The Confusion Over Cyberpunk
What the media associates with cyberpunk does not agree with the commonly accepted interpretation of the movement. The cyberpunk writers' philosophies of a bleak future, caused by the marriage of technical and human abilities, have been lost due to the acceptance of the underground movement. Whenever anyone looks at the newborn information age, one can not help but attach a "cyber" label to it. When anyone mentions the Internet or the World Wide Web, the only word that comes to mind is "cyberspace." Even though our networks are not synonymous with the "cyberspace" created by William Gibson in Neuromancer, the term is now being used to describe any virtual computer environment. It seems that the current acceptance of computers has started a revolution in which man is becoming dependent upon machines. Where can you go without having access to a television or telephone? The widespread use of microprocessors and the data stored on them have created a new medium for artists to demonstrate their abilities. One problem this computer revolution creates is that it is often confused with cyberpunk fiction. On February 8, 1993, Time magazine published an article defining and clarifying questions of the cyberpunk movement. The conventionalization of cyberpunk (CP for short) has succeeded in removing the ideals and philosophies once associated with it. Rudy Rucker states that CP is "simply the fusion of humans and machines (Elmer-Dewitt 59)." However, CP is about much more than that: it is about the struggle between man and its creation, the probing of the human soul, and the rebellion against tradition.
CP started as a group of writers eager to oppose conventional beliefs and writing styles. The movement ...
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...ment alone opposes the fact that the CP movement is countercultural and always stands away from the mainstream. The newly formed definition is rapidly replacing the true CP movement. Eventually, all interactive technologies ranging from video games to digital satellite systems will be considered CP. The group of writers creating SF in the 1980's has created a new movement based on their works, bearing the same name.
Works Cited
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Kurt Vonnegut’s science fiction, short story, “Harrison Bergeron” satirizes the defective side of an ideal, utopian American society in 2081, where “everyone was finally equal” (Vonnegut 1). When you first begin to read “Harrison Bergeron”, through an objective, nonchalant voice of the narrator, nothing really overly suggests negativity, yet the conclusion and the narrator's subtle description of the events show how comically tragic it really is. Vonnegut’s use of morbid satire elicits a strong response from the readers as it makes you quickly realize that this scenario does not resemble a utopian society at all, but an oppressive, government and technology-controlled society. “A dystopian society is a
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Cyberpunk is supposed to be the vision of a new technological world. However, the negative portrayal of the integration of technology and society is a fundamental tenet of the literature. This presents a pessimistic view of scientific advancement. The genre’s dark tones, seen repeatedly in Neuromancer, emphasize the bleak images throughout the futuristic fiction. The constant conflict between the individual and a technologically advanced society is a major theme as it stresses man’s insignificance. These characteristics are interwoven into the fabric of cyberpunk and form a bleak image of science fiction and the future. Gibson is very vague when describing the specific architecture and nuances of technology used in the designs of the futuristic objects. This lack of definite details is due to the fact that cyberpunk literature resists the concepts of technology.
"The Heart of the Well" " Composing Cyberspace Edited by Rich Holeton, San Fransisco: McGraw Hill, 1998, 151-163
Neil Postman, writer, educator, critic and communications theorist, has written many books, including Technopoly. Mr. Postman is one of America's most visible cultural critics, who attempts to analyze culture and history in terms of the effects of technology on western culture. For Postman, it seems more important to consider what society loses from new technology than what it gains. To illustrate this, Postman uses the Egyptian mythology called "The Judgment of Thamus," which attempts to explain how the development of writing in Egyptian civilization decreases the amount of knowledge and wisdom in the society. He traces the roots of technology to show how technology impacts the moral and intellectual attitude of people. Postman seems to criticize societies with high technologies, yet he seems naive to the benefits technology has given society. Postman can be considered fairly conservative in his views regarding technology. His lucid writing style stimulates thoughts on issues in today's technological society; however because of his moral interpretations and historical revisions, his ethos is arguable. For every good insight he makes, he skips another mark completely.
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He asserts that with the invention of television, writing can basically be eliminated (125). There’s no use for it anymore, after all. What can be more engaging than a form of media that stimulates the senses so? Despite the beliefs of those who lived in the 60s and 70s, the twenty-first century is unfortunately not home to the world of the Jetsons. Writing is still a very powerful form of media, for the very book that this essay is centered around is still influential, forty-nine years later! However, books and newspapers are not our sole source of the written word. Online blogs, articles, and newsletters now exist. Television and books have merged into one: the Internet. Revolutions, riots, and rebellions don’t just happen in our living rooms now, they happen on the go with us. On the subway, when we’re waiting in line at Subway, at our friend’s house as he talks about how he’s “way into subs.” The Internet is now our primary source of information. Evolution doesn’t only just occur in nature. Nonetheless, The Medium is the Massage was published in 1967, and several of McLuhan’s points were ahead of their time and remain relevant today. The most notable of points was made within the first few pages of the book where McLuhan delves into the fact that from the moment we are born to the moment we die we are under constant surveillance and that privacy essentially no
In Conclusion William Gibson created a cyberpunk/ postmodernism tale that has blurred not only the physical state between mechanics and human anatomy, but has as well blurred the line between the natural and virtual world. He is making the reader contemplate how both software and hardware have influenced the natural world. Gibson’s fictional world would have not been possible without the existence of software and hardware, that is why the distinction between them is very crucial and play a different part within the text. Without these two things, the reader would not be able to comprehend and relate to Gibson’s view on how our society is interlocking with the advances of technology and the normality of today will no longer exist in the future.