From: vagans@eanna.net
On Thu, 6 Nov 2003, ghost wrote:
>
>
> In article ,
> Sourcerer wrote:
>
> > The notion of a cyberpunk movement is imaginary. To assert there is such
> > a thing obscures the important question why there isn't a cyberpunk
> > movement, considering the intense movement orientation of its
> > influences. The fact that alt.cyberpunk.movement is a ghost town and has
> > been so since it was newgrouped is telling.
>
> I think the answer is why there isn't a cybeprun movement comes in the
> form of where those who contribute to this group come from - I'll just
> call us Cyberpunks and take the heat for it at the moment... esp. since
> I don't believe a "cyberpunk" really exists anywhere in real life.
>
> We're punks, technocrats, writers, admin geeks, hackers, phreaks,
> teachers, wage slaves, metal heads, goths, environmentalists, probably a
> neo-luddite or two even.
We each have inherited our own mix of cultural DNA from various forms
the counterculture movement has taken. The "motion" of the movement is
antagonistic to the culture it is a counter to. Most of the folks
looking for a movement in cyberpunk mean something like the Yippies,
whether they know it or not: outlaw techno-rebels working to bring
freedom and anarchism to this sickened society, hopefully while having
fun. This has never worked.
A very good reason why there is no cyberpunk movement is due to simply
geography. Movements are constructed. At specific times and places some
folks consciously set in motion something which catches a favorable
cultural wind and becomes a movement within the countercultural
movement. They lived in the same city, or even the same neighborhood, or
even the same apartment. The went to the same clubs and cafes. They knew
each other. Cyberpunk is not localized like that. There are no cyberpunk
bands playing in cyberpunk clubs, but there are punk and goth bands and
clubs. At least there were the last time I looked. For all I know, local
cyberpunk scenes have coalesced, but they've never caught a 'cultural
wind' and taken off to become movements we could become part of. It
could be such scenes were lame or it could be that the wind wasn't
blowing.
Early on it was believed that 'the net' would serve in the absence of
geographical closeness for the development of a cyberpunk movement. That
didn't work. What is left is alt.cyberpunk.
> We're so all over the board that we can't even agree on what Cyberpunk
> is, or even what books are CP in many cases. How can you form a
> "movement" of any nature without knowing what the movement is supposed
> to be? you can't.
It is odd. It's as if cyberpunk is this personal private thing that
can't be shared. We can agree to disagree and that's about it.
> And there IS NOT a "Cyberpunk Movement", never was in the real world
> sense of movement. The Movement, as it is labeled, was purely contained
> within the functions of Science Fiction writing and what was acceptable
> SF for the time, since it had, when CP became a term, become little more
> then Space Operas and Fantasy novels set in space (that's a more or less
> common concensus, there will always be exceptions to the rules
> somewhere).
And a lot of New Wave that was getting old and dreary. The Movement was
antagonistic towards the sf establishment. It's attitude, tactics, and
interests were countercultural. But it mostly ends there. No one in that
movement had any interest in representing a broader cyberpunk movement
that I know of. They weren't interested in creating or leading such a
thing.
I have a theory that countercultural movements develop and wane along
with the condition of the economy. The generational changes of
alt.cyberpunk align with changes in the broader economy. The 1st
generation changed to the 2nd after the recession of the early 90's, the
2nd to the 3rd after the dotcom bubble burst in 99-00.
The hippie and yippie movements emerged when the post-war boom ended in
the late 60s, the punks during the 70s deep recession that then
developed. 1966-1976 was the high point of the counterculture movement.
It was also the duration of the unravelling of the postwar economy.
The Cyberpunk Movement came right after the recession of the early 80s.
If countercultural movements catch a cultural wind, it appears to blow
only when the economy is failing. Cyberpunk came to be during a rocky
economic period that appeared to be bad, but was in fact good. After
1993 it was explosively good. It happened to be good in ways that
aligned with the hi tech and even low life interests of cyberpunk. It is
hard to be antagonistic and counter towards a culture that seems to be
in process of making your dreams come true 8-)
--
(__) Sourcerer
/(<>)\ O|O|O|O||O||O The world hadn't ever had so many
\../ |OO|||O|||O|O moving parts or so few labels.
|| OO|||OO||O||O -- mlo
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)
|
