Just a Bunch of Punks

Just what the heck is Punk anyway?

It all started with Cyperpunk, a revolutionary sub-genre that invaded science fiction in the 80's. It had two characteristics. The first was that it featured advanced computer and information technology and cybernetics; this is where the "cyber" came from. The second was that its protagonists were marginalized, alienated loners struggling to survive in a dystopic urban future who use the new technology coupled with body implants to hack the ubiquitous datasphere to strike back at the powers that be; this is where the "punk" came from. The sub-genre itself was almost punkish, in that it challenged the conventions that had been accepted for decades, and it was seen as an almost alien philosophy invading speculative fiction.

However, writers who grew up reading cyberpunk along with more traditional SpecFic didn't see the revolution, they just saw an intriguing new genre. So when they started to write, their stories preserved the advanced technology and the rebellious, daring, adventuresome protagonists, but discarded the dystopian settings. These lighter visions were called "postcyberpunk", with the most optimistic being termed "cyberprep", short for cyber-preppy.

It wasn't long, however, before other technologies began to appear in postcyberpunk stories, the first being biotechnology and Victorian steam technology, giving rise to "biopunk" and "steampunk". Both started out using cyberpunk's bleak, dystopian vision, but both have evolved away from that in more recent years. These did, however, set the example of adapting different forms of technology to the postcyberpunk or cyberprep model to create new sub-genres.

These can be divided into two sets of derivative works:

Futuristic, which like cyberpunk use advanced forms of existing or speculative technologies, such as biotechnology and nanotechnology; and Retrofuturistic, which either take a futuristic vision from the past, such as the 50's Jetson-like vision of the future, and make it a reality, or extrapolate from, often in an exaggerated manner, the technology of a past era to create a futuristic vision. These stories also borrow heavily from the political, social, cultural, and aesthetic aspects of these eras, even when using a past futuristic vision. It is this set that has most heavily influenced visual art, music, and motion pictures as well as fiction, even influencing engineering, architecture, and fashion. They have even spawned subcultures that seek to emulate the aesthetics and styles associated with the various sub-genres.

The latter set has been the most fruitful, in that there is almost no end to the possibilities from past eras.

Though some stories within these sets use the original non-conformist, dystopian vision of cyberpunk, anymore the "punk" aspect of these stories involves non-conformist characters, or simply the idea that the story itself uses a non-conformist view of alternative or futuristic history. In fact, some writers don't see their stories as "punk" at all and sometimes offer other names for the kind of SpecFic they write, such as "gaslamp fantasy" instead of steampunk. However, those that embrace the "punk" label do so because they see the sub-genres as countercultural, rejecting the aesthetics of contemporary culture.

Regardless, the name has stuck so that many forms of SpecFic that read like postcyberpunk or cyberprep are called "punk" simply out of habit or tradition.

Two other features of "punk" sub-genres are:

They tend to be science fantasy rather than science fiction, since they assume innovations that are not possible with the base technologies; and

While some, like biopunk and steampunk, assume advanced technologies within their specific eras, others, like dieselpunk, depict the base technology having evolved into a modern or postmodern era.

Dieselpunk is a retrofuturistic sub-genre based on diesel technology of the 30's and 40's. However, unlike the other sub-genres, dieselpunk is more of a pop surrealist art movement than a literary genre, though there are some stories that have retroactively been described as dieselpunk or were written in literary styles borrowed from that era. Dieselpunk visual art, movies, architecture, and engineering borrow heavily from pulp magazines, serial films, film noir, art deco, and wartime pin-ups while displaying postmodern technology and sensibilities. Dieselpunk has also influenced the gaming industry, both in role-playing and video games, and webcomics. There is also a thriving subculture that seeks not just to emulate a retro aesthetic, but also to extrapolate it into a postmodern style.

Dieselpunk fiction can be divided into two forms. One, Piecraftian, assumes a dark, dystopian vision, in which constant warfare has caused human culture to stagnate, allowing the aesthetics of that era to continue into later eras as people concentrate on survival. The other, Ottensian, assumes an optimistic, almost utopian vision, in which the era's aesthetics continue to evolve into later eras unhindered by economic collapse and warfare. This form comes the closest to depicting a past vision of the future, except that it is extrapolated from the era's technology rather than depicting that era's speculations about future technology.

My0 dieselpunk story is a science fantasy that takes place in the mid-30's and assumes advanced technologies based on diesel mechanical systems, while borrowing ideas from atompunk and teslapunk (see below). Its setting is an extrapolation of the world political climate based on an early end to World War I, before the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires collapsed and Germany was devastated. It is, however, a "normal" world, neither utopian nor dystopian, where there are both threats and pleasures, and if it might seem optimistic in some ways, there lie faults hidden just under the surface that could tear the whole thing apart. It will be more like an Indiana Jones-style adventure-thriller with some spy-noir features rather than a study of the technology's effect on society.

Here follows a list of other "punk" sub-genres:

Biopunk -- a futuristic extrapolation of biotechnology; this is often the closest to the original cyberpunk

Nanopunk -- a futuristic extrapolation of nanotechnology; very similar to biopunk

Steampunk -- based on Victorian Era steam technology; the first of the Retrofuturistic sub-genres

Clockpunk -- based on Renaissance Era clock mechanism technology

Teslapunk -- named after Nikola Tesla and based on late 19th and early 20th century electrical technology, especially his more speculative ideas

Atompunk -- based on 50's and 60's pre-digital Atomic and Space Age technology; this one also often presents an extrapolation of that era's optimistic vision of the future