Science Fiction Double Feature! · 11:15am Apr 12th, 2014
Any syfy ending in 'punk' really just boils down to the progress of human morality being outstripped by the progress of technology.
Feel free to correct my definitions, or make more precise ones, in the comments. The real point is my addition to the family at the bottom.
Steampunk is about the drive for innovation, exploration and domination far outstripping the cost to the people beneath its heel, particularly the working class.
Dieselpunk is about what goes wrong with ultra-capitalism, sometimes with an environmental twist, but mostly about corporate entities not following the same morality as an individual. (Think Bioshock)
Cyberpunk is about humanity rendering itself obsolete or redundant. (Anything from iRobot to Terminator to Robocop)
Atompunk is about making our lives so convenient as to render them ultimately meaningless, or more recently at the cost of depleting natural resources (Think Wall-E, Fallout)
Thus, I introduce a new term:
TumblrPunk
When the access to information far outstrips humanity's ability to process it in a meaningful way.
So next time you feel horribly depressed about some kink-shamer saying your consensual use of a ball-gag is rape, or someone refers to themselves as 'bunself' or 'starself' with a straight face, just remember: You're living in a science fiction future that would make Isaac Asimov proud.
You're attributing time period qualities onto the genres.
The reason you see steampunk as being "about the drive for innovation, exploration and domination far outstripping the cost to the people beneath its heel, particularly the working class" is because most steampunk is set in Victorian age settings which has that attitude. If you look instead toward Western steampunk, you will find that attitudes shift more to the conquest of nature in the name of civilization than any sort of social aspect.
Dieselpunk as well is shaped by it's predominate time period. Gilded Age vs Great Depression vs WWII- All these have their own themes that they explore. To say that the entire sub-genre that is dieselpunk can be summed up merely by the themes of the Gilded Age is small minded.
Further, Deus Ex is quite clearly cyberpunk.
Atompunk is more up there. The primary themes are the social stratification and intense paranoia of the post war period coupled with an unending optimism for technological progress. This is the closest to the accepted definition as you've gotten.
Tumblrpunk is silly. That's just information overload. Recommend checking out "Future Shock" by Alvin Toffler for more information.
Get it?
Because information glut and I'm pouring on more information for you to go check out interrupting your ability to make decisions.
Well, I thought it was funny.
2002968
Absolutely. However, choosing the setting that emphasizes the theme and is not an accidental coincidence, and making a theme that matches the setting results in much of the same.
Or horribly oversimplified so I didn't bore people when it wasn't the point, merely the set-up. Dieselpunk covers a heck of a lot with a lot of line blurring.
I apologize. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, the more recent one, incorporates heavy themes from both elements. Deus Ex is more cyberpunk pure, but it is a confusing example, so I shall remove it.
Solid read. Not news to me, but solid nonetheless.
I hate you so much right now but I cannot stop laughing at that.
An interesting interpretation of the "punk" phenomenon, though I can't help but feel "infopunk" might work a bit better for what you have in mind. After all, Tumblr is merely a symptom of the larger information overfeed. One of the more irritating symptoms, yes, but a symptom.
Starself?
2003043
Third gender.
Bunself? Starself? What the heck would those mean?
2003049
About as stupid as it sounds.
Ah, yes, the infamous black pit(s) of tumblr...
A good attitude to use, I must say.
As a fellow tumblr user, I heartily agree with what you just said.
What about magepunk?
2003610
The perversion of the wonderment of fantastical elements with the effects of modern industrial development.
Or "Magic good, MagiScience is a dick move"
2003613
Interesting.
I have actually been trying to do the opposite of this in my own writing (don't write pony but read plenty so no stories on here sorry).
Science and technology is wondrous, nature is wondrous for all intents and purposes the world is magical.
But everyone gets so grumpy guss over it.
Any advice on how to invert this view?
2003725
Mark Twain put it best: For ever fantastical element, balance it out with two mundane elements.
Also, with great power comes great restraint on the author's part, please.
This post suggests that zombiepunk is a thing waiting to happen. Or perhaps that any zombie story that's self-aware enough to engage with the Other at a level beyond making them a faceless threat already is zombiepunk? Zombie fiction already has that layer of thinly veiled social reflection, the modern fear of loss of identity as the world becomes increasingly large and abstract, a human wave submerging individuality and the fantasy of the Everyman standing up against it. If there's not *punk waiting in that, there needs to be.
Punk'dpunk is when everyone's so busy playing pranks on everyone else that society begins to break down. "If you want to imagine the future of the human race, imagine being hit in the face with a rubber chicken... forever."
...so THAT'S what happened when Discord ruled.