Cyberpunk course

“Critics, myself included, persist in label-mongering, despite all warnings; we must, because it’s a valid source of insight-as well as great fun.”

– Bruce Sterling, from the introduction to Mirrorshades¹

The topic of this essay is – I believe – something of a red herring. How can one differentiate between a genre that has steadfastly withstood attempts at defining it, from one of its most rebellious sub-genres? Encyclopedia Britannica attempts to define science fiction as:

“a form of fiction that deals principally with the impact of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals. The term science fiction was popularized, if not invented, in the 1920s by one of the genre’s principal advocates, the American publisher Hugo Gernsback.”²

But any aficionado of the genre will tell you it’s so much more than that, encompassing themes that range from space-adventure, to psychic abilities, to alternative realities. From the amazing, to the bizarre. Stories that examine human nature, politics, and social issues.

And then we come to the subject of our study, cyberpunk: Britannica takes a valiant stab at defining cyberpunk thus:

“The word cyberpunk was coined by writer Bruce Bethke, who wrote a story with that title in 1982. He derived the term from the words cybernetics, the science of replacing human functions with computerized ones, and punk, the cacophonous music and nihilistic sensibility that developed in the youth culture during the 1970s and ’80s. Science-fiction editor Gardner Dozois is generally credited with having popularized the term.” ³

Once again, the cold definition falls far short of reality. Cyberpunk, with its dystopian settings and themes of post-humanism, post-industrialism and post-nationalism,⁴ managed to extend the science fiction genre and create new frontiers.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is archetypal science fiction, in that it envisages a post-nuclear war future-world where most of humankind is forced to colonize Mars. Where it crosses into cyberpunk is mainly in the ‘film noir’ elements: the flawed ‘cop’ who is not driven necessarily by justice, but by money. The outcast who aids and then deceives the renegade androids. And finally, the androids themselves, who come across as more human than the de-humanised humans that hunt them.

Protagonist Rick Deckard of Electric Sheep is a bureaucrat, who sees himself as no different than his neighbours, despite his dangerous job. He is motivated most of all by the idea of owning a rare animal. While initially whimsical, it becomes clear that the populace has transferred the focus of its consumerism to the animals that have survived the nuclear holocaust, partly (I presume) because jewelery and fancy vehicles are no longer available. Rachael realises this, and takes revenge on him by killing Rick’s brand new goat. So Dick’s androids can be emotional, spiteful even… they just don’t have empathy, which sets them apart from humans.

Another factor seems to be the concept of emotional stress and depression. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World has soma, a drug that enables one to cope with the stresses of everyday life, or even take a chemical ‘holiday’. Electric Sheep has the Penfield mood organ, an electronic antidepressant. While Rick seems perfectly happy to use it to control his moods, his wife seems to regard it with animosity, as if the moods are somehow not genuine.  Dick amusingly takes a ‘swipe’ at the prevailing chauvinist trend in mainstream SF, with Rick setting his wife’s mood organ to “594; pleased acknowledgment of husband’s superior wisdom in all matters”.  Perhaps then, we can start to consider cyberpunk as a more intelligent form of science fiction?

This novel was also a critique (on a certain level) of a society controlled by an apparently benevolent dictatorship: the world seems to be controlled by corporations… android producers and Mars colonizers. The corporations mirror those of today: as long as there is a profit, they are in business. Human rights fall expediently by the wayside, and they milk their client-base, whatever the cost. (Shades of Haliburton?) So one may extrapolate that this story has elements of community anarchism underpinning it, which could reflect a yearning on the author’s part for an escape from the realities of the Vietnam and the Cold War.

Conclusion:

Inasmuch as cyberpunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, I suggest that Electric Sheep is a science fiction story, with pioneering cyberpunk elements.

Tags: Coursework, Week1