Penta
Jun 11 2005, 05:33 AM
Recently, we've had some fun discussions (yay drift!) on the theme/setting of SR.
In hopes of adding to the debate/pouring gas on the fire, I offer this from the Steve Jackson Games' fora, a discussion on a possible GURPS CyberPunk for GURPS 4th Edition that quickly veered into "what is Cyberpunk".
Said discussion.
Supercilious
Jun 11 2005, 05:40 AM
Cyberpunk is the mix of extreme futuristic possbility (Cyberware, the matrix, other futuristic techno-junk) and the "punk" subculture of the 80's and 90's (The "Fuck the man" and rebellious attitude. Not to mention the bad music, but that is just my taste). The other ingredient in a cyberpunk setting is a governmental structure that allows punk in an extreme form (Ie. Nowadays, when a police officer offends a "punk" he shouts something nasty, in a cyberpunk setting he would shoot the police officer) aswell as the extreme form of futuristic technology (Ie. Instead of the internet of today, we have the Matrix).
Shadowrun has these elements, but not so much the punk feel anymore. IMHO Shadowrun 3.0 is mostly just Cyber, unless a gang-level game is being played.
Ancient History
Jun 11 2005, 05:59 AM
Cyberpunk the literary movement was held together by a few key elements and themes. They were typically marked by what was perceived as the current world some decades in the future...technological progress and a development of various social and economic trends.
The particular 'punk' element comes from the general alienation that many characters in the genre experience, awareness of greater social issues and self determination of opinions on said issues by the main characters, and a fare bit of 'tude when the situation calls for it. At times, the genre is marked by a certain sense of apathy or betrayal at the spread of globalization or the results of human endeavor. Certain aspects of contemporary morality are explored, either by focusing in on them when present or when absent (esp. drug use). Sex isn't a taboo topic, because the characters are actually living. They need to eat. To sleep. To take a piss and check for STDs in the morning.
Generally speaking, the focus of cyberpunk was less on the technology, but on how people lived and reacted in a world still recognizable as our own. Technology is taken for granted. The division between the rich and the poor is huge. You feel disconnected from the rest of the larger McWorld. The unusual psychological pressures of society have made people weirder. One person can make a difference, a sabot will still jam the magician.
The classic choice for a cyberpunk novel would be William Gibson's Neuromancer, but I believe the genre really hits its stride with the short story. Check out The Ultimate Cyberpunk at your local bookstore, or the classic anthology Mirrorshades if you can find it. I would likewise highly recommend Gibson's inspiration, John Shirley's City Comes A Walkin'.
Just to understand how differnt Cyberpunk was from its predecessors, consider re-reading Huxley's Brave New World, Orwell's 1984, and Stanley Kubrick's movie A Clockwork Orange (yes, the book is better, but Ian MacDonald's performance is not to be missed).
Cyberpunk reached mass media in a few stunning visual mediums. I highly reccomend the director's cut of Bladerunner, the original X-rated version of Robocop, and the early graphic novel Shatter
Punk is difficult to define, but if you're interested in one take on it I suggest finding a copy of the graphic novel Honour Among Punks.
Nikoli
Jun 11 2005, 06:24 AM
I think Blade Runner said it best
"C'mon, you know the score. If you aren't Cop, you're little people."
Then think of the events in the movie, the cops wanted to talk to Decker, so they arrested him with no charges filed. He shot what to anyone else would be a normal person on several occaisions, yet people barely moved out of the way. He used strong arm intimidation tactics to pump leads for info. He allowed himself to partake of illicit substances because as a cop, he was untouchable. He hit on someone who by all rights he should have "aired out".
In Cyberpunk, power is not just abused, it is abused to the Nth degree. If you can do something to someone and get away with it, people will become suspicious when you don't. The Government is laregely useless, yet still remains more of a burden on people than ever before while only providing services to the people that can afford not to need them in the first place. Corporations too powerful for the Government to reign in control whateveris worth controling, including the government in many cases. What they don't control, belongs to the Crime lords (Yakuza, Mafia, etc.) What they deem too pidly, or they wish to farm out to hired muscle is controled by gangs akin to the characters in "The Warriors" (another good dystopic flick). And finally, whatever is left belongs to the dregs and rejects of society too low to even be noticed byt he gangers. Everyone, including Mother Theresa has a price and is for sale. Somewhere within all of that is the Shadowrunners, of each tier yet belonging to none of them.
The Cyberpunk dystopic theme evolved from the classec Noir films of the 50's and 60's.
Kagetenshi
Jun 11 2005, 06:32 AM
QUOTE (Supercilious) |
(Ie. Nowadays, when a police officer offends a "punk" he shouts something nasty, in a cyberpunk setting he would shoot the police officer) |
I'd say you have a chicken-and-egg problem here. Today if a punk is giving a cop attitude, he'll likely get arrested and possibly roughed up a little. In a cyberpunk setting the punk is likely to get shot or beaten to near or past the point of death. This encourages like retaliation.
~J
Mr Cjelli
Jun 11 2005, 03:16 PM
QUOTE (Supercilious) |
Cyberpunk is the mix of extreme futuristic possbility (Cyberware, the matrix, other futuristic techno-junk) and the "punk" subculture of the 80's and 90's (The "Fuck the man" and rebellious attitude. Not to mention the bad music, but that is just my taste). |
I think you mean 70's and 80's...the first wave of punk sputters and dies by 1979 and Neuromancer was published in 1984, so I doubt more contempory punk/punk-influenced music/subcultures had any real influence on the genre. Sorry to nitpick.
Ancient History
Jun 11 2005, 03:35 PM
QUOTE (Mr Cjelli) |
QUOTE (Supercilious @ Jun 11 2005, 12:40 AM) | Cyberpunk is the mix of extreme futuristic possbility (Cyberware, the matrix, other futuristic techno-junk) and the "punk" subculture of the 80's and 90's (The "Fuck the man" and rebellious attitude. Not to mention the bad music, but that is just my taste). |
I think you mean 70's and 80's...the first wave of punk sputters and dies by 1979 and Neuromancer was published in 1984, so I doubt more contempory punk/punk-influenced music/subcultures had any real influence on the genre. Sorry to nitpick.
|
You've never read John Shirley's Eclipse trilogy or Synners by Pat Cadigan. Otherwise ye might revise your statement.
Penta
Jun 11 2005, 03:36 PM
Y'know, would it be wrong to say that Cyberpunk and Nuclear Post-Apoc (as we know them) developed from different regional interpretations of the 80s?
Cyberpunk, for whatever reason, always seems to me to reflect the "rust belt", the repeated falls of GM, the Carter-ish "Malaise".
Post-Apoc, meanwhile, was very much a theme of the coasts. The fear was more of "Will the Soviets send ICBMs over the Pole?", not "Will the Japanese take our jobs?"
Similarly, cyberpunk has a very urban, "Detroit", ethos. Post-Apoc was intensely suburban.
Which mgiht explain the difference in perspective between me and Kage.
It was the same 80s, but two very different 80s, too.
For me, the fear wasn't jobs. (The fact that dad worked for government helped.)
The fear was (again, not helped when dad works for the DOD) "I might not survive to see tomorrow, cuz y'never know if someone's going to kill you with a nuke."
It seems overstated, but I was a little kid. I discovered that people were ready to launch nukes at me when I was 5. (Dad worked on something involved with nuclear CnC, so...I have no idea where, but it was implanted in my head by age 6.) Everything's bigger and scarier when you're little.
Anyway, I think that's why I and others might not be able to identify so much with classic cyberpunk.
The concerns that it grew from were hardly ours. Still aren't.
OTOH, stuff like
Brave New World is still a concern.
1984 still seems creepily plausible. Less so, i think, if one has seen government up close...As was wonderfully put in a US Army guide to the Middle East (damned if I recall where I found it, I think the DLI website, way back when), "There is a view of US Government competence and expertise that would be wholly entertaining to Americans, especially government employees." Yeah, that describes what I've seen.
It could do all these things, but in order for that to occur, one must ignore the Peter Principle as applied to the civil service.
Which, I think, is why cyberpunk rings so hollow to me. No bureaucracy is
that competent, corporate or government. Why don't we have SINs (though we do come close)?
Because no bureaucracy, corporate or government, could ever be competent enough to administer such a system. I say that with a lot of love to government: It's how I'm kept fed.
But, no...Um...the level of sheer stupidity in bureaucreacy just makes such things implausible.
Similar with "Corps as Gods". Or even Corps as Sovereigns.
I mean, my God...If one looks at the average corp...
Sovereignty would require, in sheer costs, expenses spread for infinity. Meanwhile, what profit would come from it?
How could you ever get that past Wall Street (or the Tokyo equivalent)?
Cyberpunk views corporations and governments both as vaguely competent creatures.
Those who have ever seen such from the inside know neither is remotely true. Somehow, government does things in spite of its own tendencies. Corporations of megacorp size operate purely in spite of themselves.
Penta
Jun 11 2005, 03:38 PM
QUOTE (Mr Cjelli) |
I think you mean 70's and 80's...the first wave of punk sputters and dies by 1979 and Neuromancer was published in 1984, so I doubt more contempory punk/punk-influenced music/subcultures had any real influence on the genre. Sorry to nitpick. |
Agreed.
Also, cyberpunk misses the Green, "Government and corporations as examples of incompetence", optimistic strain of the early 90s.
Ancient History
Jun 11 2005, 03:59 PM
Penta, I believe you mistake competence with the decidedly different moral compass that is a large corporation. Corporations have in the past, and continue to this day, to perform heinous acts of abuse in the name of profit, including widescale manipulation of the media and governments throughout the world.
And frankly, when the corporation controls what you see and hear, it affects you. Cyberpunk tends to take government and corporate foibles and tendancies and exaggerate them to what we would consider unnatural limits.
Above all, a corporation in Cyberpunk tends to be either ambitious and young, or old and very, very efficient. Above all, corporations tend to be ruthless or run by people with unusual philosophies, becoming as much a tool to fulfill their increasingly eccentric whims as anything else.
Nuclear Post-Apocalyptic fiction is very different from Cyberpunk, being more of an outgrowth of the Atomic Age and the Cold War. A very different mindset. Incidentally, the focus on suburban settings in Nuke fiction was probably due to the fact cities would be targeted first. Good examples would probably be The Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns trade paperbacks, where the threat of oblivian hangs over everyone's head, and America survives solely by having a whimsical 'big gun'-in this case, Dr. Metropolis or Superman (or Reagan's 'Star Wars').
You can see survivalist and 'Green' approaches in Cyberpunk-Neal Stephenson's Zodiac may be the best example-but often they become co-opted, surviving and proliferating with new technologies that ease their lifestyles.
Supercilious
Jun 11 2005, 04:38 PM
I agree with Ancient History in that Cyberpunk and Post-Apoc are quite different. A good illustration of this is the Shadowrun game for the SNES compared to Fallout 1-2 (PS. Dr. Metropolis is AWESOME).
I think a lot of the alternate viewpoints on when Punk was "strong" depend widely on where oneself lives. I realized that after posting my perception of not only when was punk strong, but what punk is is quite different from other people not from my region. Kage said that a police officer would arrest someone who shouted at them, but that must be regional because in Olympia WA you can shout a lot of trash at a police officer and they just keep walking.
Fortunately, "Cyberpunk" always exaggerates the "punk" feel and pushes it so far to the extreme that anyone can recognize it.
Mr Cjelli
Jun 11 2005, 04:41 PM
QUOTE (Ancient History) |
QUOTE (Mr Cjelli @ Jun 11 2005, 03:16 PM) | I think you mean 70's and 80's...the first wave of punk sputters and dies by 1979 and Neuromancer was published in 1984, so I doubt more contempory punk/punk-influenced music/subcultures had any real influence on the genre. Sorry to nitpick. |
You've never read John Shirley's Eclipse trilogy or Synners by Pat Cadigan. Otherwise ye might revise your statement.
|
You're right, I haven't. So these authors draw influence from post-punk or new wave or hardcore punk or what? Seems intereting.
Ancient History
Jun 11 2005, 05:03 PM
I'm not the best punk-fanatic to explain this properly. Music is beloved by many writers because of the breadth and diversity of the industry, from classical to speed thrash, from starving rappers in a ghetto to computers writing the algorythms for tomorrow's next pop hits. It covers wacky politics, religions and philosophies; starlets, drugs and the latest tech. With cyberpunk, different writers incorporate actual references, allusions and bastardization of punk rock and punk culture in their works. I pointed out what I feel are the most obvious examples.
Not the kind of thing a fan of Sid and Nancy might immediately recognize, but then cyberpunk isn't Trainspotting either. It can be much more idealized.
Penta
Jun 11 2005, 08:04 PM
AH: Morality doesn't enter into it.
I'm talking simply "There's no way they could implement that."
My view of cyberpunk is very, very influenced by RPGs and movies; Being an ADD kid meant books were always a very hit-and-miss sort of thing. I read voraciously, but actually sitting down and
absorbing a book was hard.
(Meanwhile: By Nuclear Post-Apoc I meant less
Fallout (which is really pulling from the 50s-60s version of the genre) and more Twilight 2000,
The Day After, etc. Where it was fairly clear there's no way in hell most people are surviving, and those who do are fucked in other ways.
Fallout grins and laughs at nuclear war, a la Tommy the Turtle.
Twilight 2000 just says "We're fucked." It's the difference between the Duck and Cover films and a 1980s FEMA publication. One is "Civilization'll be destroyed, but it'll be
fun if you remember to hide under your desks!" The other is "Civilization will be destroyed. You're screwed. This is precisely
how it will be destroyed, and how much you will be screwed.")
Meanwhile: Well, that's the thing...The Cold War and the age from which cyberpunk took its cues (which I've never heard a good name for) were the
exact same time, only expressed differently where you were.
Also, I've no doubt that some of the difference is political, in terms of the interpretation of the
zeitgeist. Cyberpunk grew, so far as I can tell, from the militancy of the 60s and 70s and a bit into the 80s; 1968, the Black Panthers, the British miners' strike, etc.
Post-Apoc grew from the other thread of the age, the fear we'd all get nuked somehow. "Star Wars" (Reagan's SW, not Lucas's), Iran-Contra, the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
It's just as exaggerated, but in different ways.
For me, the fears that bred Post-Apoc were and are more immediate. The fears that bred Cyberpunk...I don't see it. Never did.
Anyhow, in an attempt to keep this vaguely on-topic...
If one were to reimagine SR, without necessarily keeping to cyberpunk conventions and tropes (think like the reimagining of Battlestar Galactica), how would it look?
IMHO:
1. Corporations wouldn't be the issue. Well, not so much. Corporations would less dominate government than be working hand-in-glove with it. "What's good for America is what's good for business; What's good for business is what's good for America."
2. More optimistic. Not by
much, but some. Namely: Less terror, more farce.
3. Less metal. Cleaner, if you will.
4. More understated. By a factor of 20, say. Less of the gaudy, cheesy, pastel-and-neon feel. As was put somewhere "ENOUGH OF THE MOHAWKS!" Not so much of the
Clash feeling.
Why do I bring this up?
I doubt many new gamers were alive during the 80s, or at least remember it.
Beloit College's "Mindset lists" would be helpful, here.
My age's mindset list.Whilst our milieu was Fraggle Rock, Saved By the Bell, the BBS, DOS...and so forth,
The milieu of the current 18-year-old is more likely to have been Power Rangers, X-Files, never knowing computers before Windows (probably Win95) or the Web, Columbine...and so forth.
SR still feels a lot like the early 90s at the latest. Shadowland, for example, really does feel like an old BBS, though less than it did. (I open up my books and hear the old, comforting sound of a modem handshaking.
How many of today's teenagers even remember what a modem
is?)
That means that SR could easily become far less relevant to the consumer (the 12-24 y/o) before the next 4 years are out, as the tropes and conventions that form the frame of reference aren't there. If we don't have relevance, we're dead.
Ancient History
Jun 11 2005, 08:38 PM
Translation: You don't understand cyberpunk because you never read any of it, and thus don't quite know what we're talking about when we refer to it and you're calling it bullshit anyway because what you've seen in the movies doesn't fit into your world view.
Aha. How do I put this? You haven't read the books. You're approaching the genre (a literary genre, mind) from RPGs and movies, and still trying to connect it to a radically different body of post-apocalyptic fictional materials (incidentally, I must continue to think your theory that the two differ only on location is bullshit).
Well, I can respect your right to have an opinion, but frankly I can't respect an opinion based on ignorance. You're correct in pointing our cyberpunk is not post-apocalyptic. It never was. Neither was Shadowrun. Neither is the real world.
Penta, you started off the thread talking about cyberpunk, but anyone who knows what they're talking about will tell you right now that Shadowrun had very much grown up. Show me the day-glo mohawks in Third Edition, and tell me how many you see coming in Fourth.
Now, if you wanted to debate relevance, you should have made a thread to debate relevance. You know Shadowrun, and you can debate where it stands today and where it looks like it will be tomorrow against what new 18-year-olds might expect. But don't start a literary thread and bring in that crappy post-apocalyptic arguement if you can't stand up and defend it.
Demonseed Elite
Jun 11 2005, 09:03 PM
Yeah, I don't really think you can understand cyberpunk if you didn't read the books. Because, above all, it was a literary genre. Neither RPGs nor movies ever did a stellar job of translating cyberpunk to their mediums, Shadowrun included.
Ol' Scratch
Jun 11 2005, 09:34 PM
QUOTE (Ancient History @ Jun 11 2005, 02:38 PM) |
Now, if you wanted to debate relevance, you should have made a thread to debate relevance. |
He did. This one. You, in your desperate need to show off, are the one who's trying to make it into a "literary thread." His original post was trying to encourage a discussion about how cyberpunk relates to Shadowrun's theme and setting. In doing so, he happened to link to another discussion that talked about literary aspects of the genre, but that's not what the thread was aimed at being.
Ancient History
Jun 11 2005, 09:41 PM
<scrolls through thread>
Hmm. You've got a point, Doc. I admit I might have dragged the thread off-track.
mfb
Jun 11 2005, 10:02 PM
AH's points still stand, though. what Penta's describing really isn't cyberpunk at all. it shares some aspects with diamond age cyberpunk, but not many.
Penta
Jun 11 2005, 11:56 PM
<drags his beaten corpse up from the ditch>
OK, I know I suck. I'll note, however, that (these days) figuring out "the essentials" is hard. There are *how many* potential books on that list? Twas a pretty popular fiction genre for a time, and it's a little...off to expect someone to have read even most of that 10 years later. I, personally, encountered Neuromancer, grabbed it to read on a car ride, couldn't get into it, and put it away. 5-10 years ago.
However...
I wasn't intending to get into a literary discussion, Funk is right. AH: Kindly return my face, after ripping it off. You attacked on something I wasn't even talking about.
The literary aspect of the genre, frankly, is uninteresting to me. I couldn't, for whatever reason, get into Neuromancer when I read it while traveling, and after that my interest in literary cyberpunk declined. (When I say read, I mean "read and finished", not "read and put away". I've read Les Miserables. I read (for history class, I have no idea why) Watership Down. I attempted to read The Hobbit. Neuromancer is probably here, or may have been sold at a garage sale, I don't recall.)
More what I was focusing on is cyberpunk as it applies to gaming, film, TV, etc.. I got into SR through BattleTech. Am I somehow unworthy, AH?
That is what I think most people will be more familiar with, and what most people newly encountering SR will think more immediately of.
In the context of cyberpunk as expressed in gaming, film, TV, and similar forms besides literature, I was asking "How does SR need to change to stay relevant?"
Why? Because I have no deep familiarity with cyberpunk as literature. I grant that, I don't recall speaking differently.
However, I doubt many others younger than 20-something do, either. Certainly, it doesn't have the place in popular culture it might once have.
mfb
Jun 12 2005, 12:35 AM
unworthy? no. but you're simply not able to discuss cyberpunk at anything more than a very topical level. you're like a paramedic trying to discuss cancer; there are aspects of it you simply don't understand, because you've never delved deep enough into the genre to experience them. if that's the extent of your interest, fine--nobody said you've got to like it. but don't expect those of us who do like it enough to have delved into it to accept a topical treatment like what you're suggesting.
Ancient History
Jun 12 2005, 12:39 AM
Peace for a piece. I went off on the wrong tangent interpreting the whole thread was about the literary cyberpunk. Mea culpa. If this had been an actual literary debate, you would have gotten a big wet bite of your ass. As it is, I've put my foot in my mouth then shot it off.
I admit it dissapoints me to see people ignorant of the origins of things, and of some of the things going on in the world around us we can't see. It dissapoints me when people who haven't read cyberpunk talk about it precisely because it has been so influential on modern pop culture.
I don't understand people who can't read Tolkein and Gibson. But that's just because I really love them. I can't understand not loving them. Trust me Penta, you are not alone. If I've run into one person that couldn't read the Hobbit or Neuromancer, I've met a hundred. I don't look down on you for it-but it does mean we've got a fundamental difference of opinion on these things. So be it.
And there's nothing wrong with coming to Shadowrun from Battletech. Oh, the stories I could tell about that.
As for the essentials...<drums fingers> I would list perhaps three essential cyberpunk books. There are many more, of varying degrees of quality and worth, but there are three I think every good cyberpunk afficiando ought to have read. Just looking at my shelf, including graphic novels, I have thirty that are all definative classic cyberpunk, and that's not a complete collection. Admittedly, it starts to go into slipstream at some point.
But hey. We don't have to go into literature anymore. Sorry for the thread de-railling.
Penta
Jun 12 2005, 01:16 AM
Hey, it happens.
Now, AH...You unintentionally pointed out something.
QUOTE |
Just looking at my shelf, including graphic novels, I have thirty that are all definative classic cyberpunk, and that's not a complete collection. |
Um...I have a very serious question.
If 30 books are all in the definitive classic section, how the hell do you expect anyone to get into it?
It's hard to get people to read even the entire Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy...collection (quintilogy?). And those come fairly stand-alone, enjoyable one by one. The thing is, I'm not sure cyberpunk,
from your descriptions, is like other genres. There seems to be nowhere constant I could start if I'm new to the genre, quite like Tolkien for fantasy, and no real limits to the 'must read to understand the genre' category.
(Now, about me and The Hobbit. The copy lying around here at home is one of those massive tomes, containing all 3 books of the LotR trilogy in one hardcover volume. If you can conveniently read that, holding it to the face like I have to, you've got better arms than I.
When I said I couldn't get into it, part of the problem was that I couldn't hold the book up.
There's a reason I keep to paperbacks: I can scrunch em against my blind little eyes.
As of right now, it's one of those books I always
intend to read, but never do. I dunno if it's even around here. Similarly, since this discussion's started, Gibson has returned to that list...But that list never seems to move much.)
OK, I admit it, too. After all the reading I do for classes, I usually never want to touch a very complex book. I limit myself to gaming on those nights because, er, it's simpler, and I don't have to think. (That's so embarassing to admit.) Anybody have any tips for overcoming the "Heeelp, no more print!" collection?
(Actually, are any of those books you have available unabridged on tape, AH?)
(Back off, printsnobs.
)
Penta
Jun 12 2005, 01:18 AM
Er, to keep my idea trains separated...I see you said there were three essentials, AH.
It woulda been nice if you'd listed em (a sticky somewhere with such things would probably be good for a lot of people), but I ain't picky.
I'm assuming one is Neuromancer. The other two...?
Ancient History
Jun 12 2005, 01:31 AM
I said there are thirty books that are definative, classical cyberpunk. That doesn't mean you have to read all of them to be conversent in the genre...I'm just a bit of a collector.
The Hobbit was published only in stand-along volumes to the best of my knowledge, Penta; it sounds like you're describing the collected Lord of the Rings...both of which grace my shelf. Hey, if you're not willing to suffer a hernia for your reading habits, avoid Robert Jordan like the plague.
Neuromancer is indeed one of the three, and I've always found it well worth the effort. I admit that Gibson isn't always easy to read, but that's part of his style...he leaves things unsaid, forcing you to keep thinking through them. It is Gibson's finest novel, although I think other pieces of his writing are better.
For a true tast of all cyberpunk has to offer, it is essential to hunt down one of the two main anthologies. Each one has something the other lacks, but Ultimate Cyberpunk is more easily located than the classic Mirrorshades. One is as good as the other just to give you a taste of the spectrum.
The third classic book is emminently available, and something of a controversial choice. Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown is not an actual work of fiction, and even though written by one of the best cyberpunk authors it can get a little dry at times. However, the content is well worth it. Bruce Sterling retained the electronic rights to this work and has made it available free on the internet if your Strength 2 arms can't get around to hauling the physical book <display_evil_grin>.
As for audiobooks...I believe Neuromancer is, the other two are almost definately not.
Lady Anaka
Jun 12 2005, 01:36 AM
A good start into the genre is through Philip K. Dick, arguably the most influential author in the genre, at least among other authors. His work is the basis for tons of cyberpunk films, including Paycheck, Blade Runner, Minority Report, and others. He's also very accessible, as most of what he wrote were short stories. There's whole collections of them on iTunes, if you find those useful. There's also various collections on Amazon.com. Neuromancer is available on CD, possibly tape as well there, and other works.
If you'd like a seminal list and historic examination of the genre, take a look at the introduction Bruce Baugh wrote for Ex Machina. It really covers the groundwork and support for the cyberpunk genre.
Cynic project
Jun 12 2005, 01:50 AM
Well, I would have to say that best cyberpunk novel, would be Snow Crash.
Bow here is the biggest problem with a cyperpunk(THE rpg KIND), it focuses way to much on CYBER and not enough on punk.
The best cyberpunk stories do not need to have cyberware.
mfb
Jun 12 2005, 02:01 AM
indeed. i tend to think of Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle as being cyberpunk, even though they really aren't. they deal with the way technology changes mankind, which is essentially what cyberpunk is about.
Penta
Jun 12 2005, 02:02 AM
AH:
I don't have Strength 2 arms!
Well, OK, maybe I do, but that's not relevant.
<reads> No tapes?
Gahhhhh. I don't want to have to order from RFB&D!
Raskolnikov
Jun 12 2005, 02:26 AM
Just for reference, cyber did not mean metal augmentations when cyberpunk was coined. Cyber dealt with any sort of computer science and information technology.
Demonseed Elite
Jun 12 2005, 03:08 AM
QUOTE |
In the context of cyberpunk as expressed in gaming, film, TV, and similar forms besides literature, I was asking "How does SR need to change to stay relevant?" |
Depends on the goal. Is the primary goal of Shadowrun to pay homage to cyberpunk, as it existed in its prime, or is the primary goal of Shadowrun to be relevant in the lives of its players, especially new players? That's really unanswered, and I'm willing to bet it's actually somewhere in between. Shadowrun is not really true cyberpunk anymore. Hell, you could easily argue that it never was, given it has fantasy elements. But nor has it turned its back on some key elements of cyberpunk. SR is sort of a hybrid, it was from the start and it will continue to be. What it's putting into the mix has changed over time, though, to include elements more relevant to newer audiences.
Penta
Jun 12 2005, 03:42 AM
See, DSE is entering into the real discussion!:)
That's the thing that I think we need to decide and decide now.
My view is that we need to focus on relevance. Why?
Because SR competes now with everything from the new XBox to PC gaming to the new Harry Potter book to the the 500-channel TV aided by TiVo to all the hordes of games that crowd the RPG market.
And FanPro has been losing, it seems. (Anybody have the latest stats from Game Trade Monthly?)
Part of that is the leg up WotC and WW have, and will always have, peiod. FanPro will always have to fight for the scraps.
But part of it, I think, is that whilst D&D and WoD never really need to fiddle with settings for the player to dive in (D&D exists in the World of Make-Believe we all grew up with; WoD exists here, but with creepy supernatural things), SR exists...When?
In the 1980s + X years?
In a future measured from now, in which case we probably need to reassess whether SR should ever be called cyberpunk, or just something different that need not pay attention to anything that was or might be cyberpunk?
Or...what is it?
Playing with the
Gonzo of RPGs can be fun...but Gonzo wouldn't survive as an RPG very long.
Gyro the Greek Sandwich Pirate
Jun 12 2005, 04:08 AM
QUOTE (Demonseed Elite) |
What it's putting into the mix has changed over time, though, to include elements more relevant to newer audiences. |
I think this is actually quite critical to Shadowrun's development. I would posit that the change of real culture itself is critical for Shadowrun's continued evolution. Rather than a perspective of Shadowrun 'catching up' on new pieces of the cultural experience, I look on it as the new threads of culture giving Shadowrun new vitality and continues to keep it viable as a game. If cultural shift occured, say, half as slowly as it does now, how much in the game would have remained the same? How much would have become predictable?
Panzergeist
Jun 12 2005, 03:22 PM
Characteristics of cyberpunk:
1. The dehumanizing effect of technology.
2. The obsolescence of traditional nation-states.
3. The increasing importance of information technology.
4. Film noir style atmosphere, with the emphasis on how powerless characters are to do more than just keep themselves safe.
5. A near-future culture of amorality.
I think pretty much all cyberpunk staples fall into one of those categories.
mfb
Jun 12 2005, 03:51 PM
film noir is often present, but i don't see it as being a staple. in Diamond Age, for instance, a number of characters are pretty badass in a non-noir sort of way. Hiro, Raven, and the mafia don all seem to have Immunity to Normal Death. YT isn't really badass per se, but she's certainly prepared for almost any eventuality. [edit: on reflection, i guess Diamond Age is really more the exception that makes the rule.]
not to derail the thread, but did anybody catch any traces of Hiro in Diamond Age? YT's the only character i was able to find.
audun
Jun 12 2005, 04:05 PM
QUOTE (Panzergeist) |
Characteristics of cyberpunk:
1. The dehumanizing effect of technology. 2. The obsolescence of traditional nation-states. 3. The increasing importance of information technology. 4. Film noir style atmosphere, with the emphasis on how powerless characters are to do more than just keep themselves safe. 5. A near-future culture of amorality. |
also known as good description of the early 21st century
Supercilious
Jun 12 2005, 04:20 PM
I feel like a literary elitist, all these books I read apparently "define cyberpunk" but I read them over the years because my father said they were good.
Things is workin' out for me. Information becoming more important never really struck me as Cyberpunk, that always seemed like more of a "technofuture' type thing. Cyberpunk would seem to make information less important, because does it really take that much real knowledge to shoot someone comin' up to your part of the slum?
Demonseed Elite
Jun 12 2005, 04:49 PM
QUOTE |
[edit: on reflection, i guess Diamond Age is really more the exception that makes the rule.] |
Diamond Age is also sometimes interpreted as not being cyberpunk. The first few pages of Diamond Age, where the obviously cyberpunk character is killed at the very start, is one of the key examples used to point to the shift in the genre. The book then goes on to focus on characters who aren't alienated by technology, but rather the technology is what binds together society, the perfect example being the Primer itself. In a way, one of the pillars of post-cyberpunk literature is that technology enhances society or makes up for the deficits in classic society (such as the Primer allowing the main character to make up for her background filled with poor education and domestic violence).
This shift in the literature comes with the shift in feeling among the people. Technology is seen as more participatory now. Look at the open source movement, blogging, or online social networks. These things are seen as binding social networks together, not eroding them (the open source movement often gathers in groups of online people, and blogging and online social networks got lots of press lately as encouraging democracy in America). I'd say if there's a fear right now concerning information technology, it's with the erosion of privacy. Note all the press lately about the intrusiveness of new security measures, companies losing financial records (hello Citigroup!) and identity theft. The fear has gone from feeling technology takes apart social networks to people feeling vulnerable about how exposed technology makes them to the rest of society.
Penta
Jun 12 2005, 05:35 PM
Right. Similarly, at least in popular feeling, it's not "Corporations taking over the world", is it? It seems more to be "All the jobs are fleeing to India!" "The immigrants are invading!"
Demonseed Elite
Jun 12 2005, 05:54 PM
The 80s were the days of the Japanese boom and the hostile takeovers. The media was loud with the idea of Japanese keiretsus (who were protected from outside takeover through their links to each other) taking over American companies and tearing them apart, leaving the laid off without jobs for no real reason other than it was more profitable to dismantle the taken over corp. It was also the time of vast corporate deregulation and the critics' fears of it.
Nowadays, we aren't afraid of the "evil Japanese" taking over our businesses and divesting us of our jobs, we're afraid of our own greedy corporate CEOs outsourcing everything, if not directly ripping off the corporation themselves (Enron, Tyco, WorldCom). 'Course, I think this stuff fits well with Shadowrun. Play down the Japanacorps angle a bit (which has already happened) and play up the vast class-based gulf between the haves (the corp execs) and the have-nots (the wageslaves and SINless).
Penta
Jun 12 2005, 06:36 PM
That could work really well, but would need to be done verrry carefully to keep from becoming an excuse for RL politics and similar, which could ruin it.
Wounded Ronin
Jun 12 2005, 06:41 PM
I haven't read much cyberpunk, so for me SR was always about punks, Japanacorps, and the 1980s. And it's supposed to look like Blade Runner. Yeah.
Req
Jun 12 2005, 08:39 PM
On the list of essential cyberpunk, John Shirley should be listed prominently. The A Song Called Youth series (Eclipse, Eclipse Penumbra, Eclipse Corona) are some of my favorites. Shirley steers fairly clear of the cyber part of the equation, but gets the punk part down proper.
'Course, this is cyberpunk without the corporate end; nation-states are still pretty mcuh alive and well. The real "evil organization" here is closer to a policlub. But it's a great read.
Ancient History
Jun 12 2005, 08:57 PM
If Harlen Ellison and Phillip K. Dick were the kindly antecedents of Cyberpunk, John Shirley was their beloved mutant grandchild that really got the ball rolling. You literally wouldn't see mirrorshades if it wasn't for City Come A Walkin, and his remarkable short-story Freezone, which is actually an excerpt from his Eclipse trilogy, more than stands on its own with any other cyberpunk short story you could name. Freezone is in both of the antholgies I mentioned earlier, as I recall.
Req
Jun 12 2005, 09:01 PM
Damn straight.
Freezone, in the Mirrorshades anthology, was what turned me on to Shirley in the first place, and I only got Mirrorshades because Bruce Sterling edited it, and I only found Sterling because of Neuromancer leading to The Difference Engine, way back in the day...so I suppose I came about the whole thing a little bit backwards.
In other news: Walter John Williams is amazingly hit-and-miss, but
Hardwired is another vital proto-cyberpunk story. Lots of drugs. Good evil corporate entities. Possibly the
filthiest melee weapon ever. I wouldn't be surprised if that book alone is where SR Riggers come from, and I'm sure it's where T-birds originated...
Grimtooth
Jun 16 2005, 05:56 PM
ok you got me what's on the x-rated version of robocop?????
Req
Jun 16 2005, 06:43 PM
QUOTE (Grimtooth) |
ok you got me what's on the x-rated version of robocop????? |
Hot cyborg-on-cyborg action?
Grimtooth
Jun 16 2005, 07:09 PM
W00t!!
i thought maybe it was a more graphic "death" scene for peter weller.
Eldritch
Jun 16 2005, 07:45 PM
*Jumps in, case of 15-40 in hand*
Eh? X-Rated? Cyborg on cyborg??? You need the oil!!
Crimsondude 2.0
Jun 16 2005, 10:11 PM
QUOTE (Grimtooth) |
W00t!!
i thought maybe it was a more graphic "death" scene for peter weller. |
Same here.
Or so says
the IMDb anyway.