About Neon Grid

mission statement

Neon Grid exists to catalog every piece of published cyberpunk media from the 1980s to today, whenever that happens to be.

in the course of this cataloging, there are a few goals this site intends to accomplish:

• serve as an academic reference for scholars of SF
• spread awareness of obscure cyberpunk works
• answer the age old question, "what do I read after Neuromancer?"

motivation

I have been obsessed with cyberpunk since the 1990s. Growing up an awkward kid in a rural town, the internet became the place where I developed an identity, socialized, and learned about the world.

I believe that the one thing that is common to all cyberpunk is an exploration of self and identity mediated by technology. Am I the me online? The me on this web forum? The me who bleeds and shits? The me in World of Warcraft? Unlike other genres of SF, cyberpunk explores these issues with technology that surrounds us all day, every day, making it an always relevant style of fiction.

My nearly life-long existence online leads me to identify very strongly with cyberpunk and I have been researching it in earnest for many years. I didn't know what to do with all of this research for a long time (I did produce a book of cut-up cyberpunk poetry and briefly tried to make a podcast), and when I realized that there was no complete compendium of cyberpunk out there, I started Neon Grid.

nerd disclaimer

But but but, you worthless poseur, this site is filled with post-cyberpunk and neuromantic garbage!

The definition of cyberpunk used in this encyclopedia is a broad one. I am not interested in genre debates. The irony of any encyclopedia is that it is intended to be utilized in objective research, but cannot escape the subjectivity of its compiler. Thus, Neon Grid might contain stuff that you don't think it should contain. I don't care. However, if it is missing stuff you think it should have, please let me know!