I think I knew there was a manifesto for cyberpunk , but I hadn't ever read it before. I just like good stories. I have always seen cyberpunk this way:
Society is such that everyone has some sort of access to the highest levels of technology. However, instead of being a miracle cure for poverty , it seems to have made the division between the have and the have-nots even greater. the punks are the intelligent poor ( middle class seems to be gone). They don't really have a lot to lose and they use their knowledge and their resources to the fullest. The flaw in the system - 1) no one is looking for it and 2) no matter how good there is always a flaw. the hack is a cross between a con game and a revolution. the desired result is improvement for the punks' life ( sometimes in a minor way) with the possible ramification of change to entire world( however, there is the realistic expectation there there will always be poor) . Pat cadigan, bruce stearling and gibson tend to go with the Big picture. later gibson and most of neal stephenson seem to focus on smaller stories that have larger implications.
( i argued with myself throughout this whole post)
So far, i have never found any steam punk that I liked
I completely couldn't wrap my brain around steampunk till I saw a movie that did it. For some reason, the visual clicked for me.
As for the oppressiveness of moderation, I just find that I'm much more easily persuaded to a new idea when I don't want to rip out my interlocutor's tongue and strangle him with it. It's a thing.
I think it never got distributed in the US; I saw it at a con on a film projector. It was called
Rook,
and had Martin Donovan in it, and it made no sense at all, except aesthetically.
I just find that I'm much more easily persuaded to a new idea when I don't want to rip out my interlocutor's tongue and strangle him with it.
An immoderate response.
I think how you imagine the dialogue happening would affect how it feels to you. If you're hearing a manifesto as if you're being hectored in a bar at a sci-fi con then a combative tone is going to feel boorish. If you already have a hate-on for say New Yorker short stories and think it's a circle jerk of pale academic writing, then you're going to welcome a big broadside blast.
The Girl Genius comics [link]
also give good steampunk--at least, how I understand steampunk
Looks like Rook is on netflix
If you already have a hate-on for say New Yorker short stories and think it's a circle jerk of pale academic writing, then you're going to welcome a big broadside blast.
All that says to me, really, is that those big broadside blasts are preaching to the choir.
I will note that big broadside blasts in fandom frequently make me want to hit people and tell them to stop being on my side, you're making my side look stupid.
I have always seen cyberpunk this way:
Beth, I think I love you. Your explanation made it the furthest over my moat of non-understanding.
Well, I think that they are -- I mean, mostly we're talking a small(ish) circle of people who believe similar things and strongly enough that they decide to codify it. But it's really that gang that all goes to the same pub/cafe after spending the day at the studio.
