| From: | "Wendy Wanders, Subject 117" <KGGEWEHR@******.ACS.MUOHIO.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: (OT)1984 & Animal Farm was Re: Alternate Force Point Schemes) |
| Date: | Thu, 25 Sep 1997 00:01:54 -0500 |
> It's a good book, I'm suprised that it wasn't mandatory.
> Thinking about that book reminded me of another that I was *forced* to read
> but was later glad I did, 1984.
> Isn't that the great-grandfather of Cyberpunk? It's got basically all the
> required plot lines, it just lacks alot of the technology.
Damned good book, and I think its lack of technology helps it, really. It
would be a much different book with a more recent view of technology, I think.
> For all that F.451 lies in the same vein. Has anyone ever worked up a
> genealogy of cyberpunk that doesn't start with or near Gibson?
No, but it would be interesting which novels went into the mix. Things like
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and other works by Dick certainly set the
stage for the less hopeful tone of cyberpunk SF, but I'd not say that novel is
cyberpunk. Neither is Fahrenheit 451, it's another precursor. And 1984 is
definitely seen as an influence in ICE's CyberSpace rpg, whose setting I liked
even if the system was too heavy for me. It has a much clearer description of
the idea of information on people, and the idea of blanks (people without a SIN
or equivalent)... it's illegal to be a blank, for instance, and pretty rare.
Speaking of which (I'm rambling, I know) how do so many in SR get born without
a SIN? Wouldn't everyone delivered in a legal hospital be given one at birth
and registered? If so, are there then just many, many non-hospital births in
2050?
losthalo
