Willam Gibson's Johnny Mnemonic and the Elements of Cyberpunk

A crappy environment, importance in money, biogenetic, and appearances of artificial intelligence: These are the characteristics of steampunk and cyberpunk that we’ve discussed in class. Punk is a type of subculture that often reminds people of a style that is deviated from the widely known societal view, often associated with aggressiveness and individual freedom. The high technology and different lifestyle defined in cyberpunk is also enhanced with the merging of Japanese and western culture. Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson really emphasized on these characteristics of punk and pulled in futuristic technologies to enhance further.

The whole story deals with fights and battles, really pulling in the element of aggression into act showing people being ripped into half. This aggression is then merged with technology as most of these people who dies from the attacks are robots and cyborgs, meaning that instead of the word ‘dying’ it may be more fit to describe them as being ‘deactivated’ or ‘broken down.’ Lots and lots of characters appear within the short span of the whole story, which really shows the different types of technologies used in different robots, also stressing about how artificial intelligence has taken over a big part of society. What I believe is quite special about Cyberpunk is that when we think of advanced technology, we think of a futuristic society that is rich and wealthy.

However, due to the element of punk, it all goes the other way and takes place in a poor, crappy environment. I believe that this is because these stories take place in a society where technology is all popular, and therefore pulling in both the existing societal hierarchy of the rich and poor and the high technology of the future, shows even in the most terrible conditions within the community technology exists, with the name tag of “Lo-tek”.

The idea of the different female representation was also interesting, as it is said that within cyberpunk the appearance of alpha females are popular. In Johnny Mnemonic, despite Johnny explicitly being the main character, Molly does most of the work and brings Johnny to different places to carry on his work. The bold characteristic of steampunk and cyberpunk is defined through the cancellation of all elements of softness; In many other genres, females are often represented to be fragile, waiting for a male protagonist to rescue her. Cyberpunk is a harsh, mechanical genre that does not show the beautiful side of society, but gives a futuristic touch take the unfamiliarity of the mood to another level.