#nanopunk aesthetic

[alpaca-clouds]

The History of Cyberpunk

Or why every other SciFi Genre is called [something]punk

You know what? Let's do this. Because I have seen the discussion on whether or not Solarpunk is "punk" over the last few days and... people really gotta learn their history.

The first time a genre took the "punk" name was Cyberpunk. And for context we gotta talk a bit about the history of the Cyberpunk genre.

While some books that we in hindsight call "Cyberpunk" were released as early as the 1960s, the start of Cyberpunk as a genre got its start in the late 70s and early 80s.

The term was invented by Bruce Bethke, who published a short story in 1983 with the name "Cyberpunk". His idea was to juxtapose the term "punk" for both the mentality and the punk protagonists in his short story with the term cyber, short for the cybernetics they were wearing. And while the cybernetics have become a main stay in the genre, the punk attitudes are not always carried through...

Well, the title Bethke invented stuck, though. When 1984 Neuromancer was published, one of the most influencial works in the early days of the genre, he called it "a Cyberpunk novel" in the marketing. And from there... Well, the genre was suddenly named like that.

The 80s were definitely the decade that had the most influence on the genre, given that a lot of the big novels and graphic novels of the genre were released here.

A big influence was, no doubt, that 1982 the Blade Runner movie had released and had inspired quite a few writers and artists. (And yes, this makes Blade Runner a movie that released not only before the term Cyberpunk was coined, but also before the genre had a chance to define itself.)

Given that the genre was defined in the 80s, there are a lot of 80s anxiety kept within it about the rise of the Japanese economy, that are these days rarely questioned within the western Cyberpunk movement.

When the genre was coined and developed, Japan was the fastest growing economy in the world, being so influencial that they got to buy out several things in America. Something that kinda jerked white people in the US a lot. This is, why Cyberpunk originally depicted not only a capitalist hellscape - but specifically a capitalist hellscape were everything was bought out by Japanese companies, with many of those early antagonists being Japanese companies. And yeah... there was a lot of both anti-japanese racism, but also cultural appropriation of Japanese things in early Cyberpunk, at time surviving to this day. (But that is a story for another day.)

The general sense that Western Cyberpunk had, was always the idea of: We have a capitalist hellscape where the world is slowly dying and people are exploited with no end, while we have those kinda punky protagonists, who stand outside of the society and try to work against it. This being where the punk comes from.

Now, I could talk for length about how a lot of that punky attitude has been lost in more modern Cyberpunk media, but that, too, is a story for another day.

So, let me just talk about what happened then.

The term Cyberpunk really is darn catchy, right? So just when that name took hold, writer K.W. Jeter retroactively called his 1979 novel Morlock Night "steampunk". And guess what: This stuck, too. Though while the 80s Cyberpunk still stuck to the punk attitude, a lot of Steampunk did not. While for certain there is quite a bit of Steampunk that has kinda punky characters go against the quasi Victorian society of steampunk books (something most common in the air pirate novels I have read), a lot of other stories are more focused on a general sense of adventure.

But never the less... The genre names stuck and gave a nice baseline for naming other genre. We got Dieselpunk, Atompunk, Nanopunk, Arcanepunk, Dustpunk, Silkpunk and of course also Solarpunk and Lunarpunk.

And for the most part... The "punk" names mostly communicate: "It is SciFi with this kinda aesthetic/twist going on". Which is just how it turned out.

Funnily enough Solarpunk is for once a genre that brings back the punk, as it tends to include a lot of the ideals aspired to by the Punk counter culture of the 1970s: Anarchism, anti-capitalism, anti-consumerism, anti-classism, anti-racism, anti-colonialism and so on. Though other than with Cyberpunk and the real world punk movement, Solarpunk for the most part imagines a place, where those things are culture instead of counter culture.

I personally find it kinda sad, how for the most part Cyberpunk kinda lost a lot of the counter-cultural, revolutionary mindset. And how fucking defeatist the genre often is.

But again, it is a story for another day. Just as the story of Japanese Cyberpunk is.

[reachartwork]

Chum 91: The Girl With A Plan

The silence that follows Multiplex's pronouncement hangs heavy in the air, thick with anticipation and unspoken questions. For a long moment, nobody seems willing to be the first to break the stillness.

Then, as if a switch has been flipped, the room erupts into a cacophony of teenage banter and casual chatter.

"So, anybody catch the new Celldweller flick over the weekend?" Playback pipes up, idly tapping out a rhythm against the arm of his chair. "I heard it was a total mindfuck."

Gossamer lets out an excited little squeal, bouncing in her seat. "Oh my gosh, yes! The visuals were absolutely insane – I've never seen anything like Ren Shouko's nanopunk aesthetic brought to life like that before!"

Rampart snorts, favoring the shorter girl with a sidelong look. "What, you mean all those seizure-inducing lightshows and music video cutaways?" He shakes his head, lips quirking in a half-smirk. "Nah, way too much style over substance for my tastes."

"You're just saying that because you couldn't follow the overarching inugami-punk allegory they were going for," Gossamer shoots back with a lofty sniff.

"Ooh, big SAT words, you've been studying!" Playback jeers with a theatric gasp.

Gossamer bristles, whipping around to face the smirking boy with an indignant glare. "What did you just say?"

"Easy there, killer," Puppeteer cuts in with a weary sigh, raising one hand in a placating gesture. "Let's try and stay on task here, people?"

"What task?" Playback counters with a snort of derision. "All the old heads finished yakking, didn't they? We're just waitin' on them to give the next spiel."

[midnightfire830]

Do you have a backstory for cuphead and mugman in the cyberpunk au?? Also what aesthetic is the cyber punk mostly based on or is it just only cyberpunk???

Ok I don’t think I really have a lot for Cuphead and Mugman’s backstory it’s pretty much like OG IM. Cup and Mugs gambled their souls tried to get their souls back, lost, becomes trained by Black Hat, and they become hit men working for the Devil bringing us to when they join the quest. The only major thing I can think of in terms of differences from that story line would be how they got their cyberware so I guess I’ll explain that.

Simply put there was a mission that went wrong when they were about 13 and 16 years old. They weren’t expecting explosives on the mission so cup and mugs woke up days later both missing an arm, cup losing an eye, and Hat and Flug barely managing to salvage Mug’s eye. Thankfully, Dr. Flug and Hat work/invent a lot of cyberware tech so the cupbos were quickly set up with cyberware. Eventually, Cuphead got an AI program installed in his cyberware. The AI is called Chalice (the Devil chose the name as a cruel joke) and she works as kind of a personal assistant to Cuphead and Mugman. Cuphead hates her. Mugs doesn’t mind her. That would have been a year later max after the explosion.

Now. Second question. Which, honestly, I cussing loved this one. This was so much fun to answer. Ok, so, in terms of aesthetics it depends on the location: Hell, the Surface, and the Upper. (Yes I had to look up what the different types of aesthetics are, bear with me. Please.)

For Hell its mostly steampunk/steelpunk inspired in general. I guess it also has some kind of a dark academia/victorian vibe to it. Hell is industrial, dark, dirty, and crude. Pipes and machines are everywhere making up its entire world in a Feísmo aesthetic for buildings and architecture and things. Think of it like the Surface and Upper are much more advanced than Hell, Hell was stuck in the steampunk era because of lack of resources and its seclusion from the rest of the world. So. It’s old, barely functioning, and depressing.

On the Surface you have two different types of settings that are the most important in terms of IM and the cyberpunk AU in general. The city and not the city. (this being places like Sillyvision and the Inkwell Isles.) For the non-city areas its not nearly as technologically advanced as in the city. They still have modern technology but it blends into suburban living. I imagine something kinda vintage and retro. Like retro-futurism, atompunk, technocore, old web. You know. Vintage. I guess.

Now in the city is probably what everyone wants to know. For this I have just a modge-podge of aesthetics. In general I think its cybergrunge. For the tech elements its some variations of abstract tech, nanopunk, and hacker core, obviously. For clothing I took major inspiration from techware styles. Other aesthetics I used in majority were things like arcadecore, raver, glowwave, synthwave, neo-Tokyo, urbancore, and citypop. It’s a lot. I know.

Now the Upper looks almost completly opposite of Hell and the Surface. Pretty much Solarpunk/cyberparadism in majority. I guess I also used some aspects of bloomcore and cloudcore too. This place is supposed to be a utopian ‘paradise’.

In Summary:

Hell: Steampunk/steelpunk, Feísmo, Dark academia, Victorian

Surface out of city: Vintage, Suburban, Retro-futurism, Atompunk, Technocore, Old web

Surface in city: Cybergrunge, Abstract tech, Nanopunk, Hackercore, Techware, Arcadecore, Raver, Glowwave, Synthwave, Neo-Tokyo, Urbancore, Citypop

Upper: Solarpunk/cyberparadism, Bloomcore, Cloudcore

👍

[maps-to-elsewhere]

Essay: On Mediaeval Futurism

In a world replete with the hallmarks of scientific advancement and automation, a lack of education on part of the majority of people and the jealous hoarding of housing by the minority financial elite result in a society that has in many ways slid backwards into the trappings of mediaeval feudalism, borne upon institutions of taught helplessness and internalised oppression. Technology and science are magic and religion, made esoteric by the ignorance of the working class, debt slaves to institutions which control access to all necessities, who toil like serfs pacified through the false luxury of marketed addiction of electronic baubles and mass media, while housing is held within artificial rental markets that force their inhabitants to pay tithes of peonage to a landlord or risk eviction.

Those who head this society are effectively dependent upon the scholastic theology of the scientific and technological priesthood whose iron grip upon the reins of the dissemination of information and military power is treated like holy law and misinformation, as they see it, is a sin. Nobles bow their head to the god of the atom and are blessed, their families treated as majority shareholders and levied rank in proportion.

The heads of these families and the CEOs of their corporate supporters together form the framework of a stateless, capitalist nobility levying their monopoly on violence for endless profit. The incestuous play of soft power in the form of labyrinthine legalese, in-hand with toothless appeals to piecemeal electorialism, and hard power of the austerity of global apartheid enforced by military intervention mirror the convolutions of propaganda and terror of violence, stochastic, financial, cultural and physical, used to obscure their very existence.

Technological fortresses, debt peonage, the hollowing out of governmental institutions by private lobbyists in a process of managed decline of the state and descent into idealised scientistic superstition are the trappings of such a setting, which here shall be called mediaeval futurism. It is, at its core, a counter-argument to neo-feudalism in which the communal aspects of mediaeval life come to the fore in the face of late-capitalism’s fascistic, totalitarian and feudalistic tendencies.

Mediaeval-futurism is thus meant to encapsulate the trappings of the mediaeval period of Europe, from the Church’s dominance of information to the rural lifestyle of the peasantry, the burgeoning inequality and isolationism of the nobility, superstition, pseudoscience and so on, all overlaid with the aesthetic of typically futuristic, cyberpunk themes.

For example, the foundationally open-source nature of high-technology and its minutia, manufacturing, programming and the like, would be analogous to scripture and subject instead to interpretation and dissemination through a dedicated priesthood of guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of, effectively, religious knowledge. This, in turn, would be further diluted as it made its way through the peasantry as layman superstition, clashing with the equally secretive and cloistered guild system, represented by college education which moves increasingly beyond the fiscal reach of the average individual.

~~~

The idea, at its core, is an offshoot of nanopunk, itself an infant branch of the ponderously eminent genre of cyberpunk. An enduring staple of science fiction since its inception in the late 1960s and early 1970s, culminating in the "Chrome Torah" of William Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy, cyberpunk has come to be an enduring staple ever since.

Chiefly due to its relevance in contemporary history embodied in neoliberal capitalism and the troubling implications following the increasing prominence of corporations so powerful that they can treat governments with contempt, cyberpunk nonetheless seems stuck in its neon milieu of wage slaves and urban clique radicalists. Worse, the entrenchment of anti-establishment themes has instead been replaced with a paper-thin veneer of escapism in a setting that was not meant to be a desirable destination.

As what was once a cautionary vision of the future slowly becomes the disturbing reality of the present, it is only natural to question "What's next?". Once the nations of the world have been subsumed and the company line replaces constitutional law, what shape will society take in the centuries that follow?

The neonate subgenre of nanopunk attempts to answer this question, a subject explored by the likes of K. Eric Drexler, John von Neumann, Neal Stephenson and others. Driven by advancements toward the coveted goal of artificial general intelligence systems, nanotechnology as a whole seems poised to uproot everything understood and accepted as necessary to capitalistic societal structure, in particular by reinventing in secular terms the trappings of divine mystery.

Just as the pursuit of asteroid mining, orbital infrastructure and space colonisation proposed by Gerard K. O'Neill and John S. Lewis would blast away the power structures which hold current social hierarchies together, so too would molecular manufacturing redefine what it means to be human. Short of bringing about some socialist vision of egalitarian pursuit where labour is automated and creative self-expression comes to define the social norm, such advancements would likely take the last dying gasp of capitalism and transform it into a reinvigorating second-wind.

However it happens, the shift in paradigm which might occur in such circumstances would be on par with the sweeping changes that followed in the wake of the fall of feudalism after the French Revolution or the beginnings of neoliberalism after the second World War. Just as powerful individuals and organisations scrambled to hold onto their place at the head of those sleeping dragons, so too would they ruthlessly leverage the nanotechnology of a second Industrial Revolution to salvage themselves as humanity passes beyond the Singularity and into the Diamond Age.

~~~

Within such a setting, the rule of law is maintained largely through the ignorance of its subjects, a cultural panopticon in which all are the jailors of themselves and their peers in which only the wealthy and the celebrity are immune to lasting punishment. Carefully cultivated over many generations of ceaseless propagandised media coverage and steady whitewashing of history, this allows the moneyed elite to shield themselves behind walls of obscene, otherworldly opulence within vast wastes of decaying public spaces.

The peasantry, meanwhile, largely police themselves even as militarised law enforcement stands ready to quell dissent with the swift application of violence, whether deserved or otherwise. Daily life is maintained in a state of financial struggle through the careful enforcement of starvation wages and the constant refrain of labour for its own sake rather than as a means of social reproduction.

Although high technology is ubiquitous, the populace is kept nearly illiterate and with just enough information necessary to utilise the relatively basic devices and mechanisms allowed them without fully understanding any of their theoretical underpinnings. Likewise, personal research is stymied by the proliferation of misinformation and distraction even as access to sources becomes free for nearly anyone with the click of a button.

Technical knowledge is sequestered behind a stratified social hierarchy in which only a select minority, often born into the privilege, are allowed any specialised education or skills. Meanwhile, that which offers only temporary succour from the drudgery of the working class is left in abundance to the peasantry.

Meaningful innovation is stymied or recuperated to further the mechanisms of control while frivolity is widespread and even individuals who manage to cultivate the esoteric hands-on skills necessary to leverage the ready availability of technology point toward ponderous resources rather than involving themselves in the apprenticeship of their fellows. Within the realm of the purely cerebral, study of the humanities is first ridiculed, then actively suppressed, leaving a population ill-equipped to analyse and question their reality in any informed or meaningful way, relying instead on sloppy and, simply, lazy thinking and thought-terminating cliché to deflect any material examination of their lived circumstances.

Even so, such specialisations are rarely mixed and never to any great degree while varying ranks within the hierarchy only understand so much, ensuring compartmentalisation meant to foster an inability to question the overall purpose of any pursuit. Individuals of standing are culturally uplifted, their knowledge treated as arcane and mystical, their machines divine, with such trappings acting as a means to keep the ignorant in awe of those who rule them while drowning out cognitive dissonance in a deluge of trite placation in the face of individual alienation from systemic oppression and aggressive appeals to anti-intellectualism.

~~~

Mediaeval futurism is but one prospective vision of a world transformed by the realities of a post-scarcity humanity equipped with the means to shape themselves and their surroundings in ways so far unprecedented on an individual scale. Where education has fallen off and with automation picking up the slack, such things as scientific and technological literacy are concentrated more and more in the hands of a compartmentalised minority, obscuring the material reality of technology through specialisation and sheer complexity.

In such a society, most people have no need to understand or have ever been exposed to the details behind how even the simplest of mechanisms function, instead taking such things on faith. Written language is itself first supplemented by predictive text models, then replaced by easily-digested logos and pictograms while the simple act of a face-to-face conversation is increasingly had through the glow of a screen.

Such a world is not won through blatant revolution or clandestine takeover but, instead, an inevitable decline brought about by scientific and technological advancement hand-in-hand with gradual socio-political alienation. As every serf comes to live better even than the old kings, the competition for employment fosters a culture of antagonism upon which the new nobility thrives.

This inequality is further exacerbated as wealthier communities become more akin to how they were during the Middle Ages, walled fortresses of commerce within lawless industrial wastes. Short of fostering a sense of contentment in luxury, even the trappings of this dwindling financial minority becomes cheapened as the very methods of accumulation they rely upon sands away the signifiers of opulence enjoyed by their forebears, leaving hollow facsimiles of bleak minimalism that do little to soothe the pains of alienation felt by all.

Concomitant with the decline of public spaces, the feudalistic milieu is furthered within digital spaces in-hand with the slow death of physical ownership as products are replaced with ideas and ownership with rental contracts a la end-user license agreements. This combination serves only to further alienation from the non-digital world, isolating not only the physical body but the mental framework of those who have nowhere else to go, themselves rendered captive audience to the ideas fed to them by digital overlords.

~~~

To conclude, with such compartmentalisation and stratification, the familiar may be reframed and the mundane presented as alien. The image of the machine changes, with the engineer and layman on two different planets in terms of perspective, and this becomes a new method of governance.

Deliberate obfuscation mutates into ritual and through such even the simple trappings of a technician may be elevated from hands-on tool to clerical symbol. The edicts handed down by the black box of language models passed off as intelligent by the equally ignorant powers are little-challenged by the educated, both swept up as they are in systemic inertia of the social machine.

Many people would fight and die for the corporations which govern such a society like feudal lords because they are inundated with the cultural idea that they are shareholders themselves. Participation in the free market and negotiations of insurance passed on to next of kin serve to foster a zealous drive to increase one's family holdings and thus one's rank.

Desperation and cognitive dissonance are quelled by the constant refrain of appeals made toward puritanical work ethic, coloured at its worst by palingenetic ultranationalist dog whistles, anything to circumvent the reality of class war and the myriad intersectional fronts on which it is fought. Meanwhile, a culture of brand loyalty is reinforced at every social junction and in every personal need or desire, ensuring that every aspect of human interaction and social reproduction is commodified and so robbed of any meaning beyond the exchange of a financial fiction.

In this way, the board of directors is lifted above prosaic humanity who are themselves held in check by superstitious fear and religious awe, both old and new. The invisible hand of the market becomes the righteous hand of an artificial God and the moral justification that the wealthy deserve their riches is upheld as the new divine right of kings.

[alteredphoenix]

Notes on The Mountain Wakes: A Brief Rundown on Technology and Its Influences

It's been quite a while since I last updated The Mountain Wakes, but I always remember how I looked at games such as Dark Souls 2, Morrowind, and They Are Billions (ironic, because I'm not really into zombie apocalypse media anymore like I used to be over a decade ago, and my PC at the time could barely run it) for inspiration to form the basis of the Bad Ending AU the fic takes place in. (You can clearly tell I'm a Morrowind fangirl because Autozam, Chizeta, and Fahren move in on Cephiro and put their stakes down the moment the Paths open without any conflict from Zagato and Emeraude whatsoever - not because it happens out of conquest, but because they're so immersed in their love for each other they ignore the problems going on Cephiro a'la fuck the world we don't care what happens to it so long as we have each other, it's not our problem anymore).

I would say the technological advancements, in the three year span that takes place after Chapter 1, would be much more developed than the steampunk Tesla Tech aesthetics seen in They Are Billions. With the arrival of the three realms, Cephiro goes from a very pastoral fantasy world with hints of old magitech (via the Saturn game) to a hard, cyberpunk theme that's part of an industrial revolution that's very much enforced.

Of the three Fahren very much leans into said cyberpunk aesthetic but is more or less inspired by the Japanese subgenre with Chinese/Asian influences and the splash of tech noir and that retro 1980s vibe that's often idealized (i.e. Chapter 2's first scene takes place as a train station terminal with payphone booths, something that IRL - at least in the States - barely in use anymore with the rise of mobile phones).

Autozam takes this a step further by being postmodern as well as nanopunk/biopunk (or trying to going in that direction in a bid to co-opt Fahren technology and repurpose it to eliminate Autozam's pollution and ecological disasters). It's about as futuristic as you can get, with their mechs and architectural approaches, so in comparison to Cephiro it's going to stick out a lot.

Chizeta would be something akin to solarpunk (to relieve the issue of overpopulation) while recognizing they are very much in the camp of technofantasy (because they don't explain their magic by applying science to it). However, there is an undercurrent of Cold War/cloak and dagger element going on that undermines Tarta and Tatra's attempts at establishing a colony for their people (read: hold onto control via authoritarian means that affect the population not in line with their cause/beliefs).

I had plans for Debonair and Nova to show up (albeit under different circumstances), but as I didn't get very far in the brainstorming phase at the time they currently don't amount to much in the plot beyond Nova being a boss fight for Umi to overcome. I like to think they'd be their own faction and sowing chaos in the background because everyone re: the three realms is too busy trying to get their upper hand over each other in the attempt to be the one to overthrow Zagato and Emeraude to become the Pillar and the people of Cephiro are too doompilled to fight back (and if they are fighting, it's against each other). They would be in the camp of pure magic and taking advantage of all the technology lying around for their own purposes while manipulating people's emotions a'la the Will of Cephiro to focus on perpetuating all the in-fighting.

[a-pilot-of-starship-fables]

Nanopunk

Nanopunk- Biopunk mixed with teslapunk, but in this generation, and everything runs on nanotechnology, which is different dimensions, and technology based on atoms and molecules. Think modernized ninja outfits made of leather and metal, with mechanical accessories, masks and weapons, mechanical implants into the body such as mechanical fingers, mechanical heart, your veins glow, your eyes glow. Cyborgs and robots, corruption, robot armies, rebels, corrupt government, piercings. Colors are black, Grey, white, with some blue and red and green.

[writers-hoarding]

alright which wip do i chose

nameless wip with biopunk/solarpunk aesthetics

afterwards with post-apocalypse adventurecore

otherworldy with dark academia and fantasy aesthetics

the life of an npc (wip title) with cyberpunk, nanopunk etc aesthetics

the witches four with witchcore, medieval, and fantasy adventure aesthetics

or

the rogues mask with steampunk and other aesthetics

[steamworksandshadows]

TimePunk/PunkPunk: The Textening

Been largely absent from this blog this year, so of course I figured I’d make it up to you with two extremely long text posts two days in a row. Love you all!

This is the Timepunk/Punk Punk post from 2015 updated for 2018, in a format you can copy/paste, and accessible to screen readers. Added a few more *punks and clarified a few more definitions. (Feel free to message me if you know of a *punk not on the list.)

Timepunk: Advanced technologies develop in a historical (or future) period, which changes the associated society, fashion, and magic. TVTropes explanation: Either exchanges the basic technology for that of another historical period or mixes in another genre.

These are not definitions or in-depth in any way. I describe each with associations and imagery, as I’ve found these to be useful shorthand for explaining to strangers and newbies. I tried to make sure each punk had more than one discussion or labeled work online (otherwise the list would expand to include every silly discussion thread on the internet).

Note: none of these have much to do with 1960s-70s Punk music culture, other than some possible overlapping anti-authoritarian themes. These genres are derivatives of steampunk, which arose from cyberpunk.

stonepunk: Prehistoric, Neolithic, Stone Age

bronzepunk: Bronze Age, Ancient Egyptian, Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Mediterranean

sandalpunk, classicpunk, ironpunk, togapunk: Iron Age, Classical antiquity, Greece, Roman Empire, Atlantis, Antikythera mechanism

biblepunk: Biblical Middle East, emphasizes adventure over morality

middlepunk, dungeonpunk, candlepunk, plaguepunk, castlepunk: Medieval European, medieval fantasy, Black Death

dragonpunk, vikingpunk, wizardpunk: high fantasy, medieval fantasy, Tolkien, wizards, Vikings

clockpunk: Renaissance, early Baroque, Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo

bardpunk: Shakespeare sci-fi

rococopunk, lacepunk: Baroque, Rococo, Colonial, Marie Antoinette, American Revolution, New Romantics

rococoa: rococopunk based on black history, Assassin’s Creed Liberation

piratepunk: Golden Age of Piracy, Age of Sail, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag

steampunk: Regency, Victorian, Edwardian, Art Nouveau, Industrial Revolution, Jules Verne, HG Wells

steampulp, gaslamp fantasy: steampunk focused on fantasy/adventure/romance over science fiction

steamfunk: steampunk based on black history, sometimes combined with 1970s funk aesthetics

steamgoth, dreadpunk: period gothic, supernatural, horror, Penny Dreadful

dustpunk, cattlepunk, Weird West: North American cowboy, American Indian, Wild West

Amishpunk: giant wooden robots?

gauchopunk: South American cowboy

slavicpunk: Eastern Europe, rural/pagan/mystical themes

teslapunk: steampunk focused on electricity, free energy, Nikola Tesla

nerfpunk: steampunk in bright Nerf gun colors

stitchpunk: rag doll steampunk

fairypunk: steampunk fairy tales

decopunk, flapperpunk: Roaring Twenties, Jazz Age, Art Deco, Prohibition, flappers, gangsters

dieselpunk: World War I & II, London Blitz, tank/sub warfare, bomber planes, military, noir

dieselfunk: dieselpunk based on black history

Blitzpunk, Nazipunk: dieselpunk focused on Nazis as super-villains, alternate Nazi-ruled history

atompunk: Atomic Age, Space Age, pulp, raygun gothic, Fallout

transistorpunk, psychedelipunk, weedpunk: Cold War, Vietnam War, psychedelic drugs, disco, Space Race, James Bond, Philip K. Dick

spacepunk: space opera, space exploration, sword and space, futuristic utopia, Ziggy Stardust, Star Trek

Cassette Futurism, formicapunk: late 20th century analog technology, VHS, cassettes, primitive digital, 8-bit, no internet or cellphones, The Fifth Element, Max Headroom

gothicpunk, cybernoir: post-modern, dystopian, goth and punk fusion, old World of Darkness, The Crow

cyberpunk: cyberspace, cyborgs, dystopia, Blade Runner, Neuromancer, the street finds its uses for technology

postcyberpunk, cyberprep: cyberpunk without the assumption of dystopia, Ghost in the Shell

biopunk: cyberpunk focused on genetic engineering and organic technology

nanopunk: cyberpunk focused on nanites and nanotechnology

bugpunk: cyberpunk/biopunk starring bugs

solarpunk: near-future, solar tech, environmentally-friendly tech, neo-Art Nouveau & African, Asian art

post-apocalyptic, apunkalypse, wasteland: survivalist, Mad Max, Burning Man, Fallout, west coast tribal

junkpunk: post-apocalyptic using trash and repurposed scrap for material

Geographic punk: These punks are also about advanced technologies developing in a historical society, but are based on geography and culture rather than time. So the time period and technology can range anywhere from bronzepunk to cyberpunk, though steampunk is often the springboard.

silkpunk: Silk Road, classical Chinese antiquity, Ken Liu

bamboopunk, ricepunk: East and South Asia

jadepunk: East Asia, wuxia, mystical jade tech (sometimes mystical aether tech)

edopunk: Japan

rajpunk: India

SEAsteampunk: Southeast Asia

Environment punk: Advanced technologies in an environment rather than time period. Technology can range from stonepunk to cyberpunk.

desertpunk, sandpunk: survival in a very harsh environment, often post-apocalyptic, neo-Bedouins

oceanpunk: mostly watery/oceanic world, often piratical, One Piece, Water World

skypunk: sister to oceanpunk, the sky is an ocean

Falls outside the timepunk umbrella, but still has punk in the name. Mostly literary and musical:

seapunk: oceanic, aqua, spacey dance music, “Venice Beach Acid Rave 1995”

clownpunk: clowns + punk

wizardpunk: wizard rock, Harry and the Potters

splatterpunk: extreme horror, graphic violence, nihilistic

carniepunk: urban fantasy and horror set in carnivals

mannerpunk: fantasy focusing on elaborate social structure plots

elfpunk: fairies and elves in modern-day settings

mythpunk: myths and folklore through postmodern urban fantasy or science fiction

arcanepunk: fantasy where both magic and science exist

capepunk: superhero fiction deconstructing (or reconstructing) superheroism in a “realistic” manner

feltpunk: humans and muppets live side by side (in a dystopia?), Greg the Bunny, The Muppet Show

dreampunk: overarching meta-punk examining or rewriting history to address oppression, human rights, and environmental issues, or creating new myths to address the same. Employs dream logic. Draws on other *punk genres for material and influence.

nowpunk: contemporary literature. Yes, it was coined as a joke.

[sawyersscribbles]

A Complete Guide to “Punk”

No matter what story you want to tell, it’s important that it has its own unique flair. I’m not saying invent an entirely new genre or subculture, but it’s great for readers to explore different concepts and ideas through your writing. One really cool way I’ve seen a lot of people do recently is add some subject of “punk” into their writing. But what is punk? Generally, “punk” in literature is a component of the setting which is really important for the images and tone of the story. In this list, I’ll tell you every form of punk that you’ll probably ever need to use, so let’s get started!! :D

Cyberpunk

This one is a classic which you’ve definitely, or at least I hope, have heard of before. This style usually plays off of science fiction themes, more specifically an urban dystopia. It’s got a dark aesthetic that sometimes matches with neon signs and rain. It’s definitely one of my favorites that I totally (please I beg of you, write me a thing) need to see more of.

Examples: Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix, Tron

Steampunk

Alright, so maybe I’m a little biased towards this one, too. Steampunk is probably the second largest form of punk there is, after Cyberpunk, of course. It mostly is focused around the nineteenth century, when the Industrial Era was just taking off. It’s not as dark as cyberpunk is, and it’s great for ‘what-if history” kind of stories. I was a steampunk girl for Halloween, so you can trust me. This style is rad.

Examples: FIRST Robotics 2016, 9, Hugo, Atlantis: The Lost Empire (the ship, at least)

Dieselpunk

Dieselpunk is pretty similar to Steampunk, but with a couple key differences. First, let’s talk about how they’re the same. They both rely heavily on machines, but where Steampunk is more gears and big goggles, Dieselpunk is more heavy-duty guns, grit, and motors. The timeframe for each is also different. When Steampunk is set in the 1800s, Dieselpunk is 1940s-50s. Think around the time of World War II, and that’s the style.

Examples: Fullmetal Alchemist, Mad Max, Fallout, Captain America

Biopunk

This genre is certainly up and coming, but it still has yet to make its huge breakthrough (hey you never know, maybe you can make that happen, hit me up when you do). Biopunk is another sect of science fiction that takes living organisms to the extreme. It messes with how creatures were born and makes them into something…else. *spooky music*

Examples: Horizon Zero Dawn, Alien

Atompunk

I’ve got to admit, this one is tricky, mostly because it’s so rarely seen in the punk world. The Atompunk aesthetic is a lot like Dieselpunk, as it’s set around the same time, but this has more to do with the threat of nuclear weapons and what they could do. It also takes into account what people of the past thought technology was going to be like today. Think robotic teachers or nuclear power schoolhouses

Examples: Fallout, Tales From the Borderlands

Nanopunk

Like Biopunk, this is one of the newest types of punk to appear in stories. It’s futuristic in the sense that it focuses around nanotechnology and its implications. It’s a lot like cyberpunk, but a more cutting-edge feel

Examples: Prey, Be More Chill (I’m only half kidding)

Elfpunk

Elfpunk is one of the few divisions of punk that actually shies away from the science-fiction element of literature. Instead, it takes fantasy tropes and mixes them in a bit with urban themes and mechanics, sort of like combining the mechanisms of Steampunk with fantasy.

Examples: Bridge to Terabithia, The Mortal Instruments

And that should be the most important ones! (Trust me there are sooooo many small and almost never used types of punk. Don’t believe me? Google stonepunk) If you have any questions on how to label your own story with these terms, message me whenever. Good luck and happy writing!

[terrific-togekiss]

Ooh! I love these! Some more I know off the top of my head...

Clockpunk: Everything (or mostly everything) is powered by gears and inspired by Renaissance era (14th to 17th century) Italy.

Decopunk: 1920s to 1950s technology, with more of emphasis of moving from WW1 and WW2 aesthetics, as opposed to the war like aesthetic of Dieselpunk. Also, art deco.

Solarpunk: Solar power and overall renewable technology, with an emphasis on Art Noveau meeting African and Asian aesthetics.

Post-Cyberpunk: It's Cyberpunk! ...But technology is a force of good! That's... literally all it is. Hopefully AD block is still a thing!

Hydropunk: Everything is hydropowered!

Biopunk: Everything is bio technology! And biological!

Oceanpunk: The entire world is full of pirates that refuse to advance in technology! Think Flapjack or One Piece.

Sailpunk: Sky pirates but everywhere.

Nanopunk: Everything is powered by and made of nanotechnology.

Splatterpunk: Very gory. Seriously, shouldn't there be line to draw, or...?