Blood Music by Greg Bear and Movie The Matrix

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Blood Music by Greg Bear and Movie The Matrix

Throughout the novel Blood Music, by Greg Bear, remarkable similarities to the movie Matrix are observed. From the fact that both stories create an entirely new world to the main characters ultimately being in control, these two stories are one in the same. Seen in both the novel and the movie, the question of what is real? arises quite often. The characters also share the quality of being in more than one place at a time. The most incredible occurrence though is the ability to have unlimited knowledge. If looked at critically, many of the same elements or basic ideas are shared between Blood Music and Matrix.

Blood Music is a story about a man named Vergil Ulam, who works in a laboratory. He performs an unauthorized experiment and is then fired for his actions. He is directed to destroy all experimental products, but he wants to keep just one of his creations. He decides to inject the experimental cells into his body. He soon begins to see what type of cells he has created.

Unknowingly, Vergil had created a new form of life and ultimately a new universe. The lymphocytes created, known as noocytes, are creating a matrix out of Vergils body. They live inside him and think of him as the leader of their new universe. Whether he liked it or not, Vergil Ulam was turning into a galaxy (85). Just as in the movie, Neo has been living his normal life in his world, but then he finds the new world in the computer. Likewise, Vergil sees a new world in his body. It is new in the sense that he sees many things that he has never seen before. For instance, the cells have the ability to correct any problems in their new thought universe, as they call it, therefore correcting any problems V...

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... both sets of characters. Also the ability to have control over ones mind and body exists in both stories also, whether the controller is a computer or an experimental virus. Ultimate power is obviously present in both the movie and the book. In both cases, there was someone who held the power. Neo held the power at the end of the story, and Vergil held the power in the beginning. The biggest question faced in both stories what the question of what is real?. Interesting ways of facing that question were encountered. Many people believed the occurrences were real, and others never believed it. Both the movie and the novel have incredible similarities, and it is just remarkable to point them out and see in a certain way that they are the same story, with the same parts that make up the story.

Works Cited

Bear, Greg. (1985). Blood Music. New York: Arbor House.

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