This is my sixth and last column for INTERZONE, as I promised ayear ago when I began this series. I've enjoyed doing these pieces,and would like to thank the energetic editor and indulgent readershipof INTERZONE. A special thanks to those who contributed terms andcomments for "The SF Workshop Lexicon," which remains an ongoingproject, and will show up again someday, probably in embarrassingcompany. Those readers who had enough smarts and gumption to buythe SIGNAL catalog (see column one in issue 37) have been wellrewarded, I trust.

In this final column, I would like to talk frankly about"cyberpunk" -- not cyberpunk the synonym for computer criminal, butCyberpunk the literary movement.

Years ago, in the chilly winter of 1985 -- (we used to have chillywinters then, back before the ozone gave out) -- an article appeared inINTERZONE #14, called "The New Science Fiction." "The New ScienceFiction" was the first manifesto of "the cyberpunk movement." Thearticle was an analysis of the SF genre's history and principles; theword "cyberpunk" did not appear in it at all. "The New SF" appearedpseudonymously in a British SF quarterly whose tiny circulation didnot restrain its vaulting ambitions. To the joy of dozens, it hadrecently graduated to full-colour covers. A lovely spot for amanifesto.

Let's compare this humble advent to a recent article,"Confessions of an Ex-Cyberpunk," by my friend and colleague Mr.Lewis Shiner. This piece is yet another honest attempt by SomeoneWho Was There to declare cyberpunk dead. Shiner's article appearedon Jan 7, 1991, in the editorial page of THE NEW YORK TIMES.

Again an apt venue, one supposes, but illustrative of theparadoxical hazards of "movements." An avalanche, started with ashout and a shove somewhere up at the timberline, cannot be stoppedagain with one's hands, even with an audience of millions of mundanes.