kokoro » writing » school » greg bear's "blood music" and the genre of science fiction

Science fiction has proven itself as one of the more versatile genres of literature, film, and art throughout its history. Each era of science fiction has a particular theme and a feel to it, usually influenced by the culture and society of that day and age. Pulp fiction came about during the Great Depression, when Americans and people around the world sought some new and prosperous form of commerce, turning to science and to the unexplored. Golden Age science fiction reflected some trepidation towards certain technological advances and their end results, especially those related to war, as World War II and the Korean War occurred during this time period, and also explored new and even more seemingly ambiguous forms of technology, such as the cyborg, and combinations thereof of technology with life. New Wave science fiction came forth during a period of social revolution for America, with people becoming less sure about the world around them as it altered itself almost violently from decade to decade, and movements such as the Civil Rights and Feminist movements, made people look within themselves for reassurance and definition more often.

However, Postmodern or Postindustrial science fiction does not exactly have a feel of its own, as these previous genres did. Technological advances are occurring in nearly every form of science, as people reach further and further outward as they acquire new ways of finding information, and technology in general has been assimilated into the workings of the industrial world. People take this technology for granted, and therefore the authors who work in this time have no clear motivation as to which direction their work should go towards; therefore, much of the work of this time crosses the different eras of science fiction history, drawing heavily from more than one. Greg Bear’s Blood Music is no exception; in telling the story of Vergil Ulam and his revolutionary cellular creation, it draws from all three of the major science fiction genres heavily in order to present itself adequately.

Whether intentionally or not, Bear’s book follows a number of the basic tenets that defined science fiction at its birth as a genre. The main character, Vergil Ulam, is a geneticist at Genetron, one of the many "tech" companies that have sprouted up in California, and his invention of intelligent cells, which he has dubbed "noocytes," inevitably turns him into a mad scientist because he never anticipated exactly what these cells were capable of achieving on their own, nor did he ever consider the consequences of his brilliance in creating these noocytes. The cellular beings, operating under the basic notion of efficiency, set out to improve the world around them as they see fit, first by reforming Vergil’s body parts into more efficient counterparts, and then by escaping his body and transforming others, as well as the outside world. This is obviously a utopic state, albeit a somewhat unusual one, as the humans have no physical place in this new world but are still much happier and more aware than before.

However, the supposed enemy of the mad scientist, the creative engineer, does not exactly exist in this book; there are no characters who outwardly exhibit the traits and characteristics that make a creative engineer, such as social compassion. Perhaps Edward Milligan, Vergil’s old roommate from medical school, might come the closest, as he tries to stop Vergil from letting his "plague" of noocytes spread and ultimately kills Vergil; he has a loving wife and is a successful and liked doctor, and tries to do what he feels is right for the world. He also seems to serve as a go-between with Vergil and Michael Bernard, a representative from Genetron, who is pitted as the villain initially for wanting to eradicate Vergil’s project, but the tables turn as he and Edward both realize they have been "infected" by the noocytes, and their roles completely change. It’s apparent at this point that Bear at least attempted to stay true to aspects of the roots of science fiction, but these roots evolved with his story, as well as to reflect the changes in science fiction over time.

Some of the basic concepts reiterated throughout this book reflect a Golden Age view of thinking. The entire concept of cells being intelligent is a "what-if," as well as a conceptual breakthrough, as Vergil hypothesizes based on currently known principles of genetics and cells and then acts on these hypotheses; these are two thematic concepts dictated as part of this era of science fiction. Blood Music also satisfies the five rules of Science Fiction that John Campbell and Robert Heinlein collaborated on during the Golden Age. The conditions of the story certainly differ from the here and now, as nobody in our reality has made the "biologic" breakthrough that Vergil has. The noocytes are certainly the foremost element of the story, as the entire plot revolves around them, their creation, behavior, and their evolution and that of their surrounding world. Humans and their reactions and interactions in light of the noocyte "plague" are what propel the story forward, with Edward Milligan’s initial fear and horror, Michael Bernard’s calm rationale in transporting himself to a place where he could be out of harm’s way and studied safely, and "Slow Suzy" McKenzie’s interpretation of the events and her relatively smooth acceptance of the situation. The human problem exists because the noocytes are spreading across California and then America, reforming the land and people in truly unique ways, or for all intents and purposes removing them altogether, with respect to the latter. Finally, Vergil’s methodology in making this breakthrough was logically extrapolated from current genetic knowledge and partially explained, and the reactions of other world governments, specifically Russia and its "Eminent domain, or...right of salvage" (196) over the seemingly ravaged America, seemed to make sense, given the time the book was written and America’s relationships with other nations. The groundwork that Campbell and Heinlein set up for Golden Age seems rather applicable to other eras of science fiction writing as well, and it is no wonder that Bear found it easy to integrate their ideas into the structure of his work as well.

Tenets of New Wave science fiction also are applied in this work, which seems to make logical sense, as it is the most recent era of science fiction prior to Postmodernism. A large portion of the story revolves around humans and their interaction with the noocytes and with each other, and focuses on their reactions and feelings towards this "invasion." The entire premise is grounded in a softer science, genetics, which stems from biology, and in a way covers geography as well, as it discusses the altering of America’s landscapes. The concept of an alien invasion is used in a new way, with the major difference being that the aliens this time are clusters of cells doing nothing but reshaping the world and all they touch into a more efficient one; they thus create a more alien America, with naturally symmetric shapes, moving hills, actual alien life forms, the disappearance of all human life as we know how to perceive it, and the reformation of technology and architecture. The writing style, while presenting the facts, does so in a more literary manner, with the characters acting believably and naturally, and with the story itself flowing much more smoothly without large amounts of scientific explanations to hinder it. The book is also a bit more edgy, with sex and romantic relationships being mentioned, as well as world politics and how other countries react to America’s so-called plague and subsequent fall as it undergoes the noocytic transformation. The issues that New Wave science fiction dictated as requirements for any work for this era seem especially applicable to works of the last several decades of the 20th century, as many would not have been widely consumed, so to speak, any earlier, and are becoming more readily accepted as time goes by.

Postmodern science fiction seems to thrive off the old, taking in former rules and ideas and bringing them all together to introduce something entirely new. The idea of biochips, slowly becoming conceivable in today’s society, never would have existed during the heart of New Wave or even Cyberpunk fiction, and seemed to be fictitious then, but current readers can understand this almost cyborg-like technology, combining the technical aspect with biology in order to further the technical processes past their current boundaries. On the subject of cyborgs, Postmodernism takes this idea a step further, by playing off several previously held notions used in science fiction, and inventing several new sorts of cyborgs. The noocytes themselves are a form of non-humanoid cyborg, in that Vergil used delicate technical instrumentation to tamper with their RNA sequencing and to broaden their scope and their boundaries of cognition and ability, and with these broadened limits, they were able to do much more with their very simplistic existing abilities. Similarly, an example of cyborgs Bear introduces in Blood Music that strikes more closely to the original definition of the term is Vergil Ulam himself, and those that he came into contact with and passed the noocytes to. Bear described the changes within Vergil the most explicitly:

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The noocytes, operating off their basic instincts of efficiency, treat Vergil’s body as the universe, worshipping and studying him and eventually reforming him into the most efficient being they can transform him into. His bodily functions have changed and improved thanks to this biomechanical creation of his, which he only let enter his body when he was fired from Genetron and had to smuggle his work out somehow; injecting himself with his noocytes proved to be the only conceivable hiding place for them.

The Postmodern era of science fiction seems to have regressed in some ways, as it derives deeply from past eras of the genre in order to tell its tales. Perhaps this is because all conceivable ideas of science fiction have appeared in works from past eras and modern authors have seemingly run out of original ideas to attempt, or perhaps it is because mixing and combining ideas from the different genres, without necessarily remaining true to just one, enables one to invent a new form of writing among the existing forms in the genre of science fiction. Greg Bear’s Blood Music exhibits obvious references to past eras of science fiction, but does so in such a way that it is pleasing to modern audiences, who prefer a much more literary and natural style of writing than the archaic or stilted scientific prose of the past. Postmodern science fiction once again proves what a versatile field science fiction is, building off its roots to develop a new and unique form paying homage to its past and exploring new and old ideas in different ways, all the while developing an independent and rather free-flowing feel of its own.

Bear, Greg. Blood Music. ibooks/Simon & Schuster: New York, 2002.

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