Cyberpunk is a fiction genre that depicts a high-tech environment while focusing on low-life characters in the story. Cyberpunk was influenced mainly by postmodernism, so it depicts advanced technology while also focusing on revolutions in the social order. “The Matrix” is an example of a cyberpunk film that uses a desperate and dark setting with advanced technology to address the despair in the social position among the human characters and their fight with the oppressive machines. “Count Zero” depicts a struggle for power in cyberspace between various corporations and the roles of low-life characters in that power struggle. The common theme in “The Matrix” and “Count Zero” is the conflict between the humans and their own technology. Both works depict a dark and desperate atmosphere for humans, and they focus on the internal conflict between existentialist and culturalist worldviews while depicting an external conflict between the humans and the machines. They both deal the common themes humans confront in the age of advanced technology, and they use the same underlying approaches to explain and attempt to resolve those conflicts.
“The Matrix” trilogy deals with many themes related to the cyberpunk genre, but the main plot focuses on the conflict within the social order in which machines dominate people as slaves. Other aspects of the plot focus on Neo and his development throughout the plot, gender identity issues, and struggle for social dominance. From one perspective, Haslam addresses the racial issues presented in “The Matrix” by correlating the setting and plot to the African American struggle for freedom after slavery (95). For example, Smith is a powerful agent designated to protect the matrix depicted in a suit and a luxurious environment while the Oracle and Morpheus are depicted in a “racialized domestic setting” (Haslam 96). However, it is also evident that all races are involved in the struggle for freedom together, so it is not possible to observe “The Matrix” from a strictly racial viewpoint. The social dominance theme, where the machines hold dominance over their human slaves, is the only consistent topic throughout the trilogy (Haslam 106).
The styles and settings of the main characters indicate that “The Matrix” was developed in compliance with the cybergoth subculture that fused the attributes of the gothic subculture and cyberpunk subculture. The setting in “The Matrix” is also consistent with many early cyberpunk genres that depicted a gloomy atmosphere where humans are faced with conflicts, identity issues, and social issues, and the plot depicts their personal development while focusing on Neo as the main character. For example, it is possible to notice how Neo has developed wisdom since his first visit to the Oracle and how the Oracle confirmed his personal growth because of his insights. Finally, the culmination of the plot and their development of compassion is when both Trinity and Neo sacrifice for the well-being of the human race and form the truce between the humans and the machines.
“Count Zero” is a novel that takes place seven years after the “Neuromancer” when the Matrix, a virtual reality dataspace, begins to produce awkward events that lead to the proliferation of the Neuromancer and Wintermute remains. The main plot follows the battle for control over a biochip between several corporations, but the plot follows three separate threads the reader is required to follow simultaneously. Turner, Bobby Newmark, and Marly follow different plots, and those plots join at the end of the story when the AI units reproduce and become a form of voodoo gods. The novel follows the main attributes of the cyberpunk subculture because the setting of all plots is depicted in a gothic style, and the writing style used by Gibson sets a tense and often discouraging mood for the reader. Although the main plot focuses on the actions of the characters and the struggle for domination over new technology, the internal struggle of the characters that are caused by the tensions between their existentialist and culturalist worldviews. While Siivonen claims that Gibson cannot resolve the Nature-Culture conflict, he effectively problematizes that debate from various aspects (244).
When comparing both works, it is not possible to find differences between “The Matrix” and “Count Zero” because both works utilize all traits common to the cyberpunk genre. For example, it is evident that religious traditions and technological advancement are both fused in those two works. “One of cyberpunk’s main contributions to contemporary reassessments of issues of knowledge and agency lies in its fusion of mythological and technological motifs” (Cavallaro 52). “The Matrix” shows a partial correlation with oriental spiritual traditions, such as Hinduism, with the concept of the world being an illusion, humans being asleep, and the ending when Trinity and Neo sacrifice themselves for the sake of the human race (Haslam 106). Although the depiction of voodoo is closer to business than religion in “Count Zero,” it is evident that the integration of various traditions and their structure in the cyberspace are represented similar to the religions in the world without technology (Cavallaro 54).
Another common topic in cyberpunk is the problem between self-supervising and self-directing machines (Siivonen 227). The cyborg is often viewed as a metaphor that depicts a situation of man in the relationship between the body and technology and the tension caused by the resulting essentialist and culturalist worldviews (Siivonen 227). For example, Turner is a character who underwent reconstructive surgery and faced the issue of regaining his identity. Turner regained his character once he got involved in a romantic relationship with Allison, but it turns out that her role was to help him recover his identity after the surgery. Another example is Virek, who is a powerful character in the story, but the gap between his diseased body and apparitions illustrate the difference between his imaginary self and the reality he wishes to avoid. Eventually, Virek is faced with the destruction of both his apparitions and the physical body. Both examples show that everything is susceptible to change, and that all cybernetic bodies are in a relationship with medical technologies that empower the people while oppressing them at the same time (Cavallaro 93). In “The Matrix,” the machines use the matrix to enslave the humans, but some humans are able to use the same technology to regain and promote freedom.
Although the cyberpunk movement impacted various aspects of society, the most significant implication of the cyberpunk fiction was the development of several subcultures that were shaped in compliance with the cyberpunk fiction in books and movies. However, it is also evident that the resulting subcultures were a blend of already existing subcultures and the new cyberpunk movement. Some of those movements include the cyberdelic counter culture, which blended the cyberpunk ideals with the psychedelic drug movement, and the cybergoth subculture, which blended the gothic subculture with cyberpunk fiction.
The cyberpunk movement began in the mid-1960s when the authors in science fiction began emphasizing experimentation in styles, writing techniques, and the characters’ inner conflicts and introspection. However, the cyberpunk movement did not become popular on a larger scale until Gibson’s novel “Neuromancer” that was published in 1984, and the term cyberpunk was first used in 1983 by Gardner Dozois in the Washington Post (Ketterer 140). Although “Count Zero” was published in 1986, it is possible to notice how “The Matrix” at the beginning of the 21st century depicts the same ideals related to the cyber culture and postmodernist ideals that remained consistent in the cyberpunk movement.
Postmodernism influenced the development of the cyberpunk movement, and the movement remained consistent with postmodernist viewpoints and ideals. For example, the cyborgs are not depicted as rational and orderly organisms and their behavioral patterns in both works are consistent with the postmodernist outlooks on technology, authority, and the social structure (Cavallaro 52). Finally, the main ideal of postmodernism is a revolution in the social order because it considers all realities as social constructs and challenges traditional authorities. The ideal of the cyberpunk movement is the opposition to the capitalist society which is associated with abuse and inequality from its viewpoint (Hassler and Vilcox 72). That same ideal is depicted in The Matrix and Count Zero because both works feature a cyberspace as a structured world that represents utopia metaphorically. Although it is evident that cyberspace has its issues in both works, and that it is not possible to deny reality, characters in the cyberpunk genre often desire a less chaotic world because the real world is often depicted as a slum filled with crime, existential issues, and lacking harmony (Hassler and Vilcox 70).
The cyberpunk genre is focused on the issues present in the social order, and it is evident that both “The Matrix” and “Count Zero” are dedicated to depicting both internal and external factors that influence humans in the technological age. Although the technology is advanced in cyberpunk works, the social issues, and ideals depicted in both works can be correlated to the contemporary society. Both works are consistent with the main concepts of the cyberpunk movement and share a variety of common themes. In particular, the social construct and social domination are the most emphasized themes in both works.
Works Cited
Cavallaro, Dani. Cyberpunk and Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson.
New Brunswick, NJ: The Athlone Press, 2000. Print.
Hassler, Donald M., and Clyde Wilcox, eds. New Boundaries in Political Science Fiction.
Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2008. Print.
Haslam, Jason. “Coded Discourse: Romancing the (Electronic) Shadow in the Matrix.”
College Literature, 32.3 (2005): 92-115. Print.
Ketterer, David. Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University
Press, 1992. Print.
Siivonen, Timo. “Cyborgs and Generic Oxymorons: The Body and Technology in William
Gibson's Cyberspace Trilogy.” Science Fiction Studies, 23.2 (1996): 227-244. Print.
