Overview
Comment: | add README.md |
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Timelines: | family | ancestors | descendants | both | trunk |
Files: | files | file ages | folders |
SHA3-256: |
871b94c6732e7aca403e13a5d9a856af |
User & Date: | ren on 2020-11-04 00:50:38 |
Other Links: | manifest | tags |
Context
2020-11-04
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19:06 | add notes about repo contents to README Leaf check-in: 0c73d87404 user: ren tags: trunk | |
00:53 | add c2020.txt and n2020.txt check-in: 46a1f0869e user: ren tags: n2020-draft1 | |
00:50 | add README.md check-in: 871b94c673 user: ren tags: trunk | |
00:46 | initial empty check-in check-in: 944f6f4963 user: apotheon tags: trunk | |
Changes
Added README.md version [157807d8a0].
1 +# Working Title: Death Alley 2 + 3 +This is a writing project for which writing actual prose begins in November 4 +2020, having performed some planning and outlining in the previous month(s). 5 + 6 +## What kind of story is this? 7 + 8 +It's a near-future speculative fiction thing dealing with (realistic-ish) AIs, 9 +pseudo-literally-underground agitators, government contractors, and the 10 +conflict between individual identity and conformist socialization tendencies. 11 + 12 +## Why this story? 13 + 14 +1. 2020 is the Year of Cyberpunk. How do I know? Read all about it: 15 + 16 + [2020: The Year Of Cyberpunk](http://cyberpunkyear.com/) 17 + 18 +2. I read a book by a great cyberpunk author this year, and it was the first 19 + book he ever wrote that actually sucked. It inspired me to do better. 20 + 21 +3. I have a theory about cyberpunk and postcyberpunk. Basically, they're two 22 + genres taking place in the same world. This provided a lot of inspiration 23 + for this story, too: 24 + 25 + The above-board, white-market, mainstream, dominant paradigm is that of the 26 + postcyberpunk, where people have dayjobs and houses and are both 27 + technologically and socially connected. It's high tech, normal life. The 28 + technology is consumer and corporate oriented. There are often AIs 29 + involved. The postcyberpunk protagonists are normal people with corporate 30 + or government jobs, or occasionally independent consultants, typically with 31 + some technological savvy but usually not the "elite" of technologist 32 + fields. Bad things happen to them, and they get pulled out of their 33 + comfortable suburban lives. They have to deal with criminals and 34 + agitators, terrorists and corrupt members in otherwise "good guy" jobs 35 + (politicians, corporate managers and workers, law enforcement, and so on). 36 + Their task is, usually, to overcome the terrible events overtaking them and 37 + reclaim their "normal" lives with wives and kids and job security. 38 + Sometimes, they have to save the world along the way. 39 + 40 + The gritty, sordid, black-market, outcast, hidden underworld is the world 41 + of the cyberpunk, where people are criminals either by choice or (more 42 + often) by circumstance and misfortune, where people have technical or 43 + combative (or, often, both) skills for which there is little need in the 44 + postcyberpunk world. They may just be trying to survive, down on their 45 + luck, hunted by law enforcement or criminal bosses. It's high tech, low 46 + life, to paraphrase Bruce Sterling. The technology is illicit, stolen, 47 + makeshift, or top secret military/corporate stuff. There are often AIs 48 + involved. The cyberpunk protagonists. The cyberpunk protagonists may be 49 + grifters, fixers, criminal middlemen, contract killers, or even 50 + revolutionaries trying to overturn the corruption of the dominant order. 51 + Bad things are always happening to them, but usually the story is about a 52 + time that's especially bad, even if it seems good at first, and they 53 + usually start out with a goal of either taking on a hard target or just 54 + basically surviving. They have to deal with undercover cops and jackbooted 55 + oppressors, mob bosses and the average corrupt politician (because they're 56 + all corrupt), corporate managers and their soulless minions, and often 57 + duplicitous "friends" and other agents of betrayal. They often lose in the 58 + end, or at least fail to achieve their beginning goals; bittersweet endings 59 + are not uncommon. Sometimes, they have to save the world along the way, 60 + often by tearing down the dominant paradigm. 61 + 62 + If you were paying attention, you might have noticed something about these 63 + two genres: each includes, in its list of potential antagonists and 64 + obstacles, the protagonists of the other genre. The technology in the two 65 + genres mostly don't overlap, but seem entirely capable of coexisting in the 66 + same world. 67 + 68 + To put it another way . . . 69 + 70 + Cyberpunk says "They're replacing our souls with advertisements, 71 + criminalizing freedom and privacy, and concentrating all political and 72 + economic power in the hands of unaccountable psychopaths." 73 + 74 + Postcyberpunk says "Yeah, but ***I got the new iPhone! WOOHOO!***" 75 + 76 + In either case, inject some action-drama that crosses the boundry between 77 + them, and you have a story. 78 + 79 + The reason this entire wall of text helps explain how I was inspired to 80 + write this story is simple: I'm using elements of both genres in a single 81 + story to tie them together as a single world. 82 + 83 +--- 84 + 85 +[`#cyberpunk2020`](http://cyberpunkyear.com)