Cyberpunk thoughts

I haven’t decided whether or not I can comfortably say I like or dislike cyberpunk as a genre, which means I’ll be left with no real opinion in general, left to merely say I like this movie or dislike that book. Which is fine, except that I like compartmentalizing and organizing and you can’t do that when all the little cyberpunk toys won’t fit into a single box.

Anyway, I just rewatched The Matrix. Loved it in the theater, opening weekend, three times. Awesome concept, art, direction, effects, action, actors (mostly). Homerun.

And the good news is that now, 10 years later, the film stands up very well. It’s still a dynamic, artful movie with a great premise and exciting execution. The robots and other visual effects still look perfect, nothing dated or awkward about them. The idea that reality is a computer program filled with deja vu glitches and sensory screw ups (everything tastes like chicken) remains just a little bit unnerving because it still rings true-ish.

In fact, the only thing that wasn’t pitch perfect was the fighting. It felt slow, heavy, choreographed, as though the actors were still practicing at half-speed and didn’t realize that it was time to make it look real. But that’s a minor complaint.

So that goes in the “Like” pile.

Then I picked up some books at Ye Excellent Librarie by one Rudy Rucker, two books from his “ware” series about artificial intelligence. Robots. Things I like. Unfortunately not all were available, so I had to start at book 3, Freeware. I read one chapter, and put it away. His robots (“moldies”) are stinky shapeshifters made of plastic and fungus, and I must confess that I did not like them.

They only live a few years before rotting apart, and in that time they seem to just wander through society like regular people, working jobs and trying to have families while being treated like second-class citizens…who stink…and can shapeshift (but only into a handful of not-very-cool shapes). So I was not excited or compelled by his take on robots or artificial life, largely due to the “ick” factor.

The characters themselves also annoyed me. The apparent heroine Monique talks like a valley girl, on purpose. She chose that affectation, complete with the unnecessary “like” in every sentence, and most statements ending in question marks. Very authentic. Very irritating. The apparent hero Randy is a sort of horny hillbilly, and talks like one. Again, it gets a 10 out of 10 for authenticity, but minus a thousand points for creating a character I want to spend time with.

So that goes in the “Dislike” pile.

This pattern has been fairly consistent for me and things labeled “cyberpunk.” Some are genuinely clever and cool, and an equal number are lazy attempts at being clever and cool without doing any of the work to actually be clever and cool. Which is unfortunate.