this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
1 points (100.0% liked)

Cyberpunk

1972 readers
1 users here now

What is Cyberpunk?

Cyberpunk is a science-fiction sub-genre dealing with the integration of society and technology in dystopian settings. Often referred to as “low-life and high tech,” Cyberpunk stories deal with outsiders (punks) who fight against the oppressors in society (usually mega corporations that control everything) via technological means (cyber). If the punks aren’t actively fighting against a megacorp, they’re still dealing with living in a world completely dependent on high technology.

Cyberpunk characteristics include:

Prefixes for posts

This is a community focused on cyberpunk as a genre of fiction. Please post any news articles about our real world slipping into a dystopian nightmare at: !aboringdystopia@lemmy.world


Icon created by @hammerjack@lemmy.zip


If someone is interested in moderating this community, message @brikox@lemmy.zip.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 

It's here! The first teaser! Streaming Jan 22, 2027!

top 11 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] ErevanDB@lemmy.zip 0 points 3 months ago

The sheer irony of APPLE making a neuromancer adaptation...

[–] moakley@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago
[–] mechanismatic@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)
[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

that's good, because I felt nothing of the mood of the novel.

I did (wrongly) feel the same way when the fallout tv show didn't start with "war. war never changes".

There's something that's so profoundly disappointing in the adaptation of a work that begins with an incredible line that instantly sets the mood of the work, and maybe an entire genre. With Neuromancer, you HAD TO show , not just your hand, but your entire arm in showing that your creative team can make "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.", and when we see that sky, your principal actor has to be able to set the mood and protagonist's definition in stone by being able to deliver that line in voiceover. This line isn't about a colour, this line is about the entire mood of the book, and the genre as a whole; the failure of technology as it permeates everything and fails humanity.

Lots of daytime shots, I didn't have much of an image of what I expected Case to look like, but it wasn't him. Probably thinner, frailer and paler. He looks too generically white. The characters seem confident in a very straightforward way, I felt they were more broken and unsure in the book.

Because I'm writing this post for having fun, I want to expand on the point of initial lines in books/works. Some works have that kind of line. This is one.

We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas nails this. What's the book about? Uncontrolled substance abuse, a road trip, the unseen corners of the United States and the freak Americans that fill those spaces. The Terry Gilliam adaptation fucking nailed it (alongside everything else from that book).

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife

I don't give a single fuck about Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen or any of her ilk, nor this genre of romantic novels from whenever the fuck it is. This opening line is still fucking gold, and completely establishes every single aspect of the work it comes from and all other works to follow in its footsteps.

Space. The final frontier.

Shatner delivered it like shit. Patrick Stewart/Jean Luc forever. Yes there's more, but it says so much about the optimistic future and the way our moral heroes are meant to keep pushing humanity into its full potential.

War. War never changes.

The mood of pessimism and inevitability of the human struggles that make up the serious side of fallout gets established in this one line, which Ron Perlman read for the measily price of a sandwich. The man delivered the knockout opening punch by half assedly reading this in 20 minutes, which is something the show should have had, and this show should have had from the actor who is doing the part of Case.

Yes, this work is about the war to end all wars. But even though this is the war to end all wars, it's like every fucking war before it, and every war since it will also be the same.

Because the technology and the times change, but the stupid monkey wearing clothes is the same.

[–] Sergio@piefed.social 0 points 3 months ago (1 children)

the entire mood of the book, and the genre as a whole; the failure of technology as it permeates everything and fails humanity.

Agreed, specifically about how economic socio-technical systems become unmoored from their role of serving people. (Literally independent, in the case of the AI.) Appropriately, the whole cyberpunk genre became just another way of selling books / films / games, and whatever critique cyberpunk offered became watered-down and co-opted. This show is just one more step in that process.

The characters seem confident in a very straightforward way, I felt they were more broken and unsure in the book.

Yeah, in the book they chatted nervously, in this preview they act like they're in a sitcom.

This opening line [of Pride and Prejudice] is still fucking gold, and completely establishes every single aspect of the work it comes from and all other works to follow in its footsteps.

Pride and Prejudice is satirical in a way that's hard to appreciate these days. Austen observed her class' society and its many pecularities and contradictions: mothers who try too hard to marry off their daughters, fathers distracted by easy living, younger sisters who flirt, eligible bachelors who don't seem to care, obsequious relatives, etc. Ultimately Austen has messages that are (very) gently subversive: that the principally city-dwelling upper classes would benefit from intermarrying with the country gentry, that women could be the equals of the men they marry, that it's unfair that women need to desperately seek husbands because they're not allowed to do anything else, etc. It's not a straightforward romance.

I guess in the same way that Pride and Prejudice is sometimes seen as a straightforward romance, Neuromancer is sometimes seen as a straightforward sci fi action story.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Astute observations. I wasn't aware of Austen's work being satirical, but the opener works just as powerfully in a sarcastic context, which further amplifies how good it is.

[–] expect_nothing@leminal.space 0 points 3 months ago

That guy was pretty good in GREEN ROOM (the only thing I've seen him in). I guess an insistent EXXXTREME techno soundtrack is supposed to inspire some kind of excitement in people.

[–] Sergio@lemmy.world 0 points 3 months ago

Somehow even the grimy alley where MC's getting beat down is bright and sunny. How tf did that happen? Oh yeah it's by Apple TV...

[–] mindbleach@sh.itjust.works 0 points 3 months ago

My first impression is that there are fates worse than development hell.

Hope it's good! Emphasis on hope.

[–] pruwybn@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 3 months ago

I'm pumped.

[–] quantumlover@lemmy.zip 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

This looks awesome! Can't wait! Sure, would have been nice if it was more grimy, but I'll take it.