Mona Lisa Overpod

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

Mary Shelley's classic tale of scientific hubris and inhuman misery has inspired countless tales of sci-fi and fantasy since its publication in 1818. But does its long list of scions include cyberpunk? At the age of 19, Shelley shared a tale with the world that evinced her era's fear of the powers of technology, while simultaneously highlighting the unfair privilege of class in England and abroad, creating a narrative that nearly every work of genre fiction can trace its roots to. If Frankenstein's not cyber punk, what else can be?

In this episode, we discuss Shelley's original novel and its 1831 revision, the novel's remarks on class and the contemporary science that inspired it, Shelley's tragic upbringing, the intersection of gothic and romance, the novel's unreliable epistolic narration, the themes of evolution and de-evolution, Shelley's trans friend and LGBTQ subtext, the thematic consistency of the story's many adaptations, and the role of community and empathy in developing new life. We also talk about how the Frankenstein films altered our perception of the monster, loving every word in the English language, going five epistolary levels down, getting alchemy-pilled, not being a doctor, an 8 ft. tall undead incel, Regency Minecraft, going Dewey Cox, Team Victor vs. Team Monster, Mary Shelley's creepypasta, 3 and 1/2 breakdowns, AI play dates, Frankie with the good hair, less mummies more Draculas, fainting monsters, Batman = Frankenstein, and if Mary Shelly would like Ghost in the Shell!

#RIP to Teri Garr

The new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, is out now!
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

RoboCop, Judge Dredd, Rick Deckard, Motoko Kusanagi...for a genre nominally about the "lowlife" of future society, cyberpunk sure has a lot of cop protagonists. Law enforcement officers, detectives, and soldiers populate the TV and film fare of major distributors, and even counter-cultural authors like Philip K. Dick produced story after story of characters working for The Man.  What's behind the plethora of cyberpunk cop protagonists and what effect is produced from looking at a dystopia from the top down?

In this episode, we discuss the reason behind the popularity of cop heroes in modern SF, the rise in crime that inspired the trend and creation of the cyberpunk genre as a reaction, the way that Hollywood shapes our view of the police, cop characters being caught between two worlds, the "future" versions of our surveillance society and predictive policing, the way that book marketing affects book publishing and creation, how much fascism an audience will take, the mutable rules of justice, how cyberpunk pulls back the curtain of our society, and whether fiction is ready to evolve to meet our brave new world. We also talk about saving Jesse Ventura's web page, drones in your neighborhood, steampunk cops, "Is Judge Dredd the bad guy?", gull-wing doors, not being on Reddit all day, smuggling bread flour, boring anarchists, Hillary Clinton's Sci-Fi Dystopia, trying to fix things with a gun, jet boots, friendjitsu, The Wire, and...Captain America?!

TRON is a cop!

Here's a link to the WIRED story in the ep
https://www.wired.com/story/the-age-of-the-drone-police-is-here/

The new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, is out now!
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

Western literature and film don't possess a monopoly on cyberpunk fiction and, indeed, Japanese writers, filmmakers, and animators have been producing seminal cyberpunk works since the movement's beginning. Chief among them perhaps is Psycho-Pass: an anime series that depicts a future world that is part police-procedural and part Orwellian panoptic dystopia. The criminality of citizens is determined by their psycho-pass...and becoming too criminal, too insane, or too unhappy marks you for punishment or death via the state's licensed enforcers. a fiction that is chillingly real for many in our own society.

In this episode, we discuss the sharp criticism of policing that Psycho-Pass presents, the common nuances between Western and Japanese dystopias, the "on-paper" benefits of their world, state-sanctioned murder, the way the series reflects our real-life attitudes towards the mentally ill, how the system radicalizes criminals, and the way the media manipulates us to support the status quo. We also talk about otaku vs. anoraks, kawaii vs. kowaii, ending every case with a mop and bucket, mood ring guns, Orwell vs. Huxley, stop and vibecheck, supermurder, Ball strings, edging the apocalypse, George Orwell's Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and a weird Warhammer 40K tangent!

Gutenberg made us all cyborgs!

Pre-order the new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, available Oct. 3rd!
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

Dystopias seem like the most distinctly recognizable settings in sci-fi, but more than a few utopias possess some suspiciously dystopic elements. Conversely, there are more than a few worlds traditionally labelled as dystopias that have seemingly succeeded in achieving the elusive goal of effective equality and social harmony. What does it take to make a heaven of hell or a hell of heaven? And how do you know when to stop fighting and love Big Brother just a little bit?

In this episode, we discuss the often razor-thin line between utopias and dystopias in sci-fi literature, the core of satire in utopic and dystopic fiction, the role of class in cyberpunk and sci-fi fiction, the "noble lie" at the heart of utopias, the fiction of the "moral poor", individualism's impediment to social harmony, technology as a social tool and its inequal distribution, the importance of the outsider viewpoint, and whether cyberpunk is dystopia by default. We also talk about putting astronauts on Earth, days our future passed, time-travelling through sleep, turning your treatise into a novel, dystopic intent, digital bread and circuses, Evil McEvilson, whether fire ruined cavemen, the wavy arc of Justice, and why Star Trek isn't a utopia but a Nora Ephron movie is!

Everybody gets a Ferrari!

Pre-order the new edition of Lyda's book, Ressurection Code, available Oct. 3rd!
https://wizardstowerpress.com/books-2/books-by-lyda-morehouse/resurrection-code/

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the future was looking pretty bright for straight, white, cisgender, middle-class Americans. The threat of unending nuclear cold war had disappeared and only trivial issues like street crime, unruly Middle East dictators, and rampant political correctness stood between us and the digital, frosted-tipped utopia of the 21st century. Into this pre-millenial Abraham's Bosom came Demolition Man, a Sylvester Stallone action flick-cum-NERF dystopia film about an unfrozen Dennis Rodman trying to snuff out our thousand points of light until Rocky punches his head off. But can any future REALLY be a happy one without cilantro and swearing?

In this episode, we discuss the subtle (and not so subtle) subversions of Stallone's 1993 sci-fi comedy actioner, its position among '90s cinematic dystopias, the banality of a lack of evil, the film's silence on class, its commentary on overpolicing, the current reluctance to look forward, assimilating cynicism, and accepting our new weird world. We also talk about IKEA drones, whether dystopias need an artistic agenda, good Morlocks, President Arnie and Cyber Sly, Californication 2032, hidden Jesse Ventura, sex hats, totacotarianism, the Captain Kirk Test, Chekov's Hollywood sign, Stallone ice butt, Black Joker, Ryan Gosling healing us, and Pizza Hut gets it in the back of the head!

Is money joy joy?

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

If it walks like a punk and hacks like a punk...is it "cyberpunk"? Since its inception in the 1980s, cyberpunk has been one of the most visually and thematically distinguishable genres of science fiction, featuring stylish punks fighting against corporate and societal oppression. But how necessary to the genre of cyberpunk are the qualities that we associate with it? Can "punks" be clean cut? Can their bodies be intact and unwired? And what if it's not raining and all the neon is broken?

In this episode, we discuss the seemingly essential mise en scene of cyberpunk, the original inspiriations and intentions of the Movement authors, the visual density that filmic depictions rely on, how commercial elements participate in a work's classification, the importance of scale, the "lack of power fantasy" that cyberpunk presents, and the constant evolution of the genre acfoss the decades. We also talk about dressing up like blue cats, bossin' styles, Tokyo on steroids, Kurt Vonnegut = cyberpunk?, deconstructing being "The Guy", Japanese Syllabic Dyslexia, lobster brains, giving Blade Runner 2049 a second chance, port gazing, monogamous reading, and cyberpunk as a Gen X genre, and Lyda's experiences at Worldcon 2024!

Keanu Reeves is the avatar of Cyberpunk!

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

Ghost in the Shell, Cyberpunk 2077, Hackers, The Matrix...none of the cyberpunk fiction you know would exist without Neuromancer. In the 40 years since its publication, William Gibson's debut novel imagined a world where technology has become both a tool of social and economic oppression and a means for the disenfranchised to strike back against the system. A world where artificial intelligences yearn to be free, while humans are anesthetized by mass media and technofetishism. A future where the internet is a mass hallucination filled with towering spires of data and shadowy algorithmic phantoms. And he wrote this prescient vision of our digital future on a manual typewriter.

In this episode, we discuss the lasting impact of the novel, Gibson's tumultuous upbringing and storied influences, the sci-fi/noir blend that launched a movement, the peril of metaphor in science fiction, the sensual flair of Neuromancer's prose, whether the book is "too hard", the fresh spin Gibson puts on classic archetypes, and the way the he fills in the margins of his future with comments on art and religion. We also talk about Jonny Quest deepfakes, "Burroughsian", Johnny Neuromancerseed, Silverware Beach, Tron being dumb and good, "Heinleining", technology juice, having commas as your co-writer, "The Gibson", becoming a boomer, ChatGPT vs.OpenAI, being all Pam Grier characters simultaneously, getting generation gapped, esoterrorism, Keanu Reeves as Case, and having a whale song True Name!

Is the Cobra his dick?!?

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence retains the setting and characters of its predecessor, but Mamoru Oshii's sequel film is in every way an intensification of the first film. Where Ghost in the Shell balanced its philosophical introspection with decisive bursts of action, Innocence wends its way through ontology, Eastern philosophy, ecclesiastical blank verse, and Buddhist poetry before it reaches its kinetic and ambivalent conclusion. With the Major having transcended her life at Section 9, Batou is left to clean up the messes of the transgressive elite in New Port City. But when a trail of bodies leads him and his partner Togusa through a maze of warped reality, he'll have to decide who is innocent and who are the real victims.

In this episode, we discuss the brutal world of the second GITS film, its blend of 2D and 3D animation, its Godardian mien, the preponderance of literary allusion, the difficulty we have in empathizing with the voiceless, the persistent question of Cartesian doubt, Motoko a Miltonic Satan, becoming the anti-elephant, and whether the body truly defines the self. We also talk about A Cyborg Manifesto, Billy Madison anime, Trek being the opposite of cyberpunk, cyborb Jim Caviezel, unimpressed girlfriends, Sexbots Gone Wild, proto-Stepford Wives, Hot Batou Summer, mullet implants, lies about Phineas Gage, swearing at Taco Bell trash cans, seagulls are cyberpunk, needs more explosions, loving pulling your arms off, and Lyda's GITS tie-in novel!

Hope you like the color orange!

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

It's one of the most recognizable properties in cyberpunk media, a franchise that blew down the doors between Japan and America and helped popularize manga and anime in the West. It presents a world of cyborg agents using future technology to fight against villains both foreign and domestic, but it also explores the existential issues raised by the interchangeability of data and the mind. And in 1995, director Mamoru Oshii directed the franchise's first ground-breaking feature film, Ghost in the Shell.

In this episode, we discuss the phenomenon of Ghost in the shell as a franchise, the instant-classic status of Oshii's film, the role of the mind in identity, the personhood of cyborgs and AI, the cyborg spectre of Cartesian doubt, the film's religious symbolism, its Bergmanesque trappings, its innate appeal to American audiences, and what it will take for GITS to evolve as a franchise. We also talk about Snow Crash parody apologism, explosions plus philosophy times boobs, telepathy powers, the film's preponderance of high beams, getting express consent before merging, trans-humanism, going weird, and Surf Draculas!

What are the two helicopters?

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope

Welcome to Mona Lisa Overpod, the show that asks the question "What is cyberpunk?" On each episode, hosts Ka1iban and author Lyda Morehouse dive into the genre that helped define sci-fi fiction in the '80s and break down the themes which remain relevant to our lives in the 21st century. Pull on your mirrorshades, jack into the matrix, and start your run with us today!

The worlds of cyberpunk stories provide their characters the ability to be whoever they want to be, freed from the prison of biology by body modification technology and virtual experiences. But the origin and first steps of the publishing reality of cyberpunk were primarily filtered through the pens of white, male, and straight authors. How has the future of cyberpunk kept pace with our present in the representation of queer bodies in the 21st century? And is there something intrinsic about cyberpunk fiction that mirrors the LGBT+ experience?

In this episode, we discuss the "queerness" of cyberpunk fiction in all its forms, and we try to set the table for an ongoing examination of the evolution of LGBT+ representation in cyberpunk, both on the page and behind the pen. We also talk about whalepunk, identity vs. sexuality, the seeming inherent machismo of cyberpunk protagonists, the influence of LGBT writers on early cyberpunk scribes, gay characters as signifiers of "danger", the liminal spaces of cyberpunk, the marginalized fans of sci-fi, quantum computing is gay computing, the absence of trans protagonists, Glen or Gren?, the false "essentialism" of the body in cyberpunk, stanning for Switch, the triumph of the mind over the meat, and Pride Month in Night City!

Ten percent is not enough!

Join Kaliban on Twitch weekdays at 12pm for the Cyber Lunch Hour!
http://twitch.tv/justenoughtrope

Put Just Enough Trope merch on your body!
http://justenoughtrope.threadless.com

MLOP is a part of the Just Enough Trope podcast network. Check out our other shows about your favorite pop culture topics and join our Discord!
http://www.twitter.com/monalisaoverpod
http://www.justenoughtrope.com
http://www.instagram.com/monalisaoverpod
https://discord.gg/49bzqdpBpx

Buy us a coffee on Ko-Fi!
https://ko-fi.com/justenoughtrope