It's either Blade-Runner-esc, Apple-punk, futurepunk or Steampunk. No one ever uses oilpunk. Why not? Lots of gritty, crude black oil flowing through pipes. Lots of fire. Perhaps a desert/wasteland. You'd think that would be a favorite. And it's not just movies. I cant even find artwork of oilpunk stuff on google. It's just the steampunk pictures and maybe a cliffnote that says "oil punk was a short lived sister style to steam punk."
Wish I knew what you are going on about, so I could agree or disagree and pretend to nod my head in agreement. unfortunately though you've lost me.
Steampunk and cyberpunk are the "big two" I believe. Everything else is usually treated as an offshoot of those two. I recently finished a chapter of my sci-fi novel where one of my protags journeys through a derelict generation ship adrift on a waterworld, where oil is literally bubbling up from the ocean floor. A warlord has seized control of the vessel and its shipwrecked crew and is using them as slave labor, to harvest the crude. The imagery in it was fun to write. It was very visceral and gritty. Rust, decay, smelly, sweaty, oily bodies toiling away in a greedy warlord's sweatshops, skimming black crude from the sea to be shipped offworld. I think oil is a little too real for most readers. Steam power or neon-lit cybernetic futures are much more exotic. But if written correctly, a setting steeped in black gold can be just as foreign and unsettling as the ninth level of hell, especially if it's anything like the chapter I just wrote.
Perhaps it's being written, but not enough readers care about it. Assume that is the case. Maybe the stories are out there, but the setting doesn't stand out enough that readers bother to characterize it. Maybe the setting itself turns a lot of readers off. No shiny brass and glass, and quaint decorative touches, just grimy, smelly black petroleum and iron piping. And maybe no one has written a story memorable enough to attract a following for the setting. That's called an opportunity.
Why don't you be the first oilpunk author? And what is Apple-punk? Is that the one where the world runs on I-pods and I-phones?
The phrase 'oil punk' conjures up, for me, the image of Gary Oldman in the film 'The Fifth Element' and the black ooze that dripped down his head when he become enraged/ scared. Not very relevant probably but I am not sure what to say other than - if the theme inspires you Vraptor then let it guide your writing.
