Variations on a proletarian theme

[wombat_socho]

Via Moe Lane, I see that Charles Stross and a lot of his commenters are bemoaning the fact that 1) there's TOO MUCH steampunk, and 2) it isn't sufficiently realistic for their rarefied socialist sensibilities.

Comments

[edminster]

Have you tried The Diamond Age by Stephenson? It's not ~pure~ steampunk, but it's as spiritually close to The Difference Engine as I have found for actually capturing what steampunk is about, PLUS it's about a low-class guttersnipe trying to give his little sister a good life in an uncaring world.

You might like it!

[wombat_socho]

I'm quite fond of The Diamond Age, actually, and am pretty sure I have a copy around here someplace - assuming it didn't wind up in my daughter's library, that is. Not so sure it's a good example of steampunk, though; it uses a lot of the tropes, and most of the action does revolve around members of the Neo-Victorian phyle, but it's pretty firmly rooted in the future, where even people on welfare live pretty amazing lives compared to the peasantry and working class of Victorian England.