The 'Cyberpunk Revisited' Project

[Nerds_feather]

Hi Everyone,

My blog just launched a new retrospective on cyberpunk today! Here's a link to the introductory essay, which explains the series and also provides a (brief) history of cyberpunk. Going forward, we are going to be doing approximately one "dossier" (i.e. targeted review) per week. I'd love to hear what you think--from comments on the essay, to comments on the project design, to requests for us to review specific books/films/games/etc. Thanks!

-NF

 

[Vince W]

Nice work Nerds. Consider me jacked in for this series.

 

[J-Sun]

Excellent introductory article - I almost always have serious substantive issues with any article like this but only noticed typos and quibbles there. I especially liked the time sense, in which the 80s and 90s are correctly distinguished. Only quibble there is that I'd still like more emphasis on pre-'84 short fiction.

A couple/three basically typo/thinko errors:

"Sure, '80s nostalgia has been been done" at the beginning and "a distinctly science fictional literature and and as a set of themes within science fiction" at the end have doubled words.

"Amazing Stories' editor, Gardner Dozois" - that's, of course, Asimov's editor (IAsfm, at the time)

A couple/three more substantial but subjective notes:

In the list of influences, you have to draw the line somewhere but I think Ballard should have been mentioned.

"[P]erhaps second only to the New Wave" - I think a case can be made that it was second to none, but that's very subjective.

"Yet there is nothing Orwellian about the cyberpunk dystopia--it is a loose, chaotic hotbed of social activity. It may be horrible, but it is also, fundamentally, a place of opportunity--even for the 'low-lifes.'" I think certainly some works fit this but others out-Orwell Orwell with even more pervasive surveillance, mind control enhanced by body invasion, etc.

Quibbles aside, that was good stuff and I look forward to the series.