresentation and skewing of data about the Earth’s climate is not simply a matter of a single person or group (like ELF, or energy companies) spreading propaganda to suit their goals. Instead, it is part of a structural flaw in society whereby a “State of Fear” is constructed, one ruled by the need to have a constant external threat—even if one must be invented (459).
At the same time, “Blue” makes plain that the threat facing Evans, Kenner, and the others is real and immediate. First of all, Drake’s conversation with Ted prior to the start of the NERF conference proves that he knew about the octopus attack on Evans. Second, given that Ted and Drake are working together, with dangerous effects, Ted’s presence on Kenner’s group’s voyage to Gareda increases the drama. At this point in the novel, it seems quite possible that Ted will counter-sabotage the groups mission to sabotage the ELF plot, if not harm his companions. Finally, given that Drake’s inner thoughts later in “Blue” make his connection to ELF incontrovertible, the threat becomes even more pronounced. Structurally, by revealing Drake’s connection to ELF, the novel approaches its climax.
These two threads in the novel—the media’s manipulation of information about global warming and the deceptive actions of Drake and others most closely connected to the “environmentalist” platform—are brought together in the events of the conference. As Sarah notices the real-time manipulation of media information and the covering up of a slip revealing NERF’s ties to eco-terrorism, she again demonstrates her intelligence and perception. Simultaneously, the event directly shows readers an example of the environmentalists’ deception. This goes beyond planting seeds of suspicion, and instead is a straightforward indictment of their agenda. The effect of this moment is heighted because it immediately follows Professor Norman Hoffman’s tirade against media manipulation.
Though by the end of “Blue,” the novel has positioned both ELF and the believers in global warming as its antagonist; it continues to break down the nature of belief in global warming (or just imperialist environmentalist attitudes). Kenner finds a new target in Sarah’s friend Ann, who represents well-intentioned would-be environmentalists who prove to be inextricably complicit in acts that harm the environment. He declares, “Caring is irrelevant. Desire to do good is irrelevant. All that counts is knowledge and results” (483) and tells Ted that with any action that seems good for the environment, “there is always harm” (488).
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By Michael Crichton
