American Cyberpunk Dystopias
Jul. 15th, 2010 11:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yelosonI'm thinking a bit about the classic American Cyberpunk Dystopia genre. Although often pointed to as a critique of capitalism and consumerism, it really seems a lot of these are more about white middle/upper class fears...
The lone (usually white, usually male) protagonist walks down the street, past the many stores and people that aren't in English, past the red-light district with non-mainstream prostitution, past the scary looking homeless people, and gets threatened by thugs.
Most of these people are simply Others to show this New World Order that has no room for the "normal" white guy, many are threatening, and few others get names or personalities, and the truly good are victims that need the special protagonist savior to rescue them.
The protagonist might live amongst all these "people", but certain isn't one of them. He has (special skillz, tools/equipment) that set him apart- that put him above these people and gives him a chance at "Fighting the Man" who happens to be usually some cool, collected, and smug CEO, who is a threat not because he has had a hand in creating the dystopia for everyone, but because... well, some vague reason about corporations destroying the world and society, despite the fact that the movie/book/comic just showed you a montage of shittiness all associated with anyone EXCEPT the Corporations.
Usually, the corporate "crime" which is supposed to rile up the audience is that the privatized government future limits the flow of information, GASP (Even more because Protagonist is a speshul snowflake who is a genius whose ideas NEED TO BE HEARD).
The fact that -this- is usually the "outrage" point, and not say, the people trying to get food to eat, the dead ocean sitting under an ozone-less atmosphere, the system that freely kidnaps children for organ harvesting... that a special someone didn't get heard?
Uh huh.
I'm not saying all cyberpunk falls into this trap, but there's plenty of common genre tropes there, that basically point to the same things that make "dystopia":
1) White folks no longer dominating the space. Other languages! Scary!
2) Poor people! Everywhere! Scary!
3) Poor + Not White? = Crime! Scary!
4) Sexuality! = Scary!
5) Not getting to know everything/spread your BRILLIANT IDEA? Unforgivable crime that outweighs genocide, planetary destruction, etc.
I know many people are advised to "write what you know" but really? It's kinda icky seeing the same privileged narcissistic fear stories over and over.
The lone (usually white, usually male) protagonist walks down the street, past the many stores and people that aren't in English, past the red-light district with non-mainstream prostitution, past the scary looking homeless people, and gets threatened by thugs.
Most of these people are simply Others to show this New World Order that has no room for the "normal" white guy, many are threatening, and few others get names or personalities, and the truly good are victims that need the special protagonist savior to rescue them.
The protagonist might live amongst all these "people", but certain isn't one of them. He has (special skillz, tools/equipment) that set him apart- that put him above these people and gives him a chance at "Fighting the Man" who happens to be usually some cool, collected, and smug CEO, who is a threat not because he has had a hand in creating the dystopia for everyone, but because... well, some vague reason about corporations destroying the world and society, despite the fact that the movie/book/comic just showed you a montage of shittiness all associated with anyone EXCEPT the Corporations.
Usually, the corporate "crime" which is supposed to rile up the audience is that the privatized government future limits the flow of information, GASP (Even more because Protagonist is a speshul snowflake who is a genius whose ideas NEED TO BE HEARD).
The fact that -this- is usually the "outrage" point, and not say, the people trying to get food to eat, the dead ocean sitting under an ozone-less atmosphere, the system that freely kidnaps children for organ harvesting... that a special someone didn't get heard?
Uh huh.
I'm not saying all cyberpunk falls into this trap, but there's plenty of common genre tropes there, that basically point to the same things that make "dystopia":
1) White folks no longer dominating the space. Other languages! Scary!
2) Poor people! Everywhere! Scary!
3) Poor + Not White? = Crime! Scary!
4) Sexuality! = Scary!
5) Not getting to know everything/spread your BRILLIANT IDEA? Unforgivable crime that outweighs genocide, planetary destruction, etc.
I know many people are advised to "write what you know" but really? It's kinda icky seeing the same privileged narcissistic fear stories over and over.
