Introduction to Cyberpunk Literature - Mar 2010

 As this course is a continuation of the previous one http://archive.p2pu.org/CY-Punk%C2%A0Outline I will build on the same themes and reference essays written by the previous students on the course's blog http://blogs.p2pu.org/cyberpunk/

 

In the first week of the course we just introduced ourselves on via the discussion board, I planned for more but I was at SXSW. The good thing is that I managed to meet Bruce Sterling (that's me with him, envy me! http://www.flickr.com/photos/gridinoc/4436877027/in/set-72157623630242010/ ) and we briefly discuss the possibility of emailing him some questions regarding his book, the "Hacker Crackdown." So, bear in mind, in the 5th week we could select some interesting questions and try (as he said, that we can "try" to email him) to get some answers.

 

Speaking of weeks, here is the rundown:

 

I … procrastinated, but you all managed to introduce yourselves, marvellous. 

 

Question yourself what cyberpunk is, start with Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk and check what the previous students wrote about it http://blogs.p2pu.org/cyberpunk/tag/week1/

 

We all should read "The Gernsback Continuum" a short story by William Gibson published in his "Burning Chrome" anthology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gernsback_Continuum

 

Which illustrates the contrast between the glorious future of the mainstream science fiction and cyberpunk. 

 

Now, if you don't have the story (the first one in the "Burning Chrome" anthology), you just have to realise that we are in such cyberpunk-ish world where is a russian project (linked from the Cyberpunk wikipedia page) which in his library section has the aforementioned anthology. You have all the clues to find it, please do find it even if you have the book; think of it as an exercise.

 

During Week 2 I would like to try to meet online, in the previous course we choose to use IRC, and we have the #cyberpunk chat room on irc.freenode.net, you can use your favourite IRC client or you can just use this web interface http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=cyberpunk

 

Note that the chat room is logged by a bot named W1NT3RMUT3 (does this name recall you any specific character?), the bot augments the chat data using Zemanta.com API and stores in RDF format on a Talis.com platform store; yes, we cannot get more cyberpunk than this. (More tech details in another post.)

 

So, I would like to meet on IRC on Wednesday, we'll negotiate the hour a bit later. And there we can discuss about the first assignment (deadline towards Week 3, not on Wednesday), which is a short essay on what makes cyberpunk stand from the rest of the science fiction.

 

Towards Week 3 (deadline for the above essay) we should all watch "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" by Steven Spielberg (project started by Kubrick)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.I._Artificial_Intelligence

 

Watch it after reading "The Gernsback Continuum" and if you sense some similarities between the story and the movie, explore them in your essay (optional).

 

Now being in the mood for more androids, we will read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep

 

And watch "Blade Runner," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner now if you haven't read the book yet, watch the movie first, you won't be disappointed that the movie doesn't cover all the book and you will have already provided an image of that future and those characters (image with which even Philip K. Dick himself agreed).

 

(Details of the assignment will follow shortly.)

 

The following weeks are just briefly outlined, I'll provide more information as we go as well links to additional resources, including optional materials.

 

We get closer to the present days (as technology, etc.) with Cory Doctorow's "Little Brother" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Brother_(Cory_Doctorow_novel) but we'll also stay into the humanoid replicas area with "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell_2:_Innocence

 

We'll study history with Bruce Sterling's "The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hacker_Crackdown and the documentary "Freedom Downtime" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Downtime

 

You will write your own cyberpunk story, or essay, or you will have hack something for us (kidding).