
            CYBERPUNK FOR RUSSIANS AND NON-RUSSIANS

                       Vladimir Vasilyev

Science  Fiction  has  always  represented  the move towards the
future.   It  is not surprising that something as strange as the
computer  immediately  caught  the  attention of sci-fi writers.
Americans,  to begin with, because they somehow always manage to
be  ahead  of  the rest of the planet.  Personally, I first read
about  dreadful   computers and fearsome hackers in John Warly's
novel  (or novella) "Press Enter_".  I was astounded by the idea
of  being able to live a life without ever leaving the house, as
if  you don't really exist.  And, still a Soviet person then, by
it all being free.  Victor Pelevin and his unforgettable "Prince
of  the  State Planning Commission" dealt the final blow.  Until
then  I  knew  nothing  about  computers and considered them the
second most useless invention after the automobile.  But Pelevin
convinced  me:  it  was  time.  And I left for Moscow, hoping to
make  the  money  for  my  first  486.   Tree months later I was
already  in  FIDO.   Then I came upon a file - it happened to be
William  Gibson's "Neuromancer".  At around the same time Andrey
Chertkov,  then a well-known sci-fi fan and now a sci-fi expert,
was  telling   everyone who was willing to listen that cyberpunk
is cool.
   Turned  out  - it really was cool.  Rigid technocratic prose,
an  incomprehensible  blend of action, sci-fi and postmodernism.
All  presented in a way that makes your head spin.  I knew right
then that it wouldn't be long before the first Russian cyberpunk
would come around.
   Although, to be fair, there has long been a man in sci-fi who
has  been  calling  himself a "Russian cyberpunk".  I am talking
about  Alexander  Tyurin.   But he cannot really be considered a
cyperpunk  in  the  the  literal meaning of the word, though his
novel "The Net", co-authored with Alexander Shegolev, was, in my
opinion, the forebearer of Russian cyberpunk.  The first robin.
  And  somehow  it so happened that my novel was among the first
Russian  cybernovels.   But  more about that later.  First let's
talk  about Segei Lukianenko.  About a man who has tried himself
in  all  different  genres and styles of sci-fi, and came out on
top  every  time.  He wrote the "Maze of Reflections" - a wholly
cyberpunk  novel about Love and Freedom.  Although, some believe
that  it's more of a  virtual novel rather than a cyberpunk one,
and  one  could  even  agree,  but then we are not talking about
classic  American  cyberpunk here, but about the Russian version
of  it.   And  "Maze  of  Reflections" is precisely what Russian
cyberpunk  is.   In  that  book  a  Russian  person told Russian
readers  about  Russian  people.   Why  should  he  write  about
Americans?    And   that's   the   exact  reason  why  "Maze  of
Reflections"  became  the most popular book of the Russian Net -
FIDO  and the Internet both.  And people supposedly embezzled no
fewer than three thousand copies.
   The  second  cyberpunk  novel  -  V.  Vasil'ev's  "Hearts and
engines",  was  noticed  by  a  significantly  smaller number of
people  than  Lukianenko's  novel.   Possibly  because  it stuck
closer  to  the  classic cyberpunk style and in many ways simply
mimicked  the  "Neuromancer".   And,  frankly,  it  was  kind of
overloaded  with  technical  details.   I'll try to keep that in
mind_
   The  third  novel  in the genre of the keyboard and the cloak
was, of course, "The Free Hunter" by Alexander Shegolev.  A very
strange  novel.   It  was  met  with  even  less enthusiasm than
"Hearts  and  Engines", but it simply cannot be ignored.  At the
very   least  it  delivers  computer-related  topics  with  such
originality  that  one  tends  to altogether loose any degree of
recognition.  Which greatly affects popularity.
   Mihail  Tyurin  and his "Fantom Pain" also deserve a mention.
A  fairly successful novel, marred only by the author's apparent
ignorance  when  it  comes  to computers and everything computer
related.  I mean, really, - people with internet access, sitting
next  to  a satellite dish, yet trying to figure out how to send
some  information  to  their  boss  -  that  does cause a bit of
confusion.  Tyurin is a nice guy, he should just spend some time
with a computer, that's all_ Other than that - he is one of us!
   Most  likely, Vasil'ev's new novel "The Technician of Greater
Kiev" can also be considered cyberpunk, though it has a fair bit
of  fantasy in it.  Six months after publication it is now clear
that it's indeed the same Russian cyberpunk, blindly feeling for
direction in the surrounding genre crowd.
   Given  these  examples  it  is  not  hard  to  understand the
difference  between  the  classic  American  cyberpunk  and it's
Russian  counterpart.   The American one is, first and foremost,
postmodernistic,  a  semantic superstructure on top of the text,
coupled  with an umistakable sense of the future, often outright
gloomy.   Russian  cyberpunk, in this sense, is simpler and more
traditional;  in  essense it's same old science fiction and only
the terminology can help tell whether it's cyberpunk or not.  To
me,  that's  growing  pains  -  Russian  cyberpunk is still very
young,  it's  only  developing  it's traditions and settling the
frontiers.   But  even  now  one can see a certain shift towards
ideology:   Russian  cyberpunk  is  moving  away  from  complete
reliance   on   terminology  and  starting  to  develop  certain
characteristics not present in tranditional sci-fi.  This can be
seen  in  "Maze  of Reflections", "The Free Hunter", and now, as
far  as  I  can  tell,  in  "The  Technician  of  Greater Kiev".
Although   Bruce   Sterling,  one  of  the  pillars  of  Western
cyberpunk,  during  his last visit to St. Petersburg, when asked
whether there are young American writers who could be classified
as  belonging to this branch of sci-fi, said simply and clearly:
"No.   Cyberpunk  belongs  to  our generation, to those who were
starting  out in the early 80's.  The current generation has yet
to  find  it's  own style."  So should it be any surprise at all
that  Russian cyberpunk, consisting mostly of people 10-15 years
younger  than  Gibson  and  Sterling,  differs  from the classic
American one?
   As  for  Tyurin,  he  chose  the  Western  way  from the very
beginning,  pushed  off  postmodernism.   He  is  alone  in this
undertaking,  supported  only  by  occasional  pieces  by Victor
Pelevin - such as "Christmas-tide Cyberpunk", for example.
   And  in  conclusion,  one  final  cyberpunk  detail.   As the
stories  progress,  the main characters of "Maze of Reflections"
and  "Hearts  and  Engines"  meet in real life, which means that
Russian  cyberpunk  has  stepped off the pages of books into the
Net   and  into life, that it has finally grown out of it's baby
clothes.
   Just  you  wait, Sci-Fi and Fantasy_ We have arrived.  And we
are finding our voice.

Moscow, April-November of 1998, Vladimir Vasil'ev.

Translated by Max Hrabrov.

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(c) Vladimir Vasilyev, 1998
(c) Translated into English by Basil Georg Longneck, 2002
(c) Heavily edited by Max Hrabrov, 2002