The SF of Smugness
Posted by Niall Harrison
22 February 2012
Jonathan McCalmont examines Tim Maughn's story-cycle Paintwork, and reconsiders the history of cyberpunk:
As in Phase 1 novels, the protagonists of Phase 2 novels such as Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (2008), William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition (2003) and Spook Country (2007) are middle class outsiders with a deep distrust of established institutions. However, while the protagonists of early cyberpunk novels had fallen through the cracks of middle class society, the protagonists of Phase 2 cyberpunk novels intentionally position themselves outside of the ‘mainstream’ of their culture. The recognition that middle class alienation and cheerfully commoditised rebellion were suddenly integral parts of American corporate culture lends Phase 2 cyberpunk novels a celebratory smugness that can be nothing short of nauseating. Like characters in the films of Sofia Coppola, the protagonists of Phase 2 cyberpunk novels breathe a rarefied cultural atmosphere of fashionable nightclubs, swanky hotels and cutting edge cultural events thanks to their ability to stay one step ahead of the technological curve. The celebratory nature of Phase 2 cyberpunk is also evident in the decidedly neoliberal tendency of science fiction writers to globalise cyberpunk narratives by exporting them from America to the developing world (as in Jon Courtenay Grimwood’s Arabesk trilogy and works of Ian McDonald including River of Gods (2004), Brasyl (2007) and The Dervish House (2010)). Looking back on Phase 2 cyberpunk novels, one is struck by both the complacency and the sense of entitlement of a wealthy middle class that was utterly incapable of predicting its own eventual downfall. After all, if the long boom of Thatcherism had enriched the Western middle class why should it not do the same for the entire world? It was not until Phase 3 that cyberpunk finally began to question its affiliation with neoliberalism.
