Samuraipunk?
What's this all about? (And a short story link.)
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a rad channel…
(With apologies to William Gibson.)
Honored samurai, ruthless ronin, wayward vagabonds, shadowy ninja and helpless villagers… welcome.
I cannot thank you enough for subscribing. As mentioned in the “Coming Soon” post, the plan is to put out a (biweekly? monthly?) newsletter covering “upcoming samuraipunk, cyberpunk, mecha, weird and general scifi works”. To tell the truth, it sounds a little ambitious to even myself. To be certain, there will be changes and improvements in the early days in an effort to polish the gem in the rough that I hope this newsletter is — and I hope readers will be a part of that by taking the time to add their two yen to the conversation by replying.
“…You crazy, pen.”
Ideas hit when you least expect them, and it’s never Oh, today, I think I’ll write an erotic dystopian cyber-thriller vibe. It’s always flashes of images, usually of a character or a situation. I write that down and then build around it — fleshing out characters, background, story and world. From this fountain of information, the genre takes shape. I do have my favorite genres of course and ideas within those genres are more likely to form in my noggin than others. There have been times when I have been tempted to write horror or fantasy, but in general my brain latches onto samuraipunk, cyberpunk, mecha, weird and general scifi because it is also what I love to read. Let’s take a quick look at them.
Cyberpunk — Described originally as “high tech, low life”, the term “cyberpunk” itself feels a bit overused these days. It’s still well-loved, but as Bruce Bethke succinctly put in the Facebook group Cyberpunk Books:
“As for Star Wars, Alien, et al being considered cyberpunk: that was all done retroactively, by fans and critics, because fans and critics love to indulge in retroactive myth-making.”
I tend to lean a little more toward the older style of the genre (Gibson, Bethke, Stephenson, et al.).
Mecha — This is “giant robots” and in general while the trend is to pit mechanical goliaths against monsters/kaiju (Pacific Rim being the most recognizable IP), that’s not all there is to it. It’s this flip side of adventure and space opera with mechanized war machines that I’m more interested in telling.
General scifi — No brainer, I hope.
Weird — Some folks might be familiar with this, and others may think I’m speaking of the eldritch horrors of Cthulhu. If that’s what you were hoping for, I am sorry to disappoint on that note, but I have a gem of a story to share (in a later issue) about a young man and his hunt for disembodied, flavored lips! Yes, the “weird” I’m referring encompasses odd stories, be they horror, humor or scifi.
Samuraipunk — I’m not sure if this genre actually exists or not. Read on...
Samuraipunk — samurai+punk
Simply put, samuraipunk is feudal Japan brought into the future. Samurai films mashed with post-apocalyptic films. Akira Kurosawa meets George Miller. It doesn’t have to be, of course. But when I’m working on stories set in the milieu, I envision monsters, mutants, destroyed cities, buried technological “treasures”, unspeakable horrors, and Augmented samurai (cyborgs) protecting the last vestiges of humanity against overwhelming odds. It’s adventure/action scifi.
This is not (to me) the fantasy samurai or “Asian” flavor fantasy that is quite common. Nor is it historical Japan fiction, or gamelit/litRPG (if you aren’t familiar with either, no worries, keep reading). I believe those are well-worn and very comfortable genres that have told some great stories.
I also want to stress that samuraipunk will not be overly concerned with samurai or Japanese culture. It will, of course, feature some, but I don’t want to bog down the story or the reader with details that simply don’t move the story forward. Perhaps a footnote or two might be necessary now and again, but I think they are best avoided. This is not fiction for those exclusively interested in Japanese culture/language, it’s adventure, so let’s have some fun.
Image produced by Made in DNA via Wombo’s Dream app
“The RuiNin” — Man and dawg risk the perils of a post-apocalyptic mutant wasteland in search of a former comrade-at-arms.
And thus began the first adventure of the ruiNin. The ruiNin — an Augmented samurai (cyborg) wandering the wastelands, unable to end his existence lest the dead haunt him even in the afterlife. RuiNin — a portmanteau of “ruin” and “ronin” (“nin” meaning “person” in Japanese) and “ronin” generally being translated as “masterless samurai”.
“The RuiNin” is set several thousand years in the future after a mutagenic weapons have been set off. How or why these weapons were used is not clear. What is clear though is that the world has changed. While only 4000 words long, I do my best to explain who the ruiNin (sometimes referred to as “the samurai”) is and what his world is like. That said, I don’t try to spell everything out. I want the reader to imagine the world as it comes to them. I also want to explore the world in a series of stories and a novel currently in-progress so that both the reader and I can explore the world together.
Without further ado… “The RuiNin”.
Images by by Jack Stewart, Iron Cross Publishing
We never meet without parting
That’s all for this issue. Next issue we’ll take a look at the weird fiction genre (more free fiction included). And in future issues, I’d really like to explore killer media (fiction, art, books, music) that encompasses the aesthetic that’s I’d like to build for this newsletter. THANK YOU!
Until then,
Made in DNA
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A thought on Samuraipunk (from someone who worked on a game called Katanapunk that ended up vaporware): I think it very much does exist. "Blade of the Immortal" definitely has that vibe in places. "Samurai Champloo" as well, at least in my opinion. Give me more of that.
Something to keep in mind is that the -punk aspect is usually some sort of subversion, a movement against the status quo. OG punk was a reactionary movement against overblown progressive rock and consumer culture (there's a reason why punks shopped at thrift stores and wore clothes held together with tape and safety pins). There should be some sort of counter culture aesthetic to really make it work. -punk moves against the mainstream, against the status quo.
I think that's something that's been lost a bit with -punk being used as an suffix for all sorts of things that, well, aren't. I think creators also need to look at the cost of what happens when you move against the mainstream. Operating without a net carries its own risks.
I see a lot of potential in samuraipunk as a genre. The aesthetic alone is very powerful but there is more than only that.
The creatures of asian myths made real as mutated humans or mechanical monsters.
The stories of ronin and shinobi, now given modern/futuristic tools.
And the dynamic between a samurai and their lord enhanced by the dynamic between man and maschine, especially when man becomes more like a maschine.
I will be sure to put this genre to memory, cause this is one idea I don't want to forget.