The Andromeda Strain

by Michael Crichton

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Analysis

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The Andromeda Strain was one of the first science-fiction novels to explore the threat of extraterrestrial biological contamination of Earth. In writing a story of bacteria and organisms, Michael Crichton shifted the focus of science fiction away from physics, chemistry, or advanced technology to an area that surpassed them all in menace. The thought of mutating microbes invading Earth and causing madness and death seemed more frightening than the remote possibility of a planet off its axis or the invasion of aliens from outer space. Germs can be more frightening than guns, and the fear of invisible microbes working in mysterious ways to wreak havoc seized the public imagination.

In this novel, Crichton introduces stylistic tricks that later became the stock-in-trade of science-fiction and thriller writers determined to make their works realistic. He uses scientific jargon (for which he apologizes) to explain the scientists’ work. As an M.D., he is able to dazzle the lay reader with arcane medical terms. As a computer expert, he was one of the first writers to use computer language and format to lend an incredible story an aura of reality.

Another, now-familiar device he uses is to assemble a team of experts, complete with their vanities and eccentricities, yet somehow indistinguishable from one another. Character development is unimportant in a work of this sort. In fact, the only character who really emerges as an individual is the old derelict who drinks Sterno. Crichton prefers to focus on what the characters do—or fail to do.

Human error is an important element in this story, often manifesting itself as oversight or neglect rather than wrongdoing. For example, obliterating Piedmont with an atomic bomb would have spread rather than destroyed the Andromeda strain. Neglecting to do autopsies on the rats that had been given an anticoagulant meant not knowing about how the strain functioned. Failing to recognize the progressive mutations of the strain leaves the team unprepared for the disintegration of the plastic tubes that seal the chambers. Whatever their drawbacks and errors, however, the scientists ultimately behave nobly and selflessly. They remain determined to solve this mystery even as they fear that things are coming apart.

Crichton’s novels, entertaining as they are meant to be, are also cautionary tales. In this novel, filmed in 1971, his concern is with biological warfare and the dangerous experimentation that surrounds it. He is less worried about a strain from outer space than he is about an organism sent into outer space that mutates into something lethal before it is returned to Earth. He also is concerned about misguided motives and the perils of human error, especially human inability to control what is created. Ultimately, he presents the Frankenstein syndrome in modern dress.

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