Postcyberpunk
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Postcyberpunk describes a subgenre of science fiction which some critics suggest has evolved from cyberpunk. Like its predecessor, postcyberpunk focuses on technological developments in near-future societies, typically examining the social effects of a ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, genetic engineering, modification of the human body, and the continued impact of perpetual technological change. Unlike "pure" cyberpunk, however, the works in this category feature characters who act to improve social conditions or at least protect the status quo from further decay.
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[edit] History
The term "postcyberpunk" was first used circa 1991 to describe Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. Lawrence Person argued that the term should be applied to an emergent subgenre of science fiction, which he proceeded to identify. In 1998, he published an article called "Notes Towards a Postcyberpunk Manifesto" in the small-press magazine Nova Express; the next year, he posted the article to the technology website Slashdot.[1] The article proposed the idea that postcyberpunk should be seen as the evolution of the cyberpunk genre of science fiction popular in the late 1970s and 1980s characterized by movies like Blade Runner and books like William Gibson's Neuromancer.
Like its predecessor, postcyberpunk depicts realistic near-futures rather than space opera-style deep futures. The focus is on the social effects of Earth-bound technology rather than space travel.
Person argues that postcyberpunk is distinct from cyberpunk in the following ways:
- Postcyberpunk tends to deal with characters who are more involved with society, and act to defend an existing social order or create a better society.
- Protagonists of postcyberpunk are more often young urban professionals with more social status.
- In cyberpunk, the alienating effect of new technology is emphasised, whereas in postcyberpunk, "technology is society".
- Includes a sense of humor, as opposed to the frequently hardboiled nature of cyberpunk.
Postcyberpunk possibly emerged because SF authors and the general population began using computers, the Internet, and PDAs to their benefit, without the extensive social fragmentation of this Digital Revolution predicted in the 1970s and 1980s.
The term has also been applied to other media works, such as Person's description of the anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex as "the most interesting, sustained postcyberpunk media work in existence."[2]
Not all readers or critics agree on its precise meaning.
Some authors to which the label has been applied have endorsed and adopted it. However, classification is always difficult; there are many works which explore postcyberpunk themes in a dystopian way — e.g. Paul J. McAuley's Fairyland. Some authors are hard to classify.
Aspects of postcyberpunk can be found in works before Sterling's Islands in the Net or Stephenson's The Diamond Age, just as cyberpunk itself had partial antecedents like John Brunner's The Shockwave Rider, but not combined all the quintessential elements of cyberpunk with a less alienated and more mature and optimistic outlook before Sterling and Stephenson's first postcyberpunk works.
[edit] Examples of postcyberpunk
[edit] Books
- M. T. Anderson's Feed
- Tony Ballantyne's Recursion[citation needed]
- Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
- Warren Ellis's graphic novel series Transmetropolitan[citation needed]
- Jon Courtenay Grimwood's novels,[citation needed] especially his Arabesk trilogy[citation needed]
- James L. Halperin's The First Immortal[citation needed]
- Gwyneth Jones's White Queen, North Wind, and Paradise Cafe[citation needed]
- Ken MacLeod's The Star Fraction and The Stone Canal[citation needed]
- Paul J. McAuley's Fairyland
- Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, The Diamond Age
- Bruce Sterling's Islands in the Net, Holy Fire and Distraction
- Charles Stross's Singularity Sky and Accelerando
- Tad Williams's Otherland series
[edit] Games
An early example, possibly the earliest (depending on the precise limits one chooses to define as postcyberpunk), of a role-playing game with a postcyberpunk setting was Cybergeneration, originally published in 1993.[citation needed] It is published by R. Talsorian Games.
Another example of a postcyberpunk role-playing game (though other categories are proposed as well) is Transhuman Space written by David L. Pulver, illustrated by Christopher Shy, published by Steve Jackson Games and is part of the "Powered by GURPS" line. [3] Another is Ex Machina, published by Guardians of Order and part of both the tri-stat and D20 gaming lines.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ (Person, 1999)
- ^ Person, Lawrence (2006-01-15). Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Locus Online. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.
- ^ Shy, Christopher; David Pulver. Transhuman Space. Steve Jackson Games. ISBN 1-55634-652-2. Retrieved on 2008-02-07.
[edit] References
- Person, Lawrence (1999-10-09). Notes Toward a Postcyberpunk Manifesto. Slashdot.org (reprinted from Nova Express). Retrieved on 2008-02-06.
- Takayuki Tatsumi (2006). Full metal apache: transactions between cyberpunk Japan and avant-pop America. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-3774-6. - Includes an interview with Richard Calder describing his work as "postcyberpunk nanotech science fiction."
[edit] External links
- LibraryThing book listing for Postcyberpunk
| Cyberpunk |
|---|
| Cyberpunk — Postcyberpunk |
| Cyberpunk derivatives |
| Cyberpunk derivatives — Steampunk — Biopunk |
| Related themes |
| Retro-futurism — Cyberculture — Transrealism |
