This week, the genre was Cyberpunk and Steampunk, a sub-genre stemming from the anxieties modern societies have about the future of our world and humans connection to that future. The '_____' Punk genre usually gets it names from the type of technology the world specifically uses. Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Diesel punk, etc.
I read Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson, definitely following these tropes, a strong woman character named Molly and the Japanese mafia the Yakuza being talked about. It even talked about when Lewis needed to get a prosthetic for Molly hurting his thumb earlier. Other than the obvious points that place it into the sci-fi genre, like the RGB code for example. This is a good short story that covers the very basic of what cyberpunk tropes are.
Common tropes in Cyberpunk/Steampunk are the role reversal of the stories protagonist. Suddenly we see a much more powerful, and genetically modified version of the typical female heroine. While the male protagonist seems a lot less useful. Something very odd to the western culture world of cinema. Usually some of the only cinema or other media that push this are future based films and steam/cyber punk genres. AKA the Alien Franchise.
Even in our own class, a lot of ended up debating the future and what truths this genre may have on our own future. I very much think that is the point of the genre's existence is to raise questions, to have us think about the future, however fantastical it could be.
A lot of cyberpunk is almost like a what if scenario. The world is ever-changing, from the automation of robots and other commodities, eventually the superb efficiency of robotic function would prove human interference as just inert. People in our own world continue to altar their bodies for machinery to help take that place once filled by flesh and bone. In our time, its mostly from the result of injury, or surgery where the humans original organ or limb has been broken beyond prepare or is faulty from use. My father for example had to have both of his knees replaced with robotic parts so as he could still walk. He worked in a very demanding field and by his retirement, couldn't take the pain his knees had been causing. Now my father, a man born in the late 50's, right at the start of the space race, is now partially a cyborg, not too dissimilar from the half robotic counterparts in today's media. People continue to alter their own bodies to become genetically modified. These things come from modern day issues, talking about how modern day technical advances and society is changing. Like not having the same conforming genders as our ancestors have had, or how science is starting to affect our own bodies.
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