gene wolfe and cyberpunk

Dan · 16 Jun 2005, 08:58 · from 2005-June.txt.gz

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From: autarch at vippn.com (Dan)
Date: Thu Jun 16 08:58:47 2005
Subject: (urth) gene wolfe and cyberpunk
In-Reply-To: <20050613191003.8507684DBC at che.dreamhost.com>
References: <20050613191003.8507684DBC at che.dreamhost.com>
Message-ID: <6.2.1.2.0.20050616090253.04231eb0 at pop.vippn.com>

At 02:10 PM 6/13/2005, you wrote:
>arguably the first cyberpunk novel, do androids dream of electric sheep is 
>a detective story and crime noire, and the ridley scott's film blade 
>runner had such an effect on japan that a subgenre of scifi anime has 
>always been cyberpunk whether as adventure or mystery.

  I think the art direction of David Snyder and his dark depiction of the 
future probably had more of an impact on anime than did Scott's ponderous 
hollywoodization of DADoES. Certainly GitS was influenced by Blade Runner's 
theme. I'm looking forward to watching Stand Alone Complex, as soon as AS 
will reair the first four episodes so I can see it in order.

>i am afraid my memory is going bad but someone just said that after 
>reading (there are doors? which i have not read) that it was the best 
>philip k. dick book not written by philip k. dick.
>
>that is the point i am trying to make exactly. if cyberpunk isn't looking 
>at wolfe (and it might be though i have no evidence or thought about it 
>much) it is looking to dick and i have not read enough dick, but i think, 
>in his position, wolfe cannot looking at dick.

Not sure I understand, but I recall reading in one of the interviews with 
Gene that he had read (and I believe liked) PKD. In fact, I'm currently 
reading Free Live Free and there also seems to be somewhat of a PKD flavor, 
but not as obvious as in There are Doors.

>in any case, wolfe is to some degree a cyberpunk author or cyberpunk is, 
>if any genre can cliam to be, in the same tradition as wolfe.
>
>EOT;

I agree to the degree that it's a testament to Wolfe's ability to stretch 
his craft into other themes and genres. But I wouldn't pigeonhole him as a 
cyberpunk author or see how cyberpunk could claim him as one of their own.
What little I recall of a class on the advent of cyberpunk left the 
impression that every so often there's some type of backlash in the 
literary world that spawns anew, reinvents or reintroduces a genre. The 
instructors maintained that  cyberpunk was one of these waves that actually 
had it's roots in  SF and fantasy shorts that appeared in '70's glossies. I 
think that some of  Wolfe's short stories may have a  CP bent, such as The 
Other Dead Man or the HORARS of War but I'm not sure I would include them 
in a cyberpunk anthology unless it's titled The Tertiary Roots of 
Cyberpunk: The stories that influenced the well-read authors who influenced 
the authors that rode the crest of the Cyberpunk wave.

Dan

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