Grimpunk is a particular style of science fiction that shows the future as neither progressed nor regressed, but just as more of the same. By nature, grimpunk is neither optimistic nor pessimistic, instead, it stays as starkly realistic as possible.
Grimpunk fits into an interesting niche between two more popular forms of science fiction: 'cosmic' science fiction and regressive science fantasy.
In the former, scientific progress dominates the landscape, and human beings are capable of addressing complicated problems on a massive scale ("2001", "Sunshine"). Visually, technology is geometric and clean - a future built by Apple.
In the latter, despite advances in technology, humanity has somehow managed to devolve into a semi-medieval state. Agents of monarchies duel with laser pistols. Spacecraft land on distant planets - to disgorge sword-wielding soldiers ("Star Wars", "Dune", "Krull").
Grimpunk sits uncomfortably in-between these two - it proposes a future that is curiously unlike the present. What if we were already in the future? How long is your shift on Jupiter? What's the commute like in the morning? This vision is all the more interesting because the 'present' in the premise is the present of the early 1980's. Not only are you stuck fighting an alien killer with basic handguns and home-made flamethrowers, but you need the union's permission to do so.
Investigated in detail, there are several indentifying traits to the genre:
- A bare minimum of technological progress. Space travel, if extant, is based on cryogenics. FTL drives go without mention or explanation. Personal technology has not evolved - there are rarely personal computers, much less jetpacks or iPods. Military technology is still based on projectile weapons and nuclear bombs are still the most cataclysmic part of the arsenal.
- Technology is mechanical and not computerised. Grimpunk spaceships are not dissimilar from steampunk ones. Rather than smooth, ivory pinnacles, they are twisted masses of dripping pipes and pounding pistons. Computers themselves are stuck in the early 1980's. Computers have no AI beyond a basic query-response mechanism and the primary interface is still the keyboard.
- Stratified social structure. The social order is unchanged from the early 1980's. Blue collar vs. White collar provides the majority of the tension. Corporations and some sort of government uneasily share power and responsibility.
- A quest for purpose. In several examples of the genre, the protragonist is anxiously seeking some sort of 'purpose'. This partially stems from the social order (above) and partially from the general malaise that permeates the genre - humanity seems to have reached a plateau.
- Reduced scale. Unlike the cosmic/universal scale of some science fiction, the issues confronted in grimpunk are reduced to a personal level. Although the larger (socio-political) problems provide background, the problem in any specific piece of grimpunk fiction is addressed on a local scale. This supports the realistic premise of the genre.