brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (12/12/87)
Cyberpunk has attracted a great deal of attention recently. Some have even gone so far as to call it a "genre," even though it is certainly not in the class of other genres like horror, mystery or SF. Aside from the finely crafted writing of Cyberpunk's demigod, William Gibson, what is the reason for this popularity? I think the answer comes from Mr. Gibson's own term for the computer expert/heros of his stories. They're "cowboys" and "jockeys" in the Neuromancer vernacular, and the romance of these names comes through to the technophiles reading the stories. In the past, almost all literary or dramatic attempts to make heros out of scientists, and in particular programmers, have failed miserably. The authors are always forced to introduce some utterly ridiculous extra clause to add the dramatic element they want. They're hoping that the lay public will accept it unawares, but the educated reader laughs, and gets upset. The most common stereotype of the past was the nerdy kid with knowledge nobody could understand. Not the heroic character people want to idolize. Consider Broderick in Whiz Kids or the character Lynch from Max Headroom. Gibson created a world where the computer whiz could be a real, honest to goodness, cowboy style gritty action-hero, without it seeming silly. And people eat it up. People talk a lot about the dystopian "punk" part of cyberpunk, but I suspect it's the "cyber" part that keeps them coming. Or, more likely, the mere thought that "cyber" (computers) and "punk" (cool, street-smart) could go together so neatly. -- Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473
janke@hpindda.HP.COM (Randy Janke) (12/15/87)
> Gibson created a world where the computer whiz could be a real, honest to > goodness, cowboy style gritty action-hero, without it seeming silly. ???????????? I dont think that I would label any of the characters in Neuromancer with a 'hero' tag. Nueromancer provides an exotic vision into the street-smarts (and underground) of a high tech future. To be a hero, one needs a single sustaining motivation to a goal. The characters within Neuromancer, did not seem to control their own motivation. In contrast, they seemed more like animals in a skinner box that were trying to interact (sometimes randomly) in an extremely variable environment. I really liked Neuromancer, but I shrink from anyone attributing heroics within the context of the plot. For Gibson fans, _Cinefantastique_ reports that Gibson is working on a screen play for ALIENS III. -rj-
ugcherk@sunybcs.uucp (Kevin Cherkauer) (12/17/87)
In article <5960002@hpindda.HP.COM> janke@hpindda.HP.COM (Randy Janke) writes: >> Gibson created a world where the computer whiz could be a real, honest to >> goodness, cowboy style gritty action-hero, without it seeming silly. > ???????????? >I dont think that I would label any of the characters in Neuromancer with >a 'hero' tag.... I really liked Neuromancer, >but I shrink from anyone attributing heroics within the context of the plot. The one time in _Neuromancer_ where Case *began* (didn't carry it through) to act like the typical action hero was when he was being chased and he got that whip or something and waited to jump his pursuers in a room in the back of some joint, and I thought, "ICK -- he's turning into another Action Hero. JUST what we need,.." but lo and behold he chickened out and almost killed himself jumping out the window to get away. I don't think there were any "action heros" (a la C.J.Cherryh and any and every book DAW has ever published) in _Neuromancer_. And I think it was a better book for it. -- -- Kevin Cherkauer -- -- "Thrash until you drop, but there is no pain. You can never stop -- it's like thunder in your brain." "No god may stop this bloody slaughter" "Six feet under six feet deep" "We all may be dead someday" ...sunybcs!ugcherk "Speed don't kill and I'm the proof"
hunt@cg-atla.UUCP (Walter Hunt X7031) (12/23/87)
Kevin Cherkauer writes: >I don't think there were any "action heros" (a la C.J.Cherryh and any and ^^^^^^^^^^^ >every book DAW has ever published) in _Neuromancer_. And I think it was a >better book for it. > I hope you're not going to trivialize the characterizations of C.J. Cherryh by dismissing them as "action heroes". There's more to them than that -- considerably more. Walter Hunt CG