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Cyberpunk, steampunk and now stitchpunk? Your guide to 11 sci-fi punks
Stitchpunk? What's up with stitchpunk?
As soon as director Shane Acker's 9 was tagged with that label due to the film's sewn-doll characters and dark fantasy aesthetic, the term was both loved and hated. Some attacked it as silly or unnecessary.
But that's to be expected. Each new sci-fi subgenre has started off with a bit of controversy. Denial eventually changes to acceptance, though, until the word becomes just part of the sci-fi landscape. Check out 11 other sci-fi "punks" below.
Cyberpunk
The granddaddy of the speculative punk genres, cyberpunk came into being when Bruce Bethke coined the term in a 1983 short story of the same name ... then exploded when William Gibson wrote Neuromancer. Cyberpunk focuses on computer technology and hackers and tends to take place in gritty dystopian near-future settings.
Steampunk
Where cyberpunk is futuristic and dark, steampunk is retro, nostalgic and underpinned with a more optimistic view of human potential. It blends advanced gadgetry with antique accessories and imagines computers and flying machines that employ steam engines and miles of copper piping. The best-known early steampunk work was Bruce Sterling and William Gibson's The Difference Engine, but K.W. Jeter's Morlock Night is considered the first steampunk novel because he's the one who came up with the term.
Dieselpunk
In a historical sense, dieselpunk might be said to fall between cyber and steampunk—the technology is 20th-century stuff: gas engines and skyscrapers. Think Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Mid-century pulp fiction storytelling is combined with anachronistic technology and a good dose of alternate history.
Biopunk
Another subgenre set, more often than not, in the near future. Biopunk deals with genetic engineering and bio-enhancement. Peter Watts' Starfish and sequels are an excellent example of this often apocalyptic genre, where someone playing deity with DNA can sometimes go so far as to wipe out the world ... or at least mutate it beyond all recognition.
Clockpunk
Often considered a subgenre of steampunk, clockpunk also fuses advanced technology with pre-modern design ... in this case, however, the historical component of the tech comes from clockworks. Mainspring by Jay Lake is an excellent recent example of this type of fiction.
Mythpunk
Mythpunk combines post-modern storytelling techniques with folklore from various traditions. Catherynne M. Valente, author of The Labyrinth, and Ekateria Sedia are considered mythpunk authors.
Elfpunk
A form of urban fantasy that takes fairies and elves and transports them to the here and now, as Holly Black does in Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale. Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter is often cited as another example, with the author's agreement (some have disputed this), as is Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire.
Mannerpunk
A tongue-in-cheek term used to describe any comedy of manners with fantastic elements, like Ellen Kushner's Swordspoint: A Melodrama of Manners or Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton. (Some critics also consider Mervyn Peake's first two Gormenghast books to be the first mannerpunk novels.) Literary cousins to swashbuckling books like The Scarlet Pimpernel and the romantic comedies of Jane Austen, these tales study the social interactions between their characters, usually within a rigidly hierarchical social structure, but those characters may as easily be dragons, demons or faeries as human beings.
Splatterpunk
This movement was a reaction against "meek" horror that relied on suspense and the power of suggestion to frighten readers, and includes horror movies and films with gruesome and detailed depictions of violence. In 1990, Paul M. Sammon edited two Splatterpunks: Extreme Horror anthologies that included works by Clive Barker, Edward Bryant and Poppy Z. Brite. This term has largely fallen out of vogue in horror circles.
Nanopunk
In nanopunk, nanotechology is often indistinguishable from magic, as in Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. Kathleen Ann Goonan and Linda Nagata, author of Tech Heaven, are also often cited as nanopunk writers.
Greenpunk
Sometimes described as SF that takes place in a "technologically conscious now," greenpunk may be an environmentalist's dream come true. Clean energy, low-impact technology and small carbon footprints are the trappings of a world where humanity has come through the current climate change crisis with at least some degree of success. Paolo Bacigalupi, author of The Wind Up Girl, is becoming one of the best-known greenpunk writers; he has won the Locus and Theodore Sturgeon Awards for stories like "Pump Six" and "The Calorie Man." Bruce Sterling's Heavy Weather and Paul Di Filippo's short story "Wikiworld" are sometimes cited as earlier examples of this subgenre.
By superfly at 7:37 PM ON 09/08/09
The only punk is Daft Punk.
By Bludston at 7:48 PM ON 09/08/09
Amen to that!
By striker7770 at 10:55 PM ON 09/08/09
you cant just take books and add punk to that, or else we would be living in earthpunk eating baconpunk while reading twlightpunk
By Draginbeard at 11:14 PM ON 09/08/09
and of course they completely left out "Handipunk" for the short school bus and special parking spot demographic...
And why stop there? Its an evolving theme right? I'm sure the foaming political liberals and conservatives would dig taking credit for everything and anything they can (and tax the shiznits out of it) which leads us to "Poli-punk"
By Qwerty at 11:41 PM ON 09/08/09
What about PUNK punk? The term was FIRST created by itself. Mad Max anyone? As far as I know punk sci-fi was established in the late seventies, with Mad Max being the first true punk film. Where did the name come from? Well punk sci-fi centers on the chaotic devolution of humankind, and right around the same time as Mad Max the punk rock scene was in full-swing. Punk rock? The central theme to punk music was ANARCHY. I'm guessing this influenced writers to start applying the term to similarly themed sci-fi stories at the time. Then there was 'cyberpunk' which added technology to the chaos. What's interesting is that many of the early punk films actually seem to pay tribute to their "punk-rock" roots. There's a couple of dudes with mohawks in the Mad Max series, and if you look closely there's a punk with a mohawk in Blade Runner, to name a few examples.
Anyway, straight "Punk" should have a place here on this list.
Also, another interesting observation I've made is the distinction between "punk" and "dystopian" science fiction. Many times the two seem to be interchangeable. But I prefer the definition of 'dystopia' as a seemingly utopian world that is actually severely imperfect, whereas 'punk' would be its equal-but-opposite in its depiction of a world that is most obviously imperfect. Where dystopian fiction focuses on the devolution of humankind through strict control and loss of freedom, punk is the devolution of humankind through anarchy and chaos, and hence the loss of true freedom thereof. As a real-world parable dystopian fiction actually symbolizes communism, where punk symbolizes capitalism. The two themes have been merged many times in sci-fi films into what I call "Dystopian Punk", with movies like Robocop, Minority Report, and The Running Man (most of which use what I call "Corporate Punk" themes that portray the rampant lawlessness of big business as opposed to the TOTAL lawlessness of a post-apocalyptic world like in Mad Max). In fact, as far as I know, before there was 'punk' there was ONLY "dystopian punk", with films like Things To Come, A Clockwork Orange, Soylent Green, and Rollerball, all of which combined "utopian" themes within a degraded society. It wasn't until Mad Max that we finally saw total chaos.
One more interesting observation: it seems that the term 'punk' has lost its true meaning as more forms of punk emerge, with the most obvious example being 'greenpunk' (where's the chaos? the devolution?) I suppose the term 'punk' is thrown around much like 'space opera' really has nothing to do with 'soap opera' (where the term was influenced and originated from) Well, that's how language evolves I guess.... kind of chaotic like original punk itself.
We might as well start calling science fiction "science punk".
By Pointer Obvious at 12:03 AM ON 09/09/09
If you type 3+ block paragraphs as a comment to a post on SciFiWire, you do not understand punk.
By REDante at 12:22 AM ON 09/09/09
All these "punks" are kind of making it complicated, it's like taking a box of crayons and then just expanding it to 1001 colors, I mean seriously who needs that many shades of red.
Who needs that many shades of punks, I can only think it just creates a new job so somebody gets paid to look at all these books, movies, and games and classify them as a certain "punk"
By Adoe at 6:37 AM ON 09/09/09
Punk is about a look, a feel. Paradigms such as young protaganists, anarchic lives, black Leather, neon, mohicans, the underground etc are signs of Punk. Mix that with technology, the future, avatars, replicants you get Cyberpunk
If the Scifi environment doesn't contain the symbolismof Punk then you can't give a sub-genre the suffix of punk.
By OurPrecious at 8:29 AM ON 09/09/09
Mmmmmm...Baconpunk...
By Stone at 8:57 AM ON 09/09/09
Daft Punk is playing in my house.
By Zaphod at 12:03 PM ON 09/09/09
These genres are about as punk as Greeday.
By Qwerty at 12:38 PM ON 09/09/09
@Pointer Obvious
Please explain...... or are you too good for that?
Every once and a while I try and post some intelligent thoughtful comments here but I rarely see anyone else do the same. It's no wonder half the sci-fi that comes out these days is nothing more than popcorn fluff when most of the people interested in it don't have half the brain to appreciate something truly intellectual.
Punk-ass.
By Wild West Wesley at 2:19 PM ON 09/09/09
I like the "Steampunk" esq computer in Warehouse 13, as well as the equally "Punk" hacking device.
By roelani at 3:41 PM ON 09/10/09
This list is so missing Storm Constantine's Wraeththu mythos, which I would classify as AmbiguPunk of some kind...
By Bweasel at 4:31 PM ON 09/10/09
Oh wow.
Welcome to 'BandwagonPunk'.
By Dead Ink at 10:00 PM ON 09/10/09
I am simply stunned by the similarities between this "news article" and the Wikipedia entry for Cyberpunk Derivatives.
By Dead Ink at 10:02 PM ON 09/10/09
I am simply stunned by the similarities between this "news article" and the Wikipedia entry for Cyberpunk Derivatives.
By Bubish at 11:27 AM ON 09/12/09
I can't believe they mentioned nano ANYTHING without mentioning Wil McCarthy.
By glorsplatz at 1:38 AM ON 09/28/09
No. Not dieselpunk. I am not dieselpunk and I hate the term dieselpunk. I am decopunk. The world I want to live in is the world of Fritz Lang's Metropolis. I want to be part of the 1920s and 1930s Buck Rogers universe. I want to live in future that every cover of Popular Mechanics said I'd live in, where even the bad guys surrounded themselves with sleek elegance and symmetrical beauty.
By case at 2:43 PM ON 09/28/09
@Qwerty
"What about PUNK punk? The term was FIRST created by itself. Mad Max anyone? As far as I know punk sci-fi was established in the late seventies, with Mad Max being the first true punk film."
umm..... Mad Max was a cop... a POLICE OFFICER... he was THE MAN...
By Pfft at 7:26 PM ON 09/28/09
Hey, how about cocksuckers who start their TYPED COMMENTS with the phrase "umm... "? If you're too stupid to type without including verbal nuances, you're too stupid to be alive. Please throw yourself under a truck POST HASTE!
Maybe write the phrase "cowpunk suburbcore" on your forehead ahead of time, so we'll know what sort of roadkill we're looking at.
By case at 9:28 PM ON 09/28/09
@pfft
let's see, your handle is a verbal nuance and ALL CAPS is also.
ummm... can you say "I'm an ass"?
By hahaha at 12:38 PM ON 09/29/09
@case
you mad
By Rux at 10:15 AM ON 10/02/09
@Bweasel
they should just rename the whole article to "Bandwagonpunk". i can't think of a better way to sum all this up.
By Alessandro Cima at 6:18 PM ON 10/02/09
Why 'punk?' What does 'punk' have to do with anything?
It's totally meaningless. In fact, I would venture to say that the inclusion of the word 'punk' means nothing at all.
I'm a punk. I'm punky and punkish and I like 'science fiction.'
Good science fiction writers are not supposed to get into mindless habits like attaching 'punk' to everything they do.
By Baralier at 2:39 AM ON 10/13/09
Punk is attached to SF genres the same way -gate is attached to anything political. And it has about the same meaning. There are people making claims about the "punk" elements in these made-up genres when the punk has about as much to do with it as a Washington hotel had to do with "Katrinagate".
That and people coming up with new names for existing genres. Pulp was around long before Deiselpunk. Not sure whether the latter came about from ignorance or stupidity.
By 0xym0ron at 10:07 PM ON 01/10/10
Sopunk manypunk punkspunk!
Whopunk madepunk thepunk listpunk?
By wrathex at 1:36 PM ON 01/19/10
Omnipunk = all genres/specialist SF fan
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