Sunday, August 26, 2007





The age of steampunk

Steampunk has its roots in science fiction literature, where it describes a corner of the genre obsessed with Victoriana and the idea that the computer age evolved alongside the industrial. Steampunk stories, which started appearing with regularity in the 1980s, eschew clean and orderly visions of the future in favor of gas-lighted streets, steam engines belching toxic smoke, and dastardly villains inventing strange technologies. Dirigibles rule the air, and the upper classes employ clockwork servants to serve their meals.

(Via Boing Boing.)


Frankly, I'm getting little bit sick of steampunk. Want to know what the fuss is about? Read "The Difference Engine" and K.W. Jeter's woefully overlooked "Infernal Devices" and move on.

6 comments:

Garth said...

Done!

Anonymous said...

Ditto. Steampunk is in the "been done" category.

Chris said...

Steampunk was charming for a while. Now it's kind of evolved into this weird niche fetish, neither scifi, or fantasy. It definitely feels like an allergic reaction to the weird and very non-Victorian places science is currently taking us. It's also become this annoying rite of passage for up-and-coming authors. Everyone HAS to do their mandatory SP story now, it seems.

Mac said...

Don't forget SP's spin-off sub-sub-genres. Like "clockpunk." No kidding. And Chris is right -- it *is* strangely fetishistic. Not necessarily in a bad way, but certainly not in a very illuminating way either.

Anonymous said...

I dunno, I'm kind of into starting a new genre... protopunk, or maybe caveman punk. I have created a working computer out of obsidian Clovis points recently, but still have difficulty handling the stone cuts from the quartzite printer.
(-he-he-)

I did read "The Difference Engine", which was kind of claustrophobically elaborate and byzantinely detailed, and liked the girl's "meta-laptop" idea, but it couldn't hold a neon candle next to "Neuromancer", which I'm reading again, with great pleasure, after having read and savored it first nearly 20 years ago.

I thought it so great, I even bought extra copies in paperback of "NM" just to give to friends and demand they read it back then.

Missionary work, ya know.

Mac said...

"Cavepunk"! I love it!