I’ve been pondering all things steampunk as of late, after my husband and I have had some rather humorous conversations. He showed me the recent Merlin Mann sketch about steampunk, and I saw this morning that Jake Von Slatt had added his two gears.
I’ve got to say my money is in Jake’s corner; I do don my hat to you, sir.
So, how hard core do you have to be to be considered steampunk? How absolutely down to the every detail do you have to remain to keep the cred?
I’m not sure. I’ve played around with the idea of some of my characters working on an internal combustion engine–nothing large, mind you, but on a small scale–does that kick me out of the club?
I’ll say this: I didn’t start out writing a steampunk novel. It’s not like I was sitting in my workshop, pondering the inner workings of a steam-powered flying machine. In fact, I started out wanting to write a fantasy Western, and as a result (and admittedly, probably from reading much too much BoingBoing) realized that much of what I was doing was, in fact, steampunk.
So let’s review the following.
- Steampowered machines. Check.
- Goggles. Check.
- A resident tinkerer/mad scientist sort. Check.
- Victorian sensibilities. Check.
While the list is far from exhaustive, I think it does establish that at least my novel has steampunk themes–though, like I said, I certainly can’t pretend to be one of the Cool Kids who’ve been on to this for quite some time.
I’m not an engineer. I’m not a technician. I can’t for the life of me make sense of steam-based engines. But I can, I believe, tell a good story.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a book to write.
June 10, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Hi Natania
I see that this post is some-what dated, but I’ll risk my five cents anyway.
While I think that none of categories in your list are wrong as such, I would like to add that what you’ve written in it are only the ‘steam’-part.
I must stress that I’m writing as an individual and not as any kind of authority here, but personally I think that the ‘punk’-part should be fulfilled also.
The ‘punk’-part would be a critical view of authorities and some sort of social critique as well.
According to Jess Nevis, this feature was most apparent in the first generation of Steampunk works and has, regrettably started to fade out as Steampunk is being absorbed into main-stream culture. I must add that I agree with him.
It would sadden me if you read this reply as a sort of ‘steampunkier than thou’ post. My point is only that there is a reason the genre is called Steam_punk_ and not gaslight romance or some such.
Respectfully
Tim
June 10, 2008 at 3:01 pm
@Tim You know, Tim–you are absolutely right. And I should emend this a bit–it is an old post, and I was having more fun than anything with it.
But truly, in the Aldersgate, one of the largest factors of the story–in fact the driving factor, I’d say–is a huge social critique. Of course, it’s a fantasy world, but the critiques hold true for our own society as well. I haven’t posted much about it because I’ve been concentrating mostly on editing the novel as it stands. And honestly, a lot of the society issues are hot button ones, including gender perceptions, racism, feminism, authority, etc.
I realize the story, as it stands, comes off slightly more romantic than it ought. The truth is, I started out writing this story with no particular notion of writing steampunk. It just happened, and as I was describing the main characters to a friend, she said, “Wow, I’d never pegged you as being so steampunk.”
Thanks for your insightful comment–and you’re absolutely 100% correct. The steam PUNK part is as important as anything.
Look for an updated post! You’ve got me all excited now. 🙂
June 11, 2008 at 5:11 pm
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