cyberpunk.

[cyberPUNK]

did a quick search through sufu and didn't find any topic on cyberpunk, so i thought it'd be good to start one. enjoy!

favorites?

themes?

recommendations?

general discussion?

[Charlie Delta]

Cyberpunk as in the genre???

Steampunk all the way for me, also Dieselpunk and Dinopunk (ala Dinotopia).

Quite like Wierd West/Tech West aswell...

But tell me more...

[Darkeside]

cotton, have you seen this http://www.datamancer.net/

some interesting steampunk creations, most specifically the lap top and the Pc.

sorry if its old news but i thought it very next level and several levels previous at the same time.

As for Cyberpunk was quite into that sort of thing as a yoot - the William Gibson novels, Blade Runner-esque films, stuff like that but thats as far as I got. Would be interested in hearing more.

[Charlie Delta]

Thanks, seen the laptop/comps a couple of times on other places, will have a better look later.

But gotdammit, that site is fugly!!!

[Double D]

And there I was thinking this was a topic about Atari Teenage Riot.

[Charlie Delta]

Could be,

if you want it to be...

[cyberPUNK]

let's hope not.

back on topic, anybody here have a list of cyberpunk films, books, or anything else they'd like to share.

obviously blade runner is one of the more popular films, but are there any others anybody would like to share?

[Darkeside]

Johnny Mnemonic is another slightly obvious example of a cyberpunk film - its not brilliant but a pretty good interpretation of the cyberpunk world.

[jeepster]

max headroom

tank girl (the movie as well as comic by jamie hewlett)

dinosaurs & cadillacs (great comic)

obviously Ghost in the Shell (series, movies, manga, etc.)

Bleach

Steamboy

Howl's Moving Castle

Devil May Cry

Final Fantasy

William S. Burroughs - Interzone (in concept)

Burroughs also came up with the concept of a "Blade Runner", so his writing definitely influences a lot of the concepts we see dealt with in cyberpunk kinda stuff.

there are a lot of adaptations like steampunk, the ones cotton mentioned, and the standard fair... you gotta just look for the stuff, theres tons out there!

[cyberPUNK]

sorry to bother but what exactly is steampunk? i've seen most of what's on your list, but never came across steampunk.

[Darkeside]

good post!

I've never considered alot of the anime/final fantasy stuff cyberpunk but it would definetly qualify. A few bits there I will be checking out.

not entirely sure about the Burroughs/Blade runner link - I always thought that was more Phillip K. Dicks work?

[Darkeside]

sorry to bother but what exactly is steampunk?

think of it as "future" tech made to look old, or achieved with older technology.

[sonny]

i love gibson's sprawl trilogy, i've read all of them at leat three times. also enjoyed neil stephensons "snow crash" quite a bit.

cyberpunk movies always seem to let me down, i liked "city of lost children" a lot(i think that counts as cyberpunk). was also really into the anime series "serial experiments lain".

[cyberPUNK]

also i created this thread because i couldn't find another outlet to discuss themes and philosophy common in the cyberpunk genre.

what about the genre appeals to most of you?

to me it's the fact that it's fiction based in reality, particularly that's it's usually set in the not to near future, along with themes of disenchantment and dissolution of the individual. thoughts?

edit: thanks for the explanation darkside.

[jeepster]

sorry to bother but what exactly is steampunk? i've seen most of what's on your list, but never came across steampunk.

steampunk is the notion that in what we consider the edwardian/victorian age, while things may look that way, there are great advances in technology, but simultaneously they look archaic. like how final fantasy 3 (6 in japan) or final fantasy 7 look.

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it's a classic japanese RPG setting because it reflects the value of tradition while embracing change in technology, and having that adapt around what we commonly see and know. its simple, but highly intuitive.

good post!

I've never considered alot of the anime/final fantasy stuff cyberpunk but it would definetly qualify. A few bits there I will be checking out.

not entirely sure about the Burroughs/Blade runner link - I always thought that was more Phillip K. Dicks work?

burroughs came up with the phrase "Blade Runner" while Phillip K. Dick wrote the story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" which is what Blade Runner is based on. it says in the opening credits that the term is attirubted to William S. Burroughs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner_(a_movie)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

sorry its wikipedia, but it has it right.

[thomparetta]

how about videodrome, or other (older) cronenberg films?

[Darkeside]

ahaha fair play - good info - i'll have to check his work out further.

[jeepster]

how about videodrome, or other (older) cronenberg films?

definitely. in land empire and the lost highway by david lynch also deal with some of the same themes, but in a contemporary context.

cronenberg sorta hit the nail on the head with videodrome, and i think that movie and Blade Runner sorta sum up the notion of cyberpunk in cinema. ghost in the shell is great, but its anime, so it doesn't have a realistic edge to it. the others are all too possible and all too probable which is what is so amazing about them.

[Charlie Delta]

Have to run now, subsribed, will be back later for sure...

[thomparetta]

yeah, i'm glad you agree. i think videodrome is iconic as far as true cinema with a cyberpunk theme. i didn't even think about inland empire. i bought that the day it came out. i'm discovering that simply through my love of cronenberg and lynch i'm a pretty huge realist-cyberpunk fan.

SO COMPLETELY UNSETTLING. I really need to watch this again.

[jeepster]

a lot of Phillip K. Dick's work deals with the same theme's, especiall A Scanner Darkly and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, both resulting in movies that have sort of defined the look of cyberpunk at that given moment in time. if you wanted to pull teeth, Terminator and it's sequels all follow suit in a corny, if not proper, way. there is something interesting about looking at the 80's and early 90's with the peak of urban sprawl as well as the decline of it and the rise of gangs in LA and other major cities that you see a lot of cyberpunk writing, filming, art, etc. taking on a certain appeal towards these areas. for instance, Predator 2 took place in a gang ravaged LA, but specifically, it ad a post-modern edge to it, with the art-deco buildings (which appear a lot in cyberpunk) and the visuals (which appears in a good deal of the art). what is even more interesting is that the writers who founded the concept of the genre saw the urban decay decades in advance and wrote a wholely unsettling as well as amazingly accurate representation of how the future will look, sound, feel, smell, taste, and how it will effect the ordinary human.

cyberpunk is the ultimate onion of a genre - there are so many layers to it!

[thomparetta]

Yeah, I completely understand what you're saying. I think it's only natural for a society so immersed in technology to feel a bit uneasy at the intermingling of real and mechanical. Have you ever heard of the Uncanny Valley theory? You may want to do a little research (i.e. wikipedia) on that, it's interesting and somewhat pertinent.

Tonight I'm going to see a documentary about police using video monitoring in mens bathrooms to enforce the ohio sodomy law. The doc was filmed in 62. What may be slightly interesting to jeepster is how the police were using relatively new technology (video cameras) to enforce old, discriminatory laws.

I hope it's interesting. Sorry if this is off-topic.

[wiretapscars]

Cyberpunk fans rejoice!!!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1037220/

Also, to add to the movie list, "Fortress" with Christopher Lambert is a pretty good cyberpunkish flick..."The Running Man" has a great dystopian future, as does "Demolition Man"

I also like a lot of early industrial music inspired by cyberpunk-Clock DVA, Front 242, early Front Line Assembly...

[Appleseed]

Good topic. I'm too buzzed to address properly-

Akira-

Story of my life-

[jeepster]

in terms of comics...

.hack

Logan's Run (as well as the movie from the 70's)

Robot Fighter

[isoform]

rejoice?

...torque/britney's toxic music video director + crap anakin skywalker...they just shouln't do it--especially if chris cunningham originally wanted to direct. it's going to suck.

and a recent film example of steampunk is a lot of the tech in The Golden Compass

I'd make a list and shit but I'm too dead atm. Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Delicatessen, Galaxy Express 999, Serial Experiments Lain, Cowboy Bebop, blaaaahblahblahblah.

[Darkeside]

Good topic. I'm too buzzed to address properly

too buzzed to mention Appleseed?

the CyberCity Oedo mini-series that were released in the 90's are also good, very much in the classic(generic?) world collapse/robotic attachment/spikey hair/big breasts and bigger guns style of cyber punk.

wiretapscars: good shouts on Fortess and Running Man - I was going to disagree about Demolition Man, but had clean forgotten how the society had split in that film.

[napoleon]

I'm sure I posted this sometime last year. Steampunk watches...

http://www.eager-beavers.net/products/shouhin_guide.cgi?temp=TMP0

About the creator..

http://www.chiefmag.com/issues/4/profiles/Haruo-Suekichi/

Cyberpunk movies I like... 13th floor, One Point O, IKU.

The only steampunk book I've read was the difference engine and didn't like it.

[alf]

I think cyberpunk is cool but, its punk element notwithstanding, i feel like it comes from a white, military/industrial/academic trained and employed, upper middle class perspective's reaction to techno/social change. that's a clumsy way of putting it, but its late and im in a hurry.

what about cyberhiphop [lame word, just making the point of comparison] as a new or different cultural reaction to techno/social change? i know of a few examples, and the kanye/daft punk performance at the grammys hinted at an aesthetic combination... though that was mostly superficial.... but still

blah blah blah, just throwing that out there

[Darkeside]

i kinda see what you are saying, but would like you to expand on what you mean.