Disclosure (novel)

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Disclosure

First edition cover
Author Michael Crichton
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Crime novel
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date January 1994
Media type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 397 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN ISBN 0-679-41945-4 (first edition, hardback)

Disclosure is a novel by Michael Crichton, released in 1994. The novel is set in a fictional high tech company, just before the beginning of the dot-com economic boom. The plot concerns protagonist Tom Sanders, and his battle against unfounded allegations of sexual harassment.

Contents

[edit] Summary

High-tech company executive Tom Sanders expects a promotion following DigiCom's merger with a publishing house. Instead, his ex-girlfriend, Meredith Johnson, is offered the position he thought would be his. When he spurns her amorous advances, she exacts her revenge by undermining his work and arranging his transfer to a different department in addition to filing sexual harassment charges against him. The transfer prevents him from getting stock options which would have made him a wealthy man. Sanders decides to countersue for sexual harassment, throwing the merger and his future with the company in jeopardy. Sanders begins to build his case against Johnson with the help of virtual reality technology and a helper known only as "A. Friend." In the end, he discovers that he was a pawn in a much larger game of corporate intrigue. Along the way he learns about sexual politics in the workplace, including a raft of double-standards in the way men and women are expected to act and how they are perceived.

[edit] Major themes

The primary theme is sexual harassment. The book features a male protagonist who is being sexually harassed by a female executive, reversing the expected gender roles. Not surprisingly, the book has been harshly criticized by feminist commentators and accused of being anti-feminist. [1] Crichton, anticipating this response, offered a rebuttal at the close of the novel which states that a "role-reversal" story uncovers aspects of the subject that would not be as easily seen with a female protagonist.

[edit] Sub Themes

Minor threads of the plot include two issues which have become relevant in the 21st century IT industry: outsourced American manufacturing and virtual reality. The book explores the implications of outsourcing American manufacturing to developing worlds through the fictional case study of disc drives that the protagonist's company is manufacturing in an asian country. The drives are failing at higher rates than ever. Virtual reality is briefly addressed as the protagonist's company is building a [1] for a small virtual world created for data retrieval and other purposes.

In addition to sexual harassment, issues of management theory, gender roles and justice are explored.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In 1994, Disclosure, a film adaptation of the novel was released. It starred Demi Moore, Michael Douglas, Donald Sutherland and Dennis Miller.

[edit] External links

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Michael Crichton
Bibliography
Novels
The Andromeda Strain (1969) • The Terminal Man (1972) • The Great Train Robbery (1975) • Eaters of the Dead (1976) • Congo (1980) • Sphere (1987) • Jurassic Park (1990) • Rising Sun (1992) • Disclosure (1994) • The Lost World (1995) • Airframe (1996) • Timeline (1999) • Prey (2002) • State of Fear (2004) • Next (2006)
Novels written
under pseudonyms
Odds On (1966) • Scratch One (1967) • Easy Go (1968) • A Case of Need (1968) • The Venom Business (1969) • Zero Cool (1969) • Grave Descend (1970) • Drug of Choice (1970) • Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1970) • Binary (1972)
Nonfiction
Five Patients (1970) • Jasper Johns (1977) • Electronic Life (1983) • Travels (1988)
Film adaptations
The Andromeda Strain (1971) • Dealing: Or the Berkeley-to-Boston Forty-Brick Lost-Bag Blues (1972) • The Carey Treatment (A Case of Need) (1972) • The Terminal Man (1974) • Rising Sun (1993) • Jurassic Park (1993) • Disclosure (1994) • Congo (1995) • The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) • Sphere (1998) • The 13th Warrior (Eaters of the Dead) (1999) • Timeline (2003) • The Andromeda Strain (2008)
Film writer and director
Pursuit (1972) • Westworld (1973) • Coma (1978) • The First Great Train Robbery (1979) • Looker (1981) • Runaway (1984) • Physical Evidence (1989) • ER (1994) • Twister (1996)
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