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An introduction to ~punk fiction - add your own!
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To my knowledge, the unbrella term something~punk breaks down into two broad sub-categories: futurism and retro-futurism. It may be that adding the prefix "pulp" to those would be fair--but then I don't consider pulp to be derogatory, whereas some might find it belittling. Generally, ~punk writing pushes a vivid or visceral quality alongside the particular technological trappings that characterise the genre, and pulp fiction has always championed the vivid and visceral...Futurism covers cyberpunk, nano-punk and biopunk - that is, usually, near-future scifi where the central advances are about traditional tech and online connectivity, nanotechnology, and biotechnology respectively. Of course, "futurism" is pretty much what the majority of all scifi boils down to, and there is plenty of non-punk sf that touches on all these bases. And some ~punk writing will do the same: William Gibson's defining cyberpunk work includes a lot more than just in-skull internet, for example.
Retro-futurism is a blending of scifi sensibilities with a particular historical period or level of technology. Clockpunk and steampunk often overlap, with clockwork and steam-powered devices both in use between the 19th and early 20th centuries - the usual period such stories are set in. Dieselpunk takes us on towards the mid-20th century, and Atompunk pushes us on into the atomic age - and again there is the potential for overlap (I'd say the first Captain America movie walked that line). Dieselpunk might take any setting from world war one to 50s greasers - think The Rocketteer. Atomic power was on the horizon before the bombs were dropped at the end of WWII, but I imagine atompunk as chiming off the paranoia of the Cold War 50s and 60s.
Jumping all the way back into the past, I've heard stonepunk used to describe stone-age scifi - but honestly, I've never read an example and I wonder whether this would be more fantasy than scifi (there's only so many uses for The Wheel, after all...). But ~punk as a suffix has great appeal - I could imagine bronzepunk with Ancient Greek Science, and maybe alchemy and the iron-age would make for good ~punk settings too!
awesome post! Thanks Andrew, now I have a better idea of which books to look for.
I've considered the possibility of an ancient worlds ~punk based on the reactive steam engine designed by Heron of Alexandria ca. 50 AD. I wouldn't know how to write that, but perhaps someone would like to toy with the idea of a 200 AD dystopia brought about by the nuclear war between the Romans and the Arabs, another scientifically minded group of the era, and in direct contact with Greek and Roman cultures.
How about DaVinci~punk? Had the Great Inventor had access to the Archimedes Palimpsest, for example, there's no telling how much further he could have taken his inventions in the era around 1500.
Just some idle speculation by a bored mind. I'm not going down those roads, and anyone who wants to is welcome to them.
How about DaVinci~punk? Had the Great Inventor had access to the Archimedes Palimpsest, for example, there's no telling how much further he could have taken his inventions in the era around 1500.
Just some idle speculation by a bored mind. I'm not going down those roads, and anyone who wants to is welcome to them.
Jack wrote: "I've considered the possibility of an ancient worlds ~punk based on the reactive steam engine designed by Heron of Alexandria ca. 50 AD. I wouldn't know how to write that, but perhaps someone would..."
It would be incredibly interesting to see what the Hellenistic World would have been like with that. I remember learning about it in my history class last year and toying with the idea a little bit, but I never found a plot idea that clicked with me.
It would be incredibly interesting to see what the Hellenistic World would have been like with that. I remember learning about it in my history class last year and toying with the idea a little bit, but I never found a plot idea that clicked with me.
This month's edition of Perihelion Science Fiction Magazine features my article.."Punk Fiction: Back to the Future": www.perihelionsf.com/1410/article_1.htmThe aesthetics of punk sci-fi...."If you've ever seen a book jacket with a hero and/or heroine dressed in Victorian garb, festooned in leather accessories, wearing round brass aviator goggles, standing on the deck of a steam-driven airship holding an octopus as a pet, and there are lots of clockwork gears in the background, then you’ve probably come across the visually quirky genre of Steampunk."
Defining punk fiction and Retrofuturism... "Melodramas inside a mélange; a melding of genres together like the ceaseless hammering of wrought iron in a forge... As a Dieselpunk author who is constantly asked “what is punk fiction?” I think it’s time to organize my neurons around some foundational principles that put all this punkishness into some kind of cosmic order. Like an intergalactic peace treaty between the rulers of classic science fiction and the mutants... Retro-futurism allows the writer to meld various elements of science fiction together, often blended within an alternative set of historical events, or set in a future world with anachronistic social outlooks typical of that bygone era."
How can you tell if a novel is a work of punk fiction? I answer that with a concept called the 'Spectrum of the Fantastic'. Alternative history, time travel, space opera and Retrofuturism are various settings on the 'dial of imagination' like turning the knob on a stove.
I'm looking into the sub-genre of Dungeonpunk. Inspired by a magical world like D&D but married to a modern sensibility and fashion. Authors like Steven Brust, Michael Swanwick, Robert Asprin, and China Miéville all dance near or in this style. And if I must, the countless D&D and Pathfinder books inspired by their settings are mire in it. Any place where magical engineering commandos, etc can strive.
What about fiction about punks? Or about the topic of juvenile delinquency? A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess comes to mind. Stoner and Spaz by Ron Koertge, Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, and Hard Love by Ellen Wittlinger are all YA fiction books about punks. Like Son by Felicia Luna Lemus is a book meant for adults about a transsexual punk (he listens to Fugazi and drops a few other references that seem punk-ish to me).Maybe fiction about social issues from a philosophical perspective might also qualify. The Stranger by Albert Camus, maybe, and although I haven't read it I've heard a lot about Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson.
I think the Beat generation also had something to do with the punk movement - On The Road by Jack Kerouac is a decent book from that time.
Since sexuality seems to be part of punk, from the riot grrl movement especially, it seems like anthologies on radical feminism and queer sexuality might also be relevent. I liked Pomosexuals: Challenging Assumptions About Gender and Sexuality edited by Lawrence Schimel and Carol Queen.
Rather than engage in a debate about how right or wrong I am, I invite you all to do exactly the same: add a post to this thread introducing the ~punks as you see them.
Maybe we'll all agree, maybe we won't--but it should be interesting to read!