#genre history

[alpaca-clouds]

The History of Cyberpunk

Or why every other SciFi Genre is called [something]punk

You know what? Let's do this. Because I have seen the discussion on whether or not Solarpunk is "punk" over the last few days and... people really gotta learn their history.

The first time a genre took the "punk" name was Cyberpunk. And for context we gotta talk a bit about the history of the Cyberpunk genre.

While some books that we in hindsight call "Cyberpunk" were released as early as the 1960s, the start of Cyberpunk as a genre got its start in the late 70s and early 80s.

The term was invented by Bruce Bethke, who published a short story in 1983 with the name "Cyberpunk". His idea was to juxtapose the term "punk" for both the mentality and the punk protagonists in his short story with the term cyber, short for the cybernetics they were wearing. And while the cybernetics have become a main stay in the genre, the punk attitudes are not always carried through...

Well, the title Bethke invented stuck, though. When 1984 Neuromancer was published, one of the most influencial works in the early days of the genre, he called it "a Cyberpunk novel" in the marketing. And from there... Well, the genre was suddenly named like that.

The 80s were definitely the decade that had the most influence on the genre, given that a lot of the big novels and graphic novels of the genre were released here.

A big influence was, no doubt, that 1982 the Blade Runner movie had released and had inspired quite a few writers and artists. (And yes, this makes Blade Runner a movie that released not only before the term Cyberpunk was coined, but also before the genre had a chance to define itself.)

Given that the genre was defined in the 80s, there are a lot of 80s anxiety kept within it about the rise of the Japanese economy, that are these days rarely questioned within the western Cyberpunk movement.

When the genre was coined and developed, Japan was the fastest growing economy in the world, being so influencial that they got to buy out several things in America. Something that kinda jerked white people in the US a lot. This is, why Cyberpunk originally depicted not only a capitalist hellscape - but specifically a capitalist hellscape were everything was bought out by Japanese companies, with many of those early antagonists being Japanese companies. And yeah... there was a lot of both anti-japanese racism, but also cultural appropriation of Japanese things in early Cyberpunk, at time surviving to this day. (But that is a story for another day.)

The general sense that Western Cyberpunk had, was always the idea of: We have a capitalist hellscape where the world is slowly dying and people are exploited with no end, while we have those kinda punky protagonists, who stand outside of the society and try to work against it. This being where the punk comes from.

Now, I could talk for length about how a lot of that punky attitude has been lost in more modern Cyberpunk media, but that, too, is a story for another day.

So, let me just talk about what happened then.

The term Cyberpunk really is darn catchy, right? So just when that name took hold, writer K.W. Jeter retroactively called his 1979 novel Morlock Night "steampunk". And guess what: This stuck, too. Though while the 80s Cyberpunk still stuck to the punk attitude, a lot of Steampunk did not. While for certain there is quite a bit of Steampunk that has kinda punky characters go against the quasi Victorian society of steampunk books (something most common in the air pirate novels I have read), a lot of other stories are more focused on a general sense of adventure.

But never the less... The genre names stuck and gave a nice baseline for naming other genre. We got Dieselpunk, Atompunk, Nanopunk, Arcanepunk, Dustpunk, Silkpunk and of course also Solarpunk and Lunarpunk.

And for the most part... The "punk" names mostly communicate: "It is SciFi with this kinda aesthetic/twist going on". Which is just how it turned out.

Funnily enough Solarpunk is for once a genre that brings back the punk, as it tends to include a lot of the ideals aspired to by the Punk counter culture of the 1970s: Anarchism, anti-capitalism, anti-consumerism, anti-classism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism and so on. Though other than with Cyberpunk and the real world punk movement, Solarpunk for the most part imagines a place, where those things are culture instead of counter culture.

I personally find it kinda sad, how for the most part Cyberpunk kinda lost a lot of the counter-cultural, revolutionary mindset. And how fucking defeatist the genre often is.

But again, it is a story for another day. Just as the story of Japanese Cyberpunk is.

[dramyhsturgis]

Now that Anna Torv’s great work on The Last of Us is encouraging some folks to (re)discover the brilliant series Fringe, I'm reminded what a delight and joy it was to contribute the essay "In Search of Fringe's Literary Ancestors" to Kevin R. Grazier's anthology about the show, Fringe Science: Parallel Universes, White Tulips, and Mad Scientists.

[eirene]

Bath time, 1897 Virgilio Tojetti

[lionofchaeronea]

Women Watching Stars, Ōta Chōu, 1936

[leatherandmossprints]

‘The Quiet Pet’ (detail) by John William Godward, c. 1906.

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Carolus-Duran (1837-1917) "The Kiss" (1868) Oil on canvas Located in the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, Lille, France The painting is a self-portrait of the artist and his wife, fellow artist Pauline Carolus-Duran née Croizette, as newlyweds.

[liturgical-agenda]

Laughing Girl, 1882 by Raffaello Sorbi

[pagansphinx]

John Koch (American, 1909-1978) • Telephone Call • Unknown date • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City

John Koch was an American painter, and an important figure in 20th century realist painting. His early work may be considered Impressionist. He is best known for his light-filled realist paintings of urban interiors, often featuring classical allusions, and set in his own Manhattan apartment. – Beautiful Paintings blog

[cinematic-phosphenes]

THE GILDED AGE + ART [1/∞]

Ball on Shipboard (c. 1874) by James Tissot Mrs Blane's white dress with navy blue detail from S2E02: Some Sort of Trick

Inspired by this post (@tomcraweley)

[la-belle-histoire]

Before the Wedding, Firs Zhuravlyov. 1870s.

[larobeblanche]

Walter Bonner Gash (British, 1869-1928) • New Book • c. 1912

[alpaca-clouds]

The Hopelessness of Cyberpunk

So, let me talk about the thing that made me fall out of love with the Cyberpunk genre - or rather that made my relationship with the genre rather complicated. And that is just... how fucking hopeless and, excuse my 2000s slang, edgy.

Don't get me wrong. Cyberpunk was always kinda edgy. That was kinda one of the point of the genre. There always has been this thing about the main characters often being anti-heroes who are just done with the world. In most of the times we have this leather duster gruff white male protagonists, who have found at least one woman associated with them in a refrigerator of some sort... You get what I am saying, right?

And yes, there always were those stories that came out on the end of "rebellion is useless" in Cyberpunk. But in those early days it was usually in a way that the protagonists were at least given their small victories.

To me it feels as if it has only gotten worse since, though. In modern Cyberpunk it seems all just super hopeless and then some people will go there and be like: "Oh yeah, that is realism! Dark and gritty, just like the real world." To which... First: "No. They only want you to think that." But second: "That's not what media is for!"

I really have to say, that I have trouble to understand why people find stories appealing that tell you: "You see how those people are exploited? Yeah? Well, guess what, them trying to do something against it is hopeless. So do not get any ideas, yeah?"

And of course there is the other thing with Cyberpunk, too. A lot of Cyberpunk has just lost the entire punk stuff, outside from the aesthetic. Cyberpunk was original about fighting against the entire system - even if it failed. But a lot of modern Cyberpunk does not do that anymore.

And... It is just frustrating.

Just allow the characters to be punk. Allow characters to try and fight the system. And allow them at least their own little victories, even if they do not save the world.

[dramyhsturgis]

15 Years of "Looking Back on Genre History"

I've been contributing my "Looking Back on Genre History" segments to the StarShipSofa podcast for 15 years now. All of my past segments are listed (with their topics and links!) on the "Podcasting" page of my website. (Scroll down to the "Looking Back on Genre History" section.)

[eirene]

Femme au tigre François Martin-Kavel

[lionofchaeronea]

Morning Awakening, Eva Gonzalès, 1876

[leatherandmossprints]

‘View of the Salon Carré at the Louvre’ by Alexandre Brun, c. 1880.