What’s Old Is New Again: Steampunk and Why I’m Loving It

Steampunk is what’s happening now.  Novelists from all genres are jumping on board and taking their readers back to an alternate version of Victorian times (1837-1901) and the Second Industrial Revolution (beginning in the mid-1800s). 

The scifi/fantasy con I just attended had attendees dressed in their vision of steampunk fashion.  One of the more popular dealers in the Dealer’s Room was Lord Montague and his Steam Punk Funk Bizarre.   Just this month one of my favorite television shows, Castle, had an episode featuring the steampunk scene. 

Everything steam and punk seems to be all the rage, but it is not new.  In fact, the origins of the genre are back in the 1960s and 1970s, but the term steampunk originated in the 1980s.  The story goes (see the Wikipedia article on steampunk, highly informative and laboriously documented) the term was created by author K.W. Jeter (author of Morlock Night – Random House plans to re-release this out-of-print book in paperback in April 2011) to cover his and certain other authors works which dealt with a Victorian setting and imitated the world created by H.G. Wells in his novel,  The Time Machine. 

No matter when the genre began, steampunk fiction is generally considered to be  based on the style of works by the  famous 19^th Century authors, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Mark Twain and Mary Shelley. 

My first experience with steampunk was on television – way back in the 1960s.  The Wild Wild West (1965-1969) was steampunk set in the United States - -  and so cool that I still like watching the series to this day.  Who could forget the traveling laboratory on the train and Artemus (Artie) Gordon and his inventions and disguises which helped Jim West catch the bad guys threatening the United States and its President Ulysses S Grant.  Jim West’s nemesis was Dr. Loveless, and a great and evil villain he was - - he was also a midget.  If you have never seen any of this series, do.  You’ll love it.  The movie with Will Smith and Kevin Kline was okay and also very steampunk in the gadgets and weaponry, but I will always love the television series the best.

I didn’t experience steampunk again until my son turned me onto The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – the movie (2003) and the comic book series (1999).  This treatment of the Victorian era was credited in bringing steampunk into the mainstream. 

Right now, I am reading Meljean Brook’s The Iron Duke.  This story and the prequel, “Here There Be Monsters,”  in the Burning Up anthology, are set in Queen Victoria’s England.  The British pirate Rhys Trehearne aka The Iron Duke has just defeated an evil enemy, the Horde, who had unleashed nanoagents which infected every person in London and placed them under Horde control.  The Iron Duke may have defeated the Horde, but the people still fear the return of the enemy.  The novella and novel deal with the aftermath and the fears of those who survived.  Meljean’s world building is superb and she populates her books with fascinating characters alongside a veritable treasure trove of pseudo-scientific gadgets including dirigibles, mechanical sea monsters, automatons and the other trappings of any grand steampunk story.  Think Jules Verne with romance and you’ve got the idea. 

So, this Halloween try steampunk fashion to attend that special Halloween party.  Ladies, think Victorian - - corsets, short fitted jackets, skirts with bustles, sexy stockings (fishnets ruled at the con I attended) and boots, shin-high, that lace up.  Wear an ornate watch pinned to the jacket, carry a parasol (which of course doubles as a weapon), and a bonnet with plumes.  Guys can wear Victorian era military garb, an outfit to fly a dirigible in or a rich gentlemen’s garb ala Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.  Add brass goggles, antique weaponry with a scifi twist and anything leather (aviator hats are big!).  Oh, and if you can, manufacture a metalworks arm or leg.  One guy I saw walking around the convention had on a very elegant khaki frock coat and trousers with a top hat and cane, but one arm was all brass with clock wheels and pins holding it together.  He looked like one cool and very steampunk dude. 

Why do I love steampunk?  It’s fun.  I love the combination of science and history.  I love the elegance of the fashion and the intricacy and overly ornate aspects of the machinery.  I love the imagination of the writers who take what was and make it into something totally new and different.  And, bottom line, it is entertaining - - and after all, isn’t that what fiction is supposed to do?

Monette Michaels

http://www.monettemichaels.com/