Lesson 3: 20Th Century Steampunk

LESSON 3: 20TH CENTURY STEAMPUNK

We talked a bit about Steampunk’s roots with Verne and Wells and their contemporaries. Now let’s look at 20th Steampunk, when this style of speculative fiction came into its own as a sub-genre and then we’ll move on to modern-day Steampunk

Before the 20th century, what we know as Steampunk stories today didn’t have a name. And without a name, how will bookstores stock it? Steampunk-with-no-name stories were shelved alongside other Speculative Fiction stories and often lost in the wide variation of sub-genres that Spec Fic allows.

STEAMPUNK’S BIRTHDAY

This is an excellent quote and I couldn’t say it any better, so I quoted it here for you, a solid definition of Steampunk.

I won’t go into a deluge of information “Steampunk is a sub-categorization of about the development of Speculative science fiction in which the predominant Fiction in this class but there are a few technology is steam-based power. things that we must know to become Steampunk stories are usually (but not Steampunk writers with style  and one, always) set in the 19th century, and often is the name, K. W. Jeter. in Victoria-era London. The predominant driving force behind steampunk is fun, so the stories usually offer less rigorous .) science than straightforward science fiction.” STEAMPUNK UPDATE, i PART 1—FOLLOWING UP

The actual term for Steampunk was created by Speculative Fiction author K. W. Jeter in April 1987 in Locus Magazine. Please read: Birth of Steampunk.

I’m not sure how well Jeter is known outside the Spec Fic community. Certainly I had never heard of him before I created this class and I consider myself a Speculative Fiction writer and aficionado, however, Jeter has permeated the SF community with his wit and immaculate writing style in both literature and media (Shows you what I know, right? LOL). Perhaps that says something for an author who’s naming conventions are better known than his own writing. However, I must say, he does quite well with his writing. (Which goes to show SF heavyweights Gibson and Sterling you, learning never stops learning.) Jeter wasn’t the only writer dabbling in this not- spin an exquisitely clever filigree of so-new yet nameless genre. Tim Powers and James Blaylock were Jeter’s Victorian alternate history, sparkling contemporaries and excellent writers in themselves. densely with ideas, moored by a challenging subtext of chaos theory and the lessons of recent paleontology. Lesson 3:20th Century Steampunk / 2

CYBERPUNK Before there was (officially) Steampunk there was this wild and crazy subgenre of Spec Fic called “Cyberpunk.”

What is Cyberpunk?

Cyberpunk is a postmodern science fiction genre features advanced science, such as information technology and cybernetics, coupled with a degree of breakdown or radical change in the social order.ii

Cyberpunk plots often center on a conflict among hackers, artificial intelligences, and megacorporations, and tend to be set in a near- future Earth, rather than the far- future settings or galactic vistas found in novels such as Isaac Asimov's Foundation or Frank Herbert's Dune. The settings are usually post-industrial dystopias but tend to be marked by extraordinary cultural ferment and the use of technology in ways never anticipated by its creators ("the street finds its own uses for things"). Much of the genre's atmosphere echoes film noir, and written works in the genre often use techniques from detective fiction.iii

Cyberpunk Forums

Cyberpunk Forumsiv has a nice breakdown of Cyberpunk. I’m only presenting the basics, you can read more using the link given.

“Cyberpunk is a place where science and technology meets philosophy,” says Seph on Cyberpunk Forums.

LOW LIFE, HIGH TECH The very word cyberpunk is itself a portmanteau of cybernetics, the science and technology of the system, and punk, the philosophy of rebellion against the system.

ATTITUDE Cyberpunk employs a certain attitude or philosophy in the romantic struggle between them selves and the system.

AWARENESS While the rest of the world seems apathetic to what is going on around them—new technologies, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and the technological singularity—Cyberpunk is utra-aware, often taking situations and technology to the extreme (just like science fiction).

SUBCULTURE Perhaps the most clandestine aspect of cyberpunk is the ethereal subculture of hackers, phreaks, netrunners, ravers, and razor girls. It is androgynous, sophisticated, and futuristic.

GOTHS, GADGETS & GRUNGE: STEAMPUNK WITH STYLE© By Pat Hauldren Lesson 3:20th Century Steampunk / 3

SUBGENRE The most accessible aspect of cyberpunk is the literary subgenre of science fiction that features a dark and gritty, yet painfully realistic vision of the near future. It essentially takes active social trends and pushes them to the extremes.

BREAKING DOWN CYBERPUNK 1. Characters

Many cyberpunk protagonists are manipulated, placed in situations where they have little or no choice, and although they might see things through, they do not necessarily come out any further ahead than they previously were.v

2. Setting

Because Cyberpunk is tech meets philosophy, most settings are the more modern and futuristic often with underground, hacker settings. They can be future and past, but Cyberpunk is “cyber” which deals with high technology.

Cyberpunk writers tend to use elements from hardboiled detective fiction, film noir, and postmodernist prose to describe the often nihilistic underground side of an electronic society.vi

3. Society and Culture “...a closer look [at cyberpunk authors] reveals that they nearly always portray future societies in which governments have become wimpy and pathetic ...Popular science fiction tales by Gibson, Williams, Cadigan and others do depict Orwellian accumulations of power in the next century, but nearly always clutched in the secretive hands of a wealthy or corporate elite” ~ David Brin The Transparent Society, Basic Books, 1998

"Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body." – Lawrence Person

BACK TO STEAMPUNK You probably notice many of the same genre elements prevalent in Cyberpunk are also part of Steampunk.

If you’ve seen the movie stylization of Wild, Wild West, you’ve experienced Steampunk in the Wild West. Perhaps you’ve seen the 1927 movie Metropolis (if you haven’t, I strongly urge you to). Wikipedia says that Fritz Lang’s Metropolis “may be the single most important early film to represent steampunk as an emerging stylistic genre.”

GASLIGHT FANTASY What a cool name, huh? I love it and it conveys such an atmosphere that I’m picturing the words immediately. Gaslight Fantasy has that noir, seedy, dark atmosphere that a lot of Steampunk and detective mysteries have.

Gaslamp Fantasy, also called Gaslight Fantasy, is Steampunk's magical cousin. It's a subgenre of fantasy (and more specifically of Historical Fantasy) with a setting that is clearly recognizable as the real-world 19th or very early 20th century (or a reasonable analogue thereof). That's the Regency period and the Victorian and Edwardian eras, if the work's set in England, which it usually, though not necessarily, is. Victorian London is especially popular. It may be identical to the real world with a Masquerade, or it may be a full-on Alternate History where magic exists openly and has affected the course of events.

Gaslamp Fantasy often draws on gothic horror tropes, and is sometimes seen as a sort of Reconstruction or revival of the genre.

The key difference between Gaslamp Fantasy and Steampunk is that Steampunk focuses on alternate developments in technology (and need not have any magic at all), while gaslamp fantasy focuses on supernatural elements (and need not have any technology that didn't actually exist). Yet, the two can overlap, especially with “Magitek.”

The term was coined to describe the comic Girl Genius, but has since come into wider use, and is sometimes retroactively applied to the more fantastical works of Gothic Horror.

Girl Genius was called that because its creators had never heard the term "Steampunk" before, but also because it was focused on more than just advanced steam power, and was not a dystopian-type "Punk" work, despite having similar aesthetics, and is heavy on mad science.

DISCUSSION 1. To complete this lesson, I’d like for you to read the following articles: a. STEAMPUNK UPDATE, PART 1—FOLLOWING UP and b. STEAMPUNK UPDATE, PART 2—OLD & NEW COGS IN THE STEAMPUNK MACHINE

2. Please read the first two pages of K. W. Jeter’s Morlock Night. You can use this link to access a free reading of the first two pages or you can access the pages on Amazon using this link. 3. In Morlock Night’s first two pages, a. list the elements you think make it a Steampunk novel. b. Please explain how these elements work as Steampunk genre elements in this story and if you think they are essential to Steampunk as a whole, or only this story?

{While you are working on Lesson 3, I will be posting a READING file in the READING folder, which is optional material to read, material that will broaden your experience and knowledge with Steampunk. Each READING file with be numbered to match the lesson it accompanies, so do not worry if you do not see READING 2 but do see READING 3. There’s nothing missing. }

i Kirkus Reviews The Difference Engine ii Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk iii Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk iv Cyberpunk Fourms http://cyberpunkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=361 v Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk#Protagonists vi Wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk#Protagonists