I don't get steam punk at all. Why do they call it steam PUNK? There doesn't seem to be anything PUNK about it.
I don't get steam punk at all. Why do they call it steam PUNK? There doesn't seem to be anything PUNK about it.
It's a derivation of cyberpunk from the '80s. The punk suffix has come to be a catch-all for any niche tech-inspired setting. Essentially, people looked at early steampunk books and saw the similarities between that and cyberpunk, in that both emphasized plots that were intertwined/dependent on a specific kind of tech setting...and so they wanted to coin a name that indicated similarities to cyberpunk, which was a big, commercial trend at the time. Obviously cyber didn't fit, so they had to use punk instead.
The original cyberpunk trend and books had a heavy focus on anarchistic characters and rebellion/revolutionary plots, so the punk label was a lot more fitting then.
And on that note, I'd love to see classic cyberpunk style stories get a revival.
I may have missed the bucking the gender norms of the time period in the stories I've read.
Well for starters, many steampunks star female main characters having swashbuckling adventures in time periods when women were more traditionally found buttoned up in petticoats with parasols.
The protagonists in the ones I've read were female but I didn't notice the time period or feel like it was out of place.
Can you name a specific title where the social trends are expected of the protagonist but she fights back and does her own thing?
Could anybody suggest a great example of the punk elements being in steam punk?
It's awesome that so many works show girls pushing against gender norms -- so much so that it's sort of a well-worn trope in the steampunk genre and YA/children's lit by now, especially in the vein of "girl dressing as a boy to Do Something" -- but beyond that, its treatment from what I've seen is far less radical and revolutionary than the time period actually was. I have to agree with Mystic Punk: there isn't very much punk in steampunk.
Where are the abolitionists? Where are the suffragettes? All this talk about breaking out of gender roles, yet I can't think of one steampunk novel that features a suffragette. Or how about a boy dressing as a girl to Do Something or break out of gender norms? That would actually be kind of radical both for today and for the 19th century, and it's something I've never really seen.
For me, what would really put the punk in steampunk would be more stories that address how, although the steampunk aesthetic is very cool, it does sort of glorify colonialism (and specifically upper-class Victoriana). The 19th century was a pretty tumultuous time, full of political and social upheaval. You can find elements of that in some stories, but often it feels like background window dressing. I'd like to see more of that as the focus, brought to the forefront.
Oh, and another recommendation: His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, which is more steampunk-esque than actual steampunk, but still very good.
It's awesome that so many works show girls pushing against gender norms -- so much so that it's sort of a well-worn trope in the steampunk genre and YA/children's lit by now, especially in the vein of "girl dressing as a boy to Do Something" -- but beyond that, its treatment from what I've seen is far less radical and revolutionary than the time period actually was. I have to agree with Mystic Punk: there isn't very much punk in steampunk.
Where are the abolitionists? Where are the suffragettes? All this talk about breaking out of gender roles, yet I can't think of one steampunk novel that features a suffragette. Or how about a boy dressing as a girl to Do Something or break out of gender norms? That would actually be kind of radical both for today and for the 19th century, and it's something I've never really seen.
For me, what would really put the punk in steampunk would be more stories that address how, although the steampunk aesthetic is very cool, it does sort of glorify colonialism (and specifically upper-class Victoriana). The 19th century was a pretty tumultuous time, full of political and social upheaval. You can find elements of that in some stories, but often it feels like background window dressing. I'd like to see more of that as the focus, brought to the forefront.
Oh, and another recommendation: His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman, which is more steampunk-esque than actual steampunk, but still very good.
All this talk about breaking out of gender roles, yet I can't think of one steampunk novel that features a suffragette.
I don't get steam punk at all. Why do they call it steam PUNK? There doesn't seem to be anything PUNK about it.
And on that note, I'd love to see classic cyberpunk style stories get a revival.
Could anybody suggest a great example of the punk elements being in steam punk?