The explosion in ‘punk genre labels has given us an oversimplification problem. Cyberpunk, Solarpunk, Dieselpunk… it becomes a very long list. What started as a way to clarify an idea is becoming a problem for some of the things we love most about the universes we lose ourselves in.
Many will be quick to ask why punk is thrown behind so many words, especially while lacking any punk correlation. For you savvy people, we applaud your thinking. “Punk” in the context of the 1970s-1980s youth punk movement is a hard thing to line up with so many of these labels. More often, a deflated notion of rebellion and unhappiness mixed with a me-too attitude for aesthetics is the root cause.
Too, the parameters of these aesthetics do require a bit of a label — though, as most creatives will recognize, “comparison is the death of all creativity.” Giving everything a label is a reductive exercise that will leave anyone wishing to add to the discussion with their own work very little room to maneuver. And in that context, many of our favorite stories, movies and songs would have never been created.
Out of the abstract and into the directly applicable, being both fans and creators of grimdark fiction, we enjoy the lore of a certain well-known grimdark universe. Today, we were listening to a YouTube video about some of the biggest misconceptions with that universe and it occurred to us that this is similar to something we see happening across multiple creative genres right now — this is the focus of this article.
If you’d like to watch the video, you can find WesHammer’s video here. We’re paraphrase what he says about the number one misconception with that grimdark universe though.
- The total body of stories is so massive, there’s no living person that has read all of it. So everyone is working with their own limited perspective. Further, having read many of these stories, this is compounded by unreliable character narration.
- Readers and experts focus in on the things they find interesting — popular stories, favorite factions and characters. The rest may be filled in through hearsay, a store, a discussion boards, and memes. Many of those memes are ~40 years old.
Wes says, “These memes function as shorthand for understanding complicated subject matter in a short and precise format… derived from a list of characteristic about each faction that makes them standout as unique.” He goes on to say this information goes on to be repeated by the community over and over to the point newcomers and veteran, alike, end up believing that the oversimplifications in the memes are all there is. To the point of becoming the factions’ entire identity. A caricature… and usually not a very positive one, which makes each faction pretty boring. Wes concludes with explanation by explaining that this view of each faction leads to people never giving some factions the time of day (something he recently admitted in another video had skewed his view of a popular Norse-inspired army).
This oversimplification of a character or faction over time actually has a real-world term: Flanderization. This term comes from The Simpson’s character, Ned Flanders, who was original created to be the opposite of Homer Simpson… but who over time was reduced to a religious neighbor with some favorite words.
Now that you understand this term and have an example, let’s take a look at Cyberpunk Life meme for Facebook today with 300 likes.
Let’s just focus on Cyberpunk. The stories apparently need to take place between 2020-2100 and there’s a list of elements. Do you agree with that? Can you name a cyberpunk story that doesn’t have one, some or all of those qualities?
- Did Cyberpunk 2077 stick to “City Noir,” while going into the Badlands? No.
- Does Serial Experiment Lain have cybernetics? No.
- Appleseed takes place in the 22nd century
- Bladerunner 2049 is a little short on hackers and nowhere near as noir as the original
- Mute lacks mega-corporations
- Do we want to add elements from Tetsuo and Burst City? Body horror has been a staple of cyberpunk.
- Transhumanism is the core theme of most of Ghost in the Shell. That’s not on the list.
- Where’s cyberspace on the list? Remember Johnny Mnemonic, Neuromancer, or last year’s top science fiction/cyberpunk novel 36 Streets?
The list goes on and on, but that’s not really the point. There are exceptions everywhere and it’s that maneuverability that gives us the creative ground to experience new works and expand the genre into the future. Don’t believe us? Wired wrote an article back in 2021 about the need to redefine Cyberpunk.
One thing that stands out about the meme, is that the other labels were given retroactively — much like vaporwave music looks back for inspiration. Cyberpunk is the only forward-facing subgenre in the image. And, given the need for mega-corporations and cybernetics in the year 2024, there’s something decidedly off in how badly we’re falling behind in our dystopian aspirations. Alternatively, does anyone want another ‘punk label to account for exoframes and biohacks, like in Leaving on a Metal Horizon? Too close to Arkhelian? Go check out the movie Casshern for some bioengineering, androids, and dystopia in your cyberpunk — while having a pre-21st century aesthetic.
Additionally, cyberpunk stories require the use of those elements in the plot. The inclusion of those elements in the setting isn’t enough to pull any work out of science fiction and into the subgenre (I-Robot, Judge Dredd, etc.). Likewise, it’s entirely possible to write cyberpunk in the far-future or in the past. Netflix’s Bodies stayed in a science fiction category, but some simple adjustments could have moved that into Cyberpunk easily.
Point being: memes are all well and good. They serve a purpose for simplifying complex ideas. But beware that simplification. The trend is to assign labels for things that deviate from that simplification. This is affecting genre audiences as much as the factions in the popular grimdark universes. You, as the reader and audience, may gravitate toward one thing or another, but be aware that anything at a meme level is likely going to dumb down your understand if you take it at face value. You’re also going to miss out on the potential for some of the best creative work the world has to offer.
