Punk Punk - Television Tropes & Idioms

Punk Punk genres are a generalization of Cyber Punk into other periods or with other genres mixed in. In the 1980s, authors like William Gibson and Bruce Sterling wrote dystopian novels set twenty minutes into the future, where they explored themes such as the impact of modern technology on everyday life, the rise of the global datasphere as an arena for communication, commerce, conflict, and crime, and invasive cybernetic body modifications. The heroes of these stories were marginalized, seedy, and rebellious, in other words "punks". Bruce Bethke called this Cyberpunk, and it was good. (Arguably, Punk Punk is Older Than Steam. For instance, the early Robin Hood stories can be described as a 16th century Punk Punk repackaging of the Chivalric Romance.)

The original noir flavor of Cyber Punk had disillusioned, cynical protagonists striving against overwhelming odds to avoid total defeat. As other authors latched onto the genre they added another, more optimistic, flavor with badass longcoats wearing mirrorshades and using Impossibly Cool Weapons and other gadgets to wipe out the opposition. They also took the Punk to other time periods and settings, creating Punk Punk genres. Common for all such genres is that the technology (and/or magic) level is turned way up, an ultra-modern sensibility is grafted on, and that the protagonists are somewhere along the Sliding Scale Of Anti Heroes living in a Privately Owned Society. The world is also on a sliding scale, from a World Half Empty to A World Half Full (or, rarely, even more optimistic).

Shared genre conventions

Technology (and/or Magitech)...

... is ubiquitous and, in retro-futuristic settings, considerably more advanced than that available in the corresponding period.
... is a means to control the public. The actual form of government varies, but it is usually somewhat sinister and oppressive (Dystopia, duh?).
... provides some kind of medium for global or at least wide-ranging communication that is driven by research and/or business, piggybacked by military/political needs.
... is a strategic resource. In our timeline, this started in the 19th century with railroads and the telegraph; in later settings wars are lost and won in cyberspace, before the army even leaves its barracks. Speaking of the army, while most of the soldiers are using relatively crude weaponry, there will often be an organization whose units pack state-of-the-art weapons and equipment for black-ops work.
... can make people stronger, faster, more perceptive, etc — for instance through body modifications/prosthetics. The science of medicine is typically quite sophisticated.
... can create Artificial Humans, Clockwork Creatures, or Ridiculously Human Robots.
... is developed with little regard for harmful consequences to society or nature.

If there is magic, it may...

... be simply another branch of science that provides Magitech, or
... be Maybe Magic Maybe Mundane, or
... have to do with powers and beings beyond human experience.

In particular, it does not involve divine miracles, and will not depend on faith. Nor does it require a Deal With The Devil. Magic users might suffer deleterious sideeffects.

Character archetypes

Characters in a Punk Punk narrative can include:

Examples

A Punk Punk variant either exchanges the basic technology for that of another historical period or mixes in another genre.

By period

Stone Punk: (Stone Age) Bamboo Technology based Punk.
Sandal Punk: (Bronze- and Iron Age) Ancient Astronauts (or Atlantis) impact the dawning classical civilization.
Clock Punk: (Renaissance / Baroque) Leonardo da Vinci-style clockwork mechanica and gunpowder. Gormenghast, some of the Discworld novels.
Steam Punk: (Victorian Era) Steam-powered machinery in the vein of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. This setting tends to be more romantic and heroic than most Punk Punk settings.
Diesel Punk: (1920s - 1940s) Internal combustion engines and electricity. A fairly rare setting, the most famous example is probably Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow (2004).
Atom Punk, aka Raygun Gothic : (1940s - 1950s) The world of pulp sci-fi where everything from inter-galactic space ships to pens is atomic powered.
Cyber Punk: (1980s - 1990s) The original Punk Punk setting, see the first paragraphs on this page. It used to be a futuristic genre, but Society Marches On.
Post Cyber Punk: (Twenty Minutes Into The Future) a much less dystopian successor to Cyber Punk.
Bio Punk: (Twenty Minutes Into The Future) An alternative to Cyber Punk with genetic engineering instead of computing.

By genre:

Cattle Punk: (The Western / Space Western) A typical John Ford film setting, only with things like robots, super-weapons, and wacky gadgets tossed in.
Desert Punk: Punk + survival in a super-harsh environment. The desert may be Desert Planet or Burned-out Earth.
Dungeon Punk: (Medieval European Fantasy) A heavily magical world where spells and enchanted artifacts take the place of modern technology.
Gothic Punk: The punks are also goths. The world is secretly controlled by various supernatural creatures to whom humans merely pawns.
Ocean Punk, aka Pirate Punk: (Pirate) Punk in a mostly (or wholly) oceanic setting.
Splatter Punk: (Horror) Punk with emphasis on graphic violence and on driving ordinary people to psychotic brutality.
Mash Up Punk: Taking a usable-sized chunk of the world outside your window and hurling it through time and space to some-when else. Most effectively used in the Ring Of Fire Shared Universe created by Eric Flint (in which a small West Virginia town is ripped from its time/space coordinates and plopped down into Germany, 1631).