Jurassic Park

“They’re not monsters, Lex. They’re just animals.” Dr. Alan Grant I had the opportunity this week to see Jurassic Park (1993) in the theater for the first time since I was in elementary school. The Steven Spielberg blockbuster was presented as part of series of “cult classics.” Considering the original success of the film and…

The Last Dinosaur Book

W. J. T. Mitchell begins The Last Dinosaur Book: The Life and Times of a Cultural Icon (University of Chicago Press, 1998) by hypothesizing a post-human future, when visitors from another galaxy — imagined as erect bipedal reptiles — arrive on earth and attempt to reconstruct human life from the fossil remains. To these visitors,…