Talk:Postcyberpunk
|
|
Sui genre
Is the 'Cryptonomicon' really a post-cyberpunk novel or even strictly speaking science fiction? It resembles more of techno-thriller, with alternative history elements, if anything. --Axon
- I would say it is, going by the definition in the article. The book centres on the positive role played by technology in winning WW2, rather than focussing on its alienating potential. The characters are generally stable and well integrated in society, nothing like (for example) the aptly named 'Case' in Neuromancer. And there is a lot of technical material, which you don't really get with writers like Gibson.
- It's not really Science fiction, agreed, but that is also true of much cyberpunk. Speculative fiction would be a more appropriate term all round. --R Lowry
- What about the definition of postcyberpunk (shouldn't there be a hyphen in that title?) as 'realistic near-futures rather than space opera-style deep futures'? By your looser definition lots of things are post-cyberpunk fiction, including many modern techno-thrillers! And I would disagree with your assertion: most cyberpunk is largely what we would regard to be science fiction with a few minority texts in the fringes. --Axon
Postcyberpunk as a done-deal
I have a slight problem with this page: it smells somewhat a little of genre creation by Lawrence Person. He seems to have created the term singlehandedly copy-and-pasting his manifesto into cyberpunk and science fiction newsgroup postings. Rather disturbingly, 90% of posts on a search for postcyberpunk in google groups (http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&q=postcyberpunk&btnG=Search) are either posted by Person himself, or are part of threads where he has posted.
I think the problem is that the article describes postcyberpunk superceding cyberpunk as fact, despite the fact that the term was only devised a few years ago and it is a little too early to start deciding what is and isn't a valid and successful sci-fi litirary movement. I think the NPOV would be improved by toning down the "cyberpunk is dead, long-live cyberpunk". --Axon 12:54, 7 Nov 2004 (UTC)