Spotlight on Cyberpunk

Spotlight on Cyberpunk

This is a post I’ve been contemplating for a very long time, but felt unequal to because cyberpunk is not a genre I feel I know a lot about. A lot of the recommendations on where to start, I will have to admit to never reading or seeing.

So, why did I want to write this post? Because cyberpunk is essentially the first of the aesthetic genres, the ones that are based as much, if not more, on how they feel or look as what they are about. Many of these genres also have ‘punk’ in the name, showing the relation. And while I may not know much about cyberpunk, I do know a bit more about steampunk, dieselpunk, and clockpunk, all of which may become their own articles.

I might have put this off longer, but a comment on my last post mentioned cyberpunk, and I decided it was time.

What is cyberpunk?

Cyberpunk is a division of Science Fiction (though Fantasy elements are possible, if uncommon), generally set in the near future, with a large urban setting, advanced technology, and a cynical or dystopian view of life. Protagonists are usually anti-heroic at best, with those attempting to be ‘good’, whatever that may be in this society, crushed and destroyed by that very society. Antagonists on an individual level are frequently part of a very large corporation or government organization. Or maybe the antagonists are rarely seen on the individual level, and all we see is the large corporation or government organization. Or perhaps they are one and the same. Anarchy is another possibility, but not as common. If used, it puts an emphasis on an ‘every man for himself’ philosophy.

The punk part of cyberpunk refers to the fact that these individuals, predominantly male, are usually rebels, outsiders, and ‘riff-raff’. The term ‘high tech lowlife’ comes up frequently when researching cyberpunk. Artificial humans, and how human they may be, comes up frequently in the genre. The main character discovering that they themselves are not actually human but have been constructed has been used often enough that it shouldn’t be used as a gimmick to surprise readers, because readers will not be surprised.

The computer part is a little more tricky. Many cyberpunk stories are set in the near future with an extrapolation of current technology. Unfortunately, that technology changes very rapidly. My phone, the cheapest smartphone in Walmart a couple years ago, is more powerful than the computers used to launch the first space shuttle. So are most scientific calculators, for that matter. Okay, we’re talking about sixty years ago, but think about how much computers have changed in that time compared to other technologies. Cars have definitely upgraded their features, but the basics haven’t changed. A sixty-year-old house is probably pretty similar to a hundred-year-old house or a five-year-old house. But trying to extrapolate what a powerful computer looks like in ten years? Who knows?

Where can I start?

Because this is a writing blog, I’m going to suggest literature, not that there aren’t some great movies out there. Some of these may be considered proto-cyberpunk or post-cyberpunk but that can also get to splitting hairs. Also, I cannot claim to have read all of these, but some are definitely on my list.

Philip K. Dick: Before cyberpunk had a name and codified tropes, he was writing many stories that used those tropes. Some famous cyberpunk movies were based on his works. For example, his novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep became the basis of the movie Blade Runner, which inspired its own franchise. Many of his successors in cyberpunk also won the Philip K. Dick Award for their work, making him definitely one of the best places to start.

Bruce Sterling: Considered one of the founders of cyberpunk, he is not only the writer of several novels, but very much involved in promoting the genre, aiding writers, and futurism. His interest in the future seems rooted in a love of history and what has gone before. He has wone Hugo Awards for two novelettes. His promotion of the subgenre has given him the nickname ‘Chairman Bruce’. He also originated the term ‘slipstream’.

William Gibson: Another founder of cyberpunk, he is best known for his novel, Neuromancer, which codified many of the tropes in cyberpunk. Like Philip K. Dick, many of his stories have been adapted to movies. Unlike him, these movies have largely flopped. Neuromancer won, among other awards, the Philip K. Dick award.

Bruce Bethke: His short story ‘cyberpunk’ was where the word originated. He also wrote the novel Headcrash which is a satirical take on the genre, and won a Philip K. Dick award.

Neal Stephenson: He straddles the line between cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk (if the story is optimistic, it’s post-cyberpunk). His novels include Snowcrash, a satirical work that also plays most elements of cyberpunk straight (I’m currently reading it), and Cryptonomicon.

What is the aesthetic of cyberpunk?

Since this is a genre marked by aesthetic, it’s worth noting what that aesthetic is. Cyberpunk near universally takes place in large cities and/or virtual reality. It’s almost always night or gray and overcast, if the sun had stopped existing, no one would ever know. Expect almost everyone to wear black, or at least dark colors. Trench coats, mirrored shades, and fancy, if perhaps impractical, weapons are par for the course. A heavy noir basis is expected.

Expect many locales to be either grimy or sterile, with very little in between. Except for the sweeping cityscape shots of skyscrapers full of lights, neon colors, and possibly wall-to-wall advertising. The world is heavily and strictly divided into haves and have-nots, with the protagonists being have-nots.

Technology is advanced and not bad in and of itself, but humans definitely manage to make it work for evil anyway. Anti-capitalism messages are not uncommon, as much of the evils of the world spring from greed.

An Asian element is common and possibly expected in any cyberpunk from the 80’s and beyond. The genre is also popular in Asia, especially Japan, leading to many stories of lone ronin or samurai in cyberpunk futures.

It has been remarked that despite the blending of East meets West, cyberpunk is often not a very diverse genre, with little emphasis on women or non-Asian minorities. Perhaps that is something to play with in your own writing.

What are common themes?

I really can’t put it better than TV tropes did (see below), but here’s a short list to get you started.

Man against society. Gray vs. Gray morality.  What makes a human? The benefits and dangers of artificial intelligence. Capitalism (or at least greed) is bad.

As cyberpunk follows the noir tradition, which itself borrows from Western and Samurai based stories, any themes from those can follow well. The story typically has one lone hero, occasionally a small team, but if so, someone is probably going to turn traitor, against the world. Cyberpunk being a dystopia genre, endings tend to be bittersweet at best. If there is any organized good, especially one that can stand up to the societal evil, you are probably in post-cyberpunk.

What can I do with cyberpunk?

That depends on you and your imagination. As noted, ‘true’ cyberpunk has certain expectations, but if you notice, it’s also been a springboard for a whole host of other genres. And there is no rule that you have to go full in to cyberpunk conventions. You can borrow an element or two in another genre, or try to tweak common elements.

Cyberpunk predominately takes place in the United States, Japan, or some analogue of those countries. China is making some in roads lately, and no reason Great Britain can’t be used instead. But what about a cyberpunk story in the Southern Hemisphere? Maybe in Africa or South America?

When your protagonists fights as much, if not more, with electrons as they do physical weapons, then what does the physical fitness of the hero matter? Children, elderly, women, the disabled, etc. No reason they have to be healthy teen or adult men. Come on, the eighty-year-old granny who can disable the system because she left a back door in the project when she worked as an engineer, before she was fired without her pension, would be an excellent story. Did you know the first computer programmers were predominantly female? They were, and they were called computers at the time.

Further Resources:

What is cyberpunk– a blog post written by someone who knows the genre better than I do, who is also able to explain it concisely.

Tv Tropes (Website frequently uses strong language):

Cyberpunk– an overview of the genre and lists of various cyberpunk examples in media. I, personally, feel they spread the term too wide, as they seem to consider any dystopian story with fancy technology as cyberpunk. But as said, I am not an expert.

Cyberpunk tropes– includes common themes, common settings, common character types, and more. Make sure you have a decent amount of free time before you go wiki walking here.

Write a cyberpunk story– Advice for those who want to write in the genre including what is common and what to avoid.

What is your favorite element of cyberpunk? What would you like to see more of?

Genre-blending

Genre-Blending

So, I’m once again back from Marscon. This annual science fiction and fantasy convention usually meets in January, but because of the upsurge of the Omicron variant for Covid, it was postponed to March this year. I’m not complaining, it gave my siblings and I time to get our booster shots. While many aspects had to be modified or eliminated to be safe, the con was still great and I’m glad I took the chance. Yes, I followed safe practices, masking up and social distance from people I didn’t know.

Since I wasn’t sure until the last minute whether or not I was going, or even if it would happen, I wasn’t a panelist and didn’t have a table. But the advantage to that was that I could go to as many panels as I wanted. While the programming was a little sparser than usual, there was a solid writing track with writing panels happening throughout most of the con.

One of them was called ‘You got your mystery in my science fiction’. As one might guess from the name, it was about genre-blending. I attended this panel because this is something I do a lot.

And you know what? So does almost everyone else. Mystery and romance are the most common. Try to find a book that doesn’t have some element of one or both of those. I can’t think of a novel for adults off the top of my head. Children’s books don’t count. Doesn’t mean there aren’t any, but it’s not common. Most stories have at least a potential love story and/or a mystery about something. Maybe these are only the most minor or parts, but there’s usually something.

So, what are some other things you can do?

The panel decided to try it. They asked for suggestions for a genre to take structure from, basically what kind of story are you telling. Another genre for tone, and an element from a third genre.

Knowing this was a convention for fans of speculative fiction and that romance and mystery blend with everything, I suggested western for the structure. Do I know western stories? Not particularly. I do know that they are very adaptable.

How adaptable? Many famous western movies are repackaged samurai movies. Magnificent Seven was adapted from Seven Samurai, for example. And a lot of, especially early science fiction movies, were repackaged westerns. Star Trek was marketed as a space western.

So there was a brief discussion of what kinds of stories are in a western structure. Ones brought up included the lawless town beset by outlaws, the lone stranger who is forced to take a side to protect the innocent even if he didn’t want to get involved, often a young kid with a young, pretty single mother both of whom appeal to the lone gunslinger.

For tone, someone picked noir. So, one of the panelists rolled a four-sided die to get a setting. It came up on cyberpunk. I admit to being slightly disappointed it wasn’t the Viking-era Europe option, but oh well. The last element was a dragon. Despite my brother’s skepticism, I didn’t suggest that one.

So, with some playing around, they got a world with very poor physical resources, where most people spend as much time as possible in virtual reality. A young child is given a virtual world or a corner of one, probably because their parent saved up for a long time. But hackers took it over. Maybe they used ransomware to demand payment to get it back, or maybe they just took it for their own, period. The kid appeals to another hacker to try and get it back. The dragon could be what the hackers uses to steal other peoples virtual resources and/or what the white hat hacker (sheriff) uses to drive them away and get it back. Or there could be dragons in this virtual world, who knows? Or all the above.

How can I use this?

I personally see this as something to use for inspiration for something new or for growing your repertoire, not something to add to your current work in progress because you’re stuck. I mean, maybe it will work, but only if it doesn’t seem to come out of nowhere. If for three hundred pages we’ve been reading what seems to be a standard sword and sorcery novel, suddenly throwing in a long epistolary section is going to seem jarring and possibly a little boring. Throwing in the sudden appearance of a space alien fleet is even worse.

It doesn’t have to be obvious that you are mixing genres. Even if you use a storyline that is standard to a certain kind of story, that doesn’t mean that everyone will recognize it. And some are universal stories that adapt well to every genre. The young person who leaves home to make their own way. The scarred and troubled veteran who trains someone young and hopeful. The person who wants to find home and a family.

What do I need to know?

You absolutely, positively must know the genres you want to work in. If you don’t know them, don’t know the tropes, the beats, the must-haves and the pitfalls, then you aren’t going to do it right. And the readers will know it.

It’s one thing to want to do something new. It’s another thing to disappoint readers who are expecting one thing and get another. Romances absolutely must have a romance, and the readers are counting on a happy ending. Can you do a romance with an unhappy ending? Some are successful, but you’re shooting yourself in the foot to begin with. Why do that? Mysteries are supposed to be solved, with the killer being punished. While some aspects can remain unknown, the reader will be furious if the full mystery is left unsolved. There’s a little more leeway for the culprit being punished, but again make sure you know why you are doing what you are doing.

Do yourself a favor and don’t try to write in a genre you don’t love or at least like. You will need to do a lot of reading in the genre to write it well, to know what tropes are common, what can be played with, and what has been done to death. And if you skip all that, write with the idea of ‘fixing’ everything you find wrong in a genre, well, a lot of readers who love the genre may be very unhappy with you. Maybe you are a good enough writer to get away with it. Maybe you aren’t.

What genres can I use?

Any of them, and ones you don’t know exist. Look into lesser-known genres like comedy of manners, and epistolary novels. Look into coming-of-age stories, and lost treasure stories. There’s a lot out there. Mix and match. Maybe rework a classic story.

Imagine what might happen if Macbeth was a subway train operator, who had three weird women tell him he would become President of the United States, and that he was about to be given a cabinet post. Then he’s given a call offering him Secretary of Transportation. We’ve got political intrigue, maybe some paranormal if the ‘witches’ are truly witches or psychic. If we do Lady Macbeth anything like the original, that’s room for family drama. A city with a subway system can easily slide to noir, though it doesn’t have to if you want a more hopeful aesthetic. Considering we are rewriting a tragedy, you probably don’t. Urban fantasy could be a fun one to bring in, what with the moving forest. Maybe the dryads get involved.

My Hyde Chronicles books were meant to be lightly spooky humor (like Addams Family), with aspects of mystery. There’s one mystery per book as each one gets the group closer to solving the question of who is sabotaging the school. There is, of course, elements of romance, as Violet finds an attractive boy who always seems to be around when she needs him. Yes, he is the love interest, but not until after he gets told off for stalking. There is also family drama as Violet finds she has less and less in common with her family that she can’t share any of the fantastic elements of the school with. Throw in a dash of coming-of-age story and some almost travel adventure tones.

In the Moonlit Memories stories, the fantasy is front and center with the main character being a Werefox. But she’s also a ninja who is trained to do various covert operations, so we have spy story elements. Some mystery, some romance, some coming-of-age, like Hyde, it’s a school story. It’s more thriller, as opposed to Hyde, which is more adventure.

How should I get started?

One, you probably already have. Look at my examples. It’s hard not to include at least bits from other genres as you write. But if you want to do it in a more structured and purposeful way, you can always try the game the panelist did. Grab a die, six-sided are the most common, but if you are a gamer, you probably have others. Make a list of possibilities for each of the following: Structure, tone, elements of another genre. Whatever type of die you have, you need that many possibilities. You may need to do the elements of another genre after you’ve rolled for structure

Always remember, if you go to roll and find yourself hoping it will roll a certain way, you already know what you want to write. Good luck.

What genres do you like to blend? What’s the strangest blend you’ve used?

Please note, when doing the final touches of this blog I discovered my website is down. I’ll let you all know when that is back up.

Edit: It’s back up! If anything is down, please let me know. Website is here.