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Cyberpunk
[Chatsubo] [My stuff] [Other stuff] [Today] [Links]
Literaric stuff: Cyberpunk
I realize a lot of people cannot understand or appreciate cyberpunk
literature. For them, cyberpunk means some dumb techno rythms, or a
stupid 3D shoot-em-up computer game. While you can certainly argue these
things being 'cyber' (not really, since cyber means interconnecting with
the human brain) there is not much 'punk' in there.
In general, cyberpunk - once a genuine term for a literaric movement - has
suffered from the sell-out the term 'cyber' has experienced in the past
years.
The Chatsubo
Cyberpunk literature came to the Net before the days of point-and-click WWW;
at UseNet newsgroups alt.cyberpunk and
especially alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo
a lot of creative talents shared their works around '93/'94. With cyberpunk
no longer being the revolutionary thing it was back then, most of the impressive
stuff has faded away, leaving those newsgroups to the everyday-present
UseNet spammings.
Some kind souls have collected the alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo traffic over the
years and archived the works in various locations. If you are lucky,
a current one is listed below at Links.
With Cyberpunk Literature being more or less a thing of the past, we
must be prepared to deal with vanishing information, broken links and
outdated user interfaces. Since it is the content that matters, I don't
care about the technical difficulties. Please mail me
if those links are broken or if you know more to add here.
My stuff
What you find here are my contributions to the chatsubo community. Feel
free to mail me for
comments or a creative discussion.
These things are put here in the understanding that you will
not copy them to your own page, in your webzine or have them
published anywhere and anyhow else. Linking them directly is
ok, though.
- Iteration (here's the german version) (-1995-)
Iteration was the first piece I wrote. Someone called it the 'classic
cyberpunk story' and I guess this pretty much descibes what you will
find here. I was told it's pretty well done, though.
- Dreams of a Dark Future (here's the german version) (-1995-)
Going through a phase of having to study 1960's computer technology in the
90ies, this is a pretty autobiographical piece. It is a direct personal
add-on to Gibson's 'Fragents of a Hologram Rose' and can only be understodd
as such.
- VTV (-1995-)
This was a first attempt of writing a piece that included some real-time
action. While I am not always happy with what I wrote then - extrapolating
my knowledge of TCP/IP and UNIX at the time to what I believed would
be the net beyond the year 2000 - I still think
the basic idea behind the story is a neat one.
- Walking the Green Fields at Night (here's the german version) (-1995-)
Written on the back of a cornflake box during a cycling holiday to
Ireland, this is a nice piece; the only one that got me bucketful of
positive feedback from around the world.
- Together forever (here's the german version) (-1995-)
This piece was written as a reaction to a discusion with a keypal who
thought cyberpunk offered no room for simple love stories. Having no
broken heart at the time I wrote it, I was a bit bewildered by the
majority of replys trying to console me instead of saying anything about
the text. I don't like it in the way that people take it as a piece of
my mind, but do like it as a standalone text.
- Circulation (here's the german version) (-1996-)
After 6 months of doing no writing I again went for pen and paper and
wrote this at a party. The strange people and the alcohol there stimulated
my mind. Of course I had to rewrite nearly everything the next day but
the basic story was there. I got a lot of positive feedback more from
personal friends and less from the net; probably because this is the
one piece that has nothing to do with computer and cyber sciences.
Of course it's still weird.
- Hail the King (-2002-)
Some over-night discussions with "The Gun" (and some serious red wine) convinced me that I ought to start writing again. Having broken up with my long-term-relationship (long, at least for my standards ;-) I was left with an unusual amount of free time. Prepping this
web page for inclusion with the chatsubo web ring -and of
course browsing the other sites there- got me into the mood
again. And suddenly, when driving home from a long day at the office,
there the story was. It took me some time to put it on paper,
eh, disk, that is. It certainly isn't something the world
hasn't seen so far - still I believe it's quite neat.
Again: for my standards, that is. Inspiration for the plot
itself ? None that I could name, maybe expect that I currently
have to pass several advertisments for an Elvis Musical on my
way to work.
Other Stuff
With cyberpunk being a rather defined area, I chose to extend my personal
definition to include everything I consider having - as Gibson put it -
EDGE. There is a lot of pieces I consider having EDGE - cyberpunk or not.
--- however with f*** a*** lawyers sueing everybody putting anything on the web,
no matter how old or widespread, I've had to remove those things. Sorry.
The current situation
Today, 11-Sep-02:
Okay, that's not today, that's some years ago, but I still feel that way ;-)
My ass! I just discovered that some folks are using the old Usenet
alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo group again, posting stories and all! Will
have to check that out, and so can you:
Go to Google Groups and type
alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo, click SEARCH.
Today, 18-Nov-97:
Cyberpunk is a thing of the 80ies, but I like to stick to 80ies stuff,
and I stick with cyberpunk. The means of creative exchange I knew
of have faded to meaninglessness. Working fulltime and additional
freelance, I have little time to write, go hunt for old books or
even re-read my old ones. I do hope I will get into it one day or the
other.
If you are in a creative exchange, or know of one, please do
mail me.
Thanks for reading so far. As you probably have seen so far, do I
appreciate feedback.
More Links
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(c)opyright 2000,02 Tom Eicher unless indicated otherwise. All rights reserved. last modified tom-24-Sep-2002 |