while you're at it
there are some books you should just read, regardless of what your primary interest happens to be. the following are not really cyberpunk, but they contain elements which are echoed throughout cp.
george orwell "1984"
you'll soon realise why the adjective "orwellian" has entered our language. this book has become something of a benchmark of how opressive or horrible something seems... when people talk about "Big Brother", this is the book they're referring to. every move watched, every aspect of your life controlled... even the language is engineered to enable the ultimate goal of preventing dissident thought - "thoughtcrime".
ray bradbury "farenheit 451"
the title refers to the heat at which paper burns; an allusion to the practice of book burning. in a world dominated utterly by media, possession of books has become a crime. yet one of the "firemen" has become obsessed by the books he is destroying; wondering what is being lost through his actions.
aldous huxley "brave new world"
"But I like the inconveniences."
"We don't," said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably."
"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."
"Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphillis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind." There was a long silence.
"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.
Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome," he said.
what constitutes real freedom? is an engineered society truly utopia? are the engineers truly evil, or benevolent? what becomes of those who do not conform and do not fit in?
william golding "lord of the flies"
what happens when a group of young english schoolboys find themselves alone on a deserted island? how long does it take choirboys to whip themselves into a killing fury? what can stop them?