2020 - 04/2020 Meeting

Page Created: 01/13/20. Last Updated: 05/02/20.

CAROL GYZANDER

Website: http://carolgyzanderauthor.com/

FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/carol.gyzander

MEETING DETAIL

Meeting Date: April 11, 2020.

Meeting Site: Zoom Video Conference.

Attendance: 15.

Meeting Program: Talk / Q & A with Author Editor.

Newsletter Account

The April 11, 2020 General Meeting of the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County was held as a Zoom Video Conference due to the restrictions imposed by the corona virus. Author / editor Carol Gyzander was the speaker and moderated the meeting.

Carol's stories have appeared in a number of original anthologies including CAT LADIES OF THE APOCALYPSE (Runt of the Litter), STORIES WE TELL AFTER MIDNIGHT (It Has to Cool First), HELL"S HIGHWAY (Sucker), and ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (Deal with the Devil). She is also the editor of Writerpunk Press and has edited the anthologies MERELY THIS AND NOTHING MORE: EDGAR ALLAN POE GOES PUNK, WHAT WE'VE UNLEARNED: ENGLISH CLASS GOES PUNK, HIDEOUS PROGENY: CLASSIC HORROR GOES PUNK, and the forthcoming TAUGHT BY TIME: MYTH GOES PUNK.

The first part of her talk dealt with the story of Writerpunk Press, which began as a FaceBook Group devoted to posts and discussions of interest to punk writers. She next talked about the development of science fiction from its inception in Mary Shelley's FRANKENSTEIN to its encounter with the rock punk music scene. The interaction strengthened and altered the anti-establishment themes introduced by the New Wave science fiction movement of the 60s.

Our guest talked about her writing and the various sub-genres of punk: cyberpunk, steampunk, dieselpunk, biopunk, nanopunk, and atompunk. The different punk genres are defined by the technology they exploit.

Cyberpunk is the oldest of these genres. While earlier works by Philip K Dick, John Brunner, and others had elements of cyberpunk, the subgenre truly developed in the early 1980's when writers like William Gibson and Bruce sterling envisioned a future determined by computers, the internet, and multi-national corporations, as well as biological enhancements in works like NEUROMANCER and MIRRORSHADES.

Streampunk came next. K W Jeter tossed out the term in a 1987 letter to LOCUS MAGAZINE to describe works that he (MORLOCK NIGHTS), Tim Powers (THE ANUBIS GATE), and others were doing which extrapolated alternate timelines dominated by a steam engine based technology, commonly set in the Victorian era. Steampunk has broken out of its literary origins into the mainstream where it is tied into fashion, aesthetics, and an enthusiasm for the maker community.

The other punks followed.

Members of the session cited a number of other punk works including the movies THE MATRIX (cyberpunk), SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW (steampunk), and shows like MAX HEADROOM and VR-5.

Carol Gyzander is also active in the New York Chapter of the Horror Writers Association and told the group about the readings, convention programs, and other activities of the organization.

Past speaker Rick Gualtieri was among those who attended. Carol invited him to talk about his Testament of Bill the Vampire series as she considers it great reading at a time like this.

James Phillips mentioned <https://www.jimchines.com/2020/03/free-sff-reading/> as a source for free and legal science fiction reading.

This was the first time we have conducted an online meeting and overall things seemed to work pretty well. We hope to have an even better turnout for our May session which will also be held through Zoom. If you have never done a video conference, we can schedule a one-on-one demo if you contact us ahead of time.

Our strongest thanks to Carol who was not only the speaker / moderator, but also the person who handled the set-up and technical aspects of the event.