Final Paper

The question driving my paper is why cyberpunk/ techno-Orientalist literature focuses highly on Japanese cultural influences, but seems to lack a Japanese hero.

I am using Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash and Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. My critical text is David Morely and Kevin Robin's "Techno-Orientalism: Japan Panic"
In Blade Runner I will be focusing on the use of the Japanese backdrop, the fact that Los Angeles is unrecognizable, the one scene at the ramen stand, and the one Japanese scientist who makes eyes.
In Snow Crash, I am focusing on the scenes that describe the "Nipponese" businessmen and Hiro's past, mostly his relationship with the Japanese. I will also be discussing the use of sushi-K and how that even in this techno-oriented society their is no Japanese hero. All the Japanese are described with a sameness about them.
In the criticism, I will be using the points focusing on the fear of the Japanese and the stereotypical remarks of how the Japanese are viewed.
I have about thirty to forty textual sources that I will be using from Snow Crash and the criticism.

Two prime examples of Techno-Orientalism as defined by David Morely and Kevin Robins’ article “Techno-Orientalism: Japan Panic” are Ridley Scott’s cult film Blade Runner (1982), and Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash (1992). Both the film and novel present western societies overrun by Japanese influences, yet neither glorifies the Japanese as a heroic figure. Instead, Blade Runner and particularly Snow Crash use Japanese influence as a foil to glorify western heroes.