Movie Review: Gattaca

The other day, Urmi and I watched Gattaca, which I had seen years ago but Urmi had never seen. I was reminded of how much I loved the movie -- both the themes it considers as well as the overall presentation. The movie is set in what it proclaims to be the "near" future, but in a world where genetic selection is commonplace. Parents have their children's embryos genetically screened before implantation, removing embryos with harmful genetic combinations (heart defects, myopia, etc). Many years after this practice came into being, the human race has stratified into two groups: Valids, those who were screened to remove the harmful genes, and In-valids, those who were not.

The core theme of the story is discrimination. In Gattaca, discrimination is based on genetics rather than skin color, gender, or other obvious characteristics. In-valids are explicitly barred from holding certain jobs. The protagonist of Gattaca is an In-valid named Vincent who dreams of being an astronaut -- and is willing to masquerade as a Valid to achieve his goal. Most of the movie is about how Vincent narrowly avoids detection during a murder investigation. The core theme, however, is how the Vincent's dedication to his dream allows him to overcome his genetic handicaps. Quite inspiring, really, although the movie is often about as subtle on this point as a Mack truck.

Although the theme of overcoming one's handicaps is touching and universally applicable, I think the movie's greatest aspect is the presentation of a biological dystopia in easily understood terms. The movie does an excellent job of describing the possible after effects resulting from widespread genetic screening as well as fast and efficient genetic identification. What would the world be like when it takes less than ten seconds to accurately determine whether someone has a heart defect? Or the possibility of going blind? What would happen to medical insurance, life insurance, and employment? Gattaca gives one answer to these questions: Things would not be good for the In-valids. The presentation, however, is key. Science fiction books have been toying with these concepts since the genetic code was first discovered, but I feel that movies like Gattaca do a better job of reinforcing the consequences of such inventions. Personally, the questions running through my head after watching such a movie are more fun than the movie itself.

In short, Gattaca is well worth watching (I give it an 8/10 -- 9/10 for science or genetic buffs) not just for the story and themes, but just for the exposure to an excellently thought out "what if" scenario. This is the sort of thing that Science Fiction is all about, and Gattaca excels at it.

Review: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow

(Source: Doctorow's website)

A few years ago, Cory Doctorow decided to try out a bold new experiment. He released his first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, as a free ebook under the terms of a creative commons license. The book text was originally licensed under a fairly restrictive CC license, but it has since been rereleased under a CC-Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, which would even allow me to release a remix of the novel, so long as I give Doctorow attribution and, I believe, pass along a copy of the original. This is a fairly bold move for a new author, but not one that is unexpected of an internet persona such as Doctorow. It has also definitely boosted his reputation and, I presume, his career.

Anyways, Magic Kingdom is a good book that concerns itself primarily with the aftereffects -- social and economic -- of the sudden cessation of the economics of scarcity. Modern economics are based on the principle that the things that people want -- money, energy, gold, etc -- are scarce and hard to obtain. Magic Kingdom critically analyzes an economic situation where people can effectively live forever and energy -- the major bottleneck for most everything in the above -- is free. Other books have considered such societies as well (Charles Stross's Accelerando comes to mind), but Doctorow adds to the story by considering a war taking place in, of all places, Disneyworld.

The story follows a character who works for an ad-hoc collective which is operating all the old rides at Walt Disneyworld, and the war concerns a new technology (called, IIRC, "flashbaking") which he believes will make his beloved old rides obsolete. Unfortunately, during the course of his war with technology, he comes off nearly as whiny as book five Harry Potter. I hated the protagonist and kept wishing he would just try to get his life back on track. In about chapter three, the protagonist is murdered and for the remainder of the book he keeps insisting that his arch-nemesis was behind it. Naturally, the truth is somewhat more complicated that it seems, but I don't want to spoil the book.

While the book is great by itself (except for the mopey protagonist), the vision of the future that it presents is absolutely fantastic, particularly Doctorow's "Whuffie", which is a unit of prestige. At some point I'd like to return to some of the concepts in this book (and others) and write up a few essays about post-scarcity economics. Post-scarcity economics is a common trend in science fiction, and no one really seems to be sure what will happen if/when energy becomes free. More on this later...

Until then, check out Magic Kingdom, which is available under a CC license from Doctorow's Magic Kingdom website. Enjoy.

2008 Hugo Awards

It appears that the 2008 Hugo awards have been awarded. The winner for Best Novel is Michael Chabon, for his The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, an alternate fiction crime novel. This is one of the first times I've managed to actually read a Hugo winner before it won the award; in fact, this year I read two of the nominees. Usually I end up waiting until the books are available in paperback, which means I completely miss the awards.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union was a pretty good book that I bet I would've enjoyed much more if I had a better understanding of Jewish culture. The premise of the book is astoundingly interesting; the point of divergence for the alternate history occurs shortly after the formation of the state of Israel, where, IIRC, a war causes the state to collapse. Unwilling to abandon the concept of a Jewish state, the US government grants the freshly homeless a sizable chunk of Alaska (prime territory, I guess...). The story follows a detective working in the Union as he investigates an apparent suicide in his apartment building. As he does, he uncovers a plot that is much larger than it first seems...

I'm also pleased to see that Stardust won the Hugo award for 'Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form'. Stardust rates fairly high on my list of all-time favorite movies, as well as my list of all-time favorite novels. If you haven't seen it, do so. If you haven't read the book, pick it up. Both are excellent works, and unlike so many novel-to-movie translations, the movie actually stands very well on its own.

Tor.com has a list of the nominees for the award, including for several other categories, many of which are available online. Enjoy!