Punks, Pre-Cogged
Last night in my typical Sunday night insomnia, I got down from the bookshelf the egregiously misfiled Nightmare Age, which has been in my Earth Mysteries section for a couple of years due to some lackadaisical flaw on my part. The book, published in 1970 and edited by Frederick Pohl, is an anthology of eco-catastrophe stories culled from 1960s science fiction mags. (It wasn't until a while later I realized it was the waning hours of Earth Day.) (Hit Read more! below) I read one story in there last night, "Day of Truce," by Clifford D. Simak. It concerned a future suburbia in which the subdivisions are veritable fortresses. The suburbanites must daily battle a group of youthful outsiders called--get this--The Punks.
I laughed when I saw that.
The story was published in 1963 in the February issue of Galaxy, beating the "nihilistic" real-life subculture by more than a decade. I wonder if Richard Hell had read this story. "Day of Truce" describes how The Punks started out as your run-of-the-mill suburban vandals and eventually became the force that threatened to bring down all of society, as the Sex Pistols threatened in 1977.
(Check out the movie Suburbia, as well.)
I recall there's also a scene in Philip K. Dick's Time Out of Joint (1959) that seems to describe 1970s-era punks. I'll look it up tonight and get back to you...
I laughed when I saw that.
The story was published in 1963 in the February issue of Galaxy, beating the "nihilistic" real-life subculture by more than a decade. I wonder if Richard Hell had read this story. "Day of Truce" describes how The Punks started out as your run-of-the-mill suburban vandals and eventually became the force that threatened to bring down all of society, as the Sex Pistols threatened in 1977.
(Check out the movie Suburbia, as well.)
I recall there's also a scene in Philip K. Dick's Time Out of Joint (1959) that seems to describe 1970s-era punks. I'll look it up tonight and get back to you...
2 Comments:
This site cites Fort as the basis of this trend, and then notes a revival during the 1960s. Yet I know of Nazi efforts at such disciplines as archeoastronomy--the study of futuristic artifacts in ancient civilizations that might have come from extraterrestrial visitors. The article didn't mention this, but it might be good to look into some day.
That's cool! But there's no mention of it here though:
http://www.dkrenton.co.uk/punk_history.html
I think it's interesting how people around the world think about the same things and use the same words at the same time unbeknownst to each other (think about atoms).
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