Cyberpunk ?
So, as I admitted to CranberriVodka in the comments she was right all along about the genre. Although technically I would classify this as postcyberpunk.
The Story
How did Shawna Harrison who writes about love, peace and friendship get to cyberpunk ? It goes all the way back to IVB actually. When I decided Mrs.Bennett was going to read a passage from Slaugherhouse 5 I started looking for the best quotes to use. Along the way I saw other Kurt Vonnegut quotes and remembered what a great writer he was, and how I loved his work. I thought to myself I should try and write something similar to his style.
Along my journey of studying up on KV's dystopian literature I came across the term cyberpunk--a sort of subgenre of dystopian lit and after doing some research on that, I decided to write a cyberpunk web serial.
Cyber what ?
Cyberpunk is a type of fiction by the genius writer William Gibson. It explores a lot of high tech. His books deal with an interconnective stream of information called cyberspace. Sound familiar ? Well, the crazy part is he wrote in the 80's before the internet was ever heard off.
Thanks to he and his writing partners donations to the creative commons I was able to read a lot of his short stories and novels online to help me understand what I was writing. His novel Neuromancer is called the "bible" of cyberpunk. I found it a little tedious so, a lot of my information I got from critical analysis/ reviews of it.
The cyberpunk genre is all about a near and relatable future. However the movement really is resigned more to the 80's which is why I say post cyberpunk
Muse, Inspire Me
I have to say this work, Veritas is heavily inspired by the CP movement and the writings of Kurt Vonnegut and William Gibson. It's more details than the overall plot, I will go ahead and list some from chapter 1 :
2081-- This is a refernce to Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron that takes place in 2081. The short film version is also called 2081.
Boston Atlantic Metro.-- Named after Boston Atlanta Megoloplis (BAMA) aka The Sprawl, the setting for Gibson's Sprawl trilogy.
William Case and Linda Gibson-- Are named after William Gibson himself and two characters ---Case and his girlfriend, Linda Lee (I freaked when I saw this) in Neuromancer. So no that was not a reference to that Linda Leigh.
Kyto and Kytocxin-- I came up with the name Kytoxcin first, after the drug Mytoxcin (mustard gas) which is mentioned in Neuromancer. I decided to just make the inventors last name Kyto after the first 4 letters. It's funny how it sounds Japanese.
Simstim-- Yeah, I stole this word/concept too.
Antique Paper Bills line (prolouge)that is from line is from a short story by Gibson and another Michael Swanwick called Dogfight.
Prolouge
I did want to back up a bit to the prolouge. I wanted to hint this was taking place in the future with a few little lines.
The fact that he is having a conversation, looking for sugar packets (i know random) and writing a letter was supposed to illustrate he wasn't driving the car.
I'm Still A Writer !
I did come up with some things on my own. I was inspired for the idea of Syndicates by MT Anderson's novel Feed. I got the name Syndicate because the RSS in RSS feed stands for really simple syndication.
As I mentioned in the comments, I really had to look to the past to decided how the future in this serial will look. I asked myself what hasn't changed in 100 years ? What hasn't changed in 1000's of years and if it did change is their still a version of it ? I mean people still perform Shakespeare they still listen to Beethoven.
For instance oral stories--epic poems--books--plays--radio shows--television--??(DVR, maybe ?)
Disclaimer #2 : Beware the Trope
In case you can't tell this will have a lot of Art Major Science like UL2 had some Art Major Law. I do a bit of research but, it can sometimes go over my head.
I know, I'm a trope addict but they are not bad things and have really helped develop the story.
Chapter 2
I really wanted to be far ahead in my writing before I post the next chapter but, at a certain point I get confused and almost blog about things that haven't happened yet ! Anyway I think I am enough chapters ahead to give you all a little more. I haven't really had enough time to set the scenery.
Chapter 2
Playlist
-1- Baptism by Paul Cardall
-2-May it be by Enya
-3- Colorblind by Natalie Walker
