It is pretty unique to cyberpunk, the distinct political connotations of the genre. Much of the fantasy genre was built on the backs of the authoritarian right, but there’s nothing intrinsically authoritarian to the genre. Perhaps a good comparison would be steampunk, which takes the -punk suffix purely to describe the style of cyberpunk without always bringing in the themes.
There is a subgenre called ‘cyberprep’, to describe utopian, leisure-driven worlds with the cyberpunk aesthetic. But while a universal income-driven feminist world sounds utopian, the authorial intent is still dystopia, so I guess another suffix is needed. What genre of music is associated with assholes? Viking metal? Cybervikingmetal isn’t very catchy.
Something I didn’t mention which I think is relevant. I do think it’s easier when they’re dead tbh. I have less issue with enjoying the work of some dead asshole when I know my money isn’t making its way into their pocket.
But you’re right, there are cases where people are willing to sweep someone’s bad behaviour under the rug… I think it becomes less common nowadays, though just because of the way that information travels now. People’s personalities are so much more public. I wonder what it would be like right now.
;p Same, folk metal is rad and Tyr is one of my favourite bands. But I can’t think of a genre with a higher percentage of people with bad politics. And cyberpunk (cybermetal?) Vikings would be awesome.
It’s interesting how much serious critique can be applied to the marketing of a game. I try not to separate the marketing from the game because the context it provides informs the experience of the actual product.
That description of the game on the Steam page reminds me of Harrison Bergeron. https://archive.org/stream/HarrisonBergeron/Harrison%20Bergeron_djvu.txt
That being dead thing is fair. You’re right, I think we do get a much better idea of people’s personalities today when they’re actively on social media all the time. Probably few people in the public knew what Miles Davis was like during his life. Maybe if Miles Davis was alive and the same age as Bill Cosby he’d be going through something similar (though not for sexual assault, to my knowledge). Here’s another example I thought of: do we think a lot about George Lucas as a person when we watch Star Wars? Of course we think about him making the fucked up changes later on but beyond that? Do we think much about him or others in relation to the movies or do we just think about the movies? Even when talking about its politics, how much do we think of the creators?
“This produces a bifurcation. The tropes and standard moves of cyberpunk are static; the spirit moves on. No true cyberpunk, in 2012, would be caught dead writing “cyberpunk”, any more than a 1980 cyberpunk would have written trope-y planetary romance. The creators of cyberpunk are mostly still active, writing all manner of things, their restless spirit of inquiry still intact. They handed off their famous tropes to the decidedly un-punk factories of standard fiction, and asked new questions.” - Benjamin Rosenbaum
Yeah, I think I like Neo-Noir as a descriptor here over Cyberpunk
In regards to the political aspects of Cyberpunk, I think the issue is the vocabulary we use to describe aesthetic and genre are the same, and the terms are applied very differently in casual conversation and advertising vs. criticism. Cyberpunk isn’t the first genre to have a specific set of rules. Many other genres like the Tragedy, Noire, Epics, or the Western have specific rules for how they work and what the stories can and will cover. Sure, this sort of gatekeeping is limiting, but it’s not new.
This could easily branch out into a discussion about the wider problems with “genres” in various medias, as they mean a whole bunch of things. Several genres come with their own set of common tropes and sensibilities, but sometimes something is sorted into said genre without having those tropes because it looks like it might be, say, sci-fi, and playing up that genre thing is a good marketing move. And games make that every more complicated because you also have to factor in mechanics and how that might effect the game’s genre, if that makes sense.
“artists who are just worthless garbage as people, who actively and unapologetically campaign to make others’ lives worse, don’t deserve to have their work read.” we will not actually miss much; we can put our attention elsewhere. there’s just no shortage of amazing books to read, incredible music to hear.
[slides up to this guy] hey do you realize that it’s actually kinda hard to portray two sides of an argument in your story without ultimately favoring one side over the other, even if you don’t intend to do so?
