Grimpunk

What is Grimpunk?

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.

Alien (1979)

The Nostromo is a massive spacecraft floating through space. Seemingly built on an assembly line in Detroit, it is filled to the brim with mysterious steam-valves and pounding pistons, dripping pipes and a complex system of air vents. Humanity travels though the universe, but at slow speeds, with crews in suspended animation for the majority of the journey. The ship is manned by disgruntled, blue-collar workers, who, after working for an unspecified amount of time on a salvage job, are mostly interested in getting their share of the voyage's profits.

Structurally, the crew pay lip service is to a mysterious Company as well as various governmental 'laws'. The two co-exist awkwardly. Initially, the 'law' and company policy alike force the Nostromo out of hypersleep to answer a distress call. But later, compelled by a Company directive, Ash breaks a 'legal' quarantine to let crew members back onto the ship.

No personal technology exists, and, with the exception of the Nostromo itself, very little scientific advances have been made. Home-made flamethrowers are the height of weaponry and the space suits have nothing more than a crude black-and-white video link in them. This latter point is particularly interesting, as it supposes that, in the future, video technology would actually be of poorer quality than the movie itself.

The ship's only computer, 'Mother', works with a keyboard interface and purely on a question/response relationship. There is some (flawed) voice recognition capability, but it inevitably breaks. The computer is of no use in actually monitoring or repairing the Nostromo - when anything breaks, it becomes the role of the mechanics, armed with traditional tools, to find and fix the problem.

The only exception to the genre is Ash, the android, who represents technology vastly more complicated than anything else in the movie. But, even with that, the android is shown to be a messy, mechanical thing, filled with Radio Shack parts and white custard. He's also a spokesperson for Company interests. The higher technology is no more than a management stoolie.

The android also puts voice to another key part of the grimpunk genre - the quest for purpose. Before collapsing into total ruin, Ash declares his envy for the alien lifeform, describing it as the "perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility...I admire its purity. A survivor... unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."

Ash, like everyone else on the ship, is expendable. The Company is willing to sacrifice them all to bring home the curious alien life-form. Their lives have no meaning - at best, they exist to host (briefly) a hostile parasite. As an android, Ash can come to grips with that - but for the others, especially Ripley (who identifies herself strongly with her rank and mission), this is a crucial blow. They are caught up in something much larger than themselves, but, as is the case with a grimpunk movie - Ripley and the crew can only combat it on a personal level. The corruption of the Company and their society is beyond them - instead, they can only battle desperately for their own survival.

Although the movie ends positively - Ripley, at least, has triumphed (finding some small measure of identity as a 'survivor' along the way) - it does so within the relative context of the grimpunk world. The crew is largely dead. The Nostromo and its valuable payload (the ore, not the alien) are both lost. And poor Ripley, if discovered, is in for a serious tongue-lashing (at best) by the mysterious Company.

Alien. (Ridley Scott, 1979)

What went wrong?

The heritage of the science fiction story - in the tradition of Asimov, Campbell, Harrison, etc - is based on the 'great leap forward'. Imagine one technological shift or one burst of genius, and then wildly extrapolate the results. 

Asimov's robots are a perfect example - one massive assumption (innovation in robotics - BOOM!) and then thousands of pages of follow-through. Asimov's work on robots deserves special note because he didn't stop at the 'ain't it cool' stage, but also diligently worked out the social, political and personal ramifications of the new technology.

Another good example - albeit on a smaller scale - is Stephen King's "The Jaunt". This short story is about the invention of teleportation technology (BOOM!). It details the moment of genius, the immediate roll-out and the social ramifications of instantaneous travel. 

This thinking dominated science fiction for decades (and still exists) - the science fiction world is composed of genius innovation and the social repercussions of its existence.

The grimpunk differs from traditional science fiction at this, the most fundamental level. In a grimpunk future, the world is projected forward, but without the initial evolution in technology.  

There are two different, equally depressing, possible reasons:

1) The innovation never happened (and never will). Scientifically, what we've got now is all we'll ever get, except maybe some minor tweaking. Fundamental shifts in technology (cold fusion, FTL travel, nanotech, cybernetics, artificial intelligence) aren't happening. The spaceships of the future are the spaceships we have already, just with more mileage on them.

This is fundamentally hopeless - as it implies humanity has reached the end of its capability to grow. There are no further transformational flashes of genius. 

2) The innovation happened, but the system crushed it. Grimpunk worlds invariably reference huge bureaucracies (government and corporate) with well-entrenched positions and selfish motivations to quash progress. FTL drives are sitting in a crate somewhere. The funding got pulled at the last minute. The oil companies wouldn't let it happen. The scientist with the genius intellect was pulled off the project used to make new potato chip tubes instead.

This is a different sort of despair. Individual humans still have the capacity for creative thought... it just doesn't matter.

Correcting the Grimpunk future

How do you snap out of the grimpunk future? A grimpunk future is based on technological and cultural inertia - how can a writer introduce the change necessary to make the future progressive again?

Two examples follow - one from comics (Warren Ellis' Orbiter) and one from television (Russell T. Davies' 'The Long Game').

1) Warren Ellis' Orbiter. Detailed depiction of dead-end future - no scientific progress & lackluster human ambition (in his introduction, Ellis even gives a specific source - the abandonment of the space race). Good grimpunk future history - but then future is kicked into gear by a distinctly non-grimpunk source (alien intervention).

2) Doctor Who '"The Long Game". Humanity is supposed to be a far-flung celestial race. Instead, human beings haven't even left the solar system - they're too busy working bureaucratic jobs and watching television.

The status quo is a grimpunk future - but the episode itself is not. Grimpunk future has been created by alien intervention and is resolved by time travelers. May be grimpunk due to BBC production values but still some fantastic depictions of 'advanced' (yet unevolved) technology.

In both cases, the conclusion is a strangely pessimistic type of optimism.

Although the stagnant, grimpunk future is 'solved' in a triumph of the human spirit, that triumph comes from an external factor. In Orbiter, that is due to an alien power. In 'The Long Game', it comes from time travelers (a time traveling alien, in fact). Humanity is seemingly incapable of breaking itself out of its rut.

Artifacts from our lost Grimpunk future

From the working notes of the (half-dead) Dead Media Project:

27.8 RCA SelectaVision Holographic Videofilm (1969)

23.3 VISIDEP 3-D Television (1983)

46.2 Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 100 (1983)

04.7 Vidscan (1989)