Nathan Bransford - The Forums

Having lost my muse for both my alternating WIPS (one a YA cosmic horror/historical mystery, the other a fantasy novel based on American folklore instead of European), I was thinking about what to write, and I've decided I might try writing something not just for entertainment, but also with some social commentary, some intellectual heft. It's inspired by the way I've observed our culture getting dumber and dumber just in my short, near-thirty years; iPhones and Facebook have made us more connected then ever, but we most just trade "omgz!" and "lollz" comments, and I've hung out with friends that spent the entire time we were eating dinner texting. Now I'm imagining a world where most people's sole source of income is from the creation and distribution of viral videos; children are named after luxury brands, rappers, and celebrity couples (Brangelina, Bennifer), and most human interaction is transacted through 'super-genius' phones.

Then I discovered that there's an emerging genre on just the subject, most commonly known as "post-cyberpunk." Themes include the old cyberpunk mega-corporations, large-scale cultural apathy, ultraviolence (and, to coin an analagous term, 'ultrasex', free-love orgies and casual nudity), and technarchy. However, post-cyberpunk intersperses them with a more genial view of things, with pervasive technology creating a whimsical utopia for those myopic enough to see the skewed world that way. Most people say the genre started with "Snow Crash"--I would personally suggest "Brave New World" as an antecedent, if not an ancestor--and then "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom." But I need more.

So far, I've only been able to find movies scattered through Hollywood's history--"Just Imagine" from the 30's, "Sleeper", "Idiocracy". There's an out-of-print short story called "The Marching Morons" that comes close to what I'm trying to do, and I think it'll be unavoidable that "Futurama" will get lumped in with it eventually. Can anybody recommend any books of the genre besides the first two?

Well, you probably already thought of this, but 1984? Sorry, that's all I know, but you might try Wikipedia, the source of all knowledge that is good and pure. They might have some book recommendations in the body of the text or the reference section.

Writing for social commentary? I approve! That's what I hopeto do as well.

Good luck!

Sorry I can't help with recs but I already think you've done a good lot of research by people watching. It reminded me of walking in Wal-Mart one Sunday morning, seeing the churchy people all dressed up and behind their smartphones walking around like zombies.

It makes me want to ask, "I'm sorry, which God do you worship?"

But of course, I'm just always looking for a fight. XD

If I see something, I'll try to throw it at you. Not literally of course.

Literally might help--I'd know to look up from my phone. (I'd just like to mention that the comment reminded me of one of my favorite parts of "Gulliver's Travels", on the flying island of Laputa when the aristocrats had to get their servants to whap them with sticks so they know when they're supposed to pay attention to somebody talking.)
(Also, to be honest, my phone is, like, six years old and can do nothing more advanced than low-res Tetris.)

It's not quite whimsical, but Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood has some of those themes. There's also Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, which sounds squarely in this realm (though I haven't read it yet).

Oryx and Crake is a good one and its companion novel Year of the Flood that deals with the same event that Oryx and Crake did but in a whole other way. Wonderful pair, both of them, although they don't fit what you are looking for exactly. I wouldn't call the post-cyberpunk but I would say that they fit your definition of what you are looking for anyway.

Both of these are YA, but deal pretty heavily in what you are looking at:
The Unidentified by Rae Mariz
Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

And I cannot recommend these directly because I haven't read them yet (they are on my TBR list) from what others have told me who told me to read them, I think they fit what you are looking for:
The Declaration, The Resistance, and the Legacy, a trilogy by Gemma Malley
The Returners by Gemma Malley