All Systems Dread (All Systems Red D.A.R.E Review Part 2: Argue)
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| Well, you can't argue with facts! |
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| Even Keanu is disappointed! |
If you remember the last blog post, which was waaaaaaaaaay too long ago because your beloved host here is a habitual procrastinator with VERY poor mental health, Murderbot is a story about a cybernetic organism whose sole purpose in life is to be treated as a robot and leased out by a galaxy-spanning megacorporation to people in need of security. This harkens back to classic cyberpunk works like Altered Carbon or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, with similar situations where sapient beings are quite literally treated as property. While the trope of one or more characters being "corporate slaves", in a sense, is by no means telltale of a good cyberpunk story (trust me, there are some HORRIBLE ones I've read with that premise. Most of them too inappropriate to even MENTION here!), it does help establish a darker backdrop of society which most cyberpunk stories play off of.
Most modern Cyberpunk stories remember the cyber in one way or the other, bringing in Cyborgs or Cyberspace in some way shape or form, but often forget the most crucial element of Cyberpunk, which need not be spelled out at this point. Commonly, the entire point of Cyberpunk is that the characters use technology at their disposal as a means of rebellion against an oppressive society, which opens up opportunities for some darker narratives. This, of course, is often overshadowed by another trope that destroys immersion: the protagonists beating the corporations for good. This kind of trope is seen VERY often in things like Ready Player One, its sequel, et cetera. The problem with this trope lies in the method in which it is executed: corporations in these worlds are often represented by evil CEOs and the like, a total 180 from what Cyberpunk is.
But what is Cyberpunk, aside from Cyber + Punk? At its core, a criticism of societal systems, with the protagonists directly at odds with those very systems. Much like cosmic horror, if these things are defeated in the conventional sense of punching the badguy until he surrenders or dies, it breaks the story. It's the same reason why Brian Lumley's Cthulhu works are garbage as cosmic horror reads (no offense to Lumley fans, at least he wasn't AS racist as Lovecraft). Just like Lumley works, modern Cyberpunk takes its genre and transforms it into pulp reads to satisfy the masses.
Some might think that the transformation from modern cyberpunk into yet another pulp fiction piece is the result of writers having exhausted the amount of stories to tell with the genre (an argument CONSTANTLY used against Mecha and Western stories, which is simply untrue). This brings us back to Murderbot. Murderbot follows cyberpunk conventions: SecUnit is constantly at odds with a system content in treating cybernetic organisms like it as slaves, and terminating the noncompliant members of its species, SecUnit rebels against society in secret by watching space netflix and disobeying its "Do not disobey humans" module in order to save what little people it can, and the Company is literally nameless due to Murderbot's hatred of it, not to mention universally hated, though never directly fought. These are traits that are directly Cyberpunk, and yet delivered in a fresh manner that takes every classic cyberpunk trope to its logical conclusion. Our protagonist is quite literally just another number, something modern Cyberpunk edgelord protagonists try to imply when monologuing to generic love interest #42069, and yet only succeeding in proving when the reader loses all interest in them.
But what makes Murderbot a unique take on Cyberpunk, aside from taking many conventions from the genre up to eleven? Why, I could go the easy route and say that unlike most Cyberpunk stories, it takes place in SPAAAAAACE, but then Chris D. Funk would crawl out of my computer like the girl from the Ring and throttle me. Nay, the thing that makes Murderbot so unique is its relevance in this day and age. Within "All Systems Red", Murderbot is torn between acting like a mindless machine or embracing the creativity inherent in its organic parts. This is extremely similar to the ordeal brought on by the modern education system. But the real point of relevance here is that the Corporations aren't directly hostile to anyone, or even EVIL in a conventional sense, yet, by putting the maximization of profit before the safety of people, still cause the most harm within the story.
In Ready Player One, IoI was constantly chasing Wade for being the protagonist. In the film adaptation of Johnny Mneumonic, there was that weird corporate guy constantly chasing Keanu. The reason why most Cyberpunk doesn't work nowadays is that it feels like pure escapism mixed with this hero fantasy of punching "evil corporate guy" in the face. On the contrary, Murderbot feels painfully real, with a tad of escapist comedy dropped in to keep from being too depressing. On its surface, it feels like a fun romp through space, but the thing is what Murderbot is too traumatized to talk about for more than a few pages at a time, mixed with the constant looming presence of a corporation that sees both humans and robots alike as just a means to stimulate the economy more is... Almost beautifully tragic, in the sense that it feels like almost a wakeup call to the reader that doesn't give you the non-answer of "punch bad guys, work hard, and it'll all be fine", and instead shows Murderbot run and hide from a system with seemingly no solution to its constant oppression.
Funk would be proud.
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| I'd take a hostile eldritch abomination to an uncaring megacorporation any day of the week |
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