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Hazard151 -> RE: The typewriter font... (7/28/2020 7:06:28 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: lloydster4
Maybe. Nearly all early cyberpunk fiction was dystopian, but the -punk subgenres have become so diffuse that it's unrealistic to assign them a common theme.
It's at the root of the word 'punk'. It's very much a 'rage against (the evils of) society' movement, and without the dystopian theme or undercurrent a work isn't punk in nature, regardless of its other traits. Works can be set in similar settings without the dystopian background, but in that case it's from a different branch of speculative fiction to me.
A story where the cast goes through a lot of pain and hurt to try and eke out a living under the jackboot of an uncaring, abusive company that consumes and grinds up its employees (possibly literally) before spitting the mangled remains out as useless trash, with the cast barely managing to do more than maintain the status quo? That's a 'punk story. Especially if society doesn't care or considers that sort of business practice the ideal.
The same story where society or the government clearly ends up taking an interest in matters and ends up hammering the company and everybody involved for any reason at all with complete disregard of the collateral damage and by doing so making things worse? Also a 'punk story.
The same story where society or the government clearly ends up taking an interest in matters and then carefully dismantles the evil wrought while mending the injuries of the victims? Not a 'punk story, especially if the entire thing ends up affirming faith in government and/or society at large.
A key component of 'punk stories is that maybe you can trust the people around you, but you definitely can't trust large organizations regardless of their origin.
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