If Contemporary Fiction Was Written Like Science Fiction

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  • Опубліковано 7 жов 2024
  • Just a heads up: there's a sequence with flashing lights in this video between 0:29 - 0:39.
    #books #scifi
    I started out writing this video thinking it would be a funny satire on sci-fi dystopias, then about halfway through realized that (*gasp!*) we might actually be living in a sci-fi dystopia, so... Yeah. Bet you didn't see that coming.
    Music:
    "Core" & "Self Destruct" by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio

КОМЕНТАРІ • 1,6 тис.

  • @Oberon4278
    @Oberon4278 7 місяців тому +1639

    Waking up already wearing sunglasses is by far the most sci fi part

    • @irrevenant3
      @irrevenant3 7 місяців тому +24

      And that wasn't even in the story!

    • @FairyRat
      @FairyRat 7 місяців тому +22

      @@irrevenant3It's implied!

    • @shadowjack239
      @shadowjack239 7 місяців тому +20

      His vision is augmented #deusex

    • @peterd9698
      @peterd9698 7 місяців тому +4

      Who hasn't had one of those "Hey, I don't even _own_ sunglasses" moments?
      Probably people who own sunglasses come to think of it.

    • @karoltrzeszczkowski9567
      @karoltrzeszczkowski9567 6 місяців тому +4

      We no longer need sunglasses in this dystopian world with no sunlight. Why own a pair when there is no real "outside"? Some people own AR glasses but they are just a toy for douchebags addicted to dopamine so deeply, they can no longer put down their pocket computers. Maybe that's the fate we will all share eventually.

  • @Alex_...34565
    @Alex_...34565 7 місяців тому +5428

    this sounds like late 80s cyberpunk fiction i love it

    • @Yesica1993
      @Yesica1993 7 місяців тому +30

      I know!

    • @MsOkayAwesome
      @MsOkayAwesome 7 місяців тому +53

      Right! I'd read a book like this 😂

    • @kappamakizushi
      @kappamakizushi 7 місяців тому +148

      I immediately thought of William Gibson/Neuromancer

    • @Alex_...34565
      @Alex_...34565 7 місяців тому +47

      @@kappamakizushi i thought of snow crash & blade runner

    • @somerandommen
      @somerandommen 7 місяців тому +140

      That's because we live in a late-80s cyberpunk world... very unfortunately

  • @fdumbass
    @fdumbass 7 місяців тому +8203

    Now I just wanna see the life of a Medieval peasant written like science fiction

    • @vladprus4019
      @vladprus4019 7 місяців тому +555

      Sample:
      "I wake up when the rays of the blazing star turn my slumbering mind into the readiness.
      (a bit of break)
      When I tansition through the network of the enless roads, I reach the nearby towwns. I have the appoitment today, to meet with the metal master, the most advances in our region. On my way, i am picking up the concerning news: the nomads and ganfgs are gathering their forces after capturing the high-tech armor covering them head to toes in a barrier nearly impossible to break without the newest piece into the possession of those. We can only hope that the hired mercenary group will get rid of them without harassing us the process."

    • @andredepadua8799
      @andredepadua8799 7 місяців тому +179

      Medieval Sci-Fi got me thinking about Space Operas, in the sense that the conquest of the Americas was like an alien invasion (a thing James Cameron's Avatar already noticed)

    • @theloweffortchannel7211
      @theloweffortchannel7211 7 місяців тому +122

      ​@@andredepadua8799Medieval scifi does exist and contains some surprisingly forward concepts (suspended animation in one story: Hector's (from the Illiad) body was apparently kept alive with a set of golden pipes pumping balsam into it)

    •  7 місяців тому +95

      @@vladprus4019Love how there's misspelling, reminding me that this is, in fact, from a peasant and not the average post-modern dystopian office worker.

    • @deckie_
      @deckie_ 7 місяців тому +26

      ​@@andredepadua8799 isn't it the other way around? Alien invasions are like the conquest of the Americas? I haven't read about the comparison before so I don't know, but I could imagine the alien invasions in fictions are modelled after what real life invasions by more technologically advanced civilisations looked like

  • @ManCarryingThing
    @ManCarryingThing 7 місяців тому +502

    this was just PERFECTLY done.

  • @ellery0909
    @ellery0909 7 місяців тому +1923

    The sky above the port was the the color of a phone screen, in dark mode.

    • @Bob-qz5yj
      @Bob-qz5yj 7 місяців тому +148

      The color of an Lcd set to black, the glow of the backlight leaking through clouds

    • @PeterH-tu1kj
      @PeterH-tu1kj 7 місяців тому +11

      FUNNY!

    • @peanutgallery4
      @peanutgallery4 7 місяців тому +10

      Made me lol

    • @lukebm5555
      @lukebm5555 7 місяців тому +42

      A rumble shook me from my reverie as the heavens lit up like a Wikipedia page

    • @OatmealTheCrazy
      @OatmealTheCrazy 7 місяців тому +25

      Describe the sky color with exact lumens/hex code

  • @BadgerOfTheSea
    @BadgerOfTheSea 7 місяців тому +716

    The calling coffee some random scifi name instead of just "coffee" is perfect scifi writing. In Warhammer 40k it is called "Recaf" and in Judge Dredd it is called "Synthi-Caff"

    • @McDonaldsCalifornia
      @McDonaldsCalifornia 7 місяців тому

      To be fair we won't be having coffee much longer the way climate change and global conflict is going. At least not for anyone but the rich.
      So it makes sense for a dystopia that people would be drinking a coffee substitute.
      During the great depression there were various "fake coffees"

    • @johannageisel5390
      @johannageisel5390 7 місяців тому +76

      Probably named differently in their worlds, because it is not real coffee anymore. Coffee plants are having a very hard time adapting to climate change, so who knows if they will still be around in large enough numbers so that the common person can afford their juices.
      Corporations will then start to mix water with caffeine and brown food colouring and give it a sci-fi name.

    • @kated442
      @kated442 7 місяців тому +4

      Diana Wynne Jones wrote a short story about that, called Nad and Dan and Quaffy

    • @cptnraptor
      @cptnraptor 7 місяців тому

      ​@@johannageisel5390inb4 Starbucks or Kenco or whomever stick a trademark on "Joe", the coffee free caffeine that tastes like yesterday!

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому +14

      Inventing random words for everyday things is more of a fantasy trope.
      Science fiction often needs neologisms because, well, for example what would you call a thumb drive if the term "thumb drive" did not exist yet? (And please don't say data spike, that's just silly.)

  • @thekiss2083
    @thekiss2083 7 місяців тому +4506

    You know it's science fiction because a friend would never call you to cancel plans. They'd wait until 3 hours before and then text saying they're not feeling good

    • @sludgy5134
      @sludgy5134 7 місяців тому +78

      Pfp tracks

    • @genericallyentertaining
      @genericallyentertaining  7 місяців тому +456

      Aw dang it, I guess it's not contemporary fiction after all.

    •  7 місяців тому +163

      False. They're gonna hype you up and insult you for being busy with personal affairs until the very day of the actual activity, then 3 hours after the planned time, they call and say they're too eepy sleepy and somewhat sick to attend, then spend the next week complaining about how nobody wants to do anything with them.

    • @mynamejeff3545
      @mynamejeff3545 7 місяців тому +51

      Thank god I'm the other extreme: not wanting to cancel plans even though I'm obviously Not Feeling Good, making me as sociable as a dead cat once I get there

    • @SOBEKCrocodileGod
      @SOBEKCrocodileGod 7 місяців тому +28

      Or they’d wait til you show up to the place you were gonna meet and you send them a text asking where they are

  • @agentjohn4313
    @agentjohn4313 7 місяців тому +190

    I often think about how we basically live in a sci-fy setting from the POV of the 1980's

  • @bobbodaskank
    @bobbodaskank 7 місяців тому +1258

    "my spinal cord smarting like a bruised tibia" is hilarious, lol
    "my bones hurt, reminding me of nothing so much as hurt bones"

    • @Mikewee777
      @Mikewee777 7 місяців тому +57

      #BoneHurtingJuice

    • @fatitankeris6327
      @fatitankeris6327 7 місяців тому +27

      ​@@Mikewee777I like bone apple teeth more.

  • @minestar2247
    @minestar2247 7 місяців тому +87

    You know what, I really love this style, it kinda makes reality more interesting, as this style of writing denormalises the average everyday things we are used to, at the same time, it makes the uninteresting plot sound way more fascinating "how is he gonna describe it next? What's gonna happen? Why does he wear sunglasses?"

  • @subaru5332
    @subaru5332 7 місяців тому +3669

    Boring Day (2024) would go on to receive mass acclaim by critics worldwide for its, “mundane prediction of events that are occurring this very second making the film both timeless and unwatchable after release day.” It would eventually spawn multiple spin-offs including: Boring Day (2025), Boring (Yester)Day, Days of Bore Yet Past and Future, and the highly anticipated ‘Day Boring’.

    • @Mythraen
      @Mythraen 7 місяців тому +215

      "Day Boring" sounds like it's about time travel using a drill.

    • @NuwandaLunaDragon
      @NuwandaLunaDragon 7 місяців тому +111

      They kinda dropped the ball with the spin off "Vore day"

    • @firelight8565
      @firelight8565 7 місяців тому +112

      Don't forget the reboot: "The Boring Day" (2077).

    • @Sityu1991
      @Sityu1991 7 місяців тому +81

      I, for one, am excited for the upcoming spinoff franchise, 2Day 2Borious, starring Vin Electric.

    • @mrmastergrimmbo
      @mrmastergrimmbo 7 місяців тому +34

      THE RELEASE FOR BORING TOMORROW HAS BEEN ANOUNCED!!!

  • @TimPortantno
    @TimPortantno 7 місяців тому +228

    Unless it's a satellite cellphone, no satellites are involved, which made me realize how hilarious this would be in a sci-fi movie where the narrator has no idea how anything works.

    • @victorkrawchuk9141
      @victorkrawchuk9141 6 місяців тому +9

      In the US, SpaceX's Starlink will start to provide direct-to-cell service to existing T-Mobile phones when enough full-scale (non-mini) V2 satellites have been launched. Also KDDI in Japan, I forget the other countries but so far about a dozen providers have signed up. The satellites will act as backup cellphone towers when terrestrial towers are unavailable. So no more outdoor dead zones anywhere. Most existing phones will work unmodified and with current software. The V2 satellites are bigger than V1 satellites so Starship will be the enabler when it starts to reach orbit reliably. Perhaps direct-to-cell tech will be available a year from now...? What the guy said wasn't so far off the mark.

    • @TimPortantno
      @TimPortantno 4 місяці тому +9

      @@victorkrawchuk9141 It's not going from one cellphone to a satellite and then to another phone, it is still always being relayed across private networks on the ground. Maybe if they have a direct connection to another satellite provider it might make sense.

    • @Minelove423
      @Minelove423 3 місяці тому +6

      This but with an average level of cluelessness. They know what something is, but only the basics of how it works.
      Like, brakes stop cars. How exactly? IDK, I don't care enough to check.

  • @lewismassie
    @lewismassie 7 місяців тому +2713

    As a guy who consumes probably too much science fiction, you nailed not just the tone but also the weird random hyperdetailed descriptions of the environment.
    15,000 hertz sound of the train braking? Hell yeah I'm gonna be thinking about that on the train tomorrow

    • @homeopathicfossil-fuels4789
      @homeopathicfossil-fuels4789 7 місяців тому +207

      as someone who actually has a weird obsession with identifying the frequencies of noises IRL and who once caught themselves dancing around to the polyrhythmic rattling of lose panels in a bus it actually fit my average train of thought quite well.

    • @eldritchedward
      @eldritchedward 7 місяців тому +116

      @@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789 Stay weird, my dude!

    • @aureole6383
      @aureole6383 7 місяців тому

      @@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789dude you're awesome

    • @salmonellq2981
      @salmonellq2981 7 місяців тому

      ​@@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789 I'm dying to know the name of whatever you have

    • @thesysop4998
      @thesysop4998 7 місяців тому +58

      @@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789 lmao *train* of thought

  • @weall1208
    @weall1208 7 місяців тому +162

    It makes me feel old when I remember 2024 being a futuristic date used for near-future Sci-Fi.
    Edit: Since people are still replying to this and reminding me of it, here are some funny examples. Crysis was set in 2020 and as of me writing this edit we are 3 years away from the events of Deus Ex Human Revolution

    • @Thuazabi
      @Thuazabi 7 місяців тому +36

      Yeah, I share your pain.
      The world of the 1982 Blade Runner film included interstellar travel, synthetic humans, and flying cars.
      It was set in the year 2019......

    • @Anaea
      @Anaea 7 місяців тому +16

      dont get me fucking started on back to the future 2

    • @CRT_sRGB
      @CRT_sRGB 7 місяців тому +14

      Also, there would sometimes be mention of "big" events occurring in 1997, 1998 or 1999 - before the main story began.

    • @ryamano
      @ryamano 7 місяців тому +7

      I remember playing the tabletop RPG Cyberpunk 2020.
      And also 2015 was the far future of Back to the Future, with hoverboards and shit.

    • @AN474-e1o
      @AN474-e1o 7 місяців тому +14

      At least you're not old enough to remember when 1997( Escape from New York, V for Vendetta) or 2001 (2001) were futuristic dates.

  • @lordpyromon
    @lordpyromon 7 місяців тому +1253

    I almost wrote a short dystopian “sci-fi” story with a big twist at the end where I was just describing the current day using sci-fi esque techno jargon but quit because I thought it would come off as pretentious. This video nailed it though!

    • @homeopathicfossil-fuels4789
      @homeopathicfossil-fuels4789 7 місяців тому +110

      better do that than the new corporate pseudopoetic "thesaurus eloquence" style of writing everyone does because they either got brainwashed by chatgpt or just got chatgpt to write everything for htem. The less you sound like AI generated trash, the better, at any cost, write a political drama in the language of passengerofshit's lyricism or something along the lines of that, do something the AI's will never be able to generate. I'd rather deal with a thousand "angsty" or "pretentious" works if I knew they arent literally an AI pretending to be angsty.

    • @RoosSkywalker
      @RoosSkywalker 7 місяців тому

      @@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789I don't care what ChatGPT does or doesn't. I just write. If you like it, cool. If not, too bad. But I will look into that. What is the new corporate trend?

    • @Smougda
      @Smougda 7 місяців тому +8

      ​@@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789What do you mean by pseudopoetic, expecifically? I don't watch a single modern movie so i can't relate.

    • @spaghetti5914
      @spaghetti5914 7 місяців тому +48

      naww that doesn't sound pretentious at all, hell, it's a parody, it's the exact opposite of pretentious! If you still wanna do it, please do so, that sounds like an insanely good idea

    • @spaghetti5914
      @spaghetti5914 7 місяців тому

      ​@@homeopathicfossil-fuels4789As someone into writing, I'd advise people to just express how they want their work. Many don't seem to realize that the writing style itself is a huge part of storytelling and that it can manifest in myriad ways. One doesn't have to hone just the story, but the narration too. And there's several ways one can do that. I really consider it a red flag if someone spends more time on a dictionary than their own draft. If one is not good with big words, they can just use every day speech, that's a completely valid writing style that does not affect the quality of a work. Just like how a cartoonist is as valid as an oil painter who is into hyper realism. Some people who have an interest in philology may as well go ahead and use complicated terms if it's something that comes naturally to them.
      Writing usually flows, just like a reader "looks at a processed tree with ink and hallucinates" as some people say, the same way the best story comes out of just letting the images in your head guide you. If one focuses too much on sounding formal, they will be limiting themselves, and that stiffness with translate into paper. It's artistic writing, not a legal paper. There's endless potential
      A personal opinion here, but I actually prefer people who just roll with what they have and experiment. Throw complicated sentences in the trash, and write a mess of a story. If it turns bad, it's a learning experience, if it turns good, it will be recognizable as hell. I always disliked hyper realism in painting the most as well. It just seems bland to me. You have color and you can create anything, yet you focus on something that one can just go outside and see? Of course, I can see why people may like it, the idea of capturing a beauty or something, it's just not my cup of tea.
      I also dislike colleen hoover's writing, not because of the contents of her books, but because the style just feels bland and soulless. Reads off like an 18 year old who has enough experience with writing to write something readable, structured and coherent, but not enough to get out of a comfort zone and make it interesting. It's like one is given flour in order to eat and they choose the plainest bread recipe. The bread is cooked well, but it's still bread.
      Ok, enough of my word vomit tho, I wrote too much 😭

  • @GolemCC
    @GolemCC 7 місяців тому +36

    I'm still stunned at how well this nailed the aesthetic. Just completely, immaculately on the nose.

  • @pokepoke1889
    @pokepoke1889 7 місяців тому +480

    What a dystopian nightmare
    I would hate to be born in such a horrible time

    • @Wut78
      @Wut78 7 місяців тому +26

      well boy do i got news for you

    • @Low_commotion
      @Low_commotion 7 місяців тому +8

      Wish I could be born 50 years later

    • @casulskrrub6423
      @casulskrrub6423 7 місяців тому +14

      ​@@Low_commotion 2074? GOOOD MORNING NIGHT CITY

    • @Low_commotion
      @Low_commotion 7 місяців тому +6

      @@casulskrrub6423 Cyberpunk's timeline already diverged pretty sharply by this point so I think I'm good lmao 😂

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому +4

      Back in 1984, the alternative to this timeline was nuclear winter.

  • @SkylerLinux
    @SkylerLinux 7 місяців тому +51

    Now I need some Sci-Fi rewritten in the style of Contemporary Fiction

    • @Fregorek
      @Fregorek 7 місяців тому +1

      You mean like the matrix?

    • @SkylerLinux
      @SkylerLinux 7 місяців тому +3

      @@FregorekLike the reverse of the video

    • @scienceface8884
      @scienceface8884 7 місяців тому +8

      So... just using the in-universe common names of things without explanation of what they are, leaving the readers to intuit and deduce what this new thing is?

    • @planetofthegapes
      @planetofthegapes 7 місяців тому +3

      Read William Gibson's "Blue Ant" trilogy: Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History. They're all set "now" but written in Gibson's cyberpunk prose style.

    • @robmarney
      @robmarney 6 місяців тому +2

      Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun is sci-fi written in the style of high fantasy

  • @disnonn
    @disnonn 7 місяців тому +469

    Reminds me of how I read Pattern Recognition from Gibson and after the first quarter realized the book wasn't sci-fi.

    • @genericallyentertaining
      @genericallyentertaining  7 місяців тому +152

      Pattern Recognition is a great example of this! (Except it's, you know, well-written.)

    • @disnonn
      @disnonn 7 місяців тому +48

      @@genericallyentertaining Yeah, when I read it the first time I was 14, and was thoroughly disappointed. I also read it in German then. A few years later, in the original and with me more matured I was simply blown away.

    • @noseo_narug
      @noseo_narug 7 місяців тому +28

      @@genericallyentertaining Alternatively, there's Agency, which is basically this video but actually worse writing.

    • @Toliman.
      @Toliman. 7 місяців тому +6

      That's a blast from the past. I bought Pattern Recognition purely from the fascinating cover, totally unseen/unreviewed because of the author's reputation, then proceeded to struggle to read more than 3 pages at a time and leaving it on a shelf for a year.
      I finally figured I had to get over it, read the book and it was ... not that bad. But it was like drinking coffee at 5am. Terse. Obscure. Bitter. awful. And then it wasn't. IDK.
      It was just difficult to switch into the mood/pretense of the setting or get comfortable with the setting.
      There's another series that has this anodyne/pretentious writing, something about a singularity. Either Stross or Kurzweil or another author. I'll remember it eventually. Every second sentence was obtuse/terse for effect.

    • @disnonn
      @disnonn 7 місяців тому +4

      @@Toliman. Might be less about the book but about your outlook. I feel Gibson connects best to people with a certain amount of cynicism when all's said and done, and Pattern Recognition is very, very Gibson in that regard. To me his brilliance is writing cynical dystopia without sounding condemning or all too hopeless in the end.

  • @abx_yenway
    @abx_yenway 7 місяців тому +34

    This really highlights how the most compelling stories about the future are really saying something about the present.

  • @chs9999
    @chs9999 7 місяців тому +937

    GOD DAMNIT I THOUGHT THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY BUT IT WAS JUST ACCURATE AND DEPRESSING and a bit inspiring for creative writing

  • @villagerjj
    @villagerjj 7 місяців тому +82

    "Okay, my story has smartphones, but we cant call them smartphones"
    "How about a magic rock with lighting inside it?"
    "Good enough"

    • @johannageisel5390
      @johannageisel5390 7 місяців тому +10

      I named the handheld devices in my sci-fi WIP "scrolls", because they have a flexible screen of electronic paper or foil that can be rolled up, or drawn out if you need a bigger display size. The scrolls can do all a modern tablet mated with a smartphone can do, but they have better software and AI assistants.

    • @scienceface8884
      @scienceface8884 7 місяців тому +9

      Comm-link

    • @timetraveler7
      @timetraveler7 7 місяців тому +4

      Handheld global networking information device

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому +4

      Hand -held computer terminal.

    • @scienceface8884
      @scienceface8884 7 місяців тому +5

      @@davidwuhrer6704 Too long. Pocket Terminal?

  • @tvdjeda
    @tvdjeda 7 місяців тому +2926

    I don't think we can get a better confirmation that we live in a cyberpunk dystopia already

    • @cleitondecarvalho431
      @cleitondecarvalho431 7 місяців тому +68

      I agree.

    • @morbidgirl6808
      @morbidgirl6808 7 місяців тому +166

      I'd say we are in pre-cyberpunk world. We will definitely get there in the near future.

    • @EnzoDiscoveryMoonLight23
      @EnzoDiscoveryMoonLight23 7 місяців тому +136

      I feel like the “the world has gone to shit” is a mindset thing

    • @adon155
      @adon155 7 місяців тому +108

      i think you can make anything sound dystopian if you write like this

    • @d3nza482
      @d3nza482 7 місяців тому +51

      @@morbidgirl6808 Clearly you're unaware of inequity of distribution of the future across varying populations.
      There's this Canadian-American guy called Bill Gibson who had some words about that.

  • @gaffgarion7049
    @gaffgarion7049 7 місяців тому +26

    I think it just goes to show that whether a world or detail is interesting is dependent on it being noticed.
    To anyone living in these scenarios its just mundane and therefore unnoticed.

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому +7

      Charlie Stross said something to that effect. The future is never futuristic. The future is built from parts of the past, and by the time the future becomes the present, it has become mundane, no matter how fantastic it seemed.
      There a lots of times in history when something that seened impossible and far-fetch became normal practically over night. My favourite example is November 1989, and how Crimson Tide came out in 1996. Especially ironic how Calvin&Hobbs on the 31st of December 1990 said that nothing ever changes from year to year.
      Ray Kurzweil said that with technology changing ever more rapidly, we wouod soon be living in a state of constabt culture shock (which he called "future shock") because the world would change beyond recognition during each day. But there is ample evidence that people don't even notice thise changes unless they are looking for them.
      Contemporary Cyberpunk these days is more about the past than the future because most people are still not caught up to the present.

    • @minerman60101
      @minerman60101 6 місяців тому

      The first few minutes of the Futurama episode "I Dated a Robot" covered this idea too

    • @valentinmitterbauer4196
      @valentinmitterbauer4196 27 днів тому

      @@davidwuhrer6704 I'm months late, but i have to tell you that i indeed did experience technological culture shocks. For example, i did not know wireless computer mice existed up until 2015. I was a teen. It's a marginal one, tbh, but it is still memorable, because i did not grow up sheltered, but upper middle class in an industrial country and i thought of myself as rather educated. Another one: A person older than me witnessed a culture shock about something old-fashioned (printed TV-guides), in complete awe that there were still people using this. For me, who was younger, witnessing his culture shock caused a culture shock itself, realising how different his life might be compared to my own. From the tales of my grandfather, the introduction of the tractor was a big and long culture shock for his community (older farmers kept rejecting the technology, fearing that the machines will condense the soil with their weight) and a prisoner of war who returned from the USA (did you know that the USA used prisoners o WWII as forced labourers back home, btw?) was laughed at when he described the harvesting combines that he had seen there, people thought that's tall tale.

  • @BarokaiRein
    @BarokaiRein 7 місяців тому +369

    I've heard equally ridiculous ways to explain what an escalator is about 100 times.
    It's either an inside joke among scifi writers, or they don't know that the cool motion device they just described is literally just an escalator.

  • @elejelly3986
    @elejelly3986 7 місяців тому +25

    The simple details of the main character struggling to shut his alarm off just gets me.

  • @DestructorN7
    @DestructorN7 7 місяців тому +175

    I've read so much Gibson and have cyberpunk genre so stuck in my brain that I unironically process reality like this video

    • @scienceface8884
      @scienceface8884 7 місяців тому +5

      Same. It's like a game I play when I'm otherwise bored.

    • @greatestaxolotl4933
      @greatestaxolotl4933 7 місяців тому +4

      yeah i listen to a lot of shakesphere and victorian (weirdly not a lot of 1700s, just the centuries after and before lol)
      and my internal monologue gets all funky bc of it.

    • @DeathnoteBB
      @DeathnoteBB 4 місяці тому

      The Tetris effect is weird

  • @DanielDanielsson
    @DanielDanielsson 7 місяців тому +24

    "2024" does sound mighty futuristic though.

  • @Aaron067
    @Aaron067 7 місяців тому +257

    "rinse with a few hundred mls of dihydrogen oxide"
    This video is absolute perfection, shut down the site, no other video can think to achieve such literary and cinematic prowess.

    • @M4Dbrat
      @M4Dbrat 7 місяців тому +12

      I can do better than that...
      Dihydrogen MONOoxide!

    • @LinguaPhiliax
      @LinguaPhiliax 7 місяців тому +9

      @@M4Dbrat Isn't that toxic if inhaled though?

    • @emanyzal9813
      @emanyzal9813 7 місяців тому +7

      @@LinguaPhiliax Yeah if you get it in your lungs, it's this little known phenomenon scientists call "drowning"

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому

      There was a petition to ban the dangerous chemical dihydrogenmonoxide.
      Not only is it lethal when inhaled, and in gasseous form can cause potentially lethal burns. It is also the main component in acid rain. And it can short out electronics, destroying them beyond repair.
      Plus, it is habit-forming. People who had inhested it previousky were literally unable to live without it. Which leads to morally questionable behaviour: Assassins were known to have ingested this chemical compound up to 24 hours before commiting their nefarious attacks.
      Even more problematic is that the chemical has also leaked into groundwater, and has been found even in the blood of newborns.
      Clearky, something needed to be done. But the petition was rejected by parliament.
      At least there is still hope that hydroxylic acid will get banned.

    • @nevbarnes1034
      @nevbarnes1034 7 місяців тому +2

      @@M4DbratI prefer hydrogen hydroxyl. Or hydroxylic acid.

  • @eileengarfield
    @eileengarfield 7 місяців тому +15

    halfway absorbed into the amazing commentary i was not expecting to read rapidKL on the train and see sunway velocity mall and my mind immediately went hey… that looks familiar 😭😭 insane what a change of narrative flow and odd camera angles here and there can do for setting the scene, loved it!! much love from malaysia

  • @Samtastic-rl8et
    @Samtastic-rl8et 7 місяців тому +96

    This actually kinda reminds me of the narration in Fight Club at points. It's definitely got that very 90s 'describing the monotony of day to day urban life' thing down to a tee

    • @hallidayoawoaw
      @hallidayoawoaw 6 місяців тому

      Yep. I also though of fight club but was mostly thinking of Nick Hornby’s About a Boy.

  • @videowilliams
    @videowilliams 7 місяців тому +11

    I thought I recognised Kuala Lumpur in the recently risen skyline you revealed at 1:35, and then the "KL" on the train you rode confirmed it! An appropriately hi-tech Asian location for a young American expat to feel alienated in. I liked the cyberpunk cynicism of all this, and the fact the day turned out to be completely circular. Not bad at all for something shot on a phone (I think).

  • @samfranck2119
    @samfranck2119 7 місяців тому +322

    On the one end of the spectrum of writing style, there's Hemingway and Carver. On the other end there's ... this.

    • @Mythraen
      @Mythraen 7 місяців тому +51

      I assume this spectrum is, like, flowery to gritty?
      I hope it's not a quality spectrum, because this is quite good, if a bit overdramatic.

    • @samfranck2119
      @samfranck2119 7 місяців тому +61

      @Mythraen You haven't hoped in vain :) In my book, "quality" in literature is quite a subjective concept. I meant: Small number of modifiers (minimalism) vs. a lot of modifiers. So basically "The man was reading" vs. "The scrawny middle-aged man standing casually, in all his shabby glory, his moustache untrimmed and his dirty shirt yellow with transmission fluid, close by the entrance of the gargantuan headquartes of the foreign bureau was perusing a large tome of some sickly greenish color, and, indeed, was so engrossed in it that he didn't notice me approaching until I stood right in front of him, close enough to breath into his chubby sweaty face.“

    • @perverse_ince
      @perverse_ince 7 місяців тому +3

      @@samfranck2119
      I dunno, this just feels like bad writing vs good writing again. Latter one reminds me a bit Delicious Tacos

    • @samfranck2119
      @samfranck2119 7 місяців тому +10

      @@perverse_ince I'm a bit confused: What does your “this“ refer to? Could you perhaps explain?
      To perhaps clarify my position a bit more: Personally, I don't think Cicero-inspired syntax is any better or worse than Seneca-inspired syntax. In my fiction, I tend to write very long winding sentences myself in my native German. In fact, long detailed sentences are very much the norm in German literature. They often are considered “run-on sentences“ in English, however, and deemed bad. But why should they? Both short and gritty sentences and long elaborated sentences can be gorgeous when handled well.

    • @perverse_ince
      @perverse_ince 7 місяців тому +2

      @@samfranck2119
      "This" refers to your comment or rather the examples in your comment.
      Ich würde nicht zustimmen das es im Deutschen nicht als Problem angesehen wird. Meine Lehrer sagten immer man solle "Bandwurmsätze" vermeiden, ich war, und bin natürlich anderer Meinung.
      Ich würde sagen das generell längere Sätze besser klingen, aber die Besten tendieren dazu kurz zu sein.

  • @MedlifeCrisis
    @MedlifeCrisis 7 місяців тому +1

    I bought some sandals in that mall! Having KL as the backdrop made this even more Neuromancer, perfect

  • @hotelmario510
    @hotelmario510 7 місяців тому +148

    Honestly science fiction led me to believe that in the future we'd be spending a lot of time explaining in first-person or third-person limited narrative the basic technologies and systems of our world over morning breakfast. Instead it's just a lot of looking at my phone, worrying about nuclear war, worrying about the environment, and worrying that I have cancer. So basically the 1980s but with smartphones.

  • @Sunbeargirl-
    @Sunbeargirl- 6 місяців тому +3

    The way I knew you were in SE Asia by the view from your balcony window! 😂 The "RapidKL" and Bahasa billboard confirmed it for me. Malaysia is the best!

  • @Evan345gdf
    @Evan345gdf 7 місяців тому +51

    I like how the line at the end contextualizes the scenario in the context of the mundane snapping us out of the sci world being described. That really is a boring day

  • @xXx_Regulus_xXx
    @xXx_Regulus_xXx 7 місяців тому +3

    it's like listening to Norman Bateman's usual internal monologue, but he's hyperaware of all the tech around him and he's hovering somewhere between amazed and horrified all the time.
    I'd read a series written like this

  • @altu8590
    @altu8590 7 місяців тому +68

    I'd honestly love to read something like this

  • @lndozois
    @lndozois 7 місяців тому +4

    I grew up on this stuff and dang did you nail it!

  • @MALICEM12
    @MALICEM12 7 місяців тому +23

    "Ya best start believin' Cyberpunk dystopias, you're in one!"

  • @nickmonks9563
    @nickmonks9563 7 місяців тому +7

    The pixelbox flashed "Gentertainment" on his vidscreen, but Case knew it was Gibson. Pounding back the last swirl of draft Kirin, he cursed like a pinbot at the old 'cades. "God damn it, Molly. I told you not to give him my number." But it was too late. He knocked over his glass as he scooped up his console, and moved toward the door, staring up over the slender towers of Night City at the poison sky.
    Well done, sir. Well done.

    • @afz902k
      @afz902k 6 місяців тому +2

      The corrosion floating idly about hadn't seemed this thick since the viral scare, they say carbon capture's gonna take care of it.
      Beg to differ.
      🕶

  • @chrisprosser5055
    @chrisprosser5055 7 місяців тому +54

    This was a really great description of a really boring day 😂

  • @Drekromancer
    @Drekromancer 7 місяців тому +3

    This is brilliant and tonally compelling. Wonderful work!

  • @Xob_Driesestig
    @Xob_Driesestig 7 місяців тому +50

    You've blatantly plagiarized my inner monologue. You will be hearing from my lawyers!

  • @z_man1900
    @z_man1900 7 місяців тому +3

    This is genuinely how I see my world, the Neuromancer dialogue just makes it more stylish know what I mean

  • @ThomasBaxter
    @ThomasBaxter 7 місяців тому +16

    This is really well done. The prose is _very_ Gibson-esque

  • @atlanteum
    @atlanteum 7 місяців тому +6

    2088: Bruce Sterling Willis stars in "Boring Day Hard", followed by the hit sequels, "Boring Day Hard 2: Day Harder" and "Bore Free or Live Harder."
    In other news... your writing for this video was outstanding and the cinematography matched beautifully. Excellent work, here -

  • @mrmunchkin2181
    @mrmunchkin2181 7 місяців тому +66

    This is bloody gold.
    Keep up the fantastic work.

  • @Bested123
    @Bested123 2 місяці тому +1

    This is such a nice commentary on the monotony and insignificance of everyday life. Very intriguing

  • @Clash_In_Saff
    @Clash_In_Saff 7 місяців тому +99

    Superb. Nice vocal fry, didn't think you'd have it in you
    ( apologies but i learned the term vocal fry yesterday and cant stop slipping it into my daily life)

    • @genericallyentertaining
      @genericallyentertaining  7 місяців тому +37

      And now I've learned it, too! Cool term.

    • @AlkisGD
      @AlkisGD 7 місяців тому +6

      @@genericallyentertaining - "Next to me on the train a couple of highschoolers are recounting the day's highlights, the vocal fry in their voices reminiscent of a dot matrix printer. Another anachronism ..."

  • @sylve2474
    @sylve2474 6 місяців тому +2

    This was hella good,,, I love it,,, got the vibes and inclusion of those randomly specific details down to a science,,, like, I was sold from the start,, but specifically mentioning the helicopter was just the cherry on top, brought it all together so perfectly

  • @duncanholloway6123
    @duncanholloway6123 7 місяців тому +99

    Keep the story going. This needs to be a series.

  • @psiga
    @psiga 7 місяців тому +2

    I love this. Thank you for making it, and making it _well._

  • @igloosnowbal
    @igloosnowbal 7 місяців тому +36

    this is pretty accurate tbh
    buried under six feet of loam sounds weirdly cool

  • @armyvictory0191
    @armyvictory0191 7 місяців тому +1

    Damn, quite a surprise to see this video set in Kuala Lumpur (a fellow KL resident here) 😂 and a lotta times, yeah i do kinda envision KL, especially the middle hot spots of KL to be quite reminiscent of cyberpunk and dystopian at times.

  • @amirhamza8924
    @amirhamza8924 7 місяців тому +25

    Genuinely the best thing I've seen this week holy heck

  • @jamoladdintadjimov5319
    @jamoladdintadjimov5319 5 місяців тому +1

    I love when writers use language like that. Using and the beauty of the language to say the simple things. I wish I could do that.

  • @koboldmartian4063
    @koboldmartian4063 7 місяців тому +91

    At 2:18 you can see him holding the decent size rig he used to film this 😂

    • @animalobsessed1
      @animalobsessed1 7 місяців тому +11

      Thank you for ruining my immersion in this otherwise perfect movie

    • @xela402
      @xela402 7 місяців тому +5

      ​@@animalobsessed1 2:15 look at the glasses

    • @animalobsessed1
      @animalobsessed1 7 місяців тому +3

      @@xela402noooooooooooo

  • @NegInfinity
    @NegInfinity 7 місяців тому +1

    You know, this is beautiful. This sort of writing shows everyday things we are used to from outside, alien perspective. It reminds us that our boring world was, once upon the time, someone's science fiction.

  • @RngGm
    @RngGm 7 місяців тому +15

    So thats how you can get so many words for essays

  • @nagyba
    @nagyba 6 місяців тому +2

    This is why I love cyberpunk storrytelling. It almost never does this.

  • @Hyrumwolf
    @Hyrumwolf 7 місяців тому +11

    This works so well because do actually live in a cyberpunk dystopia

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому +1

      When it was written, it was not a dystopia yet. It was optimistic. And slightly satirical.

  • @jopearson6321
    @jopearson6321 7 місяців тому +3

    I actually really enjoy the delivery and the fact that its present day doesn't feel weird at all. Maybe the Noir stream-of-consciousness style is what I'm really into all this time.

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому +1

      I'm into the technical details of the machine underpinng everyday life that are sadly ignored by most people. They whisper of possibilties, while reminding us how dependent we are on each other.

    • @jopearson6321
      @jopearson6321 7 місяців тому

      @@davidwuhrer6704 ngl, I read this in the noir voice and pictured it with cyberpunk cinematography

  • @uvbe
    @uvbe 7 місяців тому +6

    I loved it. I know the idea was to make fun of cyberpunk writing, but instead it kind of instilled a sense of wonder into the mundane things of everyday life for me.
    Great video! 🖤

  • @italucenaz
    @italucenaz 7 місяців тому +3

    I really like how much effort and time you took to write and record all that, good job man

  • @LithiumGhost
    @LithiumGhost 7 місяців тому +34

    You tried just to write an ironic video, but accidentally created something beautiful

    • @drdca8263
      @drdca8263 7 місяців тому

      Are those two things in conflict?
      Is it ironic for a work intended as irony, to be beautiful?
      I think something can be aesthetically excellent in achieving its ironic purpose.

  • @WarDog793
    @WarDog793 6 місяців тому +1

    Very clever! As a SF fan, I appreciate the style imposed upon everyday life. Kudos!

  • @brandonmack111
    @brandonmack111 7 місяців тому +6

    This was amazing. I could seriously listen to an entire book of you just describing an average life like this.

  • @Perhapsawiseman
    @Perhapsawiseman 6 місяців тому +1

    This is why everyone should keep a journal! It helps you memory and your life is a story in the making!

  • @Joraf-the-Tall
    @Joraf-the-Tall 7 місяців тому +11

    This is unironically entertaining! Some of your best content! More please!

  • @teodorapetkovic
    @teodorapetkovic 7 місяців тому +2

    Dude this is sooooo good. My jaw is on the floor, excellent writing!!!

  • @evilmurlock
    @evilmurlock 7 місяців тому +26

    I have the same alarm, gives me a heart attack

  • @agathaknive3321
    @agathaknive3321 7 місяців тому +3

    This is actually so good and so funny. Ahshshhs. I'm convinced everything is sci-fi, you just have to info dump useless detailes and fill it with technical jargon.

  • @LighthoofDryden
    @LighthoofDryden 7 місяців тому +10

    “Serving of caf gets me out the door” so 2024

  • @izzynobre
    @izzynobre 7 місяців тому

    This is incredible. Great touch with the music, too

  • @danksheev66
    @danksheev66 7 місяців тому +24

    and people think we don't already live in the cyperpunk society.....

    • @Delmworks
      @Delmworks 7 місяців тому +11

      There’s not enough cyber not enough punk but we got the dystopia down pat

    • @Shrek_es_mi_pastor
      @Shrek_es_mi_pastor 7 місяців тому +5

      Dystopias tend to be based on the present really

    • @Justin-ui5ti
      @Justin-ui5ti 7 місяців тому

      We can call it that. But just go to North Korea.
      The tone will change quite a bit.

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому +1

      ​​@@Justin-ui5tiRead any North Korean science fiction lately?

    • @Justin-ui5ti
      @Justin-ui5ti 7 місяців тому +1

      @@davidwuhrer6704 Don’t need to read any, just living there and you’ll know a dystopian society which throws teens in jail for listening to Kpop.

  • @GothicCrow-dk8li
    @GothicCrow-dk8li 7 місяців тому +2

    *Takes off glasses*
    My God. He's encapsulated what it is to be alive today. In a way that strikes resonance with my soul. Not another mindless dopamine hit of another mindless clickbait video Dr. Skinner would be proud of. No. This... this is art. This... is... *content.*

  • @LoudWaffle
    @LoudWaffle 7 місяців тому +7

    This could be a great book lol, written completely straight-faced but immensely funny.

  • @Khoukharev
    @Khoukharev 3 місяці тому +1

    This is perfect Organic transistors in my head went to overclock.

  • @chowyee5049
    @chowyee5049 7 місяців тому +33

    Wait, are those just stock footage or are you actually in Malaysia?

    • @farkbett699
      @farkbett699 7 місяців тому

      Channel bio says he lives in the US

    • @genericallyentertaining
      @genericallyentertaining  7 місяців тому +41

      No stock footage here; I am actually in Malaysia. But just passing through for a few weeks.

    • @chowyee5049
      @chowyee5049 7 місяців тому +18

      @@genericallyentertaining Nice! Also, thanks for cementing KL as a contemporary Sci Fi city. I'll be referring to the LRT tracks as the "Gordian networks of the city's underground wormholes" from now on🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.

  • @tweeters211
    @tweeters211 7 місяців тому +1

    Holy fuck. That was gold. You’ve earned a sub in just three minutes and forty two seconds.

  • @HyuugaC0bicat
    @HyuugaC0bicat 7 місяців тому +5

    this was actually quite a fun skit to watch, do another one to appease our consensual hallucinations : D

  • @katherinepatchett7975
    @katherinepatchett7975 6 місяців тому +1

    This was incredible. I need more.

  • @Denkersis
    @Denkersis 6 місяців тому +3

    To be fair, we do live in an early cyberpunk dystopia

  • @Ahaa686
    @Ahaa686 2 місяці тому

    This was surprisingly engaging to listen to. Wish more stories were written like this.

  • @ninjacat230
    @ninjacat230 3 місяці тому +3

    1:05 written just like someone that doesn't actually understand the emergent technology their story is about

  • @EiggyRules
    @EiggyRules 7 місяців тому +1

    I would 1000000% watch a full film with your narration

    • @Unclaimed_Username
      @Unclaimed_Username 7 місяців тому

      Imagine: a romcom, but it's couched in the phrasings of a gritty sci-fi novel

  • @bearman_1826
    @bearman_1826 7 місяців тому +4

    This is why modern cyberpunk feels weird to me. We're in the cyberpunk setting _now._ Minus cyborgs, we are what they were writing about.

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому

      Cyborgs have been a thing since 1956. The paper that coined the term "cyborg" (sponsored by NASA) explicitly says so, mentioning pace makers. (Those are cyber-electric implants that make people more resilient and keep them from dying. Sounds like science fiction, right?)

    • @lar4agames576
      @lar4agames576 7 місяців тому

      And we don't have cyborgs only because it is stupid and useless idea.

    • @bearman_1826
      @bearman_1826 7 місяців тому

      @@lar4agames576 Just wait. Something being a stupid and useless idea hasn't stopped us yet.

    • @davidwuhrer6704
      @davidwuhrer6704 7 місяців тому

      @@lar4agames576 Except we have had cyborgs since before the word even existed. Anyone with a pacemaker is a cyborg. Anyone with an electric hearing aid is a cyborg. And you should look at the prostheses they make with 3D printing nowadays.

    • @АлексейМомот-щ7о
      @АлексейМомот-щ7о 7 місяців тому

      ​@@davidwuhrer6704 but why everything is boring and not in cool neon light

  • @Euphorb1um
    @Euphorb1um 6 місяців тому +1

    I need this to be a series.

  • @earthboundisawsome
    @earthboundisawsome 6 місяців тому

    Damn, this is a really good way of combining how people used to write about the later 21st century, with how it actually feels being here. I haven't been drawn in by a writing piece like this in a while. Well done

  • @melpomenethemuse
    @melpomenethemuse 7 місяців тому +2

    Some of these lines are METAL

    • @senjuguy
      @senjuguy 7 місяців тому

      "The world disappears, flashing by in a gaussian blur as my mind is distracted by consensual hallucinations" this one hits me deep

  • @lanata64
    @lanata64 7 місяців тому +1

    this is actually fire dude

  • @OlweCalmcacil
    @OlweCalmcacil 7 місяців тому +1

    This is great man. Good work

  • @bluestrife28
    @bluestrife28 7 місяців тому

    H.G. Wells would be so proud of you. This was his thing back then, writing so far ahead people’s minds were blown. That’s good sci-fi!

  • @LemuriaGames
    @LemuriaGames 6 місяців тому

    Captured the tone perfectly, well done.

  • @aelolul
    @aelolul 7 місяців тому

    Very accurate. I like this style of descriptions.

  • @ИвСан
    @ИвСан 7 місяців тому

    Man, l LOVE this! I know this was half-ironically made homage to, i guess, late 80s - early 90s style, but DO I LOVE THIS unironically. You also captured a visual atmosphere just great, good job! I'd watch some short film if you ever made one ;)👍👍👍

  • @planetofthegapes
    @planetofthegapes 7 місяців тому +1

    If you like this, check out Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, and Zero History. They're all set "now" but written in Gibson's cyberpunk prose style.

  • @StevePlaysBanjo
    @StevePlaysBanjo 7 місяців тому

    Like Gibson’s take on contemporary fiction, Pattern Recognition. Love it.