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Post by Sheyana on Sept 22, 2005 9:30:48 GMT
Just something that I've been wondering... I know that Parrish is cyberpunk, but I was wondering what defines cyberpunk? Before I saw your discussions I would have just classed it as Sci-Fi...  Anyone?  |
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Post by marianne on Sept 23, 2005 7:04:42 GMT
Hi Sheyana,
boy that question could take a long time and many words to answer!!
I've done several panels on this topic at cons.
Cyberpunk is simply a sub-genre of SF. Specifically, a type of novel written in the early 80's pre the PC revolution. CPunk is typified by its focus on technology and the gritty feel of it. Wikipedia online has a lot of articles on it which are quite clear and give a good history.
Books like mine, are categorised as post-cyberpunk (anything similar published post the 90's). Parrish has even made it into wikipedia.
There is some suggestion that in cyberpunk the protagonist fights against the system and in post-cyberpunk the protagonist fights to improve the system. I'm not sure that this is definitive but it's an interesting idea.
best
MDP
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Post by Sheyana on Sept 23, 2005 8:59:50 GMT
Thanks Marianne...I'll have to look up that Wikipedia stuff. The last part (about against & improve the system) is very interesting...it would be even more interesting to find out how much that is followed...maybe I'll have to look into it sometime ;D Any excuse to read more!!
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Post by Chirugal on Sept 23, 2005 21:27:45 GMT
I had trouble with defining cyberpunk myself. :/
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Post by Cj on Sept 24, 2005 16:13:27 GMT
trouble defining but utterly loving!!
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GrimmRiffer
Tert Player
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Post by GrimmRiffer on Sept 26, 2005 21:02:32 GMT
Cyberpunk - Easy to give examples but hard to define.
More stuff that makes it cyberpunk (in MY head anyway).
- Near future
- Any stuff that hippies don't like is worse: ie; pollution, commercialisation, rich/poor gap, 'big brother'ness (as in 1984, not the crappy TV show), corporate power
- People plugging electronics things into their heads. (More generally information appliances than cappucino whisks or toasters)
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Darkhorse
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leave'em where they lie...
Posts: 113
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Post by Darkhorse on May 11, 2006 4:06:16 GMT
Read WIlliam Gibson's Neuromancer or Burning chrome and then remember he wrote those books before there really was an internet or cyberspace to play in.
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Post by jerichomccoy on May 21, 2006 16:15:04 GMT
Well, take Bladerunner for example. I believe back when it came out, people could not classify directly as a 'Sci-Fi' cause most movies in those times were of Aliens, crazy human technology, pretty round landscapes and buildings, etc. Bladerunner showed everyone what the dark, gritty future could be. Over-population, pollution to the extreme, cramped buildings, corporations taking control of every facet of human nature...etc. I guess what I'm trying to say is Sci-Fi is a Fantasy world taken to the extreme with technology and human interaction with the unknown while Cyberpunk deals with the dark, gritty realism of a future humankind today may possess later on this planet. Then again, I'm the sort of guy who would believe in anything so...<shrug> I just confused myself.   |
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Darkhorse
Tert Player
leave'em where they lie...
Posts: 113
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Post by Darkhorse on May 22, 2006 2:28:10 GMT
hey Jerico, how are ya?
For what it's worth, Blade Runner wa written by Phillip K. Dick, so there's no question it was sci-fi. Ridley Scott just did a better job of bringing cyberpunk onto a major budget picture. SCi-fi can be dark and not be cyberpunk- look at Aliens for example. but you hit it on the head when you said (parphased) that cyberpunk is set in dystopias not utopia. And beleive it or not I think most cyberpunk is anti-technology, too much big brother....
I'll bet you like westerns, too.( judging by your alias)
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Post by jerichomccoy on May 22, 2006 13:23:32 GMT
I'm good DH. Need more ladies over my house.  Hey, Dystopia. That's a Half-Life 2 mod! Good game it is. Heh, you know, I just came up this name randomly to tell ya the truth, but I do enjoy westerns. Ah, a good western is hard to find nowadays.  Somewhere around the line, Cyberpunk has to have some sort of anti-technology to disrupt the current technology in the story, if that made any sense. Like Hacking into Computers. An essential part of any Cyberpunk Breakfast. |
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Post by Mouse on May 25, 2006 12:10:21 GMT
This seems to me like one of those questions that you will always get a million different answers to. In my mind, cyberpunk is: -Gritty -Dystopian -Technology plays a major part -The protagonists are not the 'good guys', or exist in a fuzzy place between 'right' and 'wrong', as far as the story world is concerned. But even those things aren't constant... I mean, Hackers (an old, dodgy, but awesomely fun movie) isn't what I would call gritty or dystopian, but in my mind it is definitely cyberpunk. |
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Post by Chirugal on May 25, 2006 14:01:39 GMT
I love Hackers!  |
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