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> Cyberpunk was thinly-veiled xenophobia about the Japanese This comment might apply to Gibson's works (although I'd dispute even that, Japan is generally pres

> Cyberpunk was thinly-veiled xenophobia about the Japanese This comment might apply to Gibson's works (although I'd dispute even that, Japan is generally presented in a positive light), but Snow Crash doesn't really feature Japan at all. The setting is American through and through, and the main character is part-Japanese mostly just to make "Hiro" a plausible name.

cletus 6y ago
I like this quote [1]: > Since the late 1970s, a key idea in Western science fiction has been that Japan represents the future. Japan's "weird" culture is a figure for an incomprehensible tomorrow. which I found here [2] (titled "Cyberpunk Cities Fetishize Asian Culture But Have No Asians"). Cyberpunk cast (Asian) megacorporations as the architects of a dystopian future with American cowboys (essentially) fighting back (see [3]). [1]: https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-do-westerners-fetishize-japans-futuristic-weirdness-5428322 https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-do-westerners-fetishize-japans-f... [2]: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb7yqx/cyberpunk-cities-fetishize-asian-culture-but-have-no-asians-blade-runner https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb7yqx/cyberpunk-cities-f... [3]: https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/57/nixon57art.htm https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/57/nixon57art.htm
- dleslie 6y ago
  And yet the streets of Bladerunner were full of asians; and for many written works, the ethnicity of those on the street were whatever you imagined them to be. When reading Vice/Gizmodo/Kotaku/etc: assume they are projecting.
spookybones 6y ago
I recall reading long ago of Gibson overtly expressing that he used Japan as the Other. He knew that if he actually studied the culture and learned the language that it would become as prosaic as anywhere else. He wanted to keep the dream that it was a place of the future. If anything, I don’t think it was xenophobia as much as it was embracing cultural alienation.

cletus 6y ago

I like this quote [1]: > Since the late 1970s, a key idea in Western science fiction has been that Japan represents the future. Japan's "weird" culture is a figure for an incomprehensible tomorrow. which I found here [2] (titled "Cyberpunk Cities Fetishize Asian Culture But Have No Asians"). Cyberpunk cast (Asian) megacorporations as the architects of a dystopian future with American cowboys (essentially) fighting back (see [3]). [1]: https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-do-westerners-fetishize-japans-futuristic-weirdness-5428322 https://io9.gizmodo.com/why-do-westerners-fetishize-japans-f... [2]: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb7yqx/cyberpunk-cities-fetishize-asian-culture-but-have-no-asians-blade-runner https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mb7yqx/cyberpunk-cities-f... [3]: https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/57/nixon57art.htm https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/57/nixon57art.htm

dleslie 6y ago
And yet the streets of Bladerunner were full of asians; and for many written works, the ethnicity of those on the street were whatever you imagined them to be. When reading Vice/Gizmodo/Kotaku/etc: assume they are projecting.

spookybones 6y ago

I recall reading long ago of Gibson overtly expressing that he used Japan as the Other. He knew that if he actually studied the culture and learned the language that it would become as prosaic as anywhere else. He wanted to keep the dream that it was a place of the future. If anything, I don’t think it was xenophobia as much as it was embracing cultural alienation.