Steampunk has its critics, ironically including some of its literary paragons. This adds to the problem of defining the movement satisfactorily. Even William Gibson—co-author of The Difference Engine , a dystopian alternate transnational history of the Victorian era—has evinced skepticism about the nature of the genre.
Jules Verne and H. Wells are commonly cited as its earliest progenitors, but its name comes from a letter that novelist K. Jeter wrote to Locus in During the s, it remained a tiny fanboy culture based mainly in science fiction and graphic novels. Those who sneer at steampunk often flatten out its history and emphasize this moment, when the corporate mainstream temporarily rebranded the movement and commodified its aesthetic. Jaymee Goh and Diana M. Far more than a niche genre of science fiction, steampunk is now a decidedly material culture.
In Diana M. As steampunk evolved through the s, its politics and vision of history did, too. One story features humanoid constructions and another features a mechanical flying horse that could be controlled by keys and travel through time.
Sir Francis Bacon published Novo Atlantis in the 17th century, an unfinished novel that was a utopian story of the Les Voyages Extraordinaires mold.
By the early part of the 19th century, Mary Shelley began the rise of the mad scientist figure in her Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus. Aura Crystall Instrument — Early pioneers in the genre aside, it was the film industry that carried steampunk through the next several decades.
Stories like H. Disney had wild success, and the Victorian scientific romances were back in style. Steampunk went back out of fashion, for the most part, during the Vietnam era, its technological optimism out of step with current societal trends.
The name itself was a semi-humorous offshoot of another type of science fiction that was gaining popularity — cyberpunk. Cyberpunk looked forward to a time when the boundaries between humans and computers have become increasingly fuzzy, and was rife with threads of rebellion against social norms. That spirit of rebelling from the rules of society was also common in those Victorian-era explorations of the science of its time, which often featured steam engines, so… Steampunk.
The term steampunk was officially coined by K. Jeter, a science fiction author who created it in the late s as an alternative to the word cyberpunk. Jeter was looking for a word to capture the genre of works that took place in 19th-century Victorian settings and featured fantastical steam-powered technology. The fact that steampunk was coined decades after it first came into being is fitting for the unique blend of past and present that defines the genre. Most people are familiar with steampunk not through reading science fiction literature, but through seeing steampunk-inspired art, designs, and fashion.
Steampunk fashion is usually designed in a post-apocalyptic way, with outfits typically featuring Victorian-style clothing and hairstyling with futuristic gadgets and fake weapons.
Bustiers and bodices are commonly incorporated into female steampunk outfits, and in the early days of steampunk, most of these outfits had to be handmade.
Now that steampunk has grown into a massive subculture of fashion and art, mass-produced steampunk clothing has become popular and much easier to find. Steampunk fashion typically dabbles with several different personas that are common in steampunk literature, from the airship pirate to the adventurer.
They may have gadgets such as goggles, compasses, or a steampunk watch to complement the outfit and the persona.
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