-
Dude. Seriously. Listen.
Steampunk? It’s done. Steam is so 2008. Stick a fork and a cork in it — game over, man, game over. And cyberpunk? Well, pshh, that’s ten years dead. So is splatterpunk. And dieselpunk is just cresting the top of that wave, but fuck all that, I am nothing if not a man who recklessly looks forward without any considerations for the present. I’m not some ninny-pantsed navel-gazer. The Omphalos can suck it.
Looking forward, I see a gap — a yawning wide open chasm of hopelessness, like some kind of spectral mouth-and-butthole combo pack that eats our dreams and craps them out devoid of all their goodness — where genre literature has no “somethingpunk” on the horizon. That saddens me. It even saddens my dogs. I mention this to them, and they just whine and mewl and cover their noses.
And covering your nose won’t protect you. Not from a nuclear bomb. Not from this.
So, I’m going to do you a favor.
I’m going to step into the yawning chasm and fill it with my seed of wisdom.
You need the next wave of blahblahpunk?
Uncle Doctor Chucky “Cheesesteak” Wendig is on the case, bitches.
(This blog inspired somewhat by DeAnna Knippling.)
Cornpunk
The yaddayaddapunks generally posit a world essentially fueled by the yaddayadda thing, right? Everything runs on steam in steampunk, cyberpunk shows a world ineluctably married to futuristic corporate computer culture, and splatterpunk reveals a future where everything is based on an economical ecosystem of gore and viscera. (Okay, I might have that last one wrong.) If you were to assign our current day and age an XYZpunk name, you might think of it as “Oil-and-Cheeseburger-Punk,” but that really doesn’t have a ring. But. But! Everything is also based on corn. I think with a few knob twists and level tweaks, you could crank that up and give us a crazy moonbat podunk dystopian future-present where all of Western Civilization is powered by corn and corn-derivatives. It’s all silos and cornfields and giant mega-tractor-threshers and it’ll be all “Great Depression II: Sadness Boogaloo.” And fuck me if this didn’t start out as a joke but now sounds completely compelling. I call dibs! I call dibs on cornpunk! And niblets, too! Corn niblets! I call dibs on corn niblets because they are delicious!
Unicornpunk
Unicorns are just way too sweet and syrupy — unicorns are basically the mythic animal representation of rainbows and puppies, you know? It’s all glitter, except not stripper-glitter, but like, magical glitter that cures tummyaches and makes cupcakes grow on trees and shit. We need to get shut of all that. Unicorns need to harden the fuck up. I envision a world where unicorn horn is powdered as an aphrodisiac. I see armies riding on unicorns whose white hides are stained with the blood of innocents. I see unicorns with goddamn leather eye patches and barbed tails and saddles made of human flesh.
Puppetpunk
A future where puppets represent a draconian upper-class. I don’t even need to say more than that. Because that is the coolest idea you’ve heard in your life. I know it is. I’m in your head, and it’s the most awesome thing that’s up there right now. Puppetpunk. Eff yeah.
Foodiepunk
Foodie culture right now is superhuge. Every time you turn on the television someone is filling a turducken with sabayon foam or eating 72 Wagyu Beef burgers out of a football helmet — we’re fascinated in equal part by culinary pretensions and gastronomical feats of faux-heroism. And I’m totally into it. I totally want to jack that up. You could tweak the settings where everything is food — all the celebrities are chefs, all our resources go toward culinary stunting rather than feeding the populace, where the economy is based off of some kind of fancy bread dole (“That’ll cost you 370 foie gras chips and one bucket of pot de creme“). Plus, if you take the gluttonous stunts represents by shows like Man Vs Food or Bizarre Foods but twist its nipples a bit, you suddenly get this kind of epic mythic Herculean vibe, where our heroes must pass like, Seven Culinary Dangers (“Now you must battle the GASTROGNOME and his lackey, BOBBY FLAY!”) Foodiepunk. You heard it here first, ladies.
Zombiepunk
Zombies are the rage right now, but it generally goes the same way every time — okay, yes, blah blah blah, zombie apocalypse. But very rarely do we see a future where we’ve acclimated to the zombie menace. Where we farm zombies for food or parts, where we use them as slave labor, where they represent a tortured underclass — a slave caste of undead shamblers. Man, again, this post started off as a joke, but ooooh, this has potential. I call dibs! Dibs on zombiepunk! You can’t have it! Dibs are legal! It’s the law! Hands-off, verboten, awooga, awooga! Don’t make me preemptively procure a lawyer.
Pornopunk
I don’t even need to describe this to you. You already get it. And please, put your underpants back on. The pants can stay off, but the underpants? That’s crass. It’s just crass. This is a family establishment.
Badgerpunk
No, I don’t know what the fuck you’d get out of Badgerpunk, but badgers are awesome. They’re just mean, cranky little bastards. If you can’t base an entire subgenre (and fashion style) on them, then I’d say as a society we’ve lost all hope. Everybody could color their hair like badgers fur. Maybe we’d all have pet badgers and treat them like royalty. I don’t know. I don’t even care. But badgers, man. Badgers.
Somethingpunk?
I should totally put together an anthology where everybody contributes a story that is of some weird variantpunk exploration. I mean, I probably won’t, because I’m lazy. But I totally should.
So, howabout you? Chime in. Come up with your own blah-blah-punk, drop it into the comments.
Best comment wins a prize.
That prize is a virtual high-five from me. We can even virtually jump up in the air and freeze frame at the exact moment our hands slap together in victory.
About The Author
ChuckWendig
Chuck Wendig is equal parts novelist, screenwriter, and game designer. He is the author of the novels DOUBLE DEAD, BLACKBIRDS, and MOCKINGBIRD. In addition, he's got a metric boatload of writing-related e-books available, including the popular 500 WAYS TO BE A BETTER WRITER. He currently lives in the wilds of Pennsyltucky with wife, dog, and newborn progeny.
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- FAIL WHALE
- Transmissions From Baby-Town: “Nine Months” February 22, 2012
- 25 Things I Want To Say To So-Called “Aspiring” Writers February 21, 2012
- Now Available: 500 More Ways To Be A Better Writer February 20, 2012
- Flash Fiction Challenge: Making A Sandwich February 17, 2012
- What’s The Poop, Wendig? February 16, 2012
78 Responses and Counting...
I’ve been blending old myths with newer genres. Greek with sci-fi, Norse with western, etc.
It’s nothing new, but maybe it needs a name…
…Mythpunk?
I like it. You have dibs!
I know it doesn’t end with …punk — YET — but Bizarro is exactly what you’re after, crazy man. BizarroPunk. Where William Shatner with a lightsaber is cutting Bruce Campbell a new flaming ringpiece whilst evil leprechauns look on, masturbating furiously. YEEHA!
Actually, I’m not entirely joking about that description.
Oh, and I forgot — SLA Industries was totally Badgerpunk.
Solarpunk – The sun burns hot and the world has turned to solar power since the oil ran out. Giant solar panel farms power huge underground cities. Solar weaponry. Helmets & armor with solar pads trying to capture every last bit of the precious energy.
Geripunk – The old… nay, the extremely old rule the world. The youth are slaves, breeders and organ farms for these ancient rulers who have perfected transplants and surgeries that allow them to live for centuries. Think about this, what if an alzheimers-like disease were really a brainwashing from some alien power. A massive outbreak causes zombie-like hordes to roam the streets, but they’re all headed to some site of power where there alien masters will reprogram them to rule the earth.
Turtlepenispunk
I propose politipunk. In a world filled with lobbyists and special interest groups, who do you trust. It only gets worse the day AFTER the election when you’re told politicians don’t retire when they lose – the pension’s not affordable for the tax payer – no, you’re taken out back and shot. Better start that re-election campaign today and sell out as quickly as possible!
POLITIPUNK is awesome.
GERIPUNK — love it, though I might call it ELDERPUNK or WRINKLEPUNK.
TURTLEPENISPUNK — man, Smithee gets it.
BIZARROPUNK — I want this. Except nobody punks Bruce Campbell. Not even the Shat.
– c.
You’ve been scooped on a couple of these.
Puppetpunk is actually called “feltpunk.” As seen at http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Feltpunk and http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=393408 It’s pretty awesome.
The zombiepunk you describe can, I think, be seen in Fido. You haven’t seen Fido? I’m stunned and amazed. http://www.fidothefilm.com/ Not quite punk, really, but it has a lot of the elements you describe.
Badgerpunk would be awesome. Actually, I can totally see badgers as the punks of a Redwall/Mouseguard/Narnia sort of world.
I’m still waiting for Romapunk. All the punk sensibilities set against the decline of the Roman Empire. Bread and circuses. Moral decay. And, hey, actual Goths!
Feltpunk. Huh. Who’dathunkit?
I have seen part of FIDO — what that’s missing in terms of punk is the, well, punk part. But yes, I’m picking up what you’re laying down.
– c.
I hate to burst bubbles, but “mythpunk” is already a _punk thing. (See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_derivatives – and here: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Mythpunk)
I’m going to say Piratepunk. Nothing fits the DIY F.U. ethic quite like pirates. Make them Somali pirates against the regime of the big bad corporate world. There you go. :-p
One of my NaNo ideas could best be described as “Frankenpunk.”
For the longest time, I have been thinking of a setting I call CHURCHPUNK – in a world where man has gone astray, a new fascination with sacral architecture and design arises among the young looking for a new way. They fight the fat cats and warmongers from their hideouts deep under ruined cathedrals, invoking saints, the Virgin Mary and the Lord in their fight against oppression. The weirdest part – it seems to work. Is it the power of autosuggestion or are we actually witnessing miracles? The believers do not care – they know the only miracles they need are their fists and minds.
It’s funny, because as described in that link, MYTHPUNK sounds basically like URBAN FANTASY.
And I’d be on board with PIRATEPUNK, but I assume you wouldn’t quite grasp the zeitgeist with Somalis — no Johnny Depp, there, sadly. (Though a far more richer and mature subject matter, but who wants *those?*)
– c.
@Rick:
Did you actually write said FRANKENPUNK?
And if not — why not?!
– c.
I’ll see your badgerpunk and raise you Platypunk.
Because a platypus was clearly made out of evolution’s leftovers. And he’s unhappy about that.
But I’d like to take a stab (heh) at Unicornpunk, unless someone called dibs . . . I’ve got an idea . . .
PLATYPUNK may just win the Internet.
And CHURCHPUNK totally works, that’s solid.
– c.
What about gaspunk? The “punk” genres not only seem to be based on the fuels or tech involved in a genre, but tend to be either way in the future… or retro. We have a ramped up genre based on the gasoline-soaked economy of the 60′s and 70′s, where cars get bigger and bigger, engines consume gas the way Oprah eats onion rings and as a result of this over indulgence, fashion and politics become bloated and corrupt. Wars are fought over who’s designer jeans are tighter. “Free love” transforms into socially mandated competitive screwing at dinner parties. Bellbottoms grow so large that old-style hoops are installed at the hem. Mustaches grow from bushy to porn-star to braided and beaded to upper-lip based beards. When the fuel gets scarce, we don’t worry about it or get all Mad Max, we just have a bush war with Soviet Russia over another country that has petroleum reserves. Maybe it becomes a third-world game, with the US and USSR sending their very best and fabulous regiment of soldier over there to disco and napalm their way to victory and a massive field of heavy crude. And the drugs, oh man, the recreational pharmaceuticals and the weird world-spanning religions they spawn…
Crap…now I want that story to be real.
GASPUNK sounds almost like a subsubgenre of DIESELPUNK.
Ooh… addendum to gaspunk… when poor urban white kids get sick of the saccharine disco and softrock embodied by their bloated culture, they rebel. Their revolutionary brigades wear cast off clothing pierced with medals made of safety pins and staples. They raise screaming anthems (poorly performed) to the rise of the proletariat and the rage of the free heart. They brew their own drugs to counter the effects of the feel-good juice they’ve been pumped with all their life. In protest of the stringy hair and mustaches, they shave thier faces and spike up their incredibly short haircuts, adopting violent shades of hair dye…
Punkpunk.
Another:
BUGPUNK.
Kids getting high on hive-mind drugs, snorting jacked up pollen, wearing clothes that mimic a bug’s exoskeleton. Weirdo bug culture made dominant.
– c.
The future: The squandering of natural resources jacked fuel prices skyhigh cementing the center of power in hands of the fuel congloms. Angered by the blatant power play, a clandestine co-op of science revolutionaries found a way to power anything–homes, cars, anything–with the only plentiful resource they had: their own crap.
As a countermeasure to this movement, food suppliers, in the pockets of the congloms, began lacing the first world’s increasingly poor diets with loperamide, clogging the public’s colons, making bowel movements harder than pushing a stone through a thimble.
With no other means of relief, people enrolled in the government’s Solidarity Program. They traded their freedom for some docusate rations. But not you. You and some friends started your own farms, secreted in warehouses along the American coastlines. Whole grains, almonds, mint, molasses, those are your stocks in trade and your weapons in the war.
Some people have had enough shit.
But not you. You’re just getting started.
You are Fiberpunk.
Nah. I’m not the gal to write pirates. I got burned out of them in college when random groups of kids started “pirate clubs” – in which they wore costumes everyday and drank red bull from rum jugs.
Needless to say I am firmly Team Ninja.
Ooooh … Ninjapunk or Samuraipunk. Now those possibilities abound (for rampant cultural misappropriation) (or already exist in anime somewhere).
FIBERPUNK.
Hah!
“Digest this.”
– c.
Well, shoot. If Mythpunk is already taken I’ll need to come up with a different name for it. “Heroicpunk” might work, as so far all I’ve found with that is some user on YouTube. And so far the ‘blends’ I’ve done have been from heroic epics.
It’s a shame the name’s already been used or I’d call my first fiberpunk novel CHILDREN OF MEN.
I am THERE on the foodiepunk.
Heston’s Feasts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nyVrGFFkLY
This one is him making a four-layer drink for an Alice-themed party.
Sweeeeeet.
How about Paperpunk? In which the Babylonians discover paper and proceed to make erotic comics featuring their gods, a thing that must be repressed at all costs? It’ll probably mess up their politics, too.
My personal favorite is Nogpunk:
http://gunshowcomic.com/comics/20081223.png
Bugpunk . . .
KAFKAPUNK
Elderpunk it is, then.
BOOKPUNK – it’s Fahrenheit 451 but with more motorcycles and katanas.
Oh, and WRITEPUNK – when all publishing houses moved to procedurally generated content, only a cadre of young, cutting edge genre and general writers provide true wordage via underground zines and copybooks. It’s a world where writing no longer puts food on the table, but it nourishes you more than ever.
There’s also punkpunk or DOUBLEPUNK – if everybody is extreme and grimdark, the only way to beat the world is to become even grimme, even darker and so extreme YOU CAN NO LONGER TURN CAPSLOCK OFF.
DOUBLEPUNK: OMG THE FUTURE IS NOW
How about Monkpunk? Buddhist monks that know kung fu or karate or whatever and have weird high-tech melee weapons in a dystopian near-future setting.
LITPUNK!
PHARMAPUNK!
SKUNKPUNK!
MONKEYSPUNK!
Something’s off about that last one.
– c.
Liking MONKPUNK. (Did anyone say SPUNKPUNK yet?)
The novel I am 5,000 words away from completing (woo!) is in fact the very first example of PERIWIGPUNK – with technology gone mad in the 18th century. And potatoes, of course.
What about KungFu-Punk or KaratePunk? We’re talking about stuff like The Matrix (in the Matrix), Kung Fu Hustle, Kill Bill vol1/2, and even Equilibrium with its Gun Kata and distopian future. This is a genre where everyone who is anyone knows a bad ass version of kicking your ass with fists, feet, bullets, wood, and metal or are knocked unconscious with a light smack to the head.
Even a movie like The Warriors would fit into this genre if it had a bit more chop sockie to go with the outrageous gang costumes. And outrageous costumes are part and parcel for this genre. Gravity defying hair, bright colours, metal adorned leather, chains hanging from belts, boots, bikes, and helmets making everything within reach a weapon.
@Chuck – I did a different thing for NaNo because the Nano Thing (which has no punk in it whatsoever) was shouting louder to get written. The Frankenpunk thing is my next project once I edit the Nano book.
–Rick
It seems to me that with SteamPunk being a retro vision of CyberPunk we’ve got a whole vein of untapped historical punk to mine. I think most of the Blackadder series could be pointers for historical punks – GREATWARPUNK, ELIZABETHANPUNK… etc.
I like the idea of going back to CAVEPUNK, but is DINOPUNK a step too far?
Or, stepping sideways and ignoring timepunks, how about TAROTPUNK – I’ll admit I’ve toyed with Punking up the Universal Subconsious before, and Tarot has always had some great ‘characters’ in it.
I would publish the HELL out of cornpunk or badgerpunk. Even if it WASN’T done right. Just because the first is an awesome, and actually workable, concept, and the second involves badgers. Nothing more needed.
That said, mythpunk is awesome, and I would totally dig reading, say, knitpunk. It’d be like Monty Python’s army of badass Hell’s Grandmas…
(incidentally, re Zombiepunk? If you haven’t watched FIDO, go Netflix it.)
I actually made a game a long time ago called PUNK to play games in a variety of -punk genres. The general motif was that the prefix of your choosing was the tool of both oppression and rebellion. Some sample settings included:
Lycanthropunk: A plague of lycanthropy spreads across the world, infecting teens specifically. A bunch of hormonal, pissed off misanthropes (Get it?) run wild on the full moon.
Theopunk: The greek and roman gods died thousands of years ago, but it wasn’t until 20XX that their colossal corpses actually fell to earth. Their blood, organs, bones, and genetic material form the next wave of technology.
Electropunk: It used to be that 44 people died from lightning strikes each year. Now, 44 people get struck, but after that, they can *never* die. News spreads. People climb to the rooftops holding copper poles in the rain, hoping to be struck with immortality.
The next bleeding edge punk I see happening is … DaVincipink. Helicopters, flying machines, wood and canvas and springs and rope.
Also clockworkpunk or, as I like to call it, swisspunk is ready for the comeback it richly deserves.
Funkpunk. Blaxploitation only with laser guns, badass robots and mean, mofo aliens.
And this as the ever-present soundtrack. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMiJnS_9Cdc
Unicornpunk is obviously derivative of cornpunk, you hack.
“I envision a world where unicorn horn is powdered as an aphrodisiac.”
Let it be so.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/holiday2010/?icpg=Banner_HolidayGiftCenter
Okay, Puppetpunk just scares me.
PUNKPUNK! A world about punks who do punk things!
Monkpunk and Funkpunk and my new geek crushes. Maybe they roll together for a Buddhist-dominated future where enlightened street pimps fly around in modified Cadillac Coupe De Villes. Funkymonkpunk? Chunkymonkeypunk?
I once combined parkour, feng shui, urban exploration, and sacred geometry into something I called “Shatterpunk,” so there’s that.
Cryopunk – After global warming roasts the earth’s surface, the megacorps move into refridgerated, underground arcologies ruled by the frozen heads of their immortal CEOs.
Bollypunk – The cyberpunk future of India! Eight-armed cyborgs, digital fakirs, toxic memes that produce elaborate and spontaneous dance numbers!
MaryKaypunk – A dystopian hellscape ruled by direct-to-consumer pyramid schemes!
(Looks like my well has run dry. Wellpunk? Nevermind.)
Podunkpunk – the world is ruled by the iron fist of small town politics in vast and empty rural areas.
Okay, maybe not.
Aha! Trunkpunk! The biggest sport in the land is a violent bloodfest pitting opposing teams in fights to the death using their specially designed and deadly… Luggage!
Carniepunk! It doesn’t rhyme. See, I’m so fucking edgy I could CUT myself. Mad Max style carnivals roam the wasteland. Bearded ladies, toothless ferris wheel operators, the gypsies of the Midwest. They roll out across the plains with their rides and their scams and eat the unwary.
Cozypunk. When the broads of the Hell’s Angels get old they don’t turn to tea and knitting, they dress in leather, wear their sagging tattoos like a badge and solve crimes. Fuck that Miss Marple crap, they’ll figure out the murderer and hogtie the little fucker and use him like a piñata. Cats solving murders? Hah. Wait til Spike, Good Time Molly’s aging and toothless Doberman’s on the job. He’ll gum you to death and piss on the corpse, and have time to back up that rumble with those whores over at the Moose Lodge.
I call dibs on Clownpunk.
CLOWNPUNK makes Baby Jesus wet hisself.
– c.
I call dibs on Punkpunk.
Chipmonkpunk. In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, mutated rodents rule with an furry fist.
Chipmonkpunk. In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, mutated rodents rule with an furry fist.
So good. SO GOOD.
– c.
Claypunk?
And once this claim was supported by an idea for a RPG setting that mixed Babylonian/Hebrew Mythology with a “Zamyatinian” dystopy.
God I love this thread.
How did I miss PLATYPUNK the first time?
And we already had BOOKPUNK. It was called Snow Crash
MONKEESPUNK – It’s Peter Tork/Mike Nesmith slash-fic from the future where everyone wears green knit caps. (dibs)
SelfHelpPunk
or.. heh.. ConformistPunk
Claypunk sounds like one of the other punk style done in claymation. “Wallace and Grommet Hack the Fed”.
TOONPUNK? Bugs and Daffy taking on Elmer and his authoritative regime of right-wing violence…
OCTOPUNK – “In a world where intellectually-uplifted genetically engineered octopi rule the world with an iron tentacle after their wars of revenge on all those who hid shrimp in big jars and callously devoured plate after plate of calamari…”
HUNK – Any other punk genre, starring only male porn stars.
just found this, for all of those who crave some kind of unicornpunk: http://games.adultswim.com/robot-unicorn-attack-heavy-metal-twitchy-online-game.html
Dragonpunk: Massive dracoforms (thanks Shadowrun!) rule humanity from floating mountain cities.
Deathpunk: Post mortem cities with their own distinctive tech (actually i sort of want this one).
Luddpunk: The world gets blasted back to the stone age. Luddites rule us all.
Wangpunk: I’m not proud.
UFCpunk: Want to eat tonight? Better get in the cage and fight for your dinner.
Authorpunk: Everyone ants to be a writer. Writers face eachother is gruelling death matches for face time with agents.
In a future where anarchy rules with an iron fist inside a steel gauntlet of hedonism, and absolute individuality is the currency of the marktplatz, a group lives on the fringe, bucking society’s command to “do whatever you want”. They have established a guideline for all of their behavior and they follow it. They are
The Conformists.
Conform-punk
….
Kinda lame in an obvious sort of way?
aww Dude!
someone else snagged it.
good job Stewart Conover
Wanna see WheeliePunk: a Mad Max-ian world where instead of souped up cars it’s wheelchairs….kinda like this: http://www.webtvhub.com/wheelchair-videos/
but in leather & with rockets. Yah!
Late to the party, and I can’t top Monkeyspunk for humor, so I will say that I’ve honestly been contemplating a sort-of cyberpunk reboot using some of the precidents the iphone has created in the past few years. It would be more sleek and star-trek’ish with it’s glossy touchscreens and such.
I shall call it… Hipsterpunk
Maybe I’m missing the point of the joke, but I think an important aspect of the ___punk genres is style-over-substance. Cpunk was all chrome and 80′s flair, Steampunk is copper and brass with Victorian clothes. Your cornpunk idea has a style, and I agree that it’s pretty compelling in some surprising ways. But what I think makes the whole punk genres compelling is that they’re have a style and why I think there could actually be more genres to come out of the mess…
Then again maybe I’m just being naive and should just let the joke be a joke.
“Amishpunk”.
Amish with steam machinery and Road Warrior mohawks. And assless leather chaps. But with their eyes turned to God.
Prizepunk. Although if all the prizes were high-fives, it would be hard to keep the plot spoilers from gumming up the works.
Youbeenpunkedpunk. The new genre where gears go awry, time is never told, and robots always have a trick or six up their metal sleeves.
Dr. McNinja did something like Unicornpunk last year.
http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=RB-SPARKLELORD&Category_Code=RB
He’s also selling an awesome unicorn blood covered apron
http://www.topatoco.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=TO&Product_Code=RB-UNICORN-APRON&Category_Code=RB
Pandapunk, a dystopian future where everyone just lolls around gnawing on bamboo in the dirt, forgetting to breed.
@MaryAnne:
It is far too early for me to be laughing like this.
I blame you.
– c.
It’s far too late for me to be thinking of such things. I may have to start writing in pandapunk genre, given that I live in China and all. Write what you know, they say!
Here’s a possible photo for the cover: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=16222848&l=d528a70206&id=854135132
I know I don’t get a vote but I’d give it to Daniel Bayn for painting really elegant yet disturbing pictures in my head with each of his punk themes.
Late to this party but I will let you writers expand on: sustainablepunk, antipunk, archaeopunk (a close cousin of mythpunk), babelpunk and fuckpunk. There’s a story in there somewhere.
Well, seeing as the thread’s still going:
Chunkpunk – when humanity has become so obese they need motorized vehicles to carry the weight of their many stomachs. (As envisioned by 2000AD with The Fatties)
Junkpunk – having realised men are only good for one thing, the female race rises. They then power their new XX Chrom world with the power generated by wiring men up to a mainframe by their testicles.
Prohibition damaged something important in the American psyche.
The repeal of Prohibition shattered it beyond repair.
It’s 1939, and alcohol addiction is the fuel that drives the American machine. Like Australian soldiers of old, the masses demand their wages be paid in booze, and the government is happy to oblige. The public is constantly inebriated and happy, except for the wetbrains who will commit any crime for their next drink.
Outside observers, shocked into sobriety, see the rise of warring factions and movements based on favourite drinks – the intellectual Vinos, unstoppable Beerhounds, muscular Whiskeyites, socialist Vodkabuzzers, decadent Cocktailings and ineffectual Ciderwhiners?
Above all else, the soldiers of the United States live and fight on booze – but will their angry, violent rages compensate for their inability to aim and follow orders, as war against Germany and their Schnappstroopers looms?
This is the world of DRUNKPUNK. We don’t card.
–
Patrick O’Duffy
And let us not forget CRUNKPUNK – dystopian fiction set in the nightmarishly minimalist lyrics of Southern electro/hiphop club fusion.
In the words of Lil John and the East Side Boys:
Yeah!
What?
Okay!
–
Patrick O’Duffy
Re: “Amishpunk –
“The sky above the farm was the color of butter, churned to a stiff peak.”
A few years ago, Richard K Mogan put out a book called “Market Forces” that could be described as Corporate Punk. Business is a true contact sport, assassination of the character and physical variety are not only common but occasionally televised, and “contract races”, where two wheeler-dealers agree to auto-duel on a highway in a race to get to the contract signing are the method for making a name for yourself in the business world.
I think anyone can make an actual go with ANY of these ____punk ideas. It may not be the most commercially successful story, but I think any could be a viable, entertaining story.
Mr. O’Duffy… you sell and market DrunkPunk, and I will GLADLY buy the T-shirt and videogame! Hell, you might be able to get corporate sponsorship from real booze companies if you can cut a movie deal…