Cyberpunk

What is it about cyberpunk that's so interesting? I think part of the appeal lies in the fact that it offers a return to storytelling in the old fashioned sense of the term. You could even call it science fiction that, in spite of all the pessimism and bleakness, is almost Shakespearean in its treatment of plot, and its emphasis on revenge. To me, cyberpunk was born when science fiction realized two fundamental things: a) if it were to claim to be grown up fiction, it had to feature morally grey characters who were also bad-ass and b) it needed an armature of old fashioned plot. Neuromancer being the prime case-in-point in this regard. Schismatrix is intriguing. The writing, while nothing brilliant, is also not pedestrian. It has that aspect about it that can instantly label a sort of writing as science fiction: that of rendering human beings larger than life by reflecting them against Earth shattering phenomena, or serious galaxy wide political intrigue. On the flip-side, science fiction is also quite capable of doing just the opposite, that is, making man look like he's nothing in the face of events and an universe largely out of his control, in spite of technology trying to help him out. Cyberpunk leans largely towards this latter aspect, and for its time, meant a bold new step for SF everywhere. Nowadays, its been absorbed into SF seamlessly: nothing is cyberpunk anymore, while everything is, if you consider how everyone takes cybernetics for granted when writing their science fiction.