Today, I’m going all out Punk…I’ve dyed my hair green and spiked it, now we’re really ready to rock! Oh, wait….wrong Punk. In our last talk, I mentioned “Splatterpunk” which was a subgenre of Horror, but there is a separate part of the Speculative Fiction category that encompasses many other Punk types. It seems it started out with the term “Cyberpunk“, thought up by Bruce Bethke in the early 1980’s, which blends cybernetics with the punk music of the originating time. It’s essence is about a type of technology that has become highly evolved, for example blending humans with computers and usually occurring in a dystopian society. The first thing that comes to mind here are those scary, crazy Cyborgs in Star Trek….Yes, I’m a trekkie and a trekker (and I know the difference, lol). There are a bunch of movie versions of this genre that come readily to mind (The Matrix, anyone?), but certainly nothing I’ve personally read. Authors listed within this field are: William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Michael Swanwick, among many other. Do any of these names sound familiar to you?

Also listed with this main category is Postcyberpunk, with all the same requirements as cyberpunk but without the dysopian aspect involved. And there’s also Cyberprep, which takes out the “punk” elements and replacing them with a basically happy world where the machine/human mixes are for pleasure….um, really? I’ve got this vision of prep school kids with robotic arms. I have no authors or books to offer here, but I would think this is more like something you’d see in a comic book. Can you think of an actual book that fits the Cyberprep criteria?

Then we have what Wiki refers to as “Retrofuturistic Derivatives” which I find to be the most interesting of the “Punk” genre. Within this category, we have the very popular Steampunk, which is based in and around the Victorian era (1820-1910). It has also been labelled as “Neo-Victorianism” and has a huge following of fans that not only enjoy reading about it but also dressing in the fashions and truly delving themselves into this strange world. I know in recents years, Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series very much encompasses the ideals of Steampunk.

Clockpunk is similar to Steampunk but rather than steam-based technologies, it contains springs, gears, levers, etc. Wiki says that these books are heavily based on the works of Leonardo Da Vinci and if any of you have seen the movie Hudson Hawk (which I actually just watched yesterday) you’d understand the distinction a bit better. Clockpunk is actually a subgenre of Steampunk, and for my money, Cassandra Clare’s Clockwork Angel is a mix of both of these with the book taking place in the Victoria era but with the clockwork creatures you find in its pages. What other examples can you think of with the Da Vinci elements in them?

Further types of  Retro-Futuristic “Punk” are:

Atompunk, taking place around 1945-1965, and featuring things like Space Age, atomic science, Communism, and other elements “exaggerated as paranoia in the USA”.

Dieselpunk, encompassing 1920-1945 and featuring punk aspects with the backdrop of World War II.

Then there are Futuristic types:

Biopunk, which explores biotechnology and the risks of messing with DNA, etc.

Nanopunk, which is fairly new and, seems to me, only understandable it you know a thing or two about nanotechnology. I wonder if this has anything to do with the Hedron Collider?

And, other derivatives include:

Elfpunk, which takes faeries and elves and puts them into the modern world, a form of Urban Fantasy. It seems Scott Westerfeld says that Holly Black is the perfect example of “classis elfpunk”. I think I’d add in Lesley Livingston into this subsection with her Wondrous Strange. Already we are seeing crossovers within the genre pool here, between this Elfpunk and certains types of Fantasy.

Mythpunk, which combines myth with “postmodern fantastic techniques”.

Nowpunk, set in the time frame of the publishing of the work, but doesn’t really offer up much of a description.

And Splatterpunk, which we covered under Horror (lotsa scary blood and guts type stuff).

So, no matter what kind of fiction you like, you kind find a Punk version that would probably suit your tastes…wait, they didn’t have Romance Punk, did they? Ah well, sure enough, someone will invent it soon :-p
Now I just have to wait for this green dye to grow out!!

Please feel free to inform me and other readers of any authors that you love within the Punk fields; I always love hearing about great writers 🙂

About Jackie

Jackie is a quirky mom, living in Ontario, Canada. She's a bookkeeper by day and a book lover by night. She also blogs at The Novel Nation and writes occasionally for Heroes and Heartbreakers.

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