CyberpunkReview.com is hosting a poll to gauge readers' favorite cyberpunk authors. The usual suspects are duly listed -- Gibson, Sterling, Stephenson, Egan, Rucker, etc. -- but one name jumped out at me as wholly undeserving: Mac Tonnies. I mean, yeah, I wrote a book of moderately cyberpunk short-stories back in 1995. One book. And quite honestly, it's not that great, although I had a lot of fun writing it.
So do I qualify as a "cyberpunk" in the literary sense? Probably not, although I drew (and continue to draw) heavily from ideas and tropes that originally metastasized under the competent gaze of "Movement" cyberpunks in the 1980s. (But then again, what thirty-something with a blog and an affinity for science fiction doesn't?)
I guess I prefer the term I coined in my recent interview with Ballardian: "ufopunk." So from now on, if anyone asks, that's what I'll say I am.
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6 comments:
Your guess is as good as meme.
Is Ridley Scott a cyberpunk film director? Or is he an artist of varied means with a deep appreciation for the cyberpunk genre?
Can Mac Tonnies be stuffed into one identity box or is he a bit of a shape-shifter?
Ufopunk. Um, how would that be pronounced? Sure you want to limit yourself to "ufo"-whatever?
I personally will be going by the term "cryptoid" from now on.
Can Mac Tonnies be stuffed into one identity box or is he a bit of a shape-shifter?
Definitely a bit of a shape-shifter. For my next trick, watch me be two or more things simultaneously!
Um, how would that be pronounced?
"Yoo-fo-punk." Emphasis on the first syllable.
It is very good, there are indeed some amazing authors in this cool genre.
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