Defining Steampunk
I read "Where did steampunk come from?", a link off zombres' lj, and it's making me have thinky-thoughts, which is Really Intense. Usually, I'm devoid of meta-criticism, but tonight it's all there! Maybe because I'm staying up so late...?
Anyway, just like everyone has a hard time describing why a TV show featuring cat-nurses is awesomesauce (unless they're Neil Gaiman), I have a hard time explaining steampunk to someone. Usually, it's not a problem, because the only people who'd stick around for an explanation are the already-nerdy, fantasy-reader types. And they get it. But now, I'm at a college known for nerdiness, so people always want to know, regardless of their ability to comprehend what I'm telling 'em.
This problem surfaced two weeks ago, when I floundered about enough in front of a friend to figure out that I don't really know how to define steampunk.
My best approximation: Steampunk means a fantasy or scifi which operates within an alternate world, where instead of developing coal and natural gas resources, technological advancements were driven by steam. It's often associated with things like blimps, automatons, and elegant metalwork, and even has its own code of dress, with fob watches, aviator goggles, top hats, and clockwork-influenced jewelry. Steampunk stories can be set in Victorian times, or an alternate-world approximation of Victorian times, or not be tied to the Victorian age at all.
That's five minutes of editing and slipping sentences about, and it still doesn't quite feel right. Anyway, my live-action definitions usually outline those points, and then throw a bunch of examples into the mix: Y'know, the golden coach and alethiometer in The Golden Compass? That weird jewelry on etsy.com? The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 20K Leagues Under the Sea, and a bunch of novels you probably don't know... Even Lewis Carrol, in a weird way.
But this notion of where steampunk came from is odd to me. While Verne's and Wells' books are pivotal and classical examples of steampunk, the whole craze - and the word itself - wasn't born until the 1980s-1990s. Yet there's books with a common sense of adventure and pockets of mechanical otherworldliness, nearly always tied to dirigibles or blimps for flight, as early as 1902. I guess the big difference between then and now is that those old books sought to glorify the nationality of their explorers. Instead of the strange, different steampunkness being almost another plotline in itself, the steampunk elements were just a side spice for the adventure. In addition, most of the stories - at least the earliest ones - focus on how the protagonists could use a super-duper flying machine. The machine's mechanics were a minor fascination, while the device's propensity to cover ground quickly was vital in order to subdue / generally demean as many new, undiscovered races as possible.
Another possible facet of this dichotomy between steampunk's origins and what it came to mean is simply the passage of time. These origin stories were written back when the Victorian era was easily accessible - hell, Victoria had only died the year before in 1901! Nowadays, however, there's a push to glorify the past, since for us it's quite easy to forget the drudgery and social injustics (not to mention disease) of the time. Therefore, the origin stories hold the beginnings for steampunk because not only do they have odd mechanical elements, but those elements happen to be tied to the Victorian era, a time of great mechanical upheaval, from production to communication and back again. And, while wars and history are complex to manipulate for an alternate world, a different type of technology can be chalked up to the world's happenstance and all those butterfly-effect theories.
Hm. Well, that only took an hour, but at least I've calmed down. The fact that the origins of steampunk were so different and biased from steampunk nowadays was bothering me... But these supposed 'origins' are really more possible influences than a linear movement to steampunk today. Though steampunk is - though it exists - it still feels like a fad. It's a subgenre, but not in a way that makes sense because it's a blend of the artificial and historical, unlike any subgenre before.
Fascinating, and its incomprehensible nature only makes it more mysterious. Makes me wish I had the cajones to be an English major all over again. Maybe some fantasy-savvy English student has written a paper on this? Hell, I guess I'd just have to look through LJ to find out - the meta is all here anyway.
If you're looking for a good Steampunk read, my current favorite is Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (and its sequel, Behemoth). Airborn by Kenneth Oppel and Perdido Street Station by China Miéville are excellent reads, while Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, Mainspring by Jay Lake, Soulless by Gail Carriger, and The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson will give you a somewhat heavy-handed feel of the genre. That's because some books nowadays have steampunk even if they aren't always classified as steampunk, like Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is listed as #106 of Goodreads' Best Steampunk Books, for example.
See that, there? I'm still defining.
Two hours of work total. *bows* Thank you and goodnight!
Anyway, just like everyone has a hard time describing why a TV show featuring cat-nurses is awesomesauce (unless they're Neil Gaiman), I have a hard time explaining steampunk to someone. Usually, it's not a problem, because the only people who'd stick around for an explanation are the already-nerdy, fantasy-reader types. And they get it. But now, I'm at a college known for nerdiness, so people always want to know, regardless of their ability to comprehend what I'm telling 'em.
This problem surfaced two weeks ago, when I floundered about enough in front of a friend to figure out that I don't really know how to define steampunk.
My best approximation: Steampunk means a fantasy or scifi which operates within an alternate world, where instead of developing coal and natural gas resources, technological advancements were driven by steam. It's often associated with things like blimps, automatons, and elegant metalwork, and even has its own code of dress, with fob watches, aviator goggles, top hats, and clockwork-influenced jewelry. Steampunk stories can be set in Victorian times, or an alternate-world approximation of Victorian times, or not be tied to the Victorian age at all.
That's five minutes of editing and slipping sentences about, and it still doesn't quite feel right. Anyway, my live-action definitions usually outline those points, and then throw a bunch of examples into the mix: Y'know, the golden coach and alethiometer in The Golden Compass? That weird jewelry on etsy.com? The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, 20K Leagues Under the Sea, and a bunch of novels you probably don't know... Even Lewis Carrol, in a weird way.
But this notion of where steampunk came from is odd to me. While Verne's and Wells' books are pivotal and classical examples of steampunk, the whole craze - and the word itself - wasn't born until the 1980s-1990s. Yet there's books with a common sense of adventure and pockets of mechanical otherworldliness, nearly always tied to dirigibles or blimps for flight, as early as 1902. I guess the big difference between then and now is that those old books sought to glorify the nationality of their explorers. Instead of the strange, different steampunkness being almost another plotline in itself, the steampunk elements were just a side spice for the adventure. In addition, most of the stories - at least the earliest ones - focus on how the protagonists could use a super-duper flying machine. The machine's mechanics were a minor fascination, while the device's propensity to cover ground quickly was vital in order to subdue / generally demean as many new, undiscovered races as possible.
Another possible facet of this dichotomy between steampunk's origins and what it came to mean is simply the passage of time. These origin stories were written back when the Victorian era was easily accessible - hell, Victoria had only died the year before in 1901! Nowadays, however, there's a push to glorify the past, since for us it's quite easy to forget the drudgery and social injustics (not to mention disease) of the time. Therefore, the origin stories hold the beginnings for steampunk because not only do they have odd mechanical elements, but those elements happen to be tied to the Victorian era, a time of great mechanical upheaval, from production to communication and back again. And, while wars and history are complex to manipulate for an alternate world, a different type of technology can be chalked up to the world's happenstance and all those butterfly-effect theories.
Hm. Well, that only took an hour, but at least I've calmed down. The fact that the origins of steampunk were so different and biased from steampunk nowadays was bothering me... But these supposed 'origins' are really more possible influences than a linear movement to steampunk today. Though steampunk is - though it exists - it still feels like a fad. It's a subgenre, but not in a way that makes sense because it's a blend of the artificial and historical, unlike any subgenre before.
Fascinating, and its incomprehensible nature only makes it more mysterious. Makes me wish I had the cajones to be an English major all over again. Maybe some fantasy-savvy English student has written a paper on this? Hell, I guess I'd just have to look through LJ to find out - the meta is all here anyway.
If you're looking for a good Steampunk read, my current favorite is Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (and its sequel, Behemoth). Airborn by Kenneth Oppel and Perdido Street Station by China Miéville are excellent reads, while Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve, Mainspring by Jay Lake, Soulless by Gail Carriger, and The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson will give you a somewhat heavy-handed feel of the genre. That's because some books nowadays have steampunk even if they aren't always classified as steampunk, like Incarceron by Catherine Fisher. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is listed as #106 of Goodreads' Best Steampunk Books, for example.
See that, there? I'm still defining.
Two hours of work total. *bows* Thank you and goodnight!