New K.W. Jeter! Old K.W. Jeter! Steampunk and horror goodness abounds!

[bruceb]

 Copied from the Something Wicked blog:

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K.W. Jeter isn't as widely known as he should be, even though at least one of his inventions-the word "steampunk"-has ranged far and wide.  (Jeter invented the word, tongue very much in cheek, to refer to the Victorian fantasies that he and friends Tim Powers and James Blaylock were writing. See

Comments

[womzilla]

I read a lot by and about Matt Wagner back when Mage was new, and I don't remember him mentioning Jeter. Arthuriana was very much in the air in the early 1980s (thanks in large part to Mists of Avalon), so I wouldn't necessarily guess any particular work in the field influenced any other.

My favorite footnote about Morlock Night is that Jeter, Tim Powers, and James Blaylock were all contracted to write multiple novels about King Arthur in multiple eras. I believe the only novels from that project that were published are Morlock Night and The Drawing of the Dark.

[bruceb]

I'm willing to believe it's a shared-ambience thing. Just interesting.

I hadn't heard about the multiple Arthur novels until...last night. :) Powers does an introduction for the new edition, and tells the story.

[robheinsoo]

So far I've always bounced off of Jeter, something about his prose style failing to hold me.

Should I imagine that Morlock Night might be an exception, you who have always pushed me toward Jeter?

[bruceb]

I dunno. It's much more Blaylock in style. How are you with Blaylock, if at all?

[robheinsoo]

Jeter I've tried and bounced out of.

Blaylock I somewhat enjoyed but have not made a priority of reading systematically.

[lisaquestions]

This is the second time in under a week I've seen reference to Jeter's invention of the term "Steampunk." I mentioned the first (in a model airplane magazine article on steampunk aircraft that I saw in a doctor's office) to a friend and she tried to tell me that it was Bruce Sterling who coined the term.

Waiting to see if Jeter's mentioned a third time.

[bruceb]

And at the third evocation, he will rise, say something arch, and settle back down again.