Defining Cyberpunk
Introduction
As cyberpunk "has little patience with borders" (Sterling xiv) and is often misunderstood by critics, it is necessary to first define the origins and boundaries of the genre. To understand exactly what the genre is about, and how it is different from other science fiction, one must look at the word cyberpunk itself. The term, in and of itself, is a fusion of two other words, and this fusion is the key to understanding cyberpunk.
The second half, "punk" is the more obvious of the two terms, and the easier to define. A "punk" is a troublemaker, an "antisocial rebel or hoodlum" (Elmer-Dewitt 59) commonly associated with the loud hard-core rock music that groups such as the Sex Pistols made popular in the 1970's and early 1980's. In terms of literature and social movements, "punk" refers to a "counterculture" and a sort of "street-level anarchy" (Sterling xii), and tends to focus more on attitude and outlook than on music and criminal activity (although both of these are present in many, if not all, cyberpunk works). Punk brings with it the outfit as well as the outlook - punks and cyberpunks alike share the black leather jackets, the affinity for black clothing, and the love of mirrored chrome sunglasses, a "Movement totem since the early days" (Sterling xi).
Defining the term "cyber" is much more difficult. Though the term as used in the word "cyberpunk" is commonly assumed to refer to technology, the actual meaning of the word differs. "Cyber," as used in "cyberpunk," can be traced back to Norbert Wiener, a physicist and mathematician at M.I.T. who became interested in information theory while working on antiaircraft guns for World War II. Wiener, as Time's article on cyberpunk explains, realized that the key to his system, or any system, was a feedback loop that "gives a controller information on the results of its actions" (Elmer-Dewitt 59). In the early 1950's Wiener began intensive studies of control systems, and dubbed the study "cybernetics," from kybernetes, the Greek word for "Steersman." The development of computer technology at this time soon began to be incorporated into Wiener's studies. Almost inevitably, as computers were adapted for use in many control systems throughout the 1960's and 70's, the term which helped create the computer became associated with it. "Cybernetics" became confused with "computers", and before long, the prefix "cyber" was attached to other ideas. "Cyborgs" (half-men, half-machines), for example, began to appear in comic books and movies in the late 1970's and early 80's (the film Terminator, released in 1984, gave Arnold Scwarzenegger the lead role of a killer cyborg). The publication of Neuromancer at that time, with its mingling of technological and human components, led to a desire among critics to name this new genre of science fiction. The term " cyberpunk" was coined at this time.
The term itself seemingly fits the genre well, and it comes as a shock to many to find that the name was originally meant as an insult. When writers such as Gibson, Shirley, and Sterling were first exploring new areas of science-fiction, critics were quick to dismiss their work as unconventional, unpolished trash at best, and "cyberpunk" was meant to convey a lowlife rebel writer who dabbled with talk about computer technology. It is rumored that Gardner Dozois, once editor for Isaac Asimov's Science-Fiction Magazine, coined the then insulting term in 1982 or 83, borrowing the title of a Bruce Bethke short story named "Cyberpunks" (Schneider). True or not, within two years after critics used the term as an insult (the exact date is not known), Gibson's Neuromancer had already been labeled "cyberpunk," and with the success of his award-winning novel came the success of the movement in general.
It is this idea of a "Cyberpunk Movement" which spurs both my interest and research into the topic as well as a great deal of controversy among critics and writers alike. Bruce Sterling acknowledged that the label has stuck, but admits that the "'typical cyberpunk writer' does not exist" (Sterling ix). For a supposedly organized movement, there seems to be no definitive organization among cyberpunk writers; even from the start, "cyberpunk writers began producing works that defy easy categorization" (McCaffery 13). Seeing echoes of cyberpunk themes in earlier works of fiction, some critics consider Thomas Pynchon and William S. Burroughs to be cyberpunk writers, even though they wrote well before the term was coined. Though this is not in itself unusual or unique (many writers are considered "ahead of their time"), there are obviously some difficulties in defining the genre. Cyberpunk means many things to many people.
Critics and the media have recently made the term "cyberpunk" into a media buzzword, to the point where some critics are haughty enough to tell renowned cyberpunk writers that they are not "really cyberpunks." Asked what she thought of the label, Pat Cadigan had this to say :
I won't be dictated to by some critic who has decided s/he knows what cyberpunk is all about. It's not the idea of a label so much as the stereotype. Some critics have loftily informed me that I'm not in the cyberpunk club because my work doesn't conform... I avoid and ignore stereotypes. (Interview)
Such disputes over exactly what the term means, and what it includes, are what make defining the limits of cyberpunk difficult. To apply a specific, universal definition to a type of literature is to limit the genre far too much; simply including every piece of literature which happens to have a specific theme is no more helpful. There are, however, several factors which appear to be recurrent throughout cyberpunk literature written to this point. A study of these apparent common factors reveals a lot about cyberpunk, and will help define a place for the genre in the scheme of all literature. With this in mind, I will, with the same hesitation and unease that Bruce Sterling did in his introduction to Mirrorshades, attempt to make "statements about cyberpunk and to establish its identifying traits" because, as Sterling continues, "it's a valid source of insight" (ix). With the notion that cyberpunk's boundaries are certainly not fixed, and a basic idea of the origins of the genre and its label, we can now step boldly into the world of the cyberpunk.