3liza:

the thing i like about cyberpunk is that it was completely correct about universal malevolent corporate oversight, the total destruction of the middle class, and the profound desperation and hunger that drives young people to learn hacking and internet fluency. you can sort of mentally prepare yourself for how incredbly bad things are by reading, for example, any Shadowrun campaign or World of Darkness flavor book from the late 80s early 90s and saying to yourself, softly like a cantrip, “this but unironically”