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Steampunk

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Steampunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, usually set in an anachronistic Victorian or quasi-Victorian alternate history setting. Fiction in the steampunk genre is set in the past, or a world resembling the past, in which modern technological paradigms occurred earlier in history, but were accomplished via the science already present in that time period. The genre typically falls into the realm of science fiction.

Origin

The term "steampunk" was originally a tongue in cheek variant of "cyberpunk". The prototypical "steampunk" stories were essentially cyberpunk tales that were set in the past, using steam-era technology rather than the ubiquitous cybernetics of cyberpunk but maintaining those stories' "punkish" attitudes towards authority figures and human nature. Originally, like cyberpunk, steampunk was typically dystopian, often with noir and pulp fiction themes, as it was a variant of cyberpunk. As the genre developed, it came to adopt more of the broadly appealing utopian sensibilities of Victorian scientific romances.

Steampunk fiction focuses more intently on real, theoretical or cinematic Victorian-era technology, including steam engines, clockwork devices, and difference engines. While much of steampunk is set in Victorian-era settings, the genre has expanded into medieval settings and often delves into the realms of horror and fantasy. Various secret societies and conspiracy theories are often featured, and some steampunk includes significant fantasy elements. There are frequently Lovecraftian, occult and Gothic horror influences as well.

Early steampunk

Inspired by the Scientific Romances, Voyages Extraordinaires and Edisonades of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, Steampunk as a genre developed in the 1980s as an offshoot of, or reaction to, Cyberpunk.

K.W. Jeter's 1979 novel Morlock Night is sometimes cited as crystallizing the genre: It incorporates elements of Wells' The Time Machine, which Jeter expands with his own ideas. Other early examples include Robert Heinlein's 1980 novel The Number of the Beast, whose characters travel between alternate universes that are realizations of classic SF stories, or Philip José Farmer's 1983 foray into the writing style of L. Frank Baum, A Barnstormer in Oz. But often overlooked are Michael Moorcock's The Warlord of the Air: A Scientific Romance in the Tradition of Jules Verne, which dates to 1961, and its 1974 and 1981 sequels, The Land Leviathan and The Steel Tsar, respectively (collectively republished as A Nomad of the Timestreams). Moorcock's works were among the earliest to remold Edwardian and Victorian adventure fiction within a new, ironic retro-futuristic framework, and also had a strong influence on the later absorption of fantasy elements into the steampunk genre, as these novels, like most of Moorcock's large body of inter-related work, are usually classifed as science-fantasy, featuring supernatural or fantastical elements in addition to science and technology.

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's 1992 novel The Difference Engine is often credited with inspiring the term "Steampunk". This novel applies the principles of Gibson and Sterling's Cyberpunk writings to an alternate Victorian era where Charles Babbage's mechanical computer was actually built. However, the earliest citation for the term belongs to Jeter. [1]

Some cite the origin of the Steampunk concept going back as far as Walt Disney's 1954 adaptation of Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The film was a benchmark in its conscious choice to maintain a Victorian look and feel rather than updating the story (as was the case with the 1953 adaptation of Wells' The War of the Worlds). There is also a case for the steampunk genre actually beginning in the Victorian era itself, with Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

The present and growing popularity of Steampunk is likely due in large part to comic books and movies, such as the works of animator Hayao Miyazaki or Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's two League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic book series. Moore's concept and writing made the series popular, but reviews attaching the term "Steampunk" to it became many people's first exposure to the term.

Although it would be inaccurate to label the science fiction written during the actual Victorian era (such as the pioneering works of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, including Mary Shelley, though she was of the Empire era) as "steampunk" since the punk element is virtually absent in them, there is no doubt these works are a direct inspiration for modern steampunk authors. The term "classic steampunk" is sometimes, though rarely, used to refer to these works.

Types of steampunk

There are two main sub-genres of steampunk: historical steampunk and fantasy steampunk. Historical steampunk tends to be more "science fictional": presenting an alternate history, presenting real locales and persons from history with different technology. Fantasy steampunk, on the other hand, tends to present steampunk in a completely imaginary fantasy realm, often populated by legendary creatures coexisting with steam-era or anachronistic technologies.

Although originally conceived as being Victorian-era science fiction only, the term has become common use for many related forms of speculative fiction set in the pre-Electric age era. Sub-genres include:

Historical steampunk

In general, the category includes any pre-electricity science fiction work with an emphasis on steam- or spring-propelled gadgets. This also includes many alternate history stories in the genre. The most common historical steampunk settings are the Victorian and Edwardian eras, though some in this "Victorian steampunk" category can go as early as the Industrial Revolution. Some examples of this type include the comic book series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the novel The Difference Engine, and the roleplaying game Space: 1889, and the book series "A Series of Unfortunate Events". The next most common setting is "Western steampunk", being a science fictionalized American Western, as seen in the television shows The Wild Wild West and The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. and films Wild Wild West and Back to the Future Part III. See Science fiction Western for a list of fiction combining these two genres. There are also "Medieval steampunk" stories set in the Middle Ages, in which steam and industrial technology is developed in the Medieval era. The suspiciously sophisticated ancient traps of the Indiana Jones films and earlier works that inspired them are examples of historical steampunk elements within mainstream fiction, as is the Marchand the Toymaker subplot of the Hellraiser horror movie franchise.

Fantasy steampunk

Since the 1990s, the application of the steampunk label has expanded out of the pure science fiction realm into other forms of speculative fiction, including both steampunk science fiction alongside traditional fantasy or horror elements. Fantasy steampunk is any work of fantasy fiction that combines magic with steam- or spring-powered gadget technology. China Mieville is one of the better-known fantasy steampunk authors. Other notable examples of fantasy steampunk include the Goodman Games role-playing game DragonMech, the Castle Falkenstein role-playing game, The Vision of Escaflowne anime series, the Ironwolf comic from Maury Chaykin and Mike Mignola, the Thief (computer game) first-person sneaker series, many of the games in the Final Fantasy console role-playing game series, where characters get around in airships run by steam, and the PC game Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, in which the world is torn between its roots in magic and its steam-driven, industrial future. The movie Edward Scissorhands could be included as well, combining gothic and steampunk as many of Tim Burton's movies do.

Other forms

As a continuing play on the cyber/steam-punk naming convention, there have been a handful of divergent terms based on the general conceits of steampunk, although dissecting such a fringe genre is mostly a frivolous exercise in semantics. "Clockpunk" (so called because of the use of clockwork machinations, as opposed to steam-engine) is one of the more relatively prominent, inspired by the "ahead-of-their-time" designs of Leonardo da Vinci and set during the Renaissance era or a fantasy equivalent thereof. The term was coined in the GURPS role-playing supplement GURPS Steampunk, and appears most famously in Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, in which things we would consider "modern technology" are invented with a combination of Renaissance technology and, perhaps, magic. Other clockpunk works include Pasquale's Angel by Paul J. McAuley and the comic book 1602 by Neil Gaiman. The best-known example of this subgenre, however, is probably the Milo Rambaldi subplot of the TV show "Alias".

The "sandalpunk" sub-genre posits a world in which ancient civilization never collapsed into the so-called Dark Ages and instead saw rapid technological advancement after a few key discoveries are made or developed into industrial technologies, such as Hero of Alexandria's steam engine, built around 130 BC or the Antikythera mechanism. One such example is Inne piesni (Other Songs) by Jacek Dukaj.

GURPS Steampunk also introduced several other variations on the steampunk theme, including "timepunk" (a general term covering any historical variation on steampunk), "bronzepunk'" (steampunk set in the Bronze Age), and "stonepunk" (steampunk set in the Stone Age, as seen in The Flintstones).

In between the historical and fantasy sub-genres of steampunk is a type which takes place in a hypothetical future or a fantasy equivalent of our future where steampunk-style technology and aesthetics have come to dominate, sometimes (as in Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines) as a result of modern computer-based technology being mysteriously forgotten. Other examples include the Neotopia comic, Theodore Judson's Fitzpatrick's War and even Disney's Treasure Planet film. This could also be considered a type of Retro-futurism.

Steampunk as a subculture

Because of the popularity of steampunk with people in the Goth, Punk and Industrial subcultures, there is a growing movement towards establishing Steampunk as a culture and lifestyle.

The most immediate form of steampunk subculture is the community of fans surrounding the genre. Others move beyond this, attempting to adopt a "Steampunk" aesthetic through fashion, home decor and even music. This movement may also be (more accurately) described as "Neo-Victorianism", which is the amalgamation of Victorian aesthetic principles with modern sensibilities and technologies.

"Steampunk" fashion has no set guidelines, but tends to synthesize Punk, Goth and Rivet styles as filtered through the Victorian era. This may include Mohawks and extensive piercings with corsets and tattered petticoats, Victorian suits with goggles and boots with large soles and buckles or straps, and the Gothic Lolita and Elegant Gothic Aristocrat styles.

"Steampunk" music is even less defined, and tends to apply to any modern musicians whose music evokes a feeling of the Victorian era or steampunk. This may include such diverse artists as Rasputina, Thomas Dolby, Paul Roland, The Dresden Dolls, Vernian Process, Sarah Brightman, Jill Tracy, Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand.

Bibliography

Modern steampunk

Quasi-Victorian science fiction

  • A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! by Harry Harrison -- an alternate history novel written and set in the 1970s in a world where the American Revolution failed and the British Empire is still going strong. It has a nice mix of technologies advanced or behind ours, with high powered lasers used for drilling, while Babbage engines are used to do calculations for sub-orbital flights.
  • Queen Victoria's Bomb by Ronald Clark -- in the mid 19th century; a physicist gets the idea of isotopic separation after seeing pebbles graded by size on a pebble beach, and makes an atomic bomb. He intends to use it to end the Crimean War, but it never gets used, and no difference is made to history.
  • The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson -- A steampunk-flavored adventure set in a nanotechnological future, with much of the action in a neo-Victorian society
  • The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling -- Meteors devastate Europe and America in the 19th century, causing much of the British upper class to flee to India. The story is set in 2025 in a thoroughly Indianized Angrezi Raj (British Empire), with its capital in Delhi.
  • To Visit the Queen by Diane Duane -- Interference by the Lone Power results in a contaminated alternate universe in which Victorian Britain has developed (and used) atomic weapons.
File:Journey to the Center of the Earth DVD.jpg
Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth has inspired many steampunk film, TV and book adaptations.

Classic SF novels, inspirations for steampunk

Comics / graphic novels

Steampunk role-playing game material

In Media

Movies

File:Copy of League Group.JPG
Promotional still for the 2003 film, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Notable film precursors

List of steampunk films

Note: most of the films listed are steampunk-related either through narrative or by thematic context.

Television

File:SAJV cast.jpg
The cast of The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne

Games

Music

See also

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