Blog Entry #6

The future we see in the world of "Burning Chrome," is, in my mind, the dated but still rich-of-context outlook the older cyberpunk writers of the early eighties would write, where it's about the blending of worlds, one inside the computer called "cyberspace," where all collective information is computerized, and second the world of reality in which they live, where dystopian skyscrapers that loom over them reminding them of usually corporate overpower. Now I know that sounds exactly like the world we live in, but for a majority of the story you can tell that it is written before the days of the Internet, especially with using the term"cyberspace," to describe what a virtual collective of all the worlds information on one place anyone can access if they have the right equipment and codes to get it. Speaking of who has the codes and equipment, the man with power in the story is the criminal mastermind Chrome, whom has control of all the money that criminal organizations have to send through him to which he send through the cyberspace. Usually, as with most cases of cyberpunk, The men with control of the money usually have the most power, regardless of what kind of crazy hacking someone might do. Regardless if you're a genius hacker, I believe Tony Montana said it pretty well in Scarface...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ7HZATMKBY



Oh my god, do you know how refreshing it is to read a story with kids that actually sound like kids actually talk? I watch too many films where they choose to instead think of a well enriched character background that they forgo any of those traits and head straight for muddled exaggerations and stereotypes, and to show the world of Cyberpunk through a young little girls eyes are quite spectacular. I get the feeling like I, along with the girl, are exploring these different area's of the place not with disgust or fear, but of wonder and curiosity. She has no idea the processing center her father took to would do anything bad to her possibly, especially when she is told by her father that her mother is apart of the processing system as a part that tells commands to the CPU. The choice the writer makes to be very oblique with how to describe the universe is one I find really powerful, with such a young character who doesn't know anything about the realities of her world, we are taken along for the ride (so to speak) in finding out more of her universe as she goes through it. Also, the fact that readers can pick up on certain things that the main protagonist can not also leave the reader with a much more insightful view on the universe without taking or giving any abilities to the main character. It's the type of Sci-Fi that gets me excited to go to class to talk about it, so I hope the conversation for this one is wonderful!