Mad Max and Desertpunk
It's punk-o-clock and someone really should finally agree on how we are gonna call those kinda stories and how we are gonna define them. I have read so far:
Dustpunk
Rustpunk
Desertpunk
The Apunkalypse
And some people say those are different things, but reading over the different descriptions I gotta say: "They sound pretty much the same to me."
There might be an argument made that "The Apunkalypse" is a subgenre and then Desertpunk/Rustpunk/Dustpunk is one subgenre - and Oceanpunk can be another one... But the three formerly named once pretty much sound the same to me. Big drought. Desertification of large chunks of area. And often enough they do involve cars in a major roles as the best way to cross the desert.
And I talked about it before: But I freaking LOVE Mad Max, especially Mad Max Fury Road. God, I love this movie so much. Just... Yeah... Love. Pure love. Best movie.
And I would argue that no matter what we call that genre (I would argue that Desertpunk is the best name) that especially Mad Max Fury Road and Tank Girl are the prime examples of it. Why? Well, you know it. Because they are the most... punk.
Mad Max as a series definitely starts not out as very punk, given that Max is in the beginning literally a cop. Road Warrior and Thunderdome definitely have some punk themes and aesthetics in there, but they do not go there the full way. Meanwhile Fury Road is all like: "Smash that toxic patriarchy and metaphor for capitalism!" And I am all there for it.
Tank Girl of course is even less subtle. Both the comics and the movie are just openly punk. Tank Girl herself is a punk, wearing punk attire and literally fighting capitalism, while also being very openly bisexual. I love it.
And I think that is what should differentiate Desertpunk from just your average Post-Apocalyptic storystelling. If you have a post-apocalypse in which just everyone is out for themselves with maybe small survivor groups battling each other... I mean, you could still tell a punk story in there by focusing on the community and mutual aid aspect of punk, but in general most stories in those settings are not, in fact, punk.
But if you put in some sort of institution with people who try to exploit the post-apocalypse for their advantage? Yeah, fuck. That's so darn punk.
Ironically, Desertpunk is probably the Punkpunk genre, for which I can think of the clearest examples of PUNK in there. Kinda funny how it goes. But given that I love both Fury Road and Tank Girl so fucking much as movies... I definitely want to see more of this!
