There's Too Much Body Horror in Cyberpunk

Today on COG Considers, let's talk about how cyberpunk is basically horror in a sci-fi package, and that horror is starting to get a bit stale.

[Vanfernal]

A staple theme of cyberpunk is blurring the lines between man and machine. That concept is intrinsically tied to body horror. So if you don't like that aspect of cyberpunk you basically have an issue with the genre itself.

[zarbor]

Correct. The article is so dumb. Please do yourself a favor and don't read and please don't even comment. Its not worth the time nor space.

[justadelusion]

I'm just not sure if some of the articles are even serious anymore.

[Smok91]

That’s one way of viewing the game...I guess

[Magog]

Does this person consider all body modification to be mutilation? Earrings? Circumcision? Plastic surgery?

[Aussiesummer]

Well it literally is.

[DVAcme]

What a stupid fucking headline. The loss of humanity as people replace more of themselves with machine is a DEFINING THEME of the Cyberpunk genre, one that has been used for both visceral and philosophical effect.

You might as well complain there's too much stabbing in Slasher films or too many tentacles in Lovecraftian horror while you're at it, ffs

[sourOG]

Never heard of “body horror”. It sounds like gore porn. I don’t see how transhumanism fits into that though.

[Rachel_Alucard]

Body horror as a theme that was only made a term in 1983 but it's existed for a couple hundred years, it has roots in things like Frankenstein, with depictions of grotesque violations of the human body. The Thing from the 1980s is one film that does that, as well as Akira. Dead Space is one of the few game franchises themed around it and there's many, many other times in games where body horror is seen, like all throughout the Dragon Age franchise with the mages becoming abominations, or the flood in Halo. But there aren't really many games where Body horror is a central theme like Dead Space or even Bloodborne if that counts. Cyberpunk has body horror only because it goes hand in hand with Cyberpunk as a genre.

[sourOG]

I see. Never heard of the term. I like all of those though. Besides cyberpunk I decided to wait for the next gen version before I continue. I was only an hour or 2 in so maybe I just don’t have the context yet.

I can see the horror part being used to describe the thing or dead space twisting bodies into grotesque things but how is that like humans turning themselves into robots? I don’t see where the horror part comes in. The thing victims didn’t do it by choice lol.

[Rachel_Alucard]

They don't need to choose to become that, Body horror is just the perversion of the human body beyond recognition. Many films have depicted robotic/human monstrosities, and they either had or didn't have a choice in the matter. Something like Adam Jensen wouldn't be considered body horror just because he still keeps all his human characteristics and appearence. I mean if you've seen Adam Smasher in CP, that would be a prime example of body horror. Though he isn't the worst offender compared to some depictions like from Frankenstein's Army

https://puu.sh/HFkC7/27aeda...

[DVAcme]

@sourOG Body horror has been a defining part of the cyberpunk genre since its inception. It's not a matter of it being voluntary or not, it's that humans, in their hubris, keep replacing body parts with cybernetics believing themselves turning "superior", but in the process, they lose humanity both physically in becoming more machine than man and in starting to disassociate from the human race as a whole.

The Cyberpunk RPG game has explored this concept since the 80's, with the concept of Cyberpsychosis. As cheaper and black market cybernetics became common, people would replace parts with no medical reason, whether for superhuman enhancement or even for simple fashion, but these cheaper parts also started to cause problems. Bad neural connections would cause phantom pains, spasms and nerve damage, and other people would start treating you more like a thing than as a person, and eventually you end up with a cyberpsycho walking into a public place and causing a massacre. This exact same concept was also explored in the classic cyberpunk anime Bubblegum Crisis, specifically in its prequel series AD Police. In that series, it was even explored that, if you replace too much of yourself, you basically stop qualifying as a human being and become more like an independent machine, and legislation was passed that would disqualify you for citizenship cause you didn't really count as a living being anymore.

And for the most famous example of involuntary cyberization, FUCKING ROBOCOP. Alex Murphy was literally brought back from the dead as a cyborg, but since he was clinically dead beforehand, he's not considered human anymore, but property of OCP. It's one of the defining themes of the movie.

The body horror theme in cyberpunk became even more pronounced in its daughter genre, biopunk, in which genetic engineering, gene manipulation, drug therapies and other such concepts replace the machinery of cybernetics but nevertheless explore the dehumanizing effect of technology. Look at Tetsuo in Akira for the most famous example of that.

[sourOG]

Yeah like Adam Jensen wouldn’t be considered body horror but I don’t see the difference. Just because he’s human shaped and clean? I’ve never considered robocop as horror in any way lol. Bioshock and dead space are in my top 5 favorite games. The new resident evil fits your descriptions perfectly lol. The thing, they live, basket case and those types are my favorite movies. The monster genre has always been my favorite type of horror.

Maybe that’s why it was hard for me to connect the techno side, I’m comparing it to that. I don’t consider them any more monster than regular humans, it just seems different. It’s not gross and unknown like the bio resident evil monsters. I’m not trying to say that you are wrong, I didn’t even know the term despite it probably being my favorite genre lol.

[porkChop]

But... that's one of the defining aspects of Cyberpunk. That's integral to the genre. You can't have Cyberpunk without it.

[TheHan]

What gets me is, if you have a problem with a game. There’s a simple easy solution, don’t fucking buy/play it. I for one enjoy everything about the game, the world is rich in Cyberpunk.

[Sidewinder-]

These type of online articles are far more horrific.

[BrainSyphoned]

The glitching bodies were horrific in Cyberpunk 2077 but that is not what this inane piece is about.

[Smok91]

I’m getting some South Park everything is shit vibes lol

[MadLad]

This is a creative medium, and offers a lot of varying content for different tastes.
Nobody has to buy any one game if they don't like the subject matter.

It's as simple as that.

You don't buy a David Cage title and then complain the lack of conventional mechanics. You should know what you're getting into.

[frostypants]

Are we seriously still whining about this game?

[Vanfernal]

The article is about the cyberpunk science fiction genre, not about Cyberpunk 2077 the video game.

[ShadowWolf712]

That's... literally part of the genre?

This is like complaining there's too many guys with knives in slasher movies.

[Doomeduk]

I thought that's where cyberpunk failed for me , after the deus ex games playing the augments against the humans as well as politically ,cyberpunk is just bolt on what you want if you have the coin because there is no conflict well not to the depth other the other game I mentioned