From: bogus@mail.com
On Sun, 20 Feb 2005 14:25:30 GMT, Ross Winn wrote:
>I hear the term "updating cyberpunk" quite often, and it falls flat
>every time. I think that cyberpunk is a product of a very specific set
>of forces and attitudes that are now somewhat nostalgic, and almost
>"retro" for lack of a better term.
>
>Anyone else have any thoughts?
Having read this whole thread and done a bit of home work our your
"expertness" [Some things for R. Talsorian?] I'll jump into the fray
with a slightly different view: A reader's view.
Let's assume for a moment that Literature can be looked at much like
we can look at the morphological tree of living things.
When we look at the breadth of the tree we can see there are many
classifications types, sub-types with successful and unsuccessful
mutations. Look then at the tree of literature we see general kinds
of types and subtypes.
When does an ape become a man?
When does a Hard SF writer become a new wave writer?
The answer is when they do.
Yet there is still a linkage between an ape and a man. So too it goes
with literature-- but you cannot say a "NewTek" writer is just an
"update" of a CP writer. If that were the case then Gibson, et al are
just an "upgrade" of Kornbluth and Pohl [see _Gladiator at Law_ and
_Merchant of Venus_].
The slant of these writers and their later "upgrades" is a politically
liberal one. Pointing out by extremes the "down side" of an
unrestrained "corporate world" and what it will mean to individuals.
For contrast, let's look at the setting proposed for the Cyberpunk
version 3.0 RPG. [R. Talsorian aka Mike Pondsmith]: The world "crashes
and burns" due to an out of control virus. Not much is left standing.
Is that Cyberpunk? IMHO it is not. It is surely apocalyptic but it is
not CP. I can't say I particularly like that direction and am not
sorry MS has kept Mr. Pondsmith too busy to actually publish it as it
would be a waste of good trees [and / or electrons].
Why?
CP is the edge, personal and technical. It is not about crashing an
burning it is about out running / thinking / doing the rigid behemoth
that corporations like.
What is "dated" in CP is the technical "vision" because Gibson, et al
have influenced technology. How? By influencing their reader's
thinking. Much as Asimov and Heinlein and a host of other SF writers
have done for the las 100 years [Gurnsback, Wells, Verne, etc]... VR,
the Net, and a host of other things time came much sooner because they
influenced the next generation of "doers / thinkers / creators".
Where would technology be today without that vision? Without the
fanciful, "This is the way we do it in my future..."
Assume then that there is a synergistic relationship between the
"writer with a vision" and the 'geek with an idea". One feeds the
second who feeds the first and the next generation.
Yet to assume CP can be "updated" is fallacious... Why? Simply because
the frame of reference has changed. Yet like the genetic soup from
which humankind springs, CP [and all of SF] be stirred up to become
something new, different, and yet very much the same:
The edge still exists.
The things which make the most difference is the writer's vision and
with their ability to paint that picture in memorable words and
characters.
China Mievile's _Perdido Street Station_ is not CP... yet it stirs
darkness with edge with chaos magic and memorable characters to make
something "different" and fresh yet... some how reminiscent of Blade
Runner.
Yet:
Never ask for an opinion if you don't want one.
ghost, goobs, I and others are writers too... some of us are
musicians, artists, anime convention organizers, sys admins, network
admins or network engineers, geologists, students, film makers... some
of *us* get paid to do these things... some of us have been even been
reading SF since the year you were born.
Their opinions are no less valid than your own.
Troubadour
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
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