The most influential human
abilities are imagination and emotions. History itself was shaped and perceived
by imagination and emotions. Those who built their thoughts over history and
facts and expressed it through various means paved the way where the world
stands today. This in itself is a topic for much elaboration. Every field of
science and literature has its own gardeners. Fiction, specifically Science Fiction
is one field, be it from literature or science where these two elements of
human ability combine to produce a profound and powerful influence as it
appeals both to the intellect and to the heart.
I can easily get lost in the
world of (science) fiction which I can easily relate to. I get very much
affected by books and their authors who expand my horizon of thoughts. And when
some events of my simple but rip-current life connect with a book, there comes
an explosion of thoughts which I cannot help but channel to a paper. This
article is not a review. It is just to express my appreciation to author
Michael Crichton and his book Airframe. Unfortunately, I am a beginner with
respect to his literary works and hence cannot comment in detail on them.
Airframe is mostly a fact based
novel which employs false document literary device to help blur the line
between fiction and reality in the reader’s mind. What is most substantial
about this novel is how well the author brings out what happens behind the scenes
of services that we see as a whole and take for granted. Even more is the views
of various different people who play a role in events unfolding as part of an
unexpected incident.
Any engineer, project manager or
PRO who has been involved in a Root Cause Analysis can easily relate to the
book like a chapter from their own life. It shows the way an engineer views his
or her product, a management views their team, the public view the incident and
a PRO caught in between.
On top of it is managing the
range of emotions and change of interest that happens until at least some of the
people understand the overall picture. It makes us wonder about the volumes of
historical data and the significant efforts and causes that have made it to
evolve in such a manner as it is today.
All in all, Airframe is one of those good novels which have a perfect blend of fact and fiction without losing the essence of human emotions. I would recommend it as a must read book for engineers.
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