Most early science fiction novels were utopian, where disease was a thing of times past, a unified political system had replaced constant conflict, and the action usually centered around a group of scientists on a mission across the universe, or on space heroes such as Flash Gordon . The TV series Star Trek is a definitive utopia. All utopian chronicles are optimistic visions of the society of the future. Earlier, some were of the opinion that it was unnecessary to descrabe realities that were worse than the one on Earth. Some dystopian authors, like Stephen King, therefore abandoned science fiction in favor of writing horror literature.
Dystopias are, however, more auitable for social criticism than utopian works.
Since many dystopias are satirical or comedic, cyberpunk constitutes a sharp contrast through its cold realism. Other notable dystopias are Karin Boyes' Kallocain and George Orwell's 1984 . Just like most US science fiction, cyberpunk has its roots in so-called pulp fiction. Pulp is a rough cellulose material used to make paper, and pulp fiction derives its name from the rough, porous quality of the paper it was printed on. Comics and TV series such as Flash Gordon are also called pulp, since they were inspired by stories and illustrations from these magazines.