Steampunk: I Want To Be Convinced…

By
David Phillips
– December 29, 2011Posted in: Editorials, Featured

Photo © 2010 Mark H. Anbinder via Flickr.com under Creative Commons

I am not all that much of a fan of steampunk—but, I wanted to get educated on the topic.  I thought, “Maybe the reason I do not like steampunk all that much is because I do not understand people’s fascination with it.”

I started my explorations to try to understand this phenomenon with the woefully useless source of Wikipedia.  With a little refinement of the searching, here was the result:

Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes anachronistic technology, usually from the Victorian age. It is also used to refer to a trend in fashion and music.

I wanted to dig further into what “anachronistic technology” truly meant.  Interestingly, there was not a single good reference from that search that did not loop back on steampunk or a similar topic.  At this point, I turned my search to anachronism instead.

An anachronism—from the Greek ανά (ana: up, against, back, re-) and χρόνος (chronos: time)— (ism act state and condition) is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other. The item is often an object, but may be a verbal expression, a technology, a philosophical idea, a musical style, a material, a custom, or anything else so closely associated with a particular period in time that it would be incorrect to place it outside its proper domain.

After reading this and applying the general knowledge of what defines “technology”, I started to realize that steampunk is much broader than I first thought.  I wonder if people have contemplated this aspect.  I think, if someone sat and thought hard enough, medieval fantasy, space opera’s and other stories could be lumped into steampunk.  The term anachronistic should apply to more than just technology for steampunk right?  It seems that much of the fiction I have reviewed plays with the realities of the Victorian age politically as well.

Now I have seen plenty of the fashion described as steampunk.  I’m a bit of a goth myself, and I had a hard time resisting a shirt I saw at DragonCon: “Steampunk, when Goths discovered brown“.  It was a pretty accurate statement, I would have to say.   Althought, I personally feel that dressing like this is sort of a gimmick.  But I will give an example of when I truly admire the fashion style: costumes of some typical archetype converted it into a steampunk variant.  At DragonCon, I saw a couple of guys dressed like British Colonial soldiers… done steampunk style.  Amazing!

When I saw music as a reference for steampunk, I could not think of what bands would be steampunk.  Someone help me out with this one! (EDITOR’S NOTE: Abney Park!)

One major problem that I have found with steampunk is that I feel it is often used as a gimmick.  Someone claims something to be steampunk just because there are lots of gears or boilers.  They might simply use steampunk to describe the style of dress of all the characters.  Finally, steampunk seems too often be put into the Victorian era for some reason.

Recently, I reviewed a “steampunk story” for Stories in the Ether*, that stood apart from the others.  What sold me was that, in this story, steampunk did not seem like a gimmick.  It made me feel like all the things that make steampunk a genre were needed to wrap the story up and make it enjoyable.

“Steampunk – a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy featuring advanced machines and other technology based on steampower of the 19th century and taking place in a recognizable historical period or a fantasy world.” – Dictionary.com

This definition is probably more accurate, but less interesting than the one on Wikipedia.  It really narrows the field, and unless someone can show me differently, the steampower of the 19th century could not do all the crazy and fantastical things that are done with it in steampunk stories.

Finally, the last bit of investigating was a simple Google Image search.  This revealed to me not just fashion, but also a number of modern objects that people have tinkered with to make them unique.  Keyboards, USB drives, cell phones, and other gadgets were there in droves.  This is the last part of steampunk I want to explore.  I am not a huge gadget guy, but I do love every bit of technology I have just as much as the next guy. If I succumb to the steampunks of the world, my gear will definitely look out of this world.

So – to the steampunks out there: here’s an opportunity to convert someone who is on the fence. Tell me why you love it so much! What makes it tick for you? I want to be convinced! And to those of you that are not fans of the genre, chime in and say Why!

* Editor’s Note: The story David mentions is “Budapest Will Burn” by Jonathan D. Beer, due out December 30th. Not only is the story top-notch, but it includes some fantastic artwork from Hayley “Faelourn” Millward. Stay tuned.

Related stories on Nevermet Press:

  1. What makes a Badass Steampunk RPG?
  2. Grit, Steampunk & Fantasy – Sources of Inspiration
  3. #SteampunkGear on Twitter
  4. Author Interview: Philip Athans (Part 1)
  5. Game Design and Risk vs. Reward, or Why Game Balance Matters
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About David Phillips

While not working as a Security Analyst in the Washington DC metro area, David Phillips enjoys a life-long love of sci-fi, fantasy, role-playing games, and a great many other nerdy things that he explores through writing and games. David has authored dozens of gaming handbooks for a variety of LARPs and regularly writes board game reviews at BoardGaming.com. He is an avid board gamer and playtester of games prior for being released, most recently for the Lord of the Rings LCG. You can find David and his reviews of games online at http://boardgaming.com/author/digitalculture. You can also follow him on twitter @DigitalCulture0. You can also find him on countless websites(reddit, stumbleupon) and forums as DigitalCulture.