The word cyberpunk (cyberpunk in English) was created by Gardner Dozois, editor of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, which includes two indivisible terms of this genre of science fiction: cyber, in reference to cybernetic technology and punk, as an emblem of an oppressive lawless society dominated, in this case, by technology.
Where did it all begin?
We have to go back to January 1960 when the idea of cybernetic organisms, cyborgs, and the possibility that a human could combine with mechanical parts and form a product of both, arose. The appearance of the cyborg concept in science fiction represented a direct precursor to cyberpunk.
A few months after 1960, the American journalist and science fiction writer Alfred Bester and many other authors are referenced creating the wave of cyberpunk thinking. His novel, “The stars, my destiny” is considered a pioneer of the cyberpunk movement, as it was published in 1957 and gathers the foundations of this literary style.
Already in 1982, the publication of the collection of short stories “ Burning Chrome” by William Gibson -the majority nominated in prestigious awards such as Hugo or Nebula-, flagged Gibson as one of the most prominent authors of the cyberpunk genre.
The writer Bruce Bethke would add another page to this evolution with his short story “Cyberpunk” r4 1983, which led to the widespread use of this term.
In literature, we can clearly highlight three stages of cyberpunk. Gibson, of course, is in the first of them. These three stages would be: the classic Cyberpunk (during the 80s), with authors as representative as William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, John Shirley, Pat Cadigan and Rudy Rucker , the new cyberpunk wave (during the 90s), where cyberpunk gives the leap to cinema and Japanese manga, among other things and, finally, post- cyberpunk, set in the 21st century and born from the mother genre.
We cannot forget two important historical moments in the history of cyberpunk: the cover of Time magazine in February 1993, which in this issue tried to draw and disseminate cyberpunk history and thought through its pages and the premiere of “ The Matrix ”in March 1999, which is considered one of the most popular cyberpunk films in history, as it portrays typical themes of a dystopian future within the line of the cyberpunk movement.
Do you want to know all the subgenres that exist within cyberpunk? Adjust the implant that we started.
