Cyberpunk: a breif primer.

Happy bleated All Fool's day, everybody! Yeah, I know it was a few days ago: but I'm not one much for pranks and I don't plan these things in advance. However, for today's post, we'll be talking about my personal favorite genre: cyberpunk.

In brief, cyberpunk is defined as "High tech, low life." Aside from the conventions and settings, cyberpunk's basic premise is the advancement of technology while humanity declines. When the lines between humanity and technology are blurred, resulting in large-scale alienation either thru internet overuse or the predominance of robots/cyborgs/prosthetic parts, where technology is used as a tool to maintain the dystopian order, and when the end result is social stagnation, that's cyberpunk. Inspired by the genres of film noir and hard boiled literature, cyberpunk shares similar themes of urban degradation, corporate omnipotence, and moral ambivalence (where there's a definite white and black, but the gray is the consequences).

Most cyberpunk stories feature a protagonist who's on the vestiges of society: someone in the dregs of the social hierarchy. To that end, hackers, bounty hunters, thieves, and generally any antihero who's struggling or directly opposed to the established order are cyberpunk protagonists. The genre was conceived during the malaise of the seventies and born from the pessimism of the eighties, where Japan's meteoric technological and financial rise formed fears that our great nation was in decline and Japan would rule the world. While this might look silly and even stupid today, thanks to Japan's bubble bursting resulting in the early 90's recession, Japan was just as big as a concern as China today. The settings are usually noir-inspired metropolises, where the police are ineffectual at best, crime is on the rise, and the gap between the rich and poor is canyon-wide. As a base, think fictional Gotham, or past Chicago, or modern-day Detroit.

Okay, now that we've gotten thru the general settings and themes of the genre, let's get into the hard examples. First, let's examine the progression of the genre from its stages:

• Proto-Cyberpunk (70's): Where the major themes and settings were conceived. The main movers and shakers included the authors Alfred Bester, Isaac Asimov, and Philip K. Dick (AKA the author you've seen so much but never heard of). Bester's The Stars My Destination is credited with providing the basis of an antisocial protagonist who singlehandidly stands up to the despotic corporate rule (Fun fact: Cowboy Bebop is incredibly close, if not outright inspired by Stars). Most of not all of Asimov's works, especially I Robot, were massively influential in how robots function in science fiction, as the famous three laws hold true for most if not all robots in fiction. Philip K. Dick, however, possibly has had the most influence over cyberpunk film, as his stories have been adapted multiple times. For more info, see this handy Cracked article.
  
  
• Cyberpunk (80's): The genre became fully realized during the technological boom of the eighties, where videogames and personal music players brought to you by Japan were met with skepticism by several individuals. Inspired by the proto-era authors, a new generation of creators invented the genre as we know it. Primary credit would go to William Gibson, who's magnum opus Neuromancer has singlehandidly brought the concepts of cyberspace and prosthetic parts into popular consciousness. Secondary credit would go to Philip K.Dick, whose short story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was adopted into Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. The film brought active film noir themes and settings into modern cyberpunk: from the perpetually dark and overcast dystopian LA to the cyborg-esque "replicants"and the incredibly powerful corporation who built them, to the heavy emphasis of moral complexity. Both Gibson's book and Scott's film fully established the genre as the logical concision to the film noir genre.
  
  
• Post Cyber-Punk (90's): Once the bubble burst and Japan fell into a deep recession, the genre found itself at a crossroads: if the most technological powerful nation in the world was at a state of decline, what did that mean for the genre as a whole? A new film would fill the void and become the main driving force for the genre for the next twenty years: Ghost in the Shell. Adapted from the manga written by Shirow Masamune, the anime film was incredibly influential to the new sub-genre of post-cyberpunk. The subgenre, in comparison to its predecessor, focused on individuals working within the dystopic system and invariably coming into conflict with said system. For Shell, it was Public Security Section 9: a paramilitary special task force led by the hardnosed Major Motoko Kusanagi and overseen by Chief Aramaki who investigated cyber-related crimes, with an emphasis on cyber-terrorism. Wholly inspired by Blade Runner, Shell revolutionized the genre by providing a new diving point for creators to draw from. The subsequent anime series adaptations and films proceeding were directly, if not indirectly influenced by the revolutionary film and graphic novel. Not to be outdone, the genre's Godfather wrote a new trilogy; the Bridge Trilogy.
  
  
• Modern Cyberpunk (2000's): The new driving force behind the new decade was The Matrix. Directed by the Wolkawski...erm, siblings..., their magnum opus and perhaps only good film brought cyberpunk back to its Gibsonian roots by portraying a resistance group fighting against their mechanical overlords within cyberspace. The film successfully brought elements within both the genre and the mainstream: John Woo inspired Gun fu, Bullet Time, and the new fashion of trenchcoats and sunglasses. Unfortunately, the proceeding films failed to provide any new material for the genre. Fortunately, the good people at Production IG took up the mantle by releasing two exceptional anime series based off the Ghost in the Shell franchise: Stand Alone Complex and its sequel, 2nd Gig. After its success, two films were released as well: Innocence and Solid State Society.
  

Cyberpunk today is in a state of flux. The Godfather released a new trilogy recently entitled the Bigend Trilogy, which was started in '03 by Pattern Recognition, continued in '07 by Spook Country, and ended last year with Zero History. The most major work in the genre, however, came from the film genius himself, Christopher Nolan, in his neo-noir epic Inception. Admittedly more noir than cyberpunk, the film nevertheless can be considered a shining example of the genre by intorducing not only a radically new technology, but like its predecessors, also tackled the issues of corporate oligarchy and the ramifications of such a devastating new technology. Time will tell who'll step up to the plate and provide us another grand example of the genre, but rest assured it will come.

I personally like the genre because, like many other like-minded individuals, I am constantly skeptical of the so-called "progress" that technology provides us. Rather than seeing technology proving us with the potential of world peace thru interconnection, I instead see a heightened phenomena of worldwide alienation. The genre's popularity therefore has been in direct correlation with the genral status of society the world ever. Since the Great Recession, I feel that people have become more receptive to the genre, as proof of Inception's wild success.

As for a newcomer into the genre, I heartily recommend all the examples listed above, especially from Gibson, Dick, Nolan, and Production I.G. I am also fully confident that the genre will grow and find new outlets and variations to keep it fresh.

Well, that's it for today. I'm gonna go back and watch Futurama.

-BO