I don't think the portmanteau is that precisely defined.
Joel Send a noteboard - 21/04/2011 08:31:34 PM
could there be stonepunk then?
with cavemen pimps and drug dealers?
with cavemen pimps and drug dealers?
This being cyberspace, I'll assume you've read the Wikipedia article on cyberpunk by this point (if not, you probably should; it discusses how Bladerunner and, to a lesser extent, the Dick story that inspired it fit into cyberpunk). I'd say a better explanation of the blended term is that cyber is the technology and punk is the sociology, but that's still an approximation. Cyberpunk usually means computers at the very least, but since cybernetics technically doesn't require computers cyberpunk doesn't either (it's just very difficult to do without them). Johnny Mnemonic (also at the previous link, and far better than the film) is classic cyberpunk, for many reasons, and I'm not sure any computers are ever SEEN, just RAM in the protagonists skull and the prosthetics in Mollys face, fingers and nervous system (though cybernetics would be necessary to make those work, just not computers).
Wikipedia lists no less than ten cyberpunk derivatives, so almost any *punk is nominally viable some (steampunk) more than others (splatterpunk). Anywhere processing information, particularly proprietary/restricted information, is a major part of the society is open to cyberpunk, really. Perhaps that's part of why it borrows so much of the noir in spy novels like Ian Flemings and Tom Clancys, and Depression era detective stories that feature no technology more complex or advanced than a snub nosed .38. Rome would be well suited to it; you could even have magepunk (though in my expreience that combination tends toward the awful). The example I used in one of my responses to Dan of a Fifth Century Druid integrated with a Stonehenge computer might be considered stonepunk, or at least bronzepunk. It might work better as stonepunk, with the Druid an outsider rebelling against a Neolithic establishment by "finding his own use for" their new monolithic calendar, and bringing about the Bronze Age in the process. Bladerunner provides a date (2019; I can't recall if that was in the short story) but after reading the Sprawl Trilogy three times, and even though I was actively looking for a date this time, I have yet to find one.
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Last First in wotmania Chat
Slightly better than chocolate.
Love still can't be coerced.
Please Don't Eat the Newbies!
LoL. Be well, RAFOlk.
This message last edited by Joel on 21/04/2011 at 08:47:45 PM
The Sprawl Trilogy and Thoughts Thereof (or What Ever Happened to Cyberpunk?)
19/04/2011 10:50:26 PM
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Why I prefer cyberpunk in near future settings to (most) of the steampunk sub-genre.
19/04/2011 10:55:57 PM
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The difference is that steampunk, by and large, is very aware of its implausibility.
20/04/2011 01:32:57 AM
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You keep giving steampunk backhanded compliments like that and you'll start to confuse me.
20/04/2011 02:12:53 AM
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Being entertaining is not a backhanded compliment.
20/04/2011 02:34:15 AM
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It is when asserting something is better than a source containing more than entertainment.
20/04/2011 03:26:50 AM
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...didn't you wear a top hat to your wedding? *NM*
20/04/2011 04:04:42 AM
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IIRC I wore morning dress, the CURRENT standard here.
20/04/2011 05:08:26 AM
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Top hats in morning dress have gone the way of the ascot (you didn't wear an ascot, did you?).
20/04/2011 05:41:54 AM
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Well, my wife, mother-in-law and the woman at the haberdashery all disagree.
20/04/2011 07:05:09 AM
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the ability to wear a costume at a convention is hardly a ringing endorsement of a genre
22/04/2011 01:49:40 AM
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Your impression is close to being my comments verbatim.
22/04/2011 02:50:18 AM
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I tried to avoid that word, but I'll leave comparisons there and discuss pure cyberpunk henceforth.
22/04/2011 03:58:29 PM
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You keep coming back to this argument, and it keeps being a stupid one.
22/04/2011 10:33:14 PM
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I also can't help noting how this whole argument mirrors Count Zero.
24/04/2011 05:35:01 AM
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I think it's just a matter of two separate genres that share very similar names and perhaps origins.
20/04/2011 01:32:50 AM
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It's hard to argue that the genres are separate, but I did try to avoid suggesting a competition.
20/04/2011 03:08:49 AM
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Ok, what are you trying to argue for and/or explore in this thread? There are three options:
20/04/2011 04:22:52 AM
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It is under-appreciated critically, largely due to relative unpopularity.
20/04/2011 06:35:27 AM
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"Victorian Postmodernism" is viable because Postmodernism can appropriate other periods and styles.
21/04/2011 01:13:45 AM
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But can other periods and styles appropriate postmodernism?
21/04/2011 07:38:29 PM
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I don't think it's a two-way street in that manner. It's PoMo appropriating Victorian not vice versa
21/04/2011 11:40:29 PM
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It's only superficially postmodern though, else there'd be no wistfulness for Victorian styles.
22/04/2011 03:17:38 PM
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IMO, cyberpunk has become somewhat dated.
20/04/2011 04:46:55 AM
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Actually, I can live with that, though terms like "dated" invite trouble.
20/04/2011 07:01:50 AM
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Re: Actually, I can live with that, though terms like "dated" invite trouble.
22/04/2011 04:12:20 AM
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so...is bladerunner cyberpunk
20/04/2011 09:48:15 PM
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It's usually seen as the archetypal cyberpunk film, yeah.
21/04/2011 10:50:44 AM
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so cyber is the time and punk is the attitude?
21/04/2011 12:57:01 PM
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I don't think the portmanteau is that precisely defined.
21/04/2011 08:31:34 PM
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I am amazed that no one has referenced this TVTropes page yet...
23/04/2011 07:45:14 PM
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Playing with fire; I should've known TVTropes would exhaustively cover the derivatives.
24/04/2011 03:11:56 AM
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It's always hard to pigeonhole things, especially as they become more specific
24/04/2011 06:27:28 PM
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The "dated" idea is interesting.
23/04/2011 08:08:26 PM
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PS the Takeshi Kovacs books are great, and you should all go read them *NM*
23/04/2011 08:09:54 PM
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I think it underestimates cyberpunk, and overestimates (present) reality (yes, spoilers now).
24/04/2011 02:24:01 AM
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