The Alt.Cyberpunk.Chatsubo FAQ
by Gordon Feiner
version eleventeen.zero.three
The Chatsubo got going in November 1990. I gather that this FAQ was
originally put together by Liralen Li (aka Phyllis Rostykus) and Jim
Gaynor some time around 1991, but that's long before my time (I've been
posting here since August 99, luring since '96ish). Joel Beneford had it
for a while, Ken Stone looked after it for a while, Kane had it for a
while, there may have been others. I've given this FAQ a working over to
reflect current reality (things have changed over the years) and added
some new bits. Please assume liberal sprinklings of "IMHO", "sort of",
"usually" etc throughout the text to save me cluttering it up.
This is closely related to the text as written by Liralen and Jim (about
half the words are theirs), but the word "I" now refers to me, Gordon
Feiner, ghost/at/god-eater/dot/org. Any comments on the FAQ would be
welcome.
As previous FAQ editors would say, enough static -- here's the deal.
CONTENTS
01. What is alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo?
02. What is Cyberpunk
03. What's "on topic" here?
04. Are there any rules?
05. This B*ll P*lmer is driving me mad, what can I do?
06. What are these ADMIN postings? What's alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo.d?
07. I'm completely new to this place. Where do I start?
08. Should I use the bar in my stories?
09. Can I use magic in my stories?
10. What about copyright, publication etc?
11. Some story/character guidelines
12. Fiction
13. Where can I find archives of old stories and articles?
14. Links to advice on writing
//01. What is alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo?//
"Literary virtual reality in a high-tech, low-life hangout."
"The Chat", as a.c.c is also known, is basically about DIY cyberpunk
fiction. People post stories here. Some of them are solo efforts but
there is also a great tradition of co-operative fiction. This runs the
gamut from "somebody posts an intro then watches to see what happens",
to carefully co-ordinated efforts with five words exchanged between the
authors by email for every one you see posted to a.c.c.
You are also welcome to post poetry, song lyrics, plays, you name it...
If you're going to post general discussion rather than actual stories
you are encouraged to post "in character" -- i.e. to write short
snippets of fiction involving your "Bar Persona" to put the message over.
-- FADE IN --
A stranger walks into the bar and signs to the barman for beer.
"So, ah, Ratz, what is this place anyway?"
"I don't know Mein Herr, I just sell drinks and clean up after the
gunfights."
"But I heard something about stories..."
"It is true. Sometimes people come in here to tell each other stories,
or they leave them for other people to read. Sometimes the stories spill
out into the real life in the bar, and then you have to watch yourself.
My customers seem to get involved in such violent stories..."
"Yes, I heard about tha..." (commotion)
A bunch of cor****ate thugs in matching body armour chase a lone woman
through the bar, firing sloppy bursts of automatic fire. Every body
dives and yanks their cannons, except a geeky guy in a corner who's too
busy with a passionate argument about the practicalities of implant
maintenance under battlefield conditions. A white phosphorous grenade
brings a promising story about cor****ate infiltration of the
body-politic to keep ever-nastier designer drugs legal. And an old Arab
is garrotted under cover of the smoke for trying to start a cultural
relativist examination of the moral issues involved.
Fifteen minutes later, when the cor****ate enforcers have been swept up,
the Chat returns to relative quiet. Ratz sends out refills and goes back
to moving grease around the bar counter.
Two regulars in a dark corner exchange glances. "Cultural relativism?"
-- FADE OUT --
Well, stuff like that happens. Oh, and Ratz is the Barman.
//02. What is Cyberpunk?//
We swore we would never define cyberpunk... we lied.
"The Cyberpunks" were a bunch of mid-eighties SF writers who had enough
in common to be called a movement. They had a propaganda rag (called
"Cheap Truth") and they used it to slag off the long-winded, formulaic,
soggy SF which dominated at the time and hype the good stuff. Their own
sharp, street-wise fiction came to be known as "cyberpunk".
Cyberpunk fiction tends to be near-future. Common themes are the rapid
pace of change, the increasing intimacy/invasiveness of technology and
the trouble people have dealing with it ("techno- shock"). The
information society/economy are fertile ground, and computer hacking in
particular is a standard cyberpunk story element. Cyberpunk is also
notable for its ruthlessly unsentimental analysis of human, political
and cor****ate motivations - "if there were a devilish drug around that
could extend our sacred God-given lifespans by a hundred years, the Pope
would be the first in line." (Bruce Sterling).
In every society, there are low-lifes and outsiders living on the
fringes. These people are not married with two kids, a dog and a
mortgage. They would be a bad influence on your children. They may not
earn their livings in an entirely legal fa****on, and they sure as hell
don't pay full taxes. In cyberpunk they are the hackers, muscle, back
street implant doctors, dealers in this and that, and the associated
wannabees and hangers on. And they come to the Chatsubo to drink,
hustle, swap stories and lurk in dark corners.
There are many other definitions of cyberpunk, some of them radically
different from the above, but that seems to be the one that matters
around here.
All that summed up:
"Cyberpunk is a Hello Kitty Claymore Mine." -Charleson Mambo [acc circa
1999]
//03. What's "on topic" here?//
--Fiction (solo stories, joint stories, poetry, lyrics etc).
--Commentary and feedback on the above.
--Anything posted "in character".
--Discussion of writing, cp technology, world building, storylines etc.
--Admin stuff, like the FAQ.
--Anything else you can get away with.
Discussion which is not posted "in character" is frowned on by some
participants and tolerated by others. You will certainly be more popular
if you pay lip-service to posting in character.
//04. Are there any rules?//
"Suffice it to say, if you violate the rules, society will let you know.
And in here they let you know by burning you down, and leaving you to
mingle with the wads of gum and half smoked cigarette butts in the
bottom of the ash-bin. But there's no pressure." -- Dead End
OK, so it seems like the general consensus is as follows:
GIVE FEEDBACK. If someone writes something you like, tell them so! If
you don't like it, tell them! If there's one thing that people posting
here are after, it's feedback. You don't have to provide a detailed
deconstruction of the writer's prose. Something like "This is what I
particularly liked about it, this is what I particularly disliked, these
bits were hard to follow, those bits went on too long" would be
massively welcome. You can email the author or post your comments in the
bar as you fancy.
Everyone writing here is writing to be read.
PARTICIPATE. Write something yourself. Join in a conversation, join in a
story-line, start up something yourself.
BE CONSIDERATE. If you decide to participate in a story-line, be sure to
be considerate of the efforts others have made. Don't go whomping on
continuity. If you make changes in a story, or use someone else's
character, get permission. Basically, use your brain.
One additional thing: if someone is inconsiderate, inform them of the
mistake in email first. Try not to ascribe to malice what might simply
be cluelessness. After that, there is a playground sorta rule in that if
someone's stomping on things right and left, they can be very easily
ignored into non-existence. Flaming someone that is fi****ng for the
negative response is exactly what they are looking for, so let them wait
for it. (A Former Ed's note: "Unless it's a SPAM advertisement.. then
let them have it!")
//.05 This B*ll P*lmer is driving me mad, what can I do?//
Experience shows that there are two ways to deal with the net.bozo issue:
--Tackle the problem at source: make him go away. This is best
accomplished by not replying to his posts. At all, ever, no exceptions
whatsoever, even when you're livid -- especially when you're livid.
Don't talk about him in the ng either. Annoyed and anguished replies are
what he feeds on, so let him starve.
--At the point of delivery: just don't read his posts, or the
long/boring threads they cause. Many newsreader or browser programs have
some facility for "kill files" or "spam filters" that can be used to
automate this. In many newsreaders you can hit "ignore" on BP-centric
threads, and you won't see any more messages from them.
Remember that when a newsgroup expends more energy/angst than the bozo
who's winding them up, it means that he's *winning*. People
instinctively think that if they get the last word in an argument
they've won, but in this case it's the other way round -- if you give BP
the last word, *you* win.
So don't feed the troll, people. This is much easier when you realise
that you're ****fting the grief back to him by not lifting a finger. It's
actually a downright pleasant sensation. And remember, don't mention
his name in full. B*ll-you-know-who-P*lmer often trolls newsgroups by
searching on google for his own name.
//.06 What are these ADMIN postings? What's alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo.d?//
As an exact opposite for most other groups, instead of marking story
pieces, all things which *aren't* story should be flagged with the
string [ADMIN] in the subject header. E.g. this FAQ.
A few years back, alt.cyberpunk.chatsubo.d was created. I have heard
several reasons for its formation, some less repeatable than others.
It's generally been moribund since then, but every so often somebody
tries to kick it into life as an "out of character discussion" forum.
Whatever happens, happens.
//.07 I'm completely new to this place. Where do I start?//
A good place to start is with as much cyberpunk literature as you can
get your hands on. You could also look at the archives. There are lists
later.
Some folks like using the background worlds from RPG games for a
starting point. Shadowrun used to be very popular and CP2020 is quite
common these days. By using a setting most readers know you save
yourself some effort and don't have to ladle on heaps of background when
you want to get on with the story. Of course for other people the
world-building is what it's all about, the plot is just an excuse to
tour this wonderful fictional world they've invented. So make up your
own world if that's what turns you on, or you don't feel particularly
comfortable with what's there already.
The one thing that isn't subject to do-it-yourself is the Chatsubo
itself, as the bar is a nexus for a number of stories and there is
already some consensus on what is there. The keyword is 'some'. If you
want to get a feel for what's happened in the bar, check out the
archives listed at the end of this article. Or just read the group for a
while...
//08. Should I use the bar in my stories?//
The word 'chatsubo' = 'cha' (tea) + 'tsubo' (pot/bowl).
Most of the interactive fiction is centred around the bar, the Chatsubo,
as created by William Gibson in his novel Neuromancer and embellished by
the folks in the group. Ratz, the Chatsubo's barman and a key figure in
a.c.c, is straight out of the book. You'll also come across occasional
mentions of Lonny Zone, a pimp who did business around the Chatsubo in
Neuromancer.
In Neuromancer the Chatsubo is an expatriate bar in Chiba City, Japan,
down near the docks. But the location of the bar in this group is TBD by
anyone that wants to play in/around/with it. The stories have had it in
Boston, along the Eastern Seaboard, in Chiba, in Seattle, in Ohio, in
Chicago, and in unknown worlds. The year has been 2050, 2020, 2029,
2035, 2033, etc... usually some way into the 21st Century, depending on
how far along you think your technology is.
Since Neal Stephenson's novel "Snow Crash" swept the world, the Chatsubo
has also been written as a Virtual Reality hangout rather like the bar
in that book. Posters write of patrons visiting a virtual reality bar
and later 'de-rezzing' instead of walking out the door, giving software
VR within literary VR ;-).
The bar provides common ground for writers, it can save you some work
and give you something to riff off. Also, people *like* being
acknowledged in someone else's posts and are flattered when they make a
big enough impression to be included in someone else's story, even as a
cameo.
//09. Can I use magic in my stories?//
You can do what you like in your stories, this is a Cyberpunk setting
however - regardless of what Shadowrun has done to the genre. Just
remember you're posting them in public, and the loudmouth who keeps the
FAQ takes the piss out of elves and those who write about them. Sink or
swim, kiddies...
It has also been said that "Any sufficiently high technology is
indistinguishable from magic". Take that as you will and put the pointy
eared tree huggers in a fantasy newsgroup.
//10. What about copyright, publication etc?//
[Disclaimer: this is my understanding, I'm no lawyer. Corrections
welcome.]
Copyright rules vary around the world and they have changed in recent
years with new GATT agreements. In most places where having copyright
means anything, you now have automatic copyright on anything you write.
There is no longer some official form of words for claiming copyright.
Just make sure you stick your name on your posts. Your real name...
A pragmatic view is that by posting you might as well have put your work
in the public domain. As Tim Kuehn pointed out, it isn't really public
domain, as you still will have all the legal rights to the piece. The
trick is in enforcing those rights. A copyright notice informs the
honest and the uninformed. It doesn't always work.
These days, publishers basically won't want to know about anything that
you've already posted to the net. If your name is something like W
Gibson or B Sterling they *might* think about it, but don't make any
assumptions. Publishers' attitudes are getting harsher as the net gets
bigger. You're posting here for fun, feedback, practice or out of a deep
seated pathological need to do so.
//11. Some story/character guidelines that may be thrown out if you
like://
The biggest thing is to Have Fun.
Parodies are *WONDERFUL* and are well accepted here, and they break
every guideline that follows.
Interesting characters aren't ones that are all-powerful. This isn't a
place for 'My-character-can-beat-up-your-character-dick-waving'. It's
pointless and uninteresting for most readers. If someone asks "What is
the most interesting thing about your character?" and the only answer is
something like "the 90mm cannon mounted in her ---- " then it's time to
think the character over again. The same holds for magic, as well.
Unlimited magic is wish fulfilment and makes for a bad basis for a story.
A good story has tension, suspense, emotional involvement by the reader.
If a character is obviously going to mow over everything in their path,
then there simply is no point to it. This goes for groups as well as
singles. If a 'group' can pull everyone that it might ever need out of a
hat, it gets boring. It's also a good idea to have a designated 'bad
guy' if a story is a polarisation between good and bad, because then the
bad guys aren't just idiots that can be steamrollered. Again... a
playing for style as opposed to munchkinism.
One particular thing to be avoided is creating brainless cretins just so
that your character can disembowel, slice and dice, and generally make
soup out of simply to show how 'bad' your character can be. Again, it's
boring and pointless and should bring on the cops or whoever and
whatever gang, corp, or organisation that poor shmuck belonged to.
Without consequences, any action is pointless.
//12. Fiction//
Here's a short list for reading. Some people would argue over whether
all of these are cyberpunk (including me), but hey...
Bruce Sterling, Ed: Mirrorshades The Cyberpunk Anthology. This must be
the obvious place to start. The intro has a better answer to "what is
cyberpunk" than I can manage.
William Gibson: Burning Chrome (short stories); Neuromancer, Count Zero
and Mona Lisa Overdrive (the Sprawl trilogy), Virtual Light, Idoru and
All Tomorrows Parties. In cyberpunk, WG is *the man* and Neuromancer is
*the book*.
Bruce Sterling: Schismatrix Plus (novel and 5 shorts); Islands in the
Net; Crystal Express and Globalhead, A Good Old Fa****ong Future
(shorts). Many columns, essays, speeches etc are available online (he's
known as 'Chairman Bruce').
Rudy Rucker: The 'Ware Series; Software, Wetware and Freeware.
Pat Cadigan, Lewis ****ner, John ****rley (the other original core
cyberpunks): anything you can actually find.
Neal Stephenson (a latecomer) : Snow Crash, The Diamond Age.
Richard Kadrey: Metrophage (online, do a search).
Walter Jon Williams: Hardwired.
Yukito Ki****ro: Battle Angel Alita (manga/comic)
The Alt.Cyberpunk.Chatsubo Anthology (sorry, i just *HAD* to plug the
book - Che) [Left in because the KOTF also wishes to plug the book]
Many more than I could list here.
Some cyber-style Videos/Movies: Bladerunner, Nemesis, Split Second,
Lawnmower Man (for Virtual Reality), The Robocop and Terminator movies,
Freejack (there's an original cp storyline), Hardware, Akira (anime),
Bubblegum Crisis (anime), Videodrome (style not content), Looker
(content not style), Ghost In The Shell (anime), Serial Experiments Lain
(anime).
[I will spare you the massive list of anime that I could classify into
the genre, email me and I'll send you a books worth of anime films and
series to watch].
//13. Where can I find archives of old stories and articles?//
Severin and Joel have built a web archive using a lot of Hubert's
material above and some other stuff. It has Chatsubo relevant links,
including other regulars' home pages:
http://www.joel-benford.co.uk/teabowl/index.html
and here:
www.imv.aau.dk/~sdi
Also, a newer character database can be found at The Monkey Doctor's
website
http://www.beresfordj.freeserve.co.uk/acc/Character_Database/index.html
If you are looking for specific stories or posts, there is an active
archive going on at google groups, but I do not believe they are
complete by any means.
(Ed. note: Several other archives have existed over the years, but they
appear to be gone now.)
The current version (this one) of the FAQ itself is now stored at the
following location:
http://www.cellularsmoke.net/acc.html
a slightly older, but HTML version is stored here:
http://www.accanthology.com/faq.shtml
//14. Links to advice on writing//
Writers on the net - professional writing teachers, costs money:
-http://www.writers.com">www.writers.com
Grammar and Style Notes - by Jack Lynch, who teaches writing:
-http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/
Ellen Datlow's writing tips - from the editor who bought Gibson.
-http://www.omnimag.com/fiction/datlow/guidelines.html
The Standard Deviations of Writing by Roger MacBride Allen
-http://www.sfwa.org/writing/mistakes_allen.htm
SFWA tips page - SF writer's association (lampooned by cyberpunks)
-http://www.sfwa.org/writing/writing.htm
The KOTF also believes the following additions should be made to any
writers library:
Roget's Thesaurus, Strunk and White's 'The Elements Of Style', 'The Well
Tempered Sentence' and 'The Transitive Vampire'.
They can be invalubale resources on writing with the English language.
#### ENDIT ####
//ghost//
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