Some semi-coherent thoughts on "Steampunk"

Prompted by a recently-resurrected thread on Facebook from 3½ years ago, I thought I’d share a few snippets of my observations and opinions on the whole explosion of “steampunk culture” in recent years, because, well… because I can, I guess.

Firstly, I think it’s a shame that “steampunk” has become more prominent as an aesthetic rather than a literary or even cultural genre, and a greater shame that it has often been done so badly.

I love the oft-repeated quote that:

Steampunk is what happens when Goths discover brown.

To wit, the most grievous error that most new aficionados of the “steampunk aesthetic” make is in thinking that adding arbitrary and functionless cogs, gears, keys, brass tubes, or acanthus leaf filigree to something makes it better.

The Victorian / industrial-age aesthetic was entirely more practical - the cogs and gears were there because they did something and form was function, not just some kind of vajazzling for machinery (or top hats)!

Secondly, in the age of thoroughly miraculous, incredible, but homogenous and mass-manufactured gadgets I do feel that there is a place for the hand-made, for the amateur, and for the artisan product made from more humble or tactile materials.

For me, the core notion of steampunk harks back to a time where it was possible for an educated person to be at the very forefront of a number of emerging technologies and to experiment, invent and innovate in incredible (and potentially gloriously ramshackle and dangerous) ways, but today that is exponentially more difficult - I’m a professional geek, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to tear my shiny new smartphone apart and try to reconfigure it or create an entire new housing for it from scratch!

Finally, there is also the small matter of turning a blind eye to the social and cultural issues of the time - glaring cultural imperialism, massive inequality, rampant poverty, and the exploitation and oppression of the poor and unfortunate for starters - but in the literary sense Steampunk is not simply “Victorian England + Steam-powered versions of modern technology” - that’s an entirely too simplistic (if popular) view.

To me, Steampunk is an attempt to bring to life an idealised version of an age of social and industrial tumult, rapid technological innovation and enterprise, and a world of infinite possibilities where etiquette still had a place.

Oh, and badly customised welding goggles, naturally…

Originally posted on Tumblr