Steampunk

Lady Della, an Explorer

Steampunk is a style of fiction having to do with a semi-fictional world where old machinery from the Victorian 19th century is still being used. Technologies that were new or important to the Victorians, such as steam power, clockwork or electricity, are big themes in steampunk.

Important influences on steampunk are the Victorian "scientific romances", the first science fiction novels. Authors like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are still very popular.^[1] Modern novels often cross-over with Goth and vampire themes.

The fictional style has become an active 'scene' where steampunks dress in costume and attend meetings or conventions. This costume is a large part of the scene. Many steampunks spend lots of time sewing their own outfits, or collecting accessories such as hats and goggles. The Maker movement involves many people who are both Makers and steampunks.^[2] They make Contraptions, fanciful devices as either art or a pretended function. Some of these contraptions are as large as cars, buses^[3] or even a steam-powered mobile house.^[1]

Sometimes this aspect is expanded to include cultural ideas of the 19th and early 20th century, such as small items like clothing and accessories, or large objects such as locomotives (trains) or machines that have not even been invented yet, like airplanes.

Steampunk themes in fiction

Sometimes steampunk is used in stories to give a rough, gritty feel. This is typical of American steampunk stories, where many stories are set around the Old West or the American Civil War.

British steampunk is a contrast to this. Instead it considers Victorian society as a more polite society and tries to re-create a world of politeness, etiquette and distinctions between classes.

Neither flavour of steampunk cares too much about historical accuracy. The purpose is to have fun, not to accurately re-enact a period of real history.

Favourite Steampunk machines

Steampunks are very fond of particular machines and these keep re-appearing as themes in fiction or in costume.

Time machines
Zeppelins and airships
Ray guns
Robots, especially robots that walk on legs.

Costume

Goggles

Goggles are one of the most popular pieces of steampunk costume. Part of "the story" for steampunks is their bravery in hazardous situations, either exploring remote and dangerous places, or experimenting in their laboratory. In both of these, goggles are essential protective equipment. Steampunk goggles often have telescopic lenses or swivelling lenses on posts that can be rotated in front of the eyes.

Hats

Hats are not often worn today, compared to the past, and so steampunks favour wearing them as an easy and distinctive piece of costume. Favourite hat styles are top hats, pith helmets and pickelhaubes.

Boots
Gloves

These range from ordinary gloves with gears and other accessories sewn on to give them a more technical appearance all the way to highly detailed mechanical hands.

Ray guns

Ray guns with ornate gearwork or tubing are popular.

Accessories

Victorian era accessories such as pocket watches, brass spyglasses, or walking sticks are also popular components of steampunk costumes. Some outfits include large tanks worn on the back.

For ladies

Corsets

Female steampunk fans sometimes wear corsets on the outsides of their costumes, contrary to actual Victorian era fashions.

Steampunk jewelry typically includes gears. The octopus is a popular theme, perhaps inspired by the attack of the cuttlefish on the Nautilus in the Jules Verne story 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Origins of the name

The word "steampunk" is made of the root words "steam" and "punk".

A well-known science-fiction author William Gibson, wrote books in the early 1980s that created the "cyberpunk" style. Later he, and the writer Bruce Sterling, wrote one of the early steampunk novels The Difference Engine. This book was popular and readers looked for a term to describe this new style. They chose "steampunk", from "steam" and "cyberpunk".

An alternate story is that the term was coined by writer K.W. Jeter in a letter to Faren Miller at Locus magazine.

Derivative styles

There are several related styles that have grown from steampunk. These usually have names ending in "-punk". The best known is "Dieselpunk", which is set in the 1930s. Like the Steampunk fondness for Victorian steam machines, Dieselpunks like the Modernist style of the 1930s, with polished aluminium aircraft and petrol or diesel engines.

Another variety is set in the American frontier during the late 19th century. The American 1960s television series Wild Wild West is a good example of this.

Paranormal steampunk includes legendary creatures such as werewolves or vampires and mixes horror with steampunk.

Works of fiction based in or on Steampunk

Books

The Oswald Bastable (Nomad of the Time Streams) series by Michael Moorcock
Morlock Night by K.W. Jeter
Time Ships by Stephen Baxter
The time machine by H. G. Wells

Video and Computer games

Riven- based heavily in the use of metal, steam-powered or manual, mechanical devices.
Myst III: Exile- Two worlds in the game are based in steampunk mechanics; one based heavily on steam and water power, and the other on manual mechanics.
Myst IV: Revelation- The main hub location of the game, Tomahna, partially involves the use of mechanical and electrically-powered devices. However, some items in the game are anachronistic (they do not exactly belong in that time period), such as cathode ray tubes (basic TV screens) and circuit boards. The clothing worn by the characters in the game are also similar to 18th and 19th century clothes.

Film

First Men in the Moon (1964) - Based on a story by H.G. Wells.
Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) - Based on a story by Jules Verne.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) - Based on (but differs greatly from) a graphic novel by Alan Moore.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) - A dieselpunk film.
Steam Trek [1] (1994) - Is a parody of Star Trek done as a steampunk film.
Wild Wild West - a 1960s television series.
Wild Wild West (1998 film)- an adaptation of the original 1960s television program.
Steamboy
Arcane - A more dystopian take on Steampunk by Riot Games

Steampunk Media

Original illustration of Jules Verne's Nautilus engine room
"Maison tournante aérienne" (aerial rotating house) by Albert Robida for his book Le Vingtième Siècle, a 19th-century conception of life in the 20th century
Print (c. 1902) by Albert Robida showing a futuristic view of air travel over Paris in the year 2000 as people leave the opera
Truth Coffee, a steampunk café in Cape Town
Aura Crystall Instrument – 1987 – by Marc van den Broek
Paris metro station "Arts et Métiers", designed in 1994 to honor the works of Jules Verne
Tim Wetherell's Clockwork Universe sculpture at Questacon, Canberra, Australia (September 24, 2009)
The Nautilus steampunk-style still at The Oxford Artisan Distillery
Author G. D. Falksen, wearing a steampunk-styled arm prosthesis (created by Thomas Willeford), exemplifying one take on steampunk fashion
The August 1927 issue of Amazing Stories featuring work by H. G. Wells