{"id":17986,"date":"2019-08-22T09:49:41","date_gmt":"2019-08-22T16:49:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/?p=17986"},"modified":"2019-08-22T09:52:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-22T16:52:32","slug":"sf-punks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kith.org\/words\/2019\/08\/22\/sf-punks\/","title":{"rendered":"sf -punks"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

I continue to be annoyed by the proliferation of the -punk<\/i> suffix to refer to subgenres of speculative fiction, but I shouldn\u2019t be.<\/p>\r\n

It started with cyberpunk<\/a><\/i>. Whatever you may think of that term, at least the -punk<\/i> part was included in the word for a good reason: the idea was that cyberpunk works embodied attitudes and worldviews related to those of punk culture<\/a>. (It\u2019s possible that the original coiner of the term may have meant punk<\/i> more in the sense of \u201cjuvenile delinquent\u201d; I can\u2019t quite tell from the quotations about his creation of the word. But in later use, my strong impression is that writers and editors who used the term meant punk<\/i> to refer more or less to punk aesthetics and punk culture.)<\/p>\r\n

Then along came steampunk<\/a><\/i>. Which still sometimes had some connection to punk attitudes, but often not so much.<\/p>\r\n

And after that, the floodgates opened to all sorts of other -punk<\/i> terms.<\/p>\r\n

At this point, as far as I can tell, the -punk<\/i> suffix mostly means \u201csubgenre of sf.\u201d In some cases, it still carries connotations of anti-authoritarianism and rebelliousness, but I think most of the time it doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\r\n

In high school, I wrote (but never sent) a letter to the school newspaper complaining about the use of the -gate<\/i> suffix to mean \u201cscandal\u201d; in the word Watergate<\/i>, the -gate<\/i> part had nothing to do with scandals. But in the years since high school, I have gradually resigned myself to the fact that these days, -gate<\/i> means \u201cscandal.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

And I imagine that sooner or later, I\u2019ll resign myself to the -punk<\/i> suffix having little to do with punk. But I\u2019m not quite there yet.<\/p>\r\n

In the meantime, for your edification and enjoyment, here\u2019s a probably-not-comprehensive list of -punk<\/i> subgenres, mostly but not entirely derived from Wikipedia\u2019s list of cyberpunk derivatives<\/a>. In some places, I\u2019m seeing these collectively referred to as punkpunk<\/i> or punk punk<\/i>.<\/p>\r\n