Cyberpunk and Frye's Theory of Literature
Stage 5: Irony
The last category which Frye mentions is that of the anti-hero, who is "inferior in power or intelligence to ourselves, so that we have the sense of looking down on a scene of bondage, frustration, or absurdity" (34). The irony, of course, is that even through all of this frustration, the anti-hero is portrayed as somehow heroic. Anti-heroes abound in modern and postmodern literature. One of the better examples is, ironically, not even in a novel - Charles Schulz's cartoon character Charlie Brown. The boy is constantly rejected by his friends, always loses baseball games, is always getting his kite stuck in a tree, etc. In short, Charlie Brown represents exactly the sort of inferiority, bondage, and frustration that Frye is talking about. This is not to say that all anti-heroes are hopeless buffoons; they are, however, usually "graceless, inept, sometimes stupid, sometimes dishonest" (Holman 28). Willy Loman, from Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, is another example of an anti-hero. Willy's own name, "Lo-man," or "Low man," suggests to us someone subhuman, absurd, and ironic, as an anti-hero usually is. As Clurman tells us in his essay "Arthur Miller's Later Plays," "Willy Loman is certainly no 'hero'...Willy's suicide is the climax of his own absurdity" (165-6). Loman's life is one of misery and hopelessness, and having lost society and hope, Willy also loses his life. Simply put, the anti-hero "loses" at something, and is generally unsuccessful at life as a whole.
Anti-heroes are, as would seem logical, the opposite of what a hero represents, at least as compared to society. As Frye points out, the anti-hero is someone who is "isolated from his society" (Frye 41). Examples, given by Frye, include the biblical figure of Christ (rejected and crucified, through the supposed fault of not conforming to society's norms), the Greek Prometheus (rejected by the gods for befriending mankind), and even Adam, who "is in a heroic human situation: he is on top of the wheel of fortune". Adam has "the destiny of the gods almost within his reach. He forfeits that destiny... What he does is to exchange a fortune of unlimited freedom for the fate involved in the consequences of the act of exchange..." (212).
Adam is not necessarily wrong in his decision; his choice does, however, cause his downfall. Thus, the anti-hero is not always wrong, and usually is correct in the eyes of the reader. From the view of society, however, the anti-hero is wrong, and deserves to be punished for his faults, whether those faults are real or imagined. An important facet of this genre for Frye, however, is the "suppression of all explicit moral judgments" (40) in the work of literature. That is, we are not told whether the anti-hero or society is in the right; rather, we are objectively shown a situation in which the anti-hero is rejected, and allowed to draw our own opinions. Anti-heroes live in a decidedly amoral world.
The term "anti-hero" is, at first glance, seemingly appropriate for cyberpunks. Anti-heroes are, after all, outside of what is considered "normal society". They are often looked down on or rejected by society, even by those who are seemingly "on their side"; consider the punk music scene once again, in which the musicians are both adored and spit on (literally) by the audience. Cyberpunks also live in a decidedly amoral world, in which the "traditional concepts of good and evil are replaced by the values of expedience" (Moss 3), as I stated earlier. A novel in which the chief characters are thieves, prostitutes, and mercenaries (Hardwired, Neuromancer, and many others) or bounty-hunters and pickpockets (Virtual Light, for example) must exist in an amoral world, else we throw the book down in disgust and condemn the characters for their sins. Rather, cyberpunk literature allows its readers to view acts of murder, deception, theft, and even rape, in a world outside the boundaries of morality, "beyond good and evil" as Nietzsche would state the idea.
In Gibson's Virtual Light, the entire plot of the novel is based upon one small incident at a crowded party, in which Chevette, one of the protagonists, finds herself wedged up against a man whom she dislikes. Looking down at his jacket, she "sees something sticking out of a pocket in the tobacco colored leather. Then it's in her hand, down the front of her bike-pants, she's out the door, and the asshole hasn't even noticed" (49). Neither Chevette nor the reader gives any thought to this act of theft, even though the theft of these virtual light sunglasses is the driving force behind the entire novel. It is objectively stated, simply done, and over within two short sentences, bereft of any moral judgment. Because cyberpunk is by its very nature amoral, the murders and acts of thievery performed in cyberpunk novels might seem to support the notion that cyberpunk novels are anti-heroic. This is not the case.
First of all, anti-heroes have some sort of weakness present in their characters, whether it be a moral flaw, a physical weakness, or an intentional sacrifice. In some way, anti-heroes are "subhuman," somehow weaker than the average man. Cyberpunks are not weak at all. They are, as stated earlier, superior in kind (based on their cybernetic enhancements as well as in degree based on their abilities) to normal men. We do not have the impression, as Frye said of anti-heroes, of looking down at a scene; rather, we look at something, and we neither despise nor pity the cyberpunk protagonist. There is also no sense of bondage or helplessness in cyberpunk literature, something that is present in anti-heroic literature. The anti-hero is trapped by his condition, and is subject to the laws of nature and society; he is helpless. The cyberpunk, on the other hand, is in no way a victim of helplessness and weakness. He may be outside of society, but that is a natural and desirable condition for a punk. There is no bondage in rejection for the cyberpunk, only freedom from the constraints of society. As the alt.cyberpunk FAQ list defines the idea of the cyberpunk character,
...in any cultural system, there are always those who live on its margins, on "the Edge": criminals, outcasts, visionaries, or those who simply want freedom for its own sake. Cyberpunk literature focuses on these people, and often on how they turn the system's technological tools to their own ends. (Schneider)Cyberpunks are not weak, are not held captive by their status as outcasts, and are superior to the normal man in some form. Cyberpunks are, however, rejected by society, amoral, and portrayed in a very objective fashion. Cyberpunks are, it would appear, "half anti-heroes," somehow possessing about half of the qualities of Frye's "anti-hero," but not quite fitting the definition completely. It seems that critics sense this, as few have used the term anti-hero to refer to cyberpunk characters. When they have, the use of the term is fleeting, often confused with other terms and ideas. For instance, Sponsler calls them "antiheroes set adrift in a world in which there is no meaning" (627), but she also uses the term hero several times in the same essay, unable to define the cyberpunk with one definite term. Pat Cadigan, when asked about her own cyberpunk characters, seemed unable and unwilling to pin them down with one term as well. In the following excerpt from an on-line computer interview, MikelJr is my screen name:
MikelJr: Some call [cyberpunks] "heroes". Some call them "anti-heroes". Would you attempt a label for them?Obviously, there is some confusion here. Pat Cadigan refuses to label her own cyberpunk characters as anything more than "people," and critics are constantly getting confused between calling cyberpunks heroes and anti-heroes, among other things. Cyberpunks are a combination not only of man and machine, but of the anti-hero and something else, something yet undefined.
Cadigan: Well, that's a loaded question, because when most people describe a cyberpunk character they inevitably go to a stereotype...
MikelJr: Are your characters different? Intentionally so?
Cadigan:Well, I think they are...I just made them people...Not just black hats.
(Interview)