Welcome to Snowtown, USA, mothertrooper! SnowPunk is an exciting subgenre in a similar vein to DesertPunk, SkyPunk, OceanPunk and SpacePunk. Imagine a world covered in ice. Maybe our world, maybe an alien one! How would the technology on such a worl...
It's March and I just realized we have been through eighteen months of the pandemic, with no signs of abetting. And we have become more apt at taking care of ourselves and reaching out to the community in general.
Coming straight to the point, this month's article focuses on the icy expanse of the SnowPunk sub-genre. Brrr... Now I really feel cold. Got a jacket, anyone?
In a world where snow is constantly threatened and eroded, this genre is used to create an unique identity where human beings work together and build, maintain a city during winter months, learn to manage resources, make choices on how to survive and explore the area outside their city while protecting their own.
The concept of SnowPunk is fairly new and it was first mentioned two years ago by Josh Heath and HLG(High Level Games) in the Snowhaven Jumpstart RPG(role playing game). The sub-genre is a result of merging the steampunk principles of technology with a fantasy setting. At the same time, retain the feeling of "grim isolation" that winter brings.
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Rather than comprising the standard utopian theme of "gaslamp fantasy", snowpunk deals in a brutally harsh cold water port, filled with intriguing new technology. In a new age of fancy discoveries and exploration, technology has taken quantum leaps because it is the only way for the civilization survive.
With never-ending blizzards, below-freezing temperatures and surrounded by snow since forever in the air—apocalypse or not, civilization has still managed to survive. And hey... just because it's snow, doesn't mean we have to utilize water's capacity to freeze, right? It could be any other element. And why not? Imagine the endless possibilities, mothertroopers. I can see you visualizing this kind of uber-punk stuff.
There are times I suspect these punk derivatives indicate something more than the normal carousel of pop culture. The emergence of new punks like SnowPunk signal that something is missing in our science fiction. It's but natural that any latest punk isn't easily accepted by the people and is met with some resistance. New ideas(in this case, new punk) often take time to find their base and followers. The avant-garde subgenres usually go through the same motions of the punk-universe, often with a twist which makes them uniquely different and enticing. They discover the same attributes about the world and narrate the same story.
Our hacker hero (with or without his magic-wielding associate) faces a huge system of power, conquers numerous tasks and odd margins, and finally makes the world slightly better—but with enough open plotlines for the writer to go for a sequel, if they want to.
The tenacity of punk under unconventional categories is highly anticipated. After all, as numerous writers assert, science fiction isn't in any true sense about the future. Ursula Le Guin writes in the introduction to The Left Hand of Darkness. It's "not the business of novelists. Prediction is the business of prophets, clairvoyants, and futurologists. The real business of science fiction writers is to offer metaphors designed to help us see ourselves more clearly."
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Punk's interests in the impact of digital media, underground subcultures, and transnational corporate power can still feel pertinent today.
That's it, mothertroopers! Hope you enjoyed this article. Feel free to drop your SnowPunk favorites in the comments below. I'd love to see what you read :) Until we meet again in another exciting sub-genre, this is Nab, saying goodbye!
