Steampunk
Encyclopedia
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
, alternate history, and speculative fiction
Speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as...
that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
or "Wild West"-era United States—that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
technology
Technology
Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...
or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion
Fashion
Fashion, a general term for a currently popular style or practice, especially in clothing, foot wear, or accessories. Fashion references to anything that is the current trend in look and dress up of a person...
, culture
Culture
Culture is a term that has many different inter-related meanings. For example, in 1952, Alfred Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn compiled a list of 164 definitions of "culture" in Culture: A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions...
, architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
, art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
, etc. This technology includes such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
and Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
, or the contemporary authors Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman CBE, FRSL is an English writer from Norwich. He is the best-selling author of several books, most notably his trilogy of fantasy novels, His Dark Materials, and his fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ...
and China Mieville
China Miéville
China Tom Miéville is an award-winning English fantasy fiction writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" , and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party...
.
Other examples of steampunk contain alternative history-style presentations of such technology as lighter-than-air airships, analog computer
Analog computer
An analog computer is a form of computer that uses the continuously-changeable aspects of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities to model the problem being solved...
s, or such digital mechanical computer
Mechanical computer
A mechanical computer is built from mechanical components such as levers and gears, rather than electronic components. The most common examples are adding machines and mechanical counters, which use the turning of gears to increment output displays...
s as Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer...
and Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace , born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine...
's Analytical engine
Analytical engine
The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for a mechanical calculator...
.
Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded
Modding
Modding is a slang expression that is derived from the verb "modify". Modding refers to the act of modifying a piece of hardware or software or anything else for that matter, to perform a function not originally conceived or intended by the designer...
by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.
Origin
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
. It seems to have been coined by science fiction author K. W. Jeter
K. W. Jeter
Kevin Wayne Jeter is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters...
, who was trying to find a general term for works by Tim Powers
Tim Powers
Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare...
(The Anubis Gates
The Anubis Gates
The Anubis Gates is a time travel fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It won the 1983 Philip K. Dick Award and 1984 Science Fiction Chronicle Award.- Plot summary :...
, 1983); James Blaylock
James Blaylock
James Paul Blaylock is an American fantasy author.He is noted for a distinctive, humorous style, as well as being one of the pioneers of the steampunk genre of science fiction....
(Homunculus
Homunculus (Blaylock novel)
Homunculus is a comic science fiction novel by author James P. Blaylock. It was published in 1986. It was the second book in Blaylock's loose Steampunk trilogy, following The Digging Leviathan and preceding Lord Kelvin's Machine...
, 1986); and himself (Morlock Night
Morlock Night
Morlock Night is a science fiction novel by K. W. Jeter. It was published in 1979. In a letter toLocus Magazine in April 1987, Jeter coined the word "steampunk" to describe it and other novels by James Blaylock and Tim Powers....
, 1979, and Infernal Devices
Infernal Devices (Jeter)
Infernal Devices is a steampunk novel by K. W. Jeter, published in 1987. The novel was republished in 2011 by Angry Robot Books with a new introduction by the author, cover art by John Coulthart, and an afterword by Jeff VanderMeer.-Plot summary:...
, 1987)—all of which took place in a 19th-century (usually Victorian) setting and imitated conventions of such actual Victorian speculative fiction as H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
' The Time Machine
The Time Machine
The Time Machine is a science fiction novella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 for the first time and later adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction...
. In a letter to science fiction magazine Locus
Locus (magazine)
Locus, subtitled "The Magazine Of The Science Fiction & Fantasy Field", is published monthly in Oakland, California. It reports on the science fiction and fantasy publishing field, including comprehensive listings of all new books published in the genre. It is considered the news organ and trade...
, printed in the April 1987 issue, Jeter wrote:
Historical precedents
.jpg)
Scientific romance
Scientific romance is a bygone name for what is now commonly known as science fiction. The term is most associated with early British science fiction. The earliest noteworthy use of the term scientific romance is believed to have been by Charles Howard Hinton in his 1886 collection...
s of Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
, H.G. Wells, and Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley
Mary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley...
.
Several works of fiction significant to the development of the genre were produced before the genre had a name. Titus Alone
Titus Alone
Titus Alone is a novel written by Mervyn Peake and first published in 1959. It is the fourth work in the Gormenghast series. The other works in the series are Titus Groan, Gormenghast, the novella Boy in Darkness, and the fragment Titus Awakes.-Plot summary:The story follows Titus' journey in the...
(1959), by Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Peake
Mervyn Laurence Peake was an English writer, artist, poet and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R...
, anticipated many of the tropes of steampunk. One of the earliest mainstream manifestations of the steampunk ethos was the original CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
television series The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West
The Wild Wild West is an American television series that ran on CBS for four seasons from September 17, 1965 to April 4, 1969....
(1965–69), which inspired the film Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West
Wild Wild West is a 1999 American steampunk action-comedy film directed by Barry Sonnenfeld, and starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline , Kenneth Branagh and Salma Hayek.Similar to the original TV series it was based on, The Wild Wild West, the film features a large amount of gadgetry...
(1999). The film Brazil
Brazil (film)
Brazil is a 1985 British science fiction fantasy/black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam. It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard and stars Jonathan Pryce. The film also features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm...
(1985) was an important early cinematic influence to the genre.
Because he coined the term, K.W. Jeter's novel Morlock Night (1979) is typically considered an 'honorary grandfather' of the genre. Keith Laumer
Keith Laumer
John Keith Laumer was an American science fiction author. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, he was an officer in the United States Air Force and a U.S. diplomat...
made an early contribution with Worlds of the Imperium
Worlds of the Imperium
Worlds of the Imperium is a science-fiction novel by Keith Laumer. It was originally published in 1962. It is an example of an alternate history novel in which a man from our reality becomes involved with another parallel world in which the American Revolution never happened and the secret of...
(1962). Ronald W. Clark
Ronald W. Clark
Ronald William Clark was a British author of biography, fiction and non-fiction.Born in London, Clark was educated King's College School. In 1933, he embarked on a career as a journalist, and served as a war correspondent during the Second World War after being turned down for military service on...
's Queen Victoria's Bomb
Queen Victoria's Bomb
Queen Victoria's Bomb is a steampunk novel by Ronald W. Clark. Its plot surrounds the invention of a nuclear weapon in the Victorian era which might be used to win the Crimean War....
(1967) and Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
's Warlord of the Air
Warlord of the Air
The Warlord of the Air is a 1971 British alternate history science fiction novel written by Michael Moorcock. It concerns the adventures of Oswald Bastable, an Edwardian-era soldier stationed in India, and his adventures in an alternate universe wherein the First World War never happened...
(1971) have been cited as early influences. Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! , the basis for the film Soylent Green...
's novel A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah! (1973) portrays a British Empire of an alternate 1973, full of atomic locomotives, coal-powered flying boats, ornate submarines, and Victorian dialogue. In February 1980 Richard A. Lupoff
Richard A. Lupoff
Richard Allen Lupoff is an American science fiction and mystery author, who has also written humor, satire, non-fiction and reviews. In addition to his two dozen novels and more than 40 short stories, he has also edited science-fantasy anthologies. He is an expert on the writing of Edgar Rice...
and Steve Stiles published the first "chapter" of their 10-part comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
The Adventures of Professor Thintwhistle and His Incredible Aether Flyer.
Steampunk as popular fiction
Space: 1889
Space: 1889 is a role-playing game of Victorian-era space-faring,created by Frank Chadwick and originally published by Game Designers' Workshop from 1988 to 1991 and later reprinted by Heliograph, Inc...
, set in an alternate history in which certain discredited Victorian scientific theories were probable, thus leading to new technologies. Contributing authors included Frank Chadwick
Frank Chadwick
Frank Chadwick is a multiple-award–winning game designer and New York Times Best Selling author.-Beginnings:Frank Chadwick, along with Rich Banner and Marc Miller, were members of the Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal Games Club. They used their club funding to design war games...
, Loren Wiseman
Loren Wiseman
Loren Wiseman is an award-winning wargame and role-playing game designer, game developer, and editor.-Game Designers' Workshop:Loren Wiseman published Eagles , his first wargame, through Game Designers’ Workshop in 1974...
, and Marcus Rowland.
William Gibson
William Gibson
William Gibson is an American-Canadian science fiction author.William Gibson may also refer to:-Association football:*Will Gibson , Scottish footballer...
and Bruce Sterling
Bruce Sterling
Michael Bruce Sterling is an American science fiction author, best known for his novels and his work on the Mirrorshades anthology, which helped define the cyberpunk genre.-Writings:...
's 1990 novel The Difference Engine
The Difference Engine
The Difference Engine is an alternate history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.It posits a Victorian Britain in which great technological and social change has occurred after entrepreneurial inventor Charles Babbage succeeded in his ambition to build a mechanical computer .The novel was...
is often credited with bringing widespread awareness of steampunk. This novel applies the principles of Gibson and Sterling's cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
writings to an alternate
Alternate history (fiction)
Alternate history or alternative history is a genre of fiction consisting of stories that are set in worlds in which history has diverged from the actual history of the world. It can be variously seen as a sub-genre of literary fiction, science fiction, and historical fiction; different alternate...
Victorian era where Ada Lovelace
Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace , born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine...
and Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer...
's proposed steam-powered mechanical computer, which Babbage called a difference engine
Difference engine
A difference engine is an automatic, mechanical calculator designed to tabulate polynomial functions. Both logarithmic and trigonometric functions can be approximated by polynomials, so a difference engine can compute many useful sets of numbers.-History:...
(a later, more general-purpose version was known as an analytical engine
Analytical engine
The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, a design for a mechanical calculator...
), was actually built, and led to the dawn of the information age
Information Age
The Information Age, also commonly known as the Computer Age or Digital Age, is an idea that the current age will be characterized by the ability of individuals to transfer information freely, and to have instant access to knowledge that would have been difficult or impossible to find previously...
more than a century "ahead of schedule".
The first use of the word in a title was in Paul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo
Paul Di Filippo is an American science fiction writer. He has been published in Postscripts...
's 1995 Steampunk Trilogy, consisting of three short novels: "Victoria," "Hottentots," and "Walt and Emily," which, respectively, imagine the replacement of Queen Victoria by a human/newt clone, an invasion of Massachusetts by Lovecraftian
Lovecraftian horror
Lovecraftian horror is a sub-genre of horror fiction which emphasizes the cosmic horror of the unknown over gore or other elements of shock, though these may still be present. It is named after American author H. P...
monsters, and a love affair between Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman
Walter "Walt" Whitman was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse...
and Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a successful family with strong community ties, she lived a mostly introverted and reclusive life...
.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr, a 1990s TV science fiction-western set in the 1890s, on Fox Network
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
, used elements of steampunk via the character Professor Wickwire, whose inventions were described as "the coming thing." Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
's and Kevin O'Neill's
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
1999 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...
graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
series (and the subsequent 2003 film adaption
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (film)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a 2003 superhero film adaptation loosely based on characters from the comic book limited series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore, who is also famous for Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell. It was released on July 11, 2003, in the...
) greatly popularized the steampunk genre.
Nick Gevers
Nick Gevers
Nick Gevers is a South African science fiction editor and critic, whose work has appeared in The Washington Post Book World, Interzone, Scifi.com, SF Site, The New York Review of Science Fiction and Nova Express...
's 2008 original anthology Extraordinary Engines features newer steampunk stories by some of the genre's pre-eminent writers, as well as other leading science fiction and fantasy writers experimenting with neo-Victorian conventions. A major retrospective reprint anthology of steampunk fiction was released, also in 2008, by Tachyon Publications
Tachyon Publications
Tachyon Publications is an independent press specializing in science fiction and fantasy books. Founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Jacob Weisman, Tachyon books have tended toward high-end literary works, short story collections, and anthologies....
; edited by Ann
Ann VanderMeer
Ann VanderMeer is an American publisher and editor, and the second female editor of the venerable horror magazine Weird Tales. She is the founder of Buzzcity Press.Her work as Fiction Editor of Weird Tales won a Hugo Award...
and Jeff VanderMeer
Jeff VanderMeer
Jeffrey Scott VanderMeer is an American writer, editor and publisher.He is best known for his contributions to the New Weird and his stories about the city of Ambergris, in books like City of Saints and Madmen.-Biography:...
and appropriately entitled Steampunk
Steampunk (anthology)
Steampunk is an anthology of steampunk fiction edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, and published by Tachyon Publications. It was nominated in 2009 for a World Fantasy Award.-Contributors:* Bill Baker* James P. Blaylock* Molly Brown...
, it is a collection of stories by James Blaylock
James Blaylock
James Paul Blaylock is an American fantasy author.He is noted for a distinctive, humorous style, as well as being one of the pioneers of the steampunk genre of science fiction....
, whose "Narbondo" trilogy is typically considered steampunk; Jay Lake
Jay Lake
Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is a science fiction and fantasy writer. In 2003 he was a quarterly first place winner in the Writers of the Future contest. In 2004 he won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in Science Fiction. He lives in Portland, Oregon and currently works as a product manager...
, author of the novel Mainspring
Mainspring (novel)
Mainspring is the third novel from writer Jay Lake. It is a science fiction/fantasy novel, of the sub genre steampunk.This novel is followed by the 2008 sequel Escapement and the 2010 sequel Pinion.-Plot summary:...
, sometimes labeled "clockpunk"; the aforementioned Michael Moorcock; as well as Jess Nevins
Jess Nevins
John J. Nevins, MA/MS, is an American author and librarian, born 30 July 1966 and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of the World Fantasy Award-nominated Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana , and other works on Victoriana and pulp fiction...
, famed for his annotations to The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...
.
While most of the original steampunk works had a historical setting, later works often place steampunk elements in a fantasy world with little relation to any specific historical era. Historical steampunk tends to be science fiction that presents an alternate history; it also contains real locales and persons from history with alternate fantasy technology. "Fantasy-world steampunk", such as China Miéville
China Miéville
China Tom Miéville is an award-winning English fantasy fiction writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" , and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist Workers Party...
's Perdido Street Station
Perdido Street Station
Perdido Street Station is the second published novel by China Miéville and the first of three independent works set in thefictional world of Bas-Lag, a world where both magic and steampunk technology exist...
and Stephen Hunt's Jackelian novels, on the other hand, presents steampunk in a completely imaginary fantasy realm, often populated by legendary creature
Legendary creature
A legendary creature is a mythological or folkloric creature.-Origin:Some mythical creatures have their origin in traditional mythology and have been believed to be real creatures, for example the dragon, the unicorn, and griffin...
s coexisting with steam-era and other anachronistic
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
technologies.
Self-described and popular author of "far fetched fiction" Robert Rankin
Robert Rankin
Robert Fleming Rankin is a prolific British humorous novelist. Born in Parsons Green, London, he started writing in the late 1970s, and first entered the bestsellers lists with Snuff Fiction in 1999, by which time his previous eighteen books had sold around one million copies...
has increasingly incorporated elements of steampunk into narrative worlds, both Victorian and re-imagined contemporary. In 2009, he was made a Fellow of the Victorian Steampunk Society.
Historical
In general, the category includes any recent science fiction that takes place in a recognizable historical period (sometimes an alternate history version of an actual historical period) in which the Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
has already begun, but electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
is not yet widespread. It places an emphasis on steam- or spring-propelled gadgets. The most common historical steampunk settings are the Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
and Edwardian eras, though some in this "Victorian steampunk" category can go as early as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
.
Some examples of this type include the novel The Difference Engine
The Difference Engine
The Difference Engine is an alternate history novel by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.It posits a Victorian Britain in which great technological and social change has occurred after entrepreneurial inventor Charles Babbage succeeded in his ambition to build a mechanical computer .The novel was...
, the comic book series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the Disney animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Atlantis: The Lost Empire is a 2001 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation. Written by Tab Murphy, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, and produced by Don Hahn, it is the first science fiction film in the Disney animated features canon and the 41st overall. The film...
, the Anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series Fullmetal Alchemist
Fullmetal Alchemist
, is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa. The world of Fullmetal Alchemist is styled after the European Industrial Revolution...
and the roleplaying game Space: 1889
Space: 1889
Space: 1889 is a role-playing game of Victorian-era space-faring,created by Frank Chadwick and originally published by Game Designers' Workshop from 1988 to 1991 and later reprinted by Heliograph, Inc...
. Some, such as the comic series Girl Genius
Girl Genius
Girl Genius is an ongoing comic book series turned webcomic, written and drawn by Phil and Kaja Foglio and published by their company, Studio Foglio LLC under the imprint Airship Entertainment...
, have their own unique times and places despite partaking heavily of the flavor of historic times and settings.
Karel Zeman
Karel Zeman
Karel Zeman was a Czech film director, artist, production designer and animator. Because of his creative use of special effects and animation in his films, he has often been called the "Czech Méliès."-Life:...
's film The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne is a 1958 Czechoslovak adventure film directed by Karel Zeman, based on Jules Verne's 1896 novel Facing the Flag. It has also been released under the novel's title....
(1958) is a very early example of cinematic steampunk. Based on Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
novels, Zeman's film imagines a past based on those novels which never was. Other early examples of historical steampunk in cinema include Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...
's anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
films such as Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986), Howl's Moving Castle
Howl's Moving Castle
Howl's Moving Castle is a young adult fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones, first published in 1986. It won a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award and was named an ALA Notable Book for both children and young adults. In 2004 it was adapted as an Academy Award-nominated animated film by Hayao...
(2004), and Katsuhiro Otomo's "Steamboy" (2004), all contain many archetypal anachronisms characteristic of the Steampunk genre.
"Historical" steampunk usually leans more towards science fiction than fantasy, but a number of historical steampunk stories have incorporated magical elements as well. For example, Morlock Night, written by K. W. Jeter
K. W. Jeter
Kevin Wayne Jeter is an American science fiction and horror author known for his literary writing style, dark themes, and paranoid, unsympathetic characters...
, revolves around an attempt by the wizard Merlin
Merlin
Merlin is a legendary figure best known as the wizard featured in the Arthurian legend. The standard depiction of the character first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, written c. 1136, and is based on an amalgamation of previous historical and legendary figures...
to raise King Arthur
King Arthur
King Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
to save the Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
in 1892 from an invasion of Morlock
Morlock
Morlocks are a fictional species created by H. G. Wells for his 1895 novel, The Time Machine. They dwell underground in the English countryside of 802,701 AD in a troglodyte civilization, maintaining ancient machines that they may or may not remember how to build...
s from the future. The Anubis Gates
The Anubis Gates
The Anubis Gates is a time travel fantasy novel by Tim Powers. It won the 1983 Philip K. Dick Award and 1984 Science Fiction Chronicle Award.- Plot summary :...
by Tim Powers
Tim Powers
Timothy Thomas "Tim" Powers is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Powers has won the World Fantasy Award twice for his critically acclaimed novels Last Call and Declare...
involves a cabal
Cabal
A cabal is a group of people united in some close design together, usually to promote their private views and/or interests in a church, state, or other community, often by intrigue...
of magicians
Magician (fantasy)
A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
among the beggars and thieves of the early 19th century London underworld.
Paul Guinan’s Boilerplate
Boilerplate (robot)
Boilerplate is a fictional robot which would have existed in the Victorian era and early 20th century. It was created in 2000 by Portland, Oregon, artist Paul Guinan...
, a 'biography' of a robot in the late 19th century, began as a website that garnered international press coverage when people began believing that Photoshop images of the robot with historic personages were real. The site was adapted into an illustrated hardbound book Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel, and published by Abrams in October 2009. Because the story was not set in an alternate history, and in fact contained accurate information about the Victorian era, some booksellers referred to the tome as "historical steampunk."
Fantasy-world
Since the 1990s, the application of the steampunk label has expanded beyond works set in recognizable historical periods, to works set in fantasy worlds that rely heavily on steam- or spring-powered technology.Fantasy steampunk settings abound in tabletop
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
and computer role-playing games
Role-playing video game
Role-playing video games are a video game genre with origins in pen-and-paper role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, using much of the same terminology, settings and game mechanics. The player in RPGs controls one character, or several adventuring party members, fulfilling one or many quests...
. Notable examples include Skies of Arcadia
Skies of Arcadia
Skies of Arcadia, released in Japan as , is a console role-playing game developed by Overworks for the Dreamcast and published by Sega in 2000. Skies of Arcadia Legends, a port, was released for the GameCube in 2002. Legends was also in development for the PlayStation 2; however, the PS2 version...
, Final Fantasy VI
Final Fantasy VI
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square , released in 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as a part of the Final Fantasy series. Set in a fantasy world with a technology level equivalent to that of the Second Industrial Revolution, the game's story focuses on a...
, Final Fantasy IX
Final Fantasy IX
is a role-playing video game developed and published by Square for the PlayStation video game console. It is the ninth title in the Final Fantasy series. The game introduced new features to the series like the 'Active Time Event', 'Mognet' and a unique equipment and skill system.Final Fantasy IXs...
, Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends
Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends is a real-time strategy game for the PC made by Big Huge Games, and published by Microsoft. It is a spin off of the popular game Rise of Nations, released in May 2003. However, rather than being a historical game, it is based in a fantasy world, where technology and...
, and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura is a single player / multi-player computer role-playing game developed by Troika Games and published by Sierra Entertainment. It was released in North America and Europe in August 2001 for Microsoft Windows...
.
The gnomes and goblins in World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
also have technological societies that could be described as steampunk as they are vastly ahead of the technologies of men, but are not magical like those of the Elves.
Amidst the historical and fantasy sub-genres of steampunk is a type which takes place in a hypothetical future or a fantasy equivalent of our future, involving the domination of steampunk-style technology and aesthetics
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste, and with the creation and appreciation of beauty. It is more scientifically defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste...
. Examples include the anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
series Turn A Gundam
Turn A Gundam
is a 50 episode anime series that aired between 1999 and 2000 on Japan's FNN networks and on the anime satellite television network, Animax, which was created for the Gundam Big Bang 20th Anniversary celebration...
(1999–2000), Trigun
Trigun
is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yasuhiro Nightow, published from 1996 to 2008 and spanning 17 collected volumes....
,and Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...
's post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...
anime Future Boy Conan
Future Boy Conan
is an anime series, which premiered across Japan on the NHK network between April 4 and October 31, 1978 on the Tuesday 19:30-20:00 timeslot. The official English title used by Nippon Animation is Conan, The Boy in Future....
(1978), and Disney's
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
film Treasure Planet
Treasure Planet
Treasure Planet is a 2002 animated science fiction film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 27, 2002...
(2002).
Other variants
John CluteJohn Clute
John Frederick Clute is a Canadian born author and critic who has lived in Britain since 1969. He has been described as "an integral part of science fiction's history."...
and John Grant
John Grant (author)
John Grant is a Scottish writer and editor of science fiction, fantasy, and non-fiction. Born as Paul le Page Barnett, Grant has sometimes written under his own name "Paul Barnett" or as "Eve Devereux"...
have introduced the category "gaslight romance" or gaslamp fantasy. According to them, "steampunk stories are most commonly set in a romanticized, smoky, 19th-century London, as are Gaslight Romances. But the latter category focuses nostalgically on icons from the late years of that century and the early years of the 20th century--on Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, Jack the Ripper, Sherlock Holmes and even Tarzan--and can normally be understood as combining supernatural fiction and recursive fantasy, though some gaslight romances can be read as fantasies of history."
The term steamgoth, coined by author and artist James Richardson-Brown
James Richardson-Brown
James "Sydeian" Brown who writes under the pen name "James Richardson-Brown", is a British author, best known as the creator of The Sydeian Coalition steampunk/science fiction series, books, 3-D artworks and RPG. The Sydeian series has gernered a cult following around the world with fans from the...
, emphasizes a far darker view of Steampunk's anachronisms.
Another setting is "Western" steampunk, which overlaps with both the Weird West
Weird West
Weird West is used to describe a combination of the Western with another literary genre, usually horror, occult, or fantasy.DC's Weird Western Tales appeared in the early 1970s and the weird Western was further popularized by Joe R...
and Science fiction Western
Science fiction Western
A science fiction Western is a work of fiction which has elements of science fiction in a Western setting. It is different from a Space Western, which is a frontier story indicative of American Westerns, except transposed to a backdrop of space exploration and settlement.A science fiction Western...
subgenres. Several other categories have arisen, sharing similar names, including dieselpunk, clockpunk, and others. Most of these terms were coined as supplements to the GURPS
GURPS
The Generic Universal RolePlaying System, or GURPS, is a tabletop role-playing game system designed to allow for play in any game setting...
roleplaying game, and are not used in other contexts.
Art and design
Various modern utilitarian objects have been modified by enthusiasts into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style. Example objects include computer keyboardComputer keyboard
In computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...
s and electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
s. The goal of such redesigns is to employ appropriate materials (such as polished brass, iron, wood, and leather) with design elements and craftsmanship consistent with the Victorian era.
The artist group Kinetic Steam Works brought a working steam engine to the Burning Man
Burning Man
Burning Man is a week-long annual event held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, in the United States. The event starts on the Monday before the American Labor Day holiday, and ends on the holiday itself. It takes its name from the ritual burning of a large wooden effigy on Saturday evening...
festival in 2006 and 2007. The group's founding member, Sean Orlando, created a Steampunk Tree House (in association with a group of people who would later form the Five Ton Crane Arts Group) that has been displayed at a number of festivals. The Steampunk Tree House is now permanently installed at the Dogfish Head Craft Brewery in Milton, Delaware.
In May–June 2008, multimedia artist and sculptor Paul St George
Paul St George
Paul St George is a London based multimedia artist and sculptor, best known for The Telectroscope, an art installation visually linking London and New York....
exhibited outdoor interactive video installations linking London and Brooklyn, New York City in a Victorian era-styled telectroscope
Telectroscope
thumb|200px|right|Telectroscope technical illustration in [[Scientific American]] Supplement No. 275, April 9, 1881The telectroscope was the first non-working prototype of a television or videophone system...
. Evelyn Kriete, a promoter and Brass Goggles contributor, organized a trans-atlantic wave by steampunk enthusiasts from both cities, briefly prior to White Mischief's
White Mischief (festival)
White Mischief is a steampunk-themed indoor festival, first organized in London in 2007.- Around the World in 80 Days :White Mischief's 2008 event was held at the Scala nightclub in London...
Around the World in 80 Days steampunk-themed event.
The Syfy
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
series Warehouse 13
Warehouse 13
Warehouse 13 is an American fantasy television series that premiered on July 7, 2009 on the Syfy network.Executive-produced by Jack Kenny and David Simkins, the dramatic comedy from Universal Media Studios has been described as borrowing much from 1980s television series Friday the 13th: The...
features many steampunk-inspired objects and artifacts, including computer designs created by steampunk artisan Richard Nagy, aka "Datamancer".
The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
also incorporates steampunk elements in the design of the Doctor's time machine, the Tardis
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
, first presented in the 1996 American co-production when the Tardis interior was re-designed to resemble an almost Victorian library with the central control console made up of eclectic and anachronistic objects. Modified and streamlined for the 2005 revival of the series, the Tardis console continues to incorporate steampunk elements, including a Victorian typewriter and gramophone.
From October 2009 through February 2010, the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
The Museum of the History of Science, located in Broad Street, Oxford, is home to an unrivalled collection of scientific instruments from medieval times to the 17th century. Its collection of 18th and 19th-century instruments is also substantial...
hosted the first major exhibition of Steampunk art objects, curated by Art Donovan and presented by Dr. Jim Bennett, museum director. From redesigned practical items to fantastical contraptions, this exhibition showcased the work of eighteen Steampunk artists from across the globe. The exhibition proved to be the most successful in the museum's history and attracted more than eighty thousand visitors.
Culture
Because of the popularity of steampunk with gothsGoth subculture
The goth subculture is a contemporary subculture found in many countries. It began in England during the early 1980s in the gothic rock scene, an offshoot of the post-punk genre. The goth subculture has survived much longer than others of the same era, and has continued to diversify...
, punks
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
, cybergoth
Cybergoth
Cybergoth is a subculture that derives from elements of cyberpunk, goth, raver, and rivethead fashion. Unlike traditional goths, Cybergoths follow electronic dance music more often than rock.-History:...
s, industrial music
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
fans, and gamer
Gamer
Historically, the term "gamer" usually referred to someone who played role-playing games and wargames. Since they became very popular, the term has included players of video games...
s, there is a growing movement towards establishing steampunk as a culture and lifestyle. Some fans of the genre adopt a steampunk aesthetic through fashion, home decor, music, and film. This may be described as neo-Victorian
Neo-Victorian
Neo-Victorian is an aesthetic movement which amalgamates Victorian and Edwardian aesthetic sensibilities with modern principles and technologies...
ism, which is the amalgamation of Victorian aesthetic principles with modern sensibilities and technologies.
Some have proposed a steampunk philosophy, sometimes with punk-inspired anti-establishment sentiments, and typically bolstered by optimism about human potential.
Steampunk fashion has no set guidelines, but tends to synthesize modern styles influenced by the Victorian era. This may include gowns, corset
Corset
A corset is a garment worn to hold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes...
s, petticoat
Petticoat
A petticoat or underskirt is an article of clothing for women; specifically an undergarment to be worn under a skirt or a dress. The petticoat is a separate garment hanging from the waist ....
s and bustle
Bustle
A bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman's dress, occurring predominantly in the mid-to-late 19th century. Bustles were worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging. Heavy fabric tended to...
s; suits with vests
Waistcoat
A waistcoat or vest is a sleeveless upper-body garment worn over a dress shirt and necktie and below a coat as a part of most men's formal wear, and as the third piece of the three-piece male business suit.-Characteristics and use:...
, coats, top hat
Top hat
A top hat, beaver hat, high hat silk hat, cylinder hat, chimney pot hat or stove pipe hat is a tall, flat-crowned, broad-brimmed hat, predominantly worn from the latter part of the 18th to the middle of the 20th century...
s and spats; or military-inspired garments. Steampunk-influenced outfits are usually accented with several technological and period accessories: timepieces, parasols, flying/driving goggles, and ray guns. Modern accessories like cell phones or music players can be found in steampunk outfits, after being modified to give them the appearance of Victorian-made objects. Aspects of steampunk fashion have been anticipated by mainstream high fashion, the Lolita fashion
Lolita fashion
is a fashion subculture originating in Japan that is based on Victorian-era clothing as well as costumes from the Rococo period, but the style has expanded greatly beyond these two. The Lolita look began primarily as one of modesty with a focus on quality in both material and manufacture of garments...
and aristocrat
Aristocrat (fashion)
Aristocrat is a Japanese street fashion that is inspired by what is thought to have been worn by Middle Class and higher social status Europeans in the Middle Ages, as well as the upper class in the 19th century...
styles, neo-Victorianism, and the romantic goth subculture.
Steampunk music is even less defined, as Caroline Sullivan says in The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
: "Internet debates rage about exactly what constitutes the steampunk sound." This range of steampunk musical styles can be heard in the work of various steampunk artists, from the industrial dance
Industrial dance
Industrial dance is an US American alternative term for EBM and Electro-industrial music. The term was used since the mid-1980s to describe the music of Cabaret Voltaire, early Die Krupps, Portion Control, The Neon Judgement, Clock DVA, Nitzer Ebb, Skinny Puppy Front Line Assembly, Front 242,...
/world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
of Abney Park
Abney Park (band)
Abney Park is a band based in Seattle that mixes elements of industrial dance, world music, and steampunk influenced lyrics in their work. Their name comes from Abney Park Cemetery in London...
, the inventor/singer-songwriter creations of Thomas Truax
Thomas Truax
Thomas Truax is an American songwriter, performer, and inventor of experimental musical instruments currently residing in London, England.-Biography:...
, the Carnatic
Carnatic music
Carnatic music is a system of music commonly associated with the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, with its area roughly confined to four modern states of India: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu...
influenced music of Sunday Driver
Sunday Driver (UK)
Sunday Driver are a Cambridge and London based fusion band with English folk and classical Indian influences. In 2009 they became popular within the UK Steampunk scene.-History:"Sunday Driver" are named after a gene originally found in fruit flies....
, the "industrial
Industrial music
Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes. The term was coined in the mid-1970s with the founding of Industrial Records by the band Throbbing Gristle, and the creation of the slogan "industrial music for industrial people". In general, the...
hip-hop opera" of Doctor Steel
Doctor Steel
Doctor Steel , is a self-published American musician located in Southern California, prominent in the Steampunk, Goth, and Rivethead scenes. He has performed on rare occasions with a "backup band", claiming that a fictitious robot band had malfunctioned...
, the darkwave
Darkwave
Dark Wave or darkwave is a music genre that began in the late 1970s, coinciding with the popularity of New Wave and post-punk. Building on those basic principles, dark wave added dark, introspective lyrics and an undertone of sorrow for some bands...
and progressive rock
Progressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
sounds of Vernian Process
Vernian Process
Vernian Process is an Avant-Garde band formed in San Francisco in 2003. Taking its name from the works of 19th century author Jules Verne, Vernian Process is a band that creates music themed around Victorian scientific romance and its modern counterpart steampunk...
, the Unextraordinary Gentlemen
Unextraordinary Gentlemen
Unextraordinary Gentlemen is a musical project formed in Los Angeles in 2005 by bassist/keyboardist Richard Pilawski & vocalist/lyricist Eric Schreeck to "...explore our love for post-punk, synth-pop, industrial & experimental music combined with the literary genre of Victorian fantasy." The...
, the electronic sounds of The Wet-Glass RO, Darcy James Argue
Darcy James Argue
Darcy James Argue is a Canadian jazz composer and bandleader.-Biography:Originally from Vancouver, British Columbia, Argue came to the United States in 2000 to study composition at the New England Conservatory...
's 18-piece big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
Secret Society and the musical storytelling of Escape the Clouds. The British-American composer David Bruce
David Bruce (composer)
David Bruce is a British-American composer.Bruce began his undergraduate studies in music in 1988 at Nottingham University , before moving on to the Royal College of Music where he obtained a Masters Degree in Composition, studying with Tim Salter and George Benjamin; and a PhD in Composition at...
's 2010 octet
Octet (music)
In music, an octet is a musical ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or a musical composition written for such an ensemble.-Octets in classical music:Octets in classical music are one of the largest groupings of chamber music...
'Steampunk' was commissioned by Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
.
2006 saw the first "SalonCon", a Neo-Victorian/Steampunk convention. It ran for three consecutive years and featured artists, musicians (Voltaire
Voltaire (musician)
Voltaire , is a popular dark cabaret Cuban-American musician...
and Abney Park), authors (Catherynne M. Valente
Catherynne M. Valente
Catherynne M. Valente , is a Tiptree–, Andre Norton–, and Mythopoeic Award–winning novelist, poet, and literary critic. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld Magazine, the World Fantasy Award–winning anthologies Salon Fantastique and Paper Cities, along with numerous Year's Best volumes...
, Ekaterina Sedia
Ekaterina Sedia
Ekaterina Sedia is a Russian-born fantasy author who is currently living in the United States. Her most recent work is The Alchemy of Stone, a steampunk novel that explores sexism and class bigotry. Alchemy received a star review from Publishers Weekly and was made the LA Timess 2008 Summer...
, and G. D. Falksen), salons
Salon (gathering)
A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace's definition of the aims of poetry, "either to...
led by people prominent in their respective fields, workshops and panels on steampunk - as well as a seance, ballroom dance instruction, and the Chrononauts' Parade. The event was covered by MTV and The New York Times.
Steampunk has also become a regular feature at San Diego Comic-Con International in recent years, with the Saturday of the four-day event being generally known among steampunks as "Steampunk Day", and culminating with a photoshoot for the local press. The Saturday steampunk "after-party" has also become a major event on the steampunk social calendar; in 2010 the headliners included The Slow Poisoner
Andrew Goldfarb
Andrew Goldfarb is a musician, artist, and novelist living in San Francisco, California. He is a member of the bizarro fiction movement in literature....
, Unextraordinary Gentlemen and Voltaire, with Veronique Chevalier
Veronique Chevalier
Veronique Chevalier is an award-winning American mistress of ceremonies, singer-songwriter, music producer, comedienne and parodist popular in the steampunk community...
as Mistress of Ceremonies and special appearance by the League of STEAM
League of STEAM
The League of S.T.E.A.M. , a.k.a. the "Steampunk Ghostbusters", are a Southern Californian performance art troupe popular in the steampunk community and specializing in live interactive themed entertainment.- The League :The League of S.T.E.A.M...
, and in 2011 UXG returned with Abney Park
Abney Park (band)
Abney Park is a band based in Seattle that mixes elements of industrial dance, world music, and steampunk influenced lyrics in their work. Their name comes from Abney Park Cemetery in London...
.
Steampunk has begun to attract notice from more "mainstream" sources, as well: The episode of the TV series Castle
Castle (TV series)
Castle is an American comedy-drama television series, which premiered on ABC on March 9, 2009. The series is produced by Beacon Pictures and ABC Studios. On January 10, 2011, Castle was renewed for a fourth season...
entitled "Punked", which aired on October 11, 2010, prominently featured the steampunk subculture and used a number of Los Angeles-area steampunks as extras (an earlier episode of NCIS:LA had Abby going to a "steampunk" bar in a segment which was soundly criticized by the steampunk community); the Nashville-based country-rock band Sugarland used steampunk-styled lettering for the cover of their October 19, 2010 album The Incredible Machine
The Incredible Machine (album)
The Incredible Machine is the fourth studio album by American country music duo Sugarland. It was released on October 19, 2010 via Mercury Nashville Records. Byron Gallimore along with both members Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush teamed up for production of the album.Upon its release, The...
, and their stage act featured steampunk-inspired costumes; Canadian band Rush
Rush (band)
Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
included steampunk elements in their 2011 Time Machine tour, including steampunked amps and instruments; the comic strip Luann
Luann (comic strip)
Luann is a syndicated newspaper comic strip distributed by United Features Syndicate since 17 March 1985. Luann is written and drawn by Greg Evans, who won the 2003 Reuben Award as Cartoonist of the Year....
showed the title character dressed in steampunk fashion for Halloween on October 31, 2010; and again on October 30, 2011, the second time mentioning real-life steampunk band Steam Powered Giraffe
Steam Powered Giraffe
Steam Powered Giraffe is a musical project formed in San Diego in 2008 that is popular in the steampunk subculture. The act combines the visual of robot pantomime with sketches, pop culture references, improvised comedic dialogue, and original music....
; in February 2011, the band Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco
Panic! at the Disco is an American alternative rock duo, formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2005. Since its split, the band's line-up includes Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith . Former members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left the group in 2009...
released a music video for their new single, "The Ballad of Mona Lisa
The Ballad of Mona Lisa
"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" is a song by American rock band Panic! at the Disco, released February 1, 2011 as the first single from the group's third studio album, Vices & Virtues...
," depicting a steampunk wake. The video included appearances by the League of STEAM
League of STEAM
The League of S.T.E.A.M. , a.k.a. the "Steampunk Ghostbusters", are a Southern Californian performance art troupe popular in the steampunk community and specializing in live interactive themed entertainment.- The League :The League of S.T.E.A.M...
, who also served as consultants and provided costume pieces for the band.
Sources
- Clockwork worlds, Richard D. Erlich and Thomas P. Dunn (1983). ISBN 0-313-23026-9
- The Steampunk issue of Nova ExpressNova Express (fanzine)Nova Express is a Hugo-nominated science fiction fanzine edited by Lawrence Person. Nova Express is a sercon fanzine with a focus on written science fiction, featuring interviews, reviews and critical articles. Many professional science fiction writers and major critics have contributed to it over...
, Volume 2, Issue 2, Winter 1988 - The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana by Jess NevinsJess NevinsJohn J. Nevins, MA/MS, is an American author and librarian, born 30 July 1966 and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of the World Fantasy Award-nominated Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana , and other works on Victoriana and pulp fiction...
, hardcover, 1200 pages, MonkeyBrainMonkeyBrain BooksMonkeyBrain Books is an independent American publishing house based in Austin, Texas, specialising in books comprising both new content and reprinting online, international or out-of-print content, which show "an academic interest," but which "reach a popular audience as well."-A brief history of...
(2005). ISBN 1-932265-15-5 - Fiction 2000: cyberpunk and the future of narrative, George Slusser and Tom Shippey (1992). ISBN 0-8203-1425-0
- Science fiction after 1900, Brooks Landon (2002). ISBN 0-415-93888-0
- Science fiction before 1900, Paul K. Alkon (1994). ISBN 0-8057-0952-5
- Victorian science fiction in the UK, Darko Suvin (1983). ISBN 0-8161-8435-6
- Worlds enough and time, Gary Westfahl, George Slusser, and David Leiby (2002). ISBN 0-313-31706-2
- Louis la Lune, Alban Guillemois (2006). ISBN 2-226-16675-0
Further reading
- Donovan, Arthur. "The Art of Steampunk". The Museum of the History of Science, Oxford University, UK.Museum of the History of Science, OxfordThe Museum of the History of Science, located in Broad Street, Oxford, is home to an unrivalled collection of scientific instruments from medieval times to the 17th century. Its collection of 18th and 19th-century instruments is also substantial...
Fox Chapel Publishers, 2011, ISBN: 978-1-56523-573-1