GATTACA

I have to be honest, ever since watching GATTACA, I've been looking for it in DNA sequences that pop up on screens and videos we've been watching lately. I wonder if it's really hiding in there somewhere.... I really liked Original Jerome. He was really spunky and who doesn't like Jude Law? I think I liked his character the most because (Jude Law) he was driven. Jerome knew what he needed to get accomplished and went ahead with it. Even when "Jerome" was faltering. I wouldn't really want to be him though, besides being female, I think that the challenges he faced were pretty terrible.

 GATTACA sparked a few questions for me. It made me think about how the world would be if they could screen your child and tell you everything that that would make him/her "invalid". I mean, sure it would be wonderful to tell if your children will have brown hair with purple eyes and be adorable. But it would be horrible to know that that same child would die at the age of 7 because of a genetic disease, or 45 because of heart failure. This knowledge would probably bring you to shelter your child and hinder its growth. Jerome/Vincent knew what his "deficiencies" were but he went on to have a fulfilling life. He pushed his boundaries, but Irene didn't. She didn't dare do anything that may incur the prediction that was made at her birth. And that would seriously suck. Today we do things that could hurt us but we do them because, somewhere we can. GATTACA's society was wrong to judge people purely on their genetic code, because they didn't know what the person's will could or would be.

I loved GATTACA. It was interesting to me that this society may exist. Recently I read a book like GATTACA called "Matched". It's about a "perfect" society. People are paired with people who best fit their genetics. Their food and medicine and exercise is monitored and set up for them. Even their jobs are chosen for them, and ALMOST their every decision is predicted. And on their 80th birthdays, they die. Every choice is made easy for them, because what they offer is the best choice. But beneath the perfect society, it's not so perfect! It's a really easy read and pulls you into its world. It made me cringe to think that someday, someone could be making my choices for me.