"Infernal Devices" Steampunk - What does it mean to you?

[Kim]

Although steampunk has a subgenre had existed for some time it wasn't given a name until K.W. Jeter used it regarding his books Morlock Night and Infernal Devices, as well as The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers and Homunculus by James Blaylock.

To me books like Leviathan, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Vol. 1, and The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack epitomised my ideas of steampunk. Victorian-era adventures involving physics-defying machinery. But I've never really included clockwork machines in my consideration before. A book I've had referred to me as steampunk was Angelmaker but I don't consider that steampunk.

It's funny in a way that the book the term was partly coined for I don't quite consider steampunk. To me it is more like proto-steampunk.

What do you think?

[[deleted user]]

I usually refer to wiki when trying to tell the category in subgenres but I love the webcomic Girl Genius for its steampunk art and setting. Jess Fink is another great cartoonist who does steampunk.

For books, The Music of Razors, Gob's Grief, and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, as well as Stardust, all represent the period pretty well to me--even though some of those are historical fantasy. Jules Verne also defines steampunk nicely.

[Jaime]

For me, before 'steampunk' was ever A Thing, there was the novel THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. I would also put up for consideration the novels ANTI-ICE and THE TIME SHIPS by British author Stephen Baxter. THE TIME SHIPS was an authorized sequel to H.G. Wells's THE TIME MACHINE and was released on Wells's centenary. I always thought of steampunk as a sub-set of Alternate History, more science fiction than fantasy.

[Margaret]

Castle Falkenstein: High Adventure in the Steam Age!

[John]

"Steampunk" in the broad sense could well apply to the work of some very early SF authors. Jules Verne comes to mind, but also Rudyard Kipling. For reference, check out his 1905 story "With the Night Mail" -- billed as a look at the world of the year 2000.

[Kim]

For me going back to writers like Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, etc. those aren't steampunk. They contain elements of it but it's not the same thing. Steampunk is about harkening back to another era and using retro-technology. Verne, Wells, et al. were trying to write about the future.

[[deleted user]]

Sure, I see your point, but regardless of that--I would argue that it makes them authentic steampunk sources. People often forget that within a steampunk setting--as shown in TDE--the technology is a shiny new advance. To the characters, it is the future. The style is also extremely useful as a reference point; a chronic problem of stwampunk writers is agonisingly obtuse language inteded to sound archaic. In contrast, Verne wrote pretty tidily and clearly.

[John]

On the other hand, I see Kim's point as well. The problem with Verne, Kipling, et. al. is that they proposed scientific advances that never came to pass (or later turned out to be unworkable). They were trying to project into the future, which would actually make them more like the "mainstream" SF writers of today.

That being said, I'll bet any fan of steampunk would enjoy reading "With the Night Mail" (which is old enough to be in the public domain -- check out http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/... )

[mark]

my definition is pretty much Kim's definition:

"Steampunk is about harkening back to another era and using retro-technology."

simple but makes sense to me.

my favorite steampunk novel is Dahlquist's The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters. brilliant!

[David]

For me the essence of Steam Punk comes from the author basing a current work on the style of Jules Verne, H. G. Wells or Robert Louis Stevenson. That's what James Blaylock was doing when he started his forays into this area of writing. I expect a lot of retro-tech from the era when steam engines were born, preferably stuff that couldn't possibly work. So far I've only read from the roots of the genre. I'll have to try out some of the newer stuff soon.

[Peter]

I like to see Steampunk as an alternate reality where technology stood still, fractured as it were and moved off on a tangent course, rather like the time machine in Back to the Future Doc built back in the Wild West. The concepts are the same but there manufacturing methods are different.

[Jim]

Margaret wrote: "Castle Falkenstein: High Adventure in the Steam Age!"

Interestingly I too came to Steampunk through wargaming and roleplaying Sky Galleons of Mars & Cloudships & Gunboats

So I'd been playing steampunk for years before I thought of actually reading it.

[Peter]

Jim wrote: "Margaret wrote: "Castle Falkenstein: High Adventure in the Steam Age!"

Interestingly I too came to Steampunk through wargaming and roleplaying Sky Galleons of Mars & Cloudships & Gunboats

So I'd ..."

Space 1899 for me.

[Dan's]

Care to pass on a link Peter. for the erst of us who are not that well verged in gaming..!?!

[Kim]

Dan's wrote: "Care to pass on a link Peter. for the erst of us who are not that well verged in gaming..!?!"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space:_1889

[Dan's]

Yeah thnks Kim , I looked it up right after..
there is a 2-box game selling in Amazon. I suppose this should have been a big hit, or well pretty influential to say the very least..

( still I can't bring myself to like the least those cover illustrators.. yikes)

[Peter]

Dan's wrote: "Yeah thnks Kim , I looked it up right after..
there is a 2-box game selling in Amazon. I suppose this should have been a big hit, or well pretty influential to say the very least..

( still..."
How bizarre I have just checked Amazon UK and there was Space 1899 available on Kindle, right alongside my original book.

[Jim]

Yep, Space 1889. A mate of mine has cloud galleons for Mars, big enough to use 28mm figures with them :-)

For the non-wargamers there's some pictures here (Not my mates) http://boardgamegeek.com/image/71886/...

[Nigel]

I always liked this definition of steampunk: "What if the future came earlier?" I love steampunk that tries to put modern conveniences in an archaic context. I'm reminded of a novel (whose name I no longer remember) written in the early 1900's where a character went into the future. One "modern" convenience was that every home had music on demand. An orchestra would play in a room with pipes all around it. The pipes would run into every house in the city. Whenever someone wanted to listen to music, they would open the pipe. Essentially, it was a low-tech version of radio that seemed very futuristic at the time, but seems ludicrous now. That's the kind of stuff I love. Oh, and steam-powered everything.

[[deleted user]]

For me, steampunk = awful. Well, except for what China Mieville does with it and I am not sure if the steampunk enthusiasts count that, do they? I have no idea

[Peter]

Chris wrote: "For me, steampunk = awful. Well, except for what China Mieville does with it and I am not sure if the steampunk enthusiasts count that, do they? I have no idea"
Awful=Jules Verne, HG Wells, William Gibson? or is it just the idea.

[[deleted user]]

Maybe I read the wrong books. The stuff I read seemed really pretentious.

[Peter]

Try the Difference Engine


William Gibson

[[deleted user]]

Ok. Will do

[Peter]

Then my work is done her today.

[[deleted user]]

Not available in kindle and my library does not list it. Oh boy...

[Peter]

Well that sucks, I'd lend one of my copies but you're 7k away, sorry.

[[deleted user]]

Time to hit the used bookstores

[Peter]

Good hunting.

[David]

You could also check out the birth of Steampunk in The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives by James Blaylock. It collects his two Steampunk novels, Homunculus and Lord Kelvin's Machine along with his Steampunk short stories, including The Ape Box Affair, which is considered the first Steampunk story. It's available as an e-book.

[mark]

have to admit that although i love the genre, i am not a fan of The Difference Engine.

[Alicja]

mark wrote: "have to admit that although i love the genre, i am not a fan of The Difference Engine."

And yet it is one of my favorite books of all time. I think it is one of those novels that one either loves or hates. But I think everyone who likes Steampunk should at least try to read it to see if they like it.

[mark]

agree. it is seminal.