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Cyberpunk derivatives, variously also called literary punk genres, science fiction punk ( sci-fi-punk), punk fiction, or punk-punk, are a collection of genres and subgenres in speculative fiction, science fiction, retrofuturism, aesthetics, and thereof, with the suffix -punk, collectively derived from the science fiction subgenre cyberpunk. In correspondence with cyberpunk, they are centered around visual worldbuilding, but, rather than necessarily sharing the digitally and mechanically focused setting of cyberpunk, these derivatives can display other qualities that are drawn from or analogous to cyberpunk. The basic idea is a focus on technology, usually a world built on one particular technology, where punk genres are really defined by taking the technology of a given time period, and stretching it to highly sophisticated, fantastical, or even anachronistic levels.
Akin to cyberpunk, transreal urbanism, or a particular approach to social stigma, have also been common, including elements of dystopia, rebellion, social alienation, societal collapse, and apocalypse, etc, with the main characters often being marginalized members of society, which ties into the original meaning of the word Punk subculture, but more recently, however, themes have also become common.
Steampunk, one of the most well-known of these subgenres, has been defined as a "kind of technological fantasy;" others in this category sometimes also incorporate aspects of science fantasy and historical fantasy. Scholars have written of the stylistic place of these subgenres in postmodern literature, as well as their ambiguous interaction with the historical perspective of postcolonialism.
Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body.
The cyberpunk style describes the Nihilism and underground side of the digital society that developed from the last two decades of the 20th century. The cyberpunk world is , that is, it is the antithesis of utopian visions, very frequent in science fiction produced in the mid-twentieth century, typified by the world of Star Trek, although incorporating some of these . It is sometimes generically defined as "cyberpunk-fantasy" or "cyberfantasy" a work of a fantasy genre that concerns the internet or cyberspace. Among the best known exponents are commonly indicated William Gibson, for his highly innovative and distinctive stories and novels from a stylistic and thematic point of view, and Bruce Sterling, for theoretical elaboration. Sterling later defined cyberpunk as "a new type of integration. The overlapping of worlds that were formally separated: the realm of high tech and modern underground culture.
The relevance of cyberpunk as a genre to punk subculture is debatable and further hampered by the lack of a defined 'cyberpunk' subculture. Where the small 'cyber' movement shares themes with cyberpunk fiction, as well as drawing inspiration from punk and Goth subculture alike, cyberculture is considerably more popular though much less defined, encompassing virtual communities and cyberspace in general and typically embracing optimistic anticipations about the future. Cyberpunk is nonetheless regarded as a successful genre, as it ensnared many new readers and provided the sort of movement that postmodern literary critics found alluring. Furthermore, author David Brin argues, cyberpunk made science fiction more attractive and profitable for mainstream media and the visual arts in general.
Emerging during the 1990s, biopunk fiction usually describes the struggles of individuals or groups, often the product of human experimentation, against a backdrop of totalitarian governments or that misuse biotechnologies as means of social control or profiteering.
As in postcyberpunk, individuals are most commonly modified and enhanced by genetic manipulation of their rather than with prosthetic cyberware or dry nanotechnologies (albeit, like in nanopunk, bio-, nanotechnologies, and cyberware often coexist), and sometimes with other biotechnologies, such as nanobiotechnology, wetware, special bioengineered organs, and neural and .
Film examples include Naked Lunch (1991), Gattaca (1997), and Vesper (2022).
It is an emerging subgenre that is still less common in comparison to other derivatives of cyberpunk. The genre is similar to biopunk, which focuses on the use of biotechnology, such as bionanotechnology and biorobotics, rather than on nanotechnology. (Albeit, like in biopunk, bio-, nanotechnologies, and cyberware often coexist in contrast to classical cyberpunk settings tending to heavily focus on mechanical cyberware to the point of genetic engineering and nanotechnologies being outright banned in some cyberpunk settings.)
One of the earliest works of nanopunk, Tech Heaven (1995) by Linda Nagata, looked into the healing potential of nanotechnology. The genre is often concerned with the artistic and physiological impact of nanotechnology, than of aspects of the technology itself. For instance, Prey (2002) by Michael Crichton explores a potential doomsday scenario caused by nanotechnology. One of the most prominent examples of nanopunk is the Crysis video game series; less famous examples include the television series Generator Rex (2010) and film Transcendence (2014).
It can be argued that the rise of cyberpunk fiction took place at a time when the 'cyberspace' was still considered new, foreign, and more-or-less strange to the average person. In this sense, postcyberpunk essentially emerged in acknowledgement of the idea that humanity has since adapted to the concept of cyberspace and no longer sees some elements of cyberpunk as from a distant world.
As new writers and artists began to experiment with cyberpunk ideas, new varieties of fiction emerged, sometimes addressing the criticisms leveled at classic cyberpunk fiction. In 1998, Lawrence Person published an essay to the Internet forum Slashdot in which he discusses the emergence of the postcyberpunk genre:
Person advocates using the term postcyberpunk for the strain of science fiction that he describes above. In this view, typical postcyberpunk fiction explores themes related to a "world of accelerating technological innovation and ever-increasing complexity in ways relevant to our everyday lives," while continuing the focus on social aspects within a post-third industrial-era society, such as of ubiquitous dataspheres and Cybernetics augmentation of the human body. Unlike cyberpunk, its works may portray a utopia or to blend elements of both extremes into a relatively more mature societal vision.
Denoting the Postmodernism framework of the genre, Rafael Miranda Huereca (2006) states:
In addition to themes of its ancestral genre, according to Huereca (2011), postcyberpunk might also combine elements of nanopunk and biopunk. Some postcyberpunk settings can have diverse types of augmentations instead of focusing on one kind, while others, similar to classic cyberpunk, can revolve around a single type of technology like prosthetics, such as in Ghost in the Shell ( GitS).
Often named examples of postcyberpunk novels are Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age and Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire. In television, Person has called "the most interesting, sustained postcyberpunk media work in existence." In 2007, San Francisco writers James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel published .
The word is an amalgam of the prefix cyber-, referring to cybernetics, and preppy, reflecting its divergence from the punk elements of cyberpunk.
Stanislaw Lem's Return from the Stars is an example.
The word steampunk was invented in 1987 as a jocular reference to some of the novels of Tim Powers, James P. Blaylock, and K. W. Jeter. When Gibson and Sterling entered the subgenre with their 1990 collaborative novel The Difference Engine, the term was being used earnestly as well. Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's 1999 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen historical fantasy comic book series (and the subsequent 2003 film adaptation) popularized the steampunk genre and helped propel it into mainstream fiction. Around 2007, the term became more common, and also began to refer to a clothing style and subculture.
The most immediate form of steampunk subculture is the community of fans surrounding the genre. Others move beyond this, attempting to adopt a "steampunk" aesthetic through fashion, home decor and even music. This movement may also be (perhaps more accurately) described as "", which is the amalgamation of Victorian aesthetic principles with modern sensibilities and technologies. This characteristic is particularly evident in steampunk fashion which tends to synthesize punk, goth and Rivethead styles as filtered through the Victorian era. As an object style, steampunk adopts more distinct characteristics with various craftspersons modding modern-day devices into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style. The goal of such redesigns is to employ appropriate materials (such as polished brass, iron, and wood) with design elements and craftsmanship consistent with the Victorian era.
Other examples include Wild Wild West (1999), Hugo (2011), Treasure Planet (2002), Last Exile (2003), Bioshock Infinite (2013), and Arcane (2021).
The term was coined by the GURPS role-playing system in the sourcebook GURPS Steampunk Examples of clockpunk include The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish; Centuries Before 'Arrival': The Original Science Fiction – The Atlantic Astro-Knights Island in the nonlinear game Poptropica; the Clockwork Mansion level of Dishonored 2; the 2011 film version of The Three Musketeers; the TV series Da Vinci's Demons; as well as the video games , Syberia, and Assassin's Creed 2. Ian Tregillis' book The Mechanical is self-proclaimed clockpunk literature. The Games Workshop Warhammer Fantasy Battles settings, especially the Empire and the Dwarves, represent clockpunk.
For some, clockpunk is steampunk without steam.
(2019), based on the manga Battle Angel Alita, is mostly cyberpunk but sometimes its machines contain elements of clockpunk.
First coined in 2001 as a marketing term by game designer Lewis Pollak to describe his role-playing game Children of the Sun, dieselpunk has since grown to describe a distinct style of visual art, music, motion pictures, fiction, and engineering.
Examples include the movies Iron Sky (2012), (2011), The Rocketeer (1991), (2008) , Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), and Dark City (1998); video games such as the Crimson Skies, the Fallout series, Greed Corp, Gatling Gears, Skullgirls, the Wolfenstein series, Iron Harvest, Final Fantasy VII and the Benoît Sokal created games Amerzone, Syberia and Paradise all use the dieselpunk aesthetic and machines.; and television shows like The Legend of Korra.
Steampunk author Sara M. Harvey made the distinction that decopunk is "shinier than dieselpunk;" more specifically, dieselpunk is "a gritty version of steampunk set in the 1920s–1950s" (i.e., the war eras), whereas decopunk "is the sleek, shiny very art deco version; same time period, but everything is Chrome plating!"
Possibly the most notable examples of this genre are games like the first two titles in the BioShock series and Skullgirls;films like Dick Tracy (1990), The Rocketeer (1991), The Shadow (1994), and Dark City (1998); comic books like The Goon; and the cartoon , which included neo-noir elements along with modern elements such as the use of VHS cassettes.
Its aesthetic tends toward Populuxe and Raygun Gothic, which describe a retro-futuristic vision of the world. Most science fiction of the period carried an aesthetic that influenced or inspired later atompunk works. Some of these precursors to atompunk include 1950s science fiction films (including, but not limited to, B movies), the Sean Connery-era of the James Bond, Dr. Strangelove, , The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, The Avengers, early Doctor Who episodes, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Batman, The Green Hornet, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, Thunderbirds, Speed Racer, and some Silver Age comic books.
Notable examples of atompunk in popular media that have been released since the period include television series like Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls, Venture Bros, Archer, and the web series The Mercury Men; comic books like Ignition City and Atomic Age; films like Logan's Run (1976), The Incredibles (2004), The Iron Giant (1999), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), (2011), and Men in Black 3 (2012); video games like Destroy All Humans! (2005), We Happy Few (2018), the Fallout series, Atomic Heart (2023), and The Invincible (2023); and books like Adam Christopher's novel The Age Atomic.
For instance, Bruce Sterling described his 2004 novel The Zenith Angle, which follows the story of a hacker whose life is changed by the September 11 attacks, as "nowpunk". The developers of the computer game Neo Cab used the same term to describe themselves. Another example is Rococopunk, a combination of Rococo and punk clothing in cosplay or theatrical costuming. Also, the term Stonepunk has been used to refer to settings based in which characters use Neolithic technology, such as the 2017 videogame Horizon Zero Dawn.
A large number of terms have been used by the GURPS roleplaying game Steampunk to describe anachronistic technologies and settings, including clockpunk (Renaissance tech), and transistorpunk (Atomic Age tech)—the latter is analogous to atompunk. These terms have seen very little use outside GURPS.Stoddard, William H., GURPS Steampunk (2000)
It is a predecessor to atompunk with similar "cosmic" themes, but mostly without explicit nuclear power or definitive technology. It is also distinct in that it has more archaic/schematic/artistic style, and that its atmosphere is more dark, obscure, cheesy, weird, mysterious, dreamy, hazy, or etheric (origins before 1880–1950), parallel to steampunk and dieselpunk.
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