Thread: The Definition of "Steampunk"

Greetings,

Recently (as if I don't have enough half-started projects) I begun writing out some ideas for what I think will be a 'steampunk' story. As I designed the world for this story I went online to try and find some good resources for this genre. I read the Wikipedia article and I have also seen Steamboy and Wild Wild West (the movie) as well as a few others. I followed some of the links on Wikipedia and Google and found some interesting steampunk artists.

The problem is that this genre seems too vague. The way the Wikipedia article has it it almost seems as if anything with a steam engine in it is steampunk. Also the article lists dozens of books as well as a handful of television shows and movies. Rather then try to track down every single book listed I was wondering if anyone out there with more experience in this genre could help me by pointing out a few really good examples of steampunk works. Any other resource information would also be great. I will keep digging on the internet and if I find anything I'll post it here too so things won't get redundant.

I'm not looking for a definition so much as I am trying to get a 'feeling' of what it means to write steampunk.

And I'm off.

Golden Compass movie
City of Ember
Atlantis (animated films)
Many films by Miyasaki (Moving Castle, Laputa, etc)
The most recent Sherlock Holmes
Stardust
etc.


A friend has an online novel you can read free, as well as an ebook, very funny and cool


http://arcadiasnips.com/arcadia-snips/introduction/



You could really call Jules Verne an early steampunker, actually.


Difference by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson is probably the "origin" of the term, if not the concept.


With all those links on the wiki, I wonder if your'r being a little disingenous here. I'd think a glance around Brass Goggles would clear things up.

I would say the main thing, by the way, is not so much steam as creative anachronism. It's tends to revolve around Victorian tech and culture, but it only works when it's jerked out into some other time or culture.

I love that picture. Steampunk would be a really fun genre to try, it's on my list.

My feeling is that it works better visually, like the films I mentioned.

Although there's also the whole lifestyle thing with people dressing up and Steampunk bands and brass and walnut computers and such.
Fabrication might be the most glorious flower of the movement.





"R2 Steam 2" Steam versions of Star Wars figures are a sub-genre

In case you need a mouse for that laptop



Stop me quick! I could easily go nuts with this stuff.

I TOLD you to stop me. Pick out your favorite "Star/eam Wars" figure

As Lin mentioned, The Difference Engine is a very representiative work. You might also look into Whitechapel Gods and The Anubis Gates. A Nomad of the Timestreams is often cited. I particulary enjoyed Ekaterina Sedia's Alchemy of Stone, which is steampunk fantasy. Cherie Priest has recently put out Boneshaker which is steampunk with zombies. Priest's short story "Tanglefoot" is steampunk, too. There's also Ala Campbells Scar Night and Iron Angel. Queen Victoria's Bomb dealing with a nuke in the Crimean War is interesting.

On the visual media front, you might want to look into "Last Exile", even if anime isn't your thing. "Fullmetal Alchemist" is often also cited as a nother steampunk anime. As for live action movies, there's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the recent Sherlock Holmes incarnation (as Lin mentioned) and Wild, Wild West (which you brought up).


As a general description, steampunk is fiction usually, but not always, set in the Victorian or Edwardian eras of England dealing with the technology of the era or technology realistically or fantasically based on such technology. Difference engines, zeppelins, cog-and-gear mechanical dvices powered by steam. You should keep in mind that steampunk has a powerful tendency to cross genres, so there's a lot of steam fantasy, or steam horror.


And here's a list of short stories, available free online:
Waiting for Number Five
The Leafsmith in Love
The Motor, the Mirror, the Mind
A Serpent in the Gears
On the Transmontane Run with the Aerial Mail Express
The Silver Khan
Great, Golden Wings
Six Seeds
Clockwork Heart, Clockwork Soul
Architectural Constants

Or, importantly, Vickie era stuff set in other times or planets or universes (as in Golden Compass).

I can't beleive I forgot The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. An excellent intro. I never understood why people dissed that movie. I mean Sean Connery playing Quartermain???? Come ON.

And if you want steampunk at its essense, those nazi robots breaking into Edwardian libraries and steam transport that looks like Daddy Warbucks goes Nemo should do it.

I love that laptop.

I only found out about steam punk last year. Then recently I was on a lunch break at work, I work in hell, but that hell is located on a high-end-wanker-infested-shopping street, so people here are often very fashionable.

I saw a girl in sepia. Her hair was light orange, her make up was a cream colour, all her clothes were shades of sepia-browns. Skirt, shirt, tights, shoes.
She looked completely unreal. Very awesome.

I wasn't sure that she qualified as steam punk, but certainly seemed along those lines.

It's definitely a movement with a strong fashion component




Of varying degrees of form vs function







And accessorizing

There's a whole life-style--"Steam"--based on the steampunk aesthetic. There's some guy who likes to make steam-powered robots for instance, and you can find an enormous amount of steamppunk merchandise online.

Cannot believe I forgot to mention the Final Fantasy games... Massive amount of steampunk influence.

To say the least. I can't think of any other literary movment that has inspired this amount of real-world emulation and sheer BUILDING things.


There are gatherings, like the whole Society for Creative Anachronism/Medeival Faire thing, including bands that play steampunk instruments, the whole style.


http://www.wormholeriders.com/blog/w...yparkgroup.jpg

Yes, I definitely noticed that steampunk is very visual. But I tend to write with a visual style (I would have been an artist instead of a writer if I could just get my fingers to move the way I want them to). I think I could get it to work. Thanks for all those free story links. That is where I will get started then. And this gives me an excuse to watch League of Extraordinary Gentlemen again.

And anime is definitely something I like. I think 'Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water' might fit in with the steampunk genre. Also Sherlock Hound in a cute sort of way may also be considered steampunk with all of Moriarty's inventions. But there again is that vagueness of genre definition I was talking about...

I can't believe I forgot "Nadia". That easily falls within the genre.


There's a very related genre by the name of "gaslight romance". You might also look at some of the more supernatural gothic stories. An anime example would be "Kuroshitsuji". Not so much on the steampunk elements, of which there are none, but the atmosphere is very similar to that in many steampunk works.