Catching Up: Part Four - Goddamn 'punks...

Yep, it's me again. Well, who else would it be, really? Don't you roll your eyes at me...

I've been considering the possibilities of a neo-victorian society, so I've been reading whatever I can find out about it, including - gasp! - a perilous trip to the uncharted territory at world's end, otherwise known as Wikipedia. A common word that came up in relation to neo-victorianism was the word 'steampunk' which, paraphrased is a setting in a world that still runs on steam power. A real intellectual leap I know, but bear with me, all will be revealed ;)

Steampunk is a subgenre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy, such as fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, or real technological developments like the computer occurring at an earlier date. Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" of such technology as dirigibles or analog computers; these frequently are presented in an idealized light, or a presumption of functionality.
Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk and shares a similar fanbase and theme of rebellion, but developed as a separate movement (though both have considerable influence on each other). Apart from time period and level of technological development, the main difference between cyberpunk and steampunk is that steampunk settings usually tend to be less obviously dystopian than cyberpunk, or lack dystopian elements entirely.

As you can no doubt guess, this lead me to go poke around and find out what i could about cyberpunk:

Cyberpunk is a science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is derived from cybernetics and punk and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983, although the style was popularized well before its publication by editor Gardner Dozois. It features advanced science, such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.

This lead me to the word 'Biopunk' - and yes, I confess to surfing wikipedia at the time. While I'd been interested in both steam- and cyberpunk, neither of them quite fit properly with what I was working on.

Biopunk (a portmanteau word combining "biotech" and "punk") is a term used to describe:

1. A hobbyist who experiments with DNA and other aspects of genetics.


2. A techno-progressive movement advocating open access to genetic information.


3. A science fiction genre that focuses on biotechnology and subversives.

...

Science fiction genre
Biopunk science fiction is a sub-genre of cyberpunk fiction that portrays the underground side of the "biotech revolution" which in the 1990s and 2000s was expected would start having a profound impact in the first decades of the 21st century. Biopunk stories explore the struggles of individuals or groups, often the product of human experimentation, against a backdrop of totalitarian governments or megacorporations which misuse biotechnologies as means of social control or profiteering. Unlike cyberpunk, it builds not on information technology but on synthetic biology. Like in postcyberpunk fiction, individuals are usually modified and enhanced not with cyberware, but by genetic manipulation. A common feature of biopunk stories is the “black clinic”, which is a lab, clinic or hospital that performs illegal, unregulated or ethically-dubious biomod and gengineering procedures.

So there you have it. I am writing a dystopian, therianthropic biopunk novel :P

All quotes taken from www.reference.com