In my opinion the derivative piffle is a minor issue. So is theword "cyberpunk." I'm pleased to see that it's increasingly difficult towrite a dirt-stupid book, put the word "cyberpunk" on it, and expect itto sell. With the c-word discredited through half-witted overkill,anyone called a "cyberpunk" will have to pull their own weight now.But for those willing to pull weight, it's no big deal. Labels cannotdefend their own integrity; but writers can, and good ones do.
There is another general point to make, which I believe isimportant to any real understanding of the Movement. Cyberpunk,like New Wave before it, was a voice of Bohemia. It came from theunderground, from the outside, from the young and energetic anddisenfranchised. It came from people who didn't know their ownlimits, and refused the limits offered them by mere custom and habit.
Not much SF is really Bohemian, and most of Bohemia has littleto do with SF, but there was, and is, much to be gained from themeeting of the two. SF as a genre, even at its most "conventional," isvery much a cultural underground. SF's influence on the greatersociety outside, like the dubious influence of beatniks, hippies, andpunks, is carefully limited. Science fiction, like Bohemia, is a usefulplace to put a wide variety of people, where their ideas and actions canbe examined, without the risk of putting those ideas and actionsdirectly into wider practice. Bohemia has served this function since itsstart in the early Industrial Revolution, and the wisdom of this schemeshould be admitted. Most weird ideas are simply weird ideas, andBohemia in power has rarely been a pretty sight. Jules Verne as awriter of adventure novels is one thing; President Verne, General