A Gritty Future

The world of hacking, corporation take over and street heroes is one that is not only popular fiction, but a closer reality than I believe most people would rather admit.

I think that is the point of cyberpunk actually. It exposes a dark, gritty future that doesn't end up being flying cars, mystical robots and other fashionable things of the future. Instead, people are living in storage units, walking the streets to the beat of whatever corporation they stand for and using alternate realities to escape the one they are in. That is what Hiro in Snow Crash does. In real life, he's just a hacker that lives in a storage unit with a friend. In the game he "plays", he's a sword swinging hero with more battles to his name than any other. Drugs aren't the choice way to mess people up but rather viruses. Computer viruses. Of course, I guess if you are in a bar in a game and somebody tries to give you some special in game item, you probably shouldn't take it. Unless it's from the game developers themselves (and even worse when one of the game developers takes it).

I didn't get through Snow Crash, I just couldn't spend more time on a novel that I had no idea what was going on in (another book like that is The Harlequin by Laurell K. Hamilton- I couldn't get through that either because of my confusion). I guess Cyberpunk is like that but I have a short attention span and if I am not caught quick, I am never caught at all.

We watched part of Bladerunner in class but a movie that I watched instead and found it to be very reminisce of cyberpunk was Repo the Genetic Opera. At first, it seems like a dark, gothic tale but it is in reality a post apolcalyptic film that has many of the tropes of cyberpunk. For example, the main character is a female and a very strong one at that. The film is dark and gritty, a mix of classic gothic and then more futuristic things. After all, organ transplant has become a fashion statement in that world and Geneco, the company that gives them, rules the world. If you screw over Geneco, the Repo Man will come and get you. Like in Snow Crash, there is a "drug" that is popular called Zydrate, a blue fluid that is injected into you through a gun for pain (it was originally given to patients for surgery) which is now a black market item.

I find the entire genre of cyberpunk fascinating but far too much forces you into a world that you don't understand and they don't really help you along. Some people can find their way... but I am not truly one of them. I will stick with the films in the genre rather than the fiction.