Eighties Cyberpunk
In the early 1980's, cyberpunk was used as a label to describe a new form of science fiction written by a group of five writers, which challenged the traditional genres associated with science fiction (Shiner, 7). SF used highly imaginative ideas to project scientific phenomenas, resulting in dreamy, stylized stories of space colonies and flying space crafts. This new science fiction was different, because it incorporated present global, social and technological situations to help induce the future of the world. It generated new outcomes for the future's high technological, society and global environment that would help categorize it into a specific form of writing known as cyberpunk.
William Gibson, one of the five writers associated with the cyberpunk genre, is credited by critics and peers for typifying the cyberpunk writing form in his popular novel Neuromancer. Bruce Sterling, Rudy Rucker, John Shirley and Lewis Shiner, the other four writers who helped launch the movement, agree that Gibson's Neuromancer influenced the categorization of the new science fiction as cyberpunk. Therefore, Gibson's novel can be used as a reliable source for defining the cyberpunk genre.
With this in mind, we can analyze the high-technology used in Neuromancer and its importance to the cyberpunk form of writing. Gibson creates an advanced technological machine called Flatline's construct, which is a "hardwired ROM cassette replicating a dead man's skills, obsessions, knee jerk responses" (Gibson, 20). This futuristic device that brings back human personalities from the dead, can be viewed as a result of the present fascination with bringing dead people back to life. This fascination is evident in hospital emergency rooms and in game boards like the Ouija board. Both examples are similar the use of he Flatline's construct, in the sense that all three bring life back to the dead. This incorporation of high-technology with society's present interests in mind, is a frequent form recognizable in Neuromancer and in the cyberpunk fiction of Sterling, Rucker, Shirley and Lewis.
A common element of genuine cyberpunk writing found in Neuromancer, is Gibson's depiction of the futuristic society and the people who live in it. Once again, Gibson uses the present issues of government and nuclear tension to predict society's future. In Neuromancer, this results in a world ruined by nuclear war. However, the people living in the society continue to survive in the world for personal benefit, or just for the sake of living. Gibson shows an example of this with his characters in Neuromancer.
In the postmodern world of William Gibson's Neuromancer, nature is dead, and the world is run by the logic of the corporate machine. Confronted by a reality that is stark, barren, and metallic, and the hopelessness that this reality engenders, the postmodern protagonist, like Case, often immerses himself or herself in an alternate form of reality that is offered in the form of addiction (to virtual reality or drugs, for example), addictions that are made possible by the same society that makes an escape desirable. Such addictions are logical products of the post-modern capitalist society because they perpetuate the steadfast power of the corporation by allowing would-be dissidents an escape from reality, thereby preventing successful rebellion and maintaining the pervasive societal apathy necessary to allow the corporation to dominate undeterred. Case, as the addictive anti-hero, is a product of this stifling cycle of apathy. Lacking the motivation or drive to instigate any true change in his reality, he avoids the unpleasant realities of his world by entering into the altered reality of addiction.
The famous American author of the science fiction Kurt Vonnegut, was born on November 11, 1922 and died in April 11, 2007, at the age of 84, and was influenced to write science fiction when he worked for General Electric Company because in his own words “There was no avoiding it, since General Electric Company was science fiction.” In the October of 1961 Kurt Vonnegut published a short story called “Harrison Bergeron”, which has themes that are obvious to any reader, such as a utopian society where everyone is equal, the effects of that society on the people, and how the media plays a bigger role in society than people think, but many do not realize that the themes that present themselves in short story have deeper meanings.
[12] Slade, Joseph W. "Romanticizing Cybernetics in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner." Literature Film Quarterly 18.1 (Jan 1990): 2-64
This new movement expressed the feelings of people after war, when it showed “... Mixing and blending of cultures, ... a plurality or parallelism of intellectual and spiritual worlds … all consistent value systems collapse...” (Postmodernism). Struggles during post-war period, ideas about nuclear war and achieving stability and order had a tremendous effect on authors and their subject matter. Postmodern literature described author’s position in a society and other personal views. Kurt Vonnegut’s works displayed ideas about future and critiques of moral
Labels are a product of too many ideas that describes a field. Cyberpunk fiction is a genre that has only recently received its due respect as an art form. This label is the cause of great controversy when it comes to actually defining cyberpunk. To any definition, there are arguments to its validity and consistency, but there are some generally accepted traits of Cyberpunk (CP). CP is a reflection of the pop-culture of the eighties, an extension of Science Fiction that entangles hard and soft technology, and its stories contain realism.
Ray Bradbury once said: “Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head and doesn't exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again. As soon as you have an idea that changes some small part of the world you are writing science fiction. It is always the art of the possible, never the impossible.” In his works “The Pedestrian” and Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s ideas of the possible future come to life in dangerous ways. Another author, Kurt Vonnegut, in his work “The Big Trip Up Yonder”, also shows a possible future of society. The common ground of these stories is that the issues stem from technology. In science fiction novels there is generally a broken world that contains an
Science fiction gives the author, by allowing them building a whole new world with no boundaries – but similar with the real world in some ways, an ability of magnifying social problems and showing them more clearly to readers. The author set up a world at the very beginning: “The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal… They were equal every which way… All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th and 213th amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents
In Kurt Vonnegut’s “Player Piano” the theme of machine versus man is a major subject matter. In this novel, the machines force man to give up their individuality to be categorized as an engineer or manager. Vonnegut tries to give men back their power without having to depend on machines. Machines have replaced men to the point where they feel that their self-worth and value in life is no longer important. One of the main characters in this novel is a prime example of machine dependency.
Works Cited The Matrix. Larry Wachowski, DVD, Warner Brothers, 1999; Bruskman, Amy. "Finding One's Own in Cyberspace" Composing Cyberspace Edited by Rich Holeton, San Fransisco: McGraw Hill, 1998, 171-180 Rheingold, Howard. " The Heart of the Well" " Composing Cyberspace Edited by Rich Holeton, San Fransisco: McGraw Hill, 1998, 151-163
Gibson chooses words to aid the reader in imagining the "dystopia" of the Freeside, a place where the main portion of the book takes place: "For Case, who'd lived for the bodiless exultation of cyberspace, it was the Fall" (6). "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel" (3). Gibson describes Freeside as if it is one of the worst places to go. Katie Cooper also describes the dystopia portrayed in this book as well. Gibson also uses words out of the science fiction terminology such as "jack-in and flatline" to encourage the reader to feel as though he or she is actually in the mist of cyberspace. Even the title of the novel depicts a certain characteristic of the book: "'Neuromancer,' the boy said, slitting long gray eyes'The lane of the land of the dead. Where you are, my friend Neuro from the nerves, the silver paths. Romancer" (243). Through Gibson's use of specific words he creates a constantly depressing mood and he allows the reader in many ways to visualize cyberspace themselves.
...technology with their own actions. Vonnegut begs man to resist the power of weaponry and invention and take control of his destiny using Billy Pilgrim as a chilling reminder of the dangers of apathy. In accordance with Vonnegut's opinion, Beckett affirms the value of free will through his absurdist drama and illustrates the consequences of allowing oneself to get lost in the confusion of a technologically-savvy war. Although society often deems technology and science to be the most important virtues, one must remember to maintain his free will amidst the cloud of steel.
In conclusion, technology has evolved and influenced our society drastically when it comes to human interaction. William Gibson’s Burning Chrome is a postmodernism/cyberpunk story that blurs the boundaries between what is being human. The story also blurs the line between the physical and the virtual that a human being interacts. The advances we had made with our technology have gotten to the point where it has entwined with human anatomy. Gibson’s novel was partly based on how our civilization is more and more coming together with technology. Another thing Gibson portrayed was how a person’s mind is transferred into a whole new world with the use of our modern devices. In the end, our society’s interaction with both machines and humans is getting to the furuturistic virtural world that Burning Chrome depicts in its text.
"Johnny Mnemonic," is a short story written by William Gibson. It appears in a book of short stories written by Gibson called Burning Chrome in 1986. Gibson is a writer of science fiction and one of the first to write in the new genre called cyberpunk. Cyberpunk is a type of fiction that examines a futuristic world dominated by computer technology, massive cartels, and cyberspace. In other words, its an artificial universe created through the linkup of tens of millions of machines (Gibson 904). This is the futuristic world of Johnny Mnemonic. Even though this story is very interesting in terms of science and technology, it is also interesting in the sense that this short story examines how technology and science can affect the worlds delicate cultures. In this examination of the short story "Johnny Mnemonic", I will define what is meant by culture and describe how technology and science has effected the unique subcultures of the Lo Teks and Yakuza. Two subcultures that are within the larger cyberpunk cultures described in "Johnny Mnemonic". As well, I will describe where the characters such as Johnny Mnemonic and Molly millions , fit in to these cultures, if they do at all. Also on this same theory, I will give examples of how our own cultures in today's world contrast with these fictional cultures in "Johnny Mnemonic", but I will also show how we are following in the same path in which those in "Johnny Mnemonic" have followed.
... to be human and the limitations we a human being has, have been demolished in the world William Gibson has created.
In the 1950s, authors tended to follow common themes, these themes were summed up in an art called postmodernism. Postmodernism took place after the Cold War, themes changed drastically, and boundaries were broken down. Postmodern authors defined themselves by “avoiding traditional closure of themes or situations” (Postmodernism). Postmodernism tends to play with the mind, and give a new meaning to things, “Postmodern art often makes it a point of demonstrating in an obvious way the instability of meaning (Clayton)”. What makes postmodernism most unique is its unpredictable nature and “think o...