Why so shiny? Does all cyberpunk have to look the same?
I'm sure you've seen the picture before. A hot girl with technological enhancements is holding a oversized weapon at night in the rain down a dark alley with glistening pavement set against a ridiculous amount of purple and blue neon lights.
Here are some examples (with full credit to the artists).
These are amazing images in terms of quality and these are both phenomenal professional artists. Sadly, this has become the definitive image of the cyberpunk genre though. Notice the identical color palette and overuse of the conventional themes that I previously addressed.
Is this what cyberpunk is all about?
Related: What is Cyberpunk?
A popular catchphrase for describing the cyberpunk genre is "hi-tech; low life". Bruce Bethke published a short story entitled "Cyberpunk" in 1983 and that was the first use of the term. The genre was fully developed by William Gibson's novel "Neuromancer".
Cyberpunk took on its full visual aesthetic in films and anime. Some must-see cyberpunk titles include Snow Crash, Blade Runner, Akira and Ghost in the Shell. Around the mid-90s, the cyberpunk sub-genre was officially a thing with it's own identity, conventions and themes. It was common to see stories that featured cybernetic enhancements, grungy cityscapes, hackers, evil corporations, wearable technology, and anti-heroes galore.
In fact, the sub-genre had already become so polarized that Bruce Bethke published another novel in 1995 called "Headcrash", which poked satirical fun at the genre that he helped to create.
In it, Bethke wrote:
...full of young guys with no social lives, no sex lives and no hope of ever moving out of their mothers' basements ... They're total wankers and losers who indulge in Messianic fantasies about someday getting even with the world through almost-magical computer skills, but whose actual use of the Net amounts to dialing up the scatophilia forum and downloading a few disgusting pictures. You know, cyberpunks."
I'm a huge fan of cyberpunk. I'm a cyberpunk author and my novel series "Serandes" carries some of the same genre cliches that I mentioned earlier. I try to use them sparingly though. It's important to explore new ways of describing cyberpunk settings and themes that go beyond hot girls at night in the rain holding big guns. When cyberpunk authors and artists overuse these conventions they're limiting the scope of cyberpunk stories.
Here is some concept art from "Serandes: Corporation City" created by the very talented Khairizal Anwar. Notice how it still holds onto the core aspects of the cyberpunk genre without falling on the crutch of its most-recognized themes.
Cyberpunk is growing in popularity at an exponential rate. People are becoming drawn to the genre much faster because our world is leaning toward the same ideas that were originally presented by the godfathers of the genre in their early representations of cyberpunk.
Over-reaching governments, predatory corporations, technological isolationism, bio-tech, self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence. This is the world we are living in and that world isn't so one-dimensional.
New cyberpunk authors and artists should further the genre by making departures from the rainy, night time scenes of hot babes in skin tight pants. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Eye candy has it's place, but we can imagine so much greater.
Written by: Frederick S. Blackmon
Comments