My Romanticisation of Cyberpunk
Some fiction seems, in the literary sphere, too new to have been appropriately analysed. Cyberpunk is one prime example. Developed as a genre only in the last thirty years, it influenced the hearts and minds of inventors and scientists across the world who are now turning some of the fictional objects in these works into real life devices. Even more so than other modern fiction however, Cyberpunk seems too adolescent, too idealised to be taken seriously — images of trench-coated, slick haired salary men in the streets of 2020s Tokyo are often conjured.
‘Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a future setting that tends to focus on the society of the proverbial “high tech low life” featuring advanced technological and scientific achievements, such as information technology and cybernetics, juxtaposed with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.’
When I think about literature and how it romanticises culture and life, I do not think of the vast estates and manor house dances of Pride & Prejudice or the Buddhist enclave of the monkeys in Journey to the West. Instead, I picture floodlit, rain drenched side streets illuminated by neon, flickering screens in the windows of passing stores and, ultimately, dystopian societal systems ruled by corporations rather than governments.
Why on earth would that be a desirable state of affairs? Why would any person want to exist in a world where the lowest members of society are ruthlessly downtrodden by the 1% company men? In fact, most of the elements of cyberpunk seem decidely edgy, that is to say they are alternative for the sake of appearing cool and utterly failing. There are however elements hidden away in the expositions of Gibson (Neuromancer), Stephenson (Snow Crash) and their ilk that paint a very realistically beautiful picture of a world filled with industry, technology and narcissism.
Primarily, cyberpunk enables romanticisation because of it’s undeniable link to modern day society. At it’s height in the 1980s, most of the technology being imagined was nascent or perhaps dormant — the internet was nothing more than the tool of the very few and the idea of, as Gibson describes it, ‘a consenual hallucination experienced daily by billions’ was impossibly grandiose and far reaching. Today however, how easily the following quote represents the daily life of humanity across the globe is startling:
A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding…
In fact, the cyberspace imagined by Gibson is more restricing, tying users to ‘decks’ (large personal computers) when in fact we can access it wherever we go, even in the desolate spaces of the Earth.
In the first instance, Cyberpunk is romanticised because charcters there are vigilantes and renegades, subverters and rebels. Those with access are those who have the power to invoke change. In 2016 where every man or women with a basic connection can write, produce, or comment, your part seems meaningless, trivial and pointless. Drowned in a sea of voices fighting for attention, it can be difficult to rise above. In the worlds of these fictional societies though, your work behind the scenes can propel you into the limelight, for good or for ill. There are means to enact change far above your station in life.
Secondly, there is a distinct focus on personal struggle. The protagonists here are flawed, often deeply, by substance abuse, loneliness and debt. Their passage through the alleyways of the ‘high tech low life’ are inspiring in a sick, drug infused way. When I write, I imagine how much my ouput would change if I had consumed one of the pink octogans of speed Case consumes in Neuromancer — they help him think, make him alert and astute… he becomes more powerful — and I can fantasize about how that would influence my creative brain without ever taking that leap.
Ultimately there is a concotion of elements in cyberpunk that appeal to the disenfranchised millenials out there that goes beyond juvenile hacking tropes. The genre is crimanlly underappreciated because it’s most powerful parts are hidden behind of a facade of ‘childhood cool’, making it unappealing to those who aren’t willing to look for the romance below. There is a disguised natural element of self empowerment and development and achieving regardless of where you come from which speaks to me deeply.
Search for it in the vistas of Night City or the Sprawl.
Thank you for reading. If you enjoyed this piece, please recommend it on Medium and follow me @StephenPatterson. The two quotes I used in this piece are from the Wikipedia entry for ‘Cyberpunk’ in the first instance and William Gibson’s genre defining Neuromancer in the second. Recommended reading includes that, Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash and Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon. The cover image sourced is ‘City of Shadows: Hong Kong II’ by xMEGALOPOLISx on DeviantArt.
