Dark Images of Cyberpunk :: Literary Movement Technology Essays Papers

Dark Images of Cyberpunk Works Cited Missing With the publication of seminal works such as Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, science fiction has always contained an appeal to the underground culture. Her Gothic visions of human behavior became the inspiration for works such as Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Isaac Asimov's I, Robot series. Though the beginning emphasized utopian societies, science fiction progressed to include a future quite different from the present. Visions of flying ships, lasers, and travels to far off space colonies inundated these works. However, one subset of authors, such as William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Lewis Shiner, molded an entirely different genre of science fiction, placing more emphasis on the darker future of life on Earth. This work, later labeled "cyberpunk," brought with it a very bleak view of future societies and culture. The features of their style of writing, which include the masculinization of women, the perversion of technology, the oppressive descriptions of settings and life, and the negative characterizations of people, defined the notion of cyberpunk. Women have a certain status in cyberpunk, one that is very contrary to the current sociological expectations of them. Women in these societies have had to adapt to the environmental pressures put on them. They behave in an unconventional manner, as their sociological role dissolves any need for refinement and they must act and think as men would if they are to survive. Illustrations of this assertion abound. On an emotional level, women are portrayed as being very aggressive, both sexually and physically. One example of this can be found in Tom Maddox's "Snake Eyes": Lizzie and George are described as "rubbing up against one another....twinned, as if there were cables running between the two of them," and even describes their initial introduction, where Lizzie gives him a very passionate kiss immediately following their introduction (Mirrorshades, page 18). The passage also recounts in great detail the sexual encounter which occurs just minutes after their first encounter (page 19). On a physical level, the description of women in this genre seems to lack femininity as well. Another example from the same story is the initial sketch of Lizzie, "Her blond hair was cut almost to the skull (page 18)". This (superficial) absence of femininity is traditional in cyberpunk works. She is also described as having numerous tattoos, one on her left shoulder and curving down between her breasts, where it ended in a single blood-tear (page 18). Dark Images of Cyberpunk :: Literary Movement Technology Essays Papers Dark Images of Cyberpunk Works Cited Missing With the publication of seminal works such as Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, science fiction has always contained an appeal to the underground culture. Her Gothic visions of human behavior became the inspiration for works such as Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 and Isaac Asimov's I, Robot series. Though the beginning emphasized utopian societies, science fiction progressed to include a future quite different from the present. Visions of flying ships, lasers, and travels to far off space colonies inundated these works. However, one subset of authors, such as William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, and Lewis Shiner, molded an entirely different genre of science fiction, placing more emphasis on the darker future of life on Earth. This work, later labeled "cyberpunk," brought with it a very bleak view of future societies and culture. The features of their style of writing, which include the masculinization of women, the perversion of technology, the oppressive descriptions of settings and life, and the negative characterizations of people, defined the notion of cyberpunk. Women have a certain status in cyberpunk, one that is very contrary to the current sociological expectations of them. Women in these societies have had to adapt to the environmental pressures put on them. They behave in an unconventional manner, as their sociological role dissolves any need for refinement and they must act and think as men would if they are to survive. Illustrations of this assertion abound. On an emotional level, women are portrayed as being very aggressive, both sexually and physically. One example of this can be found in Tom Maddox's "Snake Eyes": Lizzie and George are described as "rubbing up against one another....twinned, as if there were cables running between the two of them," and even describes their initial introduction, where Lizzie gives him a very passionate kiss immediately following their introduction (Mirrorshades, page 18). The passage also recounts in great detail the sexual encounter which occurs just minutes after their first encounter (page 19). On a physical level, the description of women in this genre seems to lack femininity as well. Another example from the same story is the initial sketch of Lizzie, "Her blond hair was cut almost to the skull (page 18)". This (superficial) absence of femininity is traditional in cyberpunk works. She is also described as having numerous tattoos, one on her left shoulder and curving down between her breasts, where it ended in a single blood-tear (page 18).