The cyberpunk future is here.
Visiting Lecturer Jerrine Tan considers the promise of cyberpunk literature and the reality of contemporary Singapore.
By Keely Sexton
When it comes to the reality of the cyberpunk future as imagined grittily by the writer and essayist William Gibson and others, Singapore is the aesthetic writ large, according to visiting lecturer in English, Jerrine Tan in a
Singapore鈥檚 ultra-modernist aesthetic and the restrictive and omnipresent government of the city-state contrast sharply with the rituals and traditions of its inhabitants鈥攁 fundamental 鈥渓ow-life, high-tech鈥 feature of the genre, as defined by Gibson in the 1980s.
鈥淪ingapore has always existed as a palimpsest: a collection of gauzy histories layered so heavily that an origin seems beyond reach,鈥 Tan writes. 鈥淭he nation state鈥檚 symbol is a merlion, a mythical creature of mixed origin: part lion, part fish鈥攐f this world at the same time that its existence exceeds worldly possibilities.鈥