Cyberpunk

1783 readers

1 users here now

What is Cyberpunk?

Cyberpunk is a science-fiction sub-genre dealing with the integration of society and technology in dystopian settings. Often referred to as “low-life and high tech,” Cyberpunk stories deal with outsiders (punks) who fight against the oppressors in society (usually mega corporations that control everything) via technological means (cyber). If the punks aren’t actively fighting against a megacorp, they’re still dealing with living in a world completely dependent on high technology.

Cyberpunk characteristics include:

Dystopian city setting where mega-corporations rule
Full integration of technology into society, featuring cybernetic implants
Outsider protagonists (punks) who often are very familiar with the technology around them
Hard boiled detective and film noir vibes and influence
Themes dabbling in trans-humanism, existentialism, and what it means to be human.

Prefixes for posts

[AI Art]
[Art]
[Book]
[Game]
[Meme]
[Movie]
[Video]

This is a community focused on cyberpunk as a genre of fiction. Please post any news articles about our real world slipping into a dystopian nightmare at: !aboringdystopia@lemmy.world

Icon created by @hammerjack@lemmy.zip

If someone is interested in moderating this community, message @brikox@lemmy.zip.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

BrikoX@lemmy.zip

Hammerjack@lemmy.zip

Where would you draw the line between cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk? (Do you think post-cyberpunk exists?) (lemmy.zip)

submitted 3 months ago by Hammerjack@lemmy.zip to c/cyberpunk@lemmy.zip

15 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I have trouble understanding when a genre becomes "post-" so I'm curious what people here might think.

What cyberpunk work do you think moved us into post-cyberpunk? Is there one? Or is this "post-cyberpunk" stuff nonsense and it's all just cyberpunk?

I've heard an argument that Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992) is post-cyberpunk because it's a satire of the cyberpunk genre, but I've heard the same thing said about Bruce Bethke's Headcrash (1995). And is satire of the original genre a requirement to move post- a genre?

I could see an argument that post-cyberpunk takes place in worlds that know what the modern-day internet looks like (with social media and disinformation) but I'm not sure if there's a cyberpunk work that really carries that flag. That is, I could see an argument for post-cyberpunk being a "refresh" of the 1980s cultural fears to fit our modern times, but I'm not sure if there's a work that ushered in this new genre. I've made the argument that Elysium updates cyberpunk with modern cultural fears, but I don't think it led to a wave of updated cyberpunk works (it was an outlier, not the progenitor of a new genre).

So what do you think? What requirements would you have for the cyberpunk genre to become post-cyberpunk? And does that cyberpunk work already exist?

(Note: for the picture in this post, I was trying to show the juxtaposition of "classic cyberpunk" vs "modern cyberpunk". I'm not arguing that Deus Ex is post-cyberpunk.)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] happybadger@hexbear.net 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

To me the main hero/antihero archetype in cyberpunk is the nerd ninja. Someone is wronged by the system, they try to confront that, and despite not having an ideological motivation they end up morally opposing it and taking down some token representation of it.

In solarpunk, the hero/antihero is the nature ninja. They're wronged by climate change and confront it ideologically, morally opposing it and mitigating the crisis through trying to create a post-scarcity society. It's still a story about injustice and rebellion, but it's the town against the zombie apocalypse instead of the lone survivor against zombie minibosses. That's why I call it Star Trek for farmers. A series like DS9 can have significant drama in a more utopian society because they have to confront their ideals in a dystopian galaxy. Solarpunk, like the more nihilistic frostpunk, is desperate survival but trying to find some kind of hope in a Neo-Luddite struggle against the ghosts of capitalism.

edit: Horizon: Forbidden West. That's a good example of it as a narrative. Capitalism built robot dinosaurs and engineered its own collapse, now scavenger tribes find a new balance with nature while raiding the ruins to learn why their world is so hostile.

[–] Hammerjack@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 months ago

Awesome, that really helps. Thanks!