Talk:List of cyberpunk works

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I've added to the list of films and tv series here according to most lists formed by sites dedicated to the Cyberpunk culture. I know that most people have their own opinions as to what is truly cyberpunk and what is not, however I have added films which have been important in terms of the influence and recognised in the cyberpunk community on the Net. I will attempt organising the page slightly more by placing the films and tv series in an alphabetical order and by the year they were released so as not to look too sloppy as it does now. I know people will argue that certain films should not be in this list but I have carefully researched and from my own knowledge including what I've found from on the Net I have gathered the movies that are considered to be the most definitive in cyberpunk. I also have added two external links which verify my contributions, one which is a dedicated site for research and gathering information related to the cyberpunk sub-culture. Piecraft 18:34, 22 August 2005 (UTC)

Though I know it's controversial to mention films like The Crow and Batman in regards to Cyberpunk, it might be interesting to have a segment on films that have some theoretical or thematic relation to some of Cyberpunk's themes. I wrote extensively about "Cyberpunk" Films for the R. Talsorian website at this link. Aeonite

Hi, I think it's relevant perhaps to note that Batman, The Crow and even films like Barb Wire have influences stemming from Cyberpunk. However as to whether they are related is another question. Batman has been listed as more of a Dieselpunk movie compared to cyberpunk - but this is also debatable. What I know for sure is that most cyberpunks do take into account the Batman movies as being particularly important in terms of the style and 'world'.

At some point a place should be found for Gibson's early fiction at short length. Cyberpunk emerged in sf magazines such as Omni, and in short stories such as "Burning Chrome" before Neuromancer appeared. I think it is more important to reflect this point than to list a whole lot of works that are more or less tenuously connected. I'm not saying to delete anything, and I don't want to disparage all the good work done here, but let's find a way to incorporate this material. Metamagician3000 14:24, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
Also, some material by Joanna Russ should definitely be in the precursors section. Russ's heroines, such as Alyx, certainly influenced Gibson's and Picnic on Paradise could easily be considered a cyberpunk work. This is more like anything else on the list in tone, feel, and the handling of sexuality. I'm sure that someone has made that point somewhere (I'm sure I have, if it comes to that :) ). Metamagician3000 14:27, 1 February 2006 (UTC)

Is there any solid criteria for determining what is/isn't a "cyberpunk band"? It seems to me a lot of what's on the list is 'evocative' of cyberpunk, but is really just run-of-the-mill EBM or industrial music, in which case, a link to those articles would suffice. I propose that only bands that *lyrically* refer to cyberpunk should be included on this list. --Tellybelly 02:48, 14 August 2006 (UTC)

I'd say cyberpunk isn't a music genre, people using it usually confuses it with EBM and similar genres, that sound like electronic punk music, and since the word cyberpunk contains "punk" they think it's some kind of subgenre. Music shouldn't be classified as cyberpunk based on how it "sounds", but rather by the themes in the lyrics (a classical, or country, adaption of Neuromancer would still be cyberpunk to me, while harsh, electronic punk with lyrics about the iraq war wouldn't). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.216.158.20 (talk) 03:57, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Before deletion

I suggest that before an editor decides to edit this article and delete certain titles they should try and discuss it first here as it may lead (as it stands now) to nowhere without a civil debate.

I have personally added (again) 1984 and Brazil because I feel they are important atributes to the cyberpunk genre, the book of Nineteen-Eighty-Four has been listed, so it is fitting that the film should as well seeing as it one of the major influences to the genre along with Brazil. If anyone can prove me otherwise that these two should not be listed than by all means explain your reasons. Thank you. Piecraft 17:04, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Re-evaluation of list

Seeing as there are now decent articles for the different sub-genres of Cyberpunk and the Steampunk genre I believe there should be some re-administration as to the list of Cyberpunk films seeing as of now it is in a constrcutive form of chaos. Piecraft 21:20, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

  • There does need to be some criteria for this. I'm seeing things like Transformers listed as cyberpunk, and it clearly fits none of the ethos.Gnrlotto


  • Fully agree on the criteria statement. Without a criteria for determining inclusion, a list of cyberpunk movies and animes becomes a complete mess. For instance, what separates out a post-apocalyptic disaster film like Escape from New York, from an actual cyberpunk film? As a starting point, I would suggest the criteria I use for determining inclusion of cyberpunk movies and animes at my website, cyberpunkreview.com. This list has already undergone significant revision and comment. --Sfam 22:00, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
    • Agreed. What seems like a first step is to categorize what we've got here (precursor, influence, influenced, full-fledged -like blade runner-, vaguely connected, irrelevant, etc). Then we can sort which categories stay, and if there is anything to do with the others.--SidiLemine 13:00, 2 September 2006 (UTC)
  • There certainly are some highly questionable entries. Clockwork Orange is not a cyberpunk novel or film. It may be set in a dystopian near-future but cyberpunk needs the 'high technology'/cybernetics which do not feature in this story to any real degree. --Neon white 20:50, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Quick Edit

The MMBN series was never even close to cyberpunk, as its themes were WAY too happy at any point to even begin to go there(in fact, the only thing it has in common with cyberpunk is the hacking aspect). Shadowrun 2007 is not cyberpunk, especially when compared with the other games and its source material; the colors used in the game are bright, the bleakness is gone... in fact, it has little to do with the source material. I'll leave it to someone else to decide on the music, but if Turmion Katilot is not listed and Rammstein is, it needs fixing.

[edit] Original Research

Unless I'm misreading the original research policy there ideally shouldn't be anything on this list that isn't described as "cyberpunk" by some reliable source (and cited). --P4k 00:13, 25 May 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Personal Choices

On this list as in others I have seen there seems to be a great deal of entries based on what the person posting believes was an influence to/for a particular writer. This makes for horrible genre based lists.

As an example, Nineteen Eighty-Four (a novel I enjoy tremendouosly) could be added to practically any list of modern fiction novels. Dystopian, oppressive and controling '1984' has all the Lego blocks that were used years after on countless works. As such, yes I agree it should be here two-fold, the content itself and how it influenced Sci-Fi and the view we have in the future.

On the other hand, there is Rammstein, whos industrial music and aestetics might, to some, be an expression of cyberpunk are no more cyberpunk than The Stooges or New York Dolls. It is loud, hard, industrial rock that readers of cyberpunk equate to the decaying societies (sometimes) represented by the genre.

I am not bashing Rammstein, Du Hast is a great song, I am questioning the validity of entries made by individuals based on what they 'think' should be included here due to the work's connection, gossamer at times, to cyberpunk.

Start the article with a definition of cyberpunk, remind people of what it is, that might clear a path to works that should be posted here.


[edit] Dystopias

Please, stop adding movies just because they're dystopic science fiction. Cyberpunk is about hackers, artificial inteligence, megacorporations dominating the world, not crazy totalitarian dystopias in the future. Totalitarian dystopias have existed way before cyberpunk and have nothing to do with it. 201.9.91.136 00:03, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Re:Dystopias

--What about the online move "Zeitgeist" that seems to meet all the aforementioned criteria, and being that Wikipedia does not acknowledge the existance of a film with said qualifications and millions of viewers as something of significance is a bit odd to say the least.-- Parasite Twin - August 23, 2007 12:23 est.

[edit] The "Heavy Metal" movie.

I'm against having the Heavy Metal (1981) movie in this section. It precedes the landmark releases of the cyberpunk (Blade Runner and Neuromancer) and is mostly associated with the Heavy metal music genre. 201.50.230.195 13:42, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reworking the lead

The lead seems to suggest that this list is about written works only yet it covers more than that. I think the lead needs to clarify that. --neonwhite user page talk 00:19, 2 June 2008 (UTC)