THE JONAH KIT by IAN WATSON
SUMMARY
The governments of the USA and a team of Russia and Japan, have been creating submarines which look like animals and are programmed to behave using the brain of dead astronauts. A child named Linin, who was in a US training facility, being programmed into the submarines, escaped, and began swimming across the ocean. At the same time, a dolphin which has begun to think for itself, begins to swim off course, as well.
Richard Hammond, a lead scientist on the project, is on vacation with his wife. The Hammonds meet an Italian tourist who is interested in the project, and Hammond's wife begins to flirt with the Italian tourist.
When the Linin child comes ashore in Japan, he is taken in by the Japanese government. The Japanese government, who share a headquarters in Japan with Russian forces, return the child to the US. There, the boy asks for a radio headset with which he can communicate with the submarines. The submarines begin to swim off-course on a mass scale.
The Italian tourist and Richard Hammond's wife quickly become sexually attracted to eachother, and have sex while Richard Hammond is at the hotel resort.
The first submarine to swim off-course washes up on the Japanese shore. Many submarines begin washing up on shores all over the world. When submarines wash up on the shore of the island where the Hammonds and the Italian tourist are vacationing, the Italian tourist is upset at Richard Hammond's irresponsibility, and heads toward the hotel to kill Hammond. Hammond's wife agrees to help, but when Hammond's wife and the Italian tourist reach the hotel, they find a note from Hammond explaining that he has returned to the US to quarantine the submarine problem.
Back at the base, Hammond fanatically tries to convince the other US submarine team members to try and preserve the submarines by temporarily shutting them down. Shutting down the submarines has become impossible because the submarines have developed their own mind.
ANALYSIS
The treatment of the Linin child was cruel, because the child chose to escape rather than stay with the US government. While he was not physically strong enough to retaliate, he had ill will against the US, because he chose to poison the submarines against the US, presumably, as the submarines began to veer off course after the child communicated with them. The US foolishly entrusted security of the US equipment to a person who had been abused by the US.
Hammond attempts to control his wife, and she cheats on him. This is not equivalent to the loss of control Hammond experiences over the submarines, but from the structure of the novel I gathered that the author was trying to make the point that just as Hammond cannot control his wife, he cannot control the submarines to whom he has given a semblance of a human mind. While the submarines with a human mind could adapt to battle situations more readily, it is impossible to control a human mind which has free will.
On an interesting side note, the name Richard Hammond is in this novel, and is also in Jurassic Park, which has a similar theme about trying to control living beings. Because The Jonah Kit predates Jurassic Park by more than 10 years, and there are many commonalities between The Jonah Kit and Jurassic Park, The Jonah Kit is a spiritual predecessor to Jurassic Park. Watson was not a part of the Jurassic Park staff.
SOURCE
Watson, Ian. The Jonah Kit. New York: Scribner, 1975. Print. Book about submarines which look like animals and use a human brain.
SUMMARY
The governments of the USA and a team of Russia and Japan, have been creating submarines which look like animals and are programmed to behave using the brain of dead astronauts. A child named Linin, who was in a US training facility, being programmed into the submarines, escaped, and began swimming across the ocean. At the same time, a dolphin which has begun to think for itself, begins to swim off course, as well.
Richard Hammond, a lead scientist on the project, is on vacation with his wife. The Hammonds meet an Italian tourist who is interested in the project, and Hammond's wife begins to flirt with the Italian tourist.
When the Linin child comes ashore in Japan, he is taken in by the Japanese government. The Japanese government, who share a headquarters in Japan with Russian forces, return the child to the US. There, the boy asks for a radio headset with which he can communicate with the submarines. The submarines begin to swim off-course on a mass scale.
The Italian tourist and Richard Hammond's wife quickly become sexually attracted to eachother, and have sex while Richard Hammond is at the hotel resort.
The first submarine to swim off-course washes up on the Japanese shore. Many submarines begin washing up on shores all over the world. When submarines wash up on the shore of the island where the Hammonds and the Italian tourist are vacationing, the Italian tourist is upset at Richard Hammond's irresponsibility, and heads toward the hotel to kill Hammond. Hammond's wife agrees to help, but when Hammond's wife and the Italian tourist reach the hotel, they find a note from Hammond explaining that he has returned to the US to quarantine the submarine problem.
Back at the base, Hammond fanatically tries to convince the other US submarine team members to try and preserve the submarines by temporarily shutting them down. Shutting down the submarines has become impossible because the submarines have developed their own mind.
ANALYSIS
The treatment of the Linin child was cruel, because the child chose to escape rather than stay with the US government. While he was not physically strong enough to retaliate, he had ill will against the US, because he chose to poison the submarines against the US, presumably, as the submarines began to veer off course after the child communicated with them. The US foolishly entrusted security of the US equipment to a person who had been abused by the US.
Hammond attempts to control his wife, and she cheats on him. This is not equivalent to the loss of control Hammond experiences over the submarines, but from the structure of the novel I gathered that the author was trying to make the point that just as Hammond cannot control his wife, he cannot control the submarines to whom he has given a semblance of a human mind. While the submarines with a human mind could adapt to battle situations more readily, it is impossible to control a human mind which has free will.
On an interesting side note, the name Richard Hammond is in this novel, and is also in Jurassic Park, which has a similar theme about trying to control living beings. Because The Jonah Kit predates Jurassic Park by more than 10 years, and there are many commonalities between The Jonah Kit and Jurassic Park, The Jonah Kit is a spiritual predecessor to Jurassic Park. Watson was not a part of the Jurassic Park staff.
- submarines which look like animals are programmed using the mind of a famous astronaut's son
- the famous astronaut's son communicates with the submarines
- the submarines malfunction and wash ashore all over the world
SOURCE
Watson, Ian. The Jonah Kit. New York: Scribner, 1975. Print. Book about submarines which look like animals and use a human brain.
No comments:
Post a Comment