I have something a bit different for you this month! I was incredibly surprised, in June, to be contacted for an interview! I'm not exactly a household name, but an artist I've followed and enjoyed on twitter for ages was starting a school project about cyberpunk, and wanted to interview me as part of their process.
So here is my interview with the wonderful Zuhura Ismail! Make sure to check out her gorgeous poster and short film, Insular, linked at the end of the interview. They're really spectacular. I'm so honored to have been part of the project.
1. How would you define cyberpunk?
Left to my own devices I probably wouldn't. I think trying to truly pin down a genre is usually fruitless, except that once you've constructed a box for the genre it can create interesting opportunities for people to pierce, warp or collapse the box. But I do tie the term to subjects and themes around cybernetics, AI, and so-called "post-humanism".
2. In what ways do you think the cyberpunk genre communicates anxieties about the present? What kind of anxieties does it express about the future?
I think cyberpunk, at it's best, takes part in that venerable scifi tradition of exploring and expressing todays anxiety through the lens of what could be- what could happen next. Cyberpunk, specifically, is largely about anxieties with regard to the human body and the limitations of humanity. In my mind, the best stuff grapples with not only the technology that may shape human bodies and identities but the systems that control, produce and gatekeep those technologies. We’re living in a society where companies with more money than the GNI of nations want to rent you your basic needs at the highest possible price, and make sure that they can still control those products as much as possible even after you’ve paid. That’s naturally in tension with the most ethical development of medical devices and tech/biology enmeshment.
3. What would you describe as the “cyberpunk aesthetic”? How far (and in what ways) do you think this aesthetic relates to the genre’s themes?
For being a genre that’s historically very much about the dangers of technology cyberpunk often paradoxically fetishizes technology as sleek, cool, and eye-grabbing. I think that that's connected not only to sort of legacy pillars of the genre, but also, to my eye, serves to present human augmentation as seductive - dangerously sexy. Even when we see brokenness, entropy and danger there's often an impulse to aestheticize it.
I actually hate that. And not just because I was burnt out on neons by 1997.
I do think many real people want their real assistive devices to be beautiful, or sexy or personalized. If anything, I think the genre should push the personalization, creativity and weirdness further to better reflect the adaptability and personal nature of implanted tech. Humans are weird! They like to mess with things, push boundaries!
My real objection is philosophical and thematic, because often, that sleekness has been paired with an underlying message that people using assistive tech are doing so solely because they've been seduced in some problematic way- by the aesthetic, the coolness, or the power. Even when the story supports a character's need for some kind of technology- say, they would be blind without it, there's such a suspiciousness about why they need it the tech to be good. How dare they want this complicated tech to surpass what non-disabled people can do! They shouldn’t strive for excellence via assistive technology!
There's an underlying message that people should use the absolute least amount of support possible, and liking or enjoying your assistive tech is somehow shameful, greedy or lazy. Too often, the narrative even goes one step further by posing the question- "does this tech make them less human?" as a philosophical issue we’re meant to take seriously.
And I can’t take it seriously because it’s so tied in to the idea that disabled people should use as little help as possible- which is tied to all kinds of nonsense about disabled people being burdensome and disability being a product of bad choices and therefor worthy of punishment. There’s a dominant idea that having a disability should never net you something abled people don’t have access to. And that is the very essence of ableism.
If excellent assistive tech is grounds for being dehumanized, then being disabled itself becomes dehumanizing. This tells disabled people to know their place- be disabled, but not burdensome, use tech, but only barely enough to get by, and do not surpass your nondisabled peers.
4. What is your experience with the cyberpunk genre in popular media? How is it similar to or different from your views on the genre?
To be honest, most of the cyberpunk I feel personally drawn to interact with comes from Japan. Partly because I am also a visual artist and while the themes of cyberpunk are tremendously important to me, the common neon aesthetic doesn't tend to do much for me, unless it's also in the form of beautiful animation, which I've always been a sucker for. I think we are just on the verge of a new era for the genre though, as minority voices are starting to expand on the themes in fresh, more thoughtful ways. I’m very excited for that.
5. One of the most common themes in cyberpunk is the creation of the cyborg human — someone whose body is augmented by technology. This is not so different, perhaps, from the relationship that disabled people have with assistive technology (and there are some disabled people who refer to themselves as cyborgs). In what ways do you think depictions of cyborgs in popular media differ from the lived reality of disabled people who use assistive tech?
I really long to see more narratives that honor that assistive tech is meaningfully different from biological counterparts in a value-neutral way. For example, a hearing aide is different than a hearing ear. It has advantages- my devices let me filter out sounds to highlight specific conversations better than the average ear can- and it has disadvantages- like cost, battery limitations, breakability, and reactions of abled people who make it weird. I tried to do that with the superpowered cybernetic limbs of the heroes in Secondhand Origin Stories. LodeStar’s limbs let him fly, make him incredibly strong, but they’re also heavy enough that after a few decades it’s damaging his skeletal system. Also, his hands aren’t as good at some kinds of sensation as a normal human hand- like for example he struggles to feel a pulse. I’m tired of grandstanding about the innate morality or immorality of devices and want to move on to stories that honestly look at repair, access, and differences.
6. In what ways do you feel ableism manifests in cyberpunk in popular media?
I think a lot of the genre is just plain asking the wrong questions, in ways that are harmful. I would like to see less obsession with the abstract and existential philosophy of those who smugly don’t fear having their humanity doubted, and more care for those whose humanity already gets doubted or violated. I want to see more creators grappling with what that's like. And although I honor that some people want to imagine futures without ableism, I think cyberpunk is very suited to reflecting the current lived challenges of people with disabilities: things like infantilizing, curbed rights, being treated with suspicion for wanting to get different needs met, lack of right-to-repair laws, gatekeeping, high rates of abuse, access barriers like medical bias and poverty. There's so much there to work with and none of it is incompatible with cool cybernetics!
7. You’ve described your book, Secondhand Origin Stories, as being a “low neon cyberpunk.” Could you elaborate on what this means, in terms of themes and aesthetics?
It means I write about the themes of cyberpunk, but it's near-future science fiction. Many of the buildings in the US today are still there- there are still Victorian manors and bungalows and some old cars that don't drive themselves are still rattling around. And I did that because I wanted to imagine a US that's actively grappling with ableism and the themes of personhood and augmentation, but in a world close enough to my own present to be recognizable. I wanted to make it as easy as possible for people to internalize my messages about anti-ableism, which meant making it scifi enough to be engaging and a smidge abstract, but close enough to this reality to let people readily draw connections between what’s happening to my characters and to the real disabled people around them.
8. There are many ways by which Secondhand Origin Stories dealt with themes of disability: through Issac coming to terms with losing his hearing, and as well as how the superheroes cope with injuries on the job (specifically, Neil Voss/LodeStar). What kind of messages do you hope to convey about (a largely abled) society’s relationship with disability?
I'm going to warmly and without judgment pick on you here because I actually don't think we have a largely abled society. I think we have a society that so thoroughly enforces homogenization of what people are allowed to need, and allowed to admit to, that we have a completely distorted view of what counts as a disability and who can or should claim that title- or accompanying assistance/accommodation.
Just looking at what of my series is written or planned so far I’ve written disability in so very many forms: deafness, amputation, brain injury, asthma, potentially fatal allergies, autism, cancer, eating disorders, dyslexia, sensory processing disorders, ADHD, chronic pain, permanent parenteral intubation, PTSD and rare medical conditions.
I can add as many fancy devices as I like into my fictional worldbuilding but these are all real things that can broadly limit functionality in our present world. (I’m aware of and agree with the premise of neurodiversity, but in the present moment the fact remains that functioning with a brain the majority penalizes functions as a disability). One of the main things I hope to convey through my work is that disability isn’t a binary of the abled ppl, who can all do the same “normal” things, and disabled people, who can’t function. That artificial binary really feeds into that suspicion that people who don’t seem completely nonfunctional must be exaggerating or faking their disability, and therefor should be thoroughly vetted before being given any kind of “special” assistance.
Disability is normal, ubiquitous, and inevitable. The artificial homogenization of allowable needs is what leads to systemic inequalities and also leads people to deny their own needs- even to themselves- which causes so much unnecessary suffering.
I hope my books lead people to accepting their own disabilities, as well as being less terrible and gatekeepy about the disabilities of others.
9. You also had an AI character in the book, Martin, and through them you explore questions of humanity and personhood. What kind of discussions do you hope to inspire through his character?
Martin is the opening of a conversation I hope to explore throughout the series. I deliberately started with a non-human character with a necessarily very different kind of mind and no legal rights. It's been pretty easy to get readers to buy in to Martin as someone who deserves the dignity of personhood, the protection of codified and enforced rights, and the grace to be allowed to be different to others. Next step I am pulling back to the real world to propose to the reader that if Martin- who is not a human, deserves those things, then what about actual people? There are people trying to "cure" autism with gene therapy and abusive tactics- and I want the reader to open their mind and heart to Martin, then see that the real humans around them- including themselves in many cases- also deserve grace and and safety and dignity.
Another reason I wanted Martin in the story was to provide an alternative vision of a world with both AI and cyborgs. I hate that one of the bits of cyberpunk that’s most bled into mainstream scifi is this narrative where the AI with either no legal rights or very limited legal rights are presented an obvious stand in for immigrants, black people, or POC in general. The AI then “take the jobs” of regular humans, which everyone gets mad about, and the cyborgs are posed as the potentially traitorous bridge between the two. That whole mess really smacks of “great replacement theory” and even though the narrative usually comes around to “actually androids should have rights” I resent being asked to take the possibility of the inverse seriously for two hours. So, I wanted to explore alternate relationships between AI’s and cyborgs.
10. What are some ways in which the cyberpunk genre can imagine disability inclusive futures?
I want (and am therefor making) stories that are on the side of and the perspective of disabled people (and other minorities who have been treated euphemistically by the genre). We can explore ableism without doubting someone’s humanity. Cyborgs and cyborg-hopefuls and AIs can all work to reform, tear down, or rebuild mirrors of the systems that hurt real disabled people today.
And I want to see disabled people as more than the downtrodden or immorally seduced figures. I want to see disabled people who get to LOVE their assistive tech- who have made art and joy from their disabilities- because that’s something that really happens! It doesn’t have to be all of them- some can struggle more with their disability (as Issac does) but that glum and grudging acceptance doesn’t have to be the only possibility presented!
11. Do you have any recommendations of cyberpunk fiction that centre the perspectives of disabled people? Books, film, video games, comics, cartoons, and other forms of media are all welcome!
I wish I did! I am very sure I’m not the only one out here! But stories of disability aren’t marketed as such yet- people at large don’t understand why those stories might be relevant to them- so it’s hard for me to find them. I’ve known some to dabble, but the disabled character is never at the center of the story.
And now, the grand finale! Here's the poster Zuhura made for Poster Stellars. Isn't it great? I love the pallet, the message, the vibe! You can read more about the project and watch her short film here!
Thank you for joining me for another month of Shed Letters. If you know someone who you think would like to join us, please feel personally invited to share any of these emails, or send them an invitation to sign up here. And remember that Secondhand Origin Stories is available for free as an ebook here, or in paperback form from your local independent book shop.
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