Cyberpunk course

The Setting of a cyberpunk story is one of the most important aspects of the genre. It is a unique place that draws the reader in. It does this by being in some aspects almost identical to the world that we live in; while also being different enough to fascinate the reader or viewer. This combination of familiarity and strangeness is what makes Cyberpunk settings successful. Sometimes the setting is the most appealing aspect of the whole story with the reader more interested in hearing more about it than what happens to the characters. Often there are two settings: the real world and cyberspace. These settings are often rather bleak, sometimes even post-apocalyptic. There is almost always some powerful authority, whether it be corporation, government, or even religion, that has an enormous influence of the lives of everyday people. By observing the settings of various cyberpunk stories we can see what similarities they have.

Initially in the film The Matrix, the setting is very familiar. It is the towering office buildings and slow moving traffic jams and degenerating apartment buildings of any of dozens of cities around the world. At first the rules of this setting seem to be the same as these of our world. However, as the story progresses we learn that nothing is as it seems. This first manifests in strange occurrences ranging from the coincidences of the white rabbit incident to the nightmare where the agents literally seal Neo’s lips and implant a bug into him. Later it is revealed that everything that Neo has ever known is really just a computer generated virtual reality. The real world is something altogether foreign to what we are accustomed to. It is cold and dark and barren. The only place where humans survive is deep under the ground. The surface is the domain of viscous robots controlled by cold and cunning computer intelligences. The virtual reality setting of the Matrix can be viewed as a responsive character in the story as there are many intelligences that control it. Neo can control parts of it as well.

The setting of Neuromancer is less familiar at first than that of The Matrix. However, it too is similar enough to our current world that we can readily identify with the world that the characters are interacting with. The story starts in a smoky bar with an ugly and nosy barkeeper. A setting that occurs thousands of time in real life, I am sure. There are cheap hotels and busy streets and hectic markets. All of these settings have been influenced by the course of technology but they are recognizably similar to the settings that we are familiar with in our everyday life. It doesn’t matter that all the trains are maglev in this story, they still shake the apartments of those unfortunate enough to live too close to the tracks.

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep my not be considered Cyberpunk by some people but the setting is very Cyberpunk. It takes place on Earth after a devastating World War. The large apartment buildings of the cities are still there, but they are largely abandoned. Perhaps the most similar aspect of this story’s setting is that of the media. In the story the TV and radio media has an absolutely enormous influence on people. Every single person knows who Buster Friendly and his guests are. Just as most people are familiar with the media celebrities of our world. These peoples’ opinions carry extra weight because they are so widely known and have access to such ubiquitous methods of mass communication. The setting even has what may be considered an early prototype of cyberspace, with access to it being obtained though the use of empathy boxes. If one uses one of these devices they are instead into another reality entirely, just like the Cyberspace of Neuromancer or the Matrix in The Matrix.

Cyberpunk settings are gritty, dirty and in a strange way they are realistic. They are not hard to envision as a possible future. They are, I think, essentially today’s society and culture as the author thinks it might be if we have access to tomorrow’s technology and science. It acknowledges that science and technology can be used for both good and ill purposes and that they can be used by both oppressors and freedom-fighters alike. Take the world as it is today, then add not-too-distant-future tech and science to it, perhaps sprinkle in a disaster or apocalypse. Now you have a Cyberpunk setting.