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 Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:13 am
... as to what everyone's definition of 'steampunk' is. This is not an argument, and a discussion at best. I was just wondering what different people think makes steampunk what it is.
I do not intend to impose my opinion of steampunk onto anyone else.For me, Steampunk is primarily about the rampant development of steam technology (airships! giant mechanical spiders! flying cities!); notably in a setting with Victorian (or similar, e.g. wild west) influence (but it doesn't have to be actually then, could be in the far future (post apocalypse?) or the past in a galaxy far, far away...). Steam power is the important bit (hence the name, I suppose). This is the 'core' of steampunk, what makes it stand out from everything else (for example, Victorian Fantasy) and which acts as a defining feature. However, one can add to it easily. For instance, magic! It's still very much steampunk, it's just fantasy as well. It is made no inferior for it. Likewise, romance. You get steampunk romance. Still steampunk; but now romance as well.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:40 am
For me steampunk is pretty much anything based in a realm where steamtech is the most advanced technology maybe some electricity is used but it's still highly experimental and volatile.
I almost wanted to put a time frame in here but it occurred to me that not all steam fiction is based in the world/universe as we know it. Hell, steampunk doesn't have to necessarily involve humanoids at all if you decide you'd rather have a six-armed (or tentacled), wrench-wielding, reptilian mechanic that's purely your prerogative.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:44 am
Akonite I almost wanted to put a time frame in here but it occurred to me that not all steam fiction is based in the world/universe as we know it. Hell, steampunk doesn't have to necessarily involve humanoids at all if you decide you'd rather have a six-armed (or tentacled), wrench-wielding, reptilian mechanic that's purely your prerogative. Verily. I once had the notion of a space opera of sorts, which was set in an entirely different timeline; with dinosaurs (of all things) journeying through space in their steam-powered ship. This also comes to mind:
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 1:05 am
Hot... but then again my love for any humanoid in a corset is common knowledge. Also a Steam powered space opera brings fantastic images to mind.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:32 am
To me, Steampunk is about retrofuturism in a Victorian setting. Which, for me, makes it easy to add stuff to it, such as other settings, etc.
Keepin' it simple.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 4:27 am
My thoughts are summed up the same way Keith's are.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:20 am
Hard to nail down...which is one of the cool things about it. Generally speaking, though, I'd say anything with advanced technology with an 1800s feel is steampunk--a cast-iron, coal-burning automaton along the order of Boilerplate, a Nautilus-style submersible, space projectiles, et cetera. But as you say, Captain, it does not necessarily have to be our world or our 1800s, it could be another world entirely that has an 1800s aesthetic (China Mieville's Bas-Lag, for example).
Like that supreme court justice (I forget which one) said about pornography, I know it when I see it.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 5:22 am
Victorian era Science Fiction style applied to... well, pretty darn near any time give or take a century on either side of the period.
It's about adventure and curiosity for me.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 6:38 am
For me, Steampunk is somewhere between the pure love for adventure and invention.
When I first got into Steampunk, I read somewhere that part of the mindset was about the world not being as small, as discovered, as it is today. During Victorian times, there was a lot of exploration and adventure to lands unknown. I see the world like an adventurer of that time would: there's always something to learn and explore.
Then there is the idea of invention, more specifically: personalization. For a long time, I was afraid to take something apart for fear I couldn't put it back together properly, or that I would get in trouble. In the past few years, I have realized that taking things apart has it's place and time, like everything else, and that I can create from the destruction that I have caused. To make, to create, is a large part of the Steampunk idea.
Even if I don't dress Steampunk all the time, I still think Steampunk. It's more a frame of mind than anything.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 7:18 am
I, for one, think we're all saying pretty much the same thing - just in different words.
I'm quite fond of blue_lutra's definition, though...
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 7:22 am
I think of steampunk as science fiction were steam powered objects are the main form of technology. It doesn't has to take place in the victorian through WWI era, as long as it has a similar aesthetic. The antique look is what draws me to steam punk since I've always loved it, the victorian aesthetic especially. It can be almost close to the real eras, to a completely fantastical place and time, as long as there's steampower involved.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 10:37 am
Steampunk, to me, is as simple as
giving advanced technology to a time
that didn't originally have it. Say nothing
of the Victorian Era. I prefer the Victorian
Era setting, but things like DaVinci's flying
machines and the game Bioshock have
shown me that steampunk shouldn't be
limited to the Victorian Era.
I like magic being involved with steampunk.
Just a little. What's the point of getting
some cool new steam-powered guns if
there isn't a giant Kraken to fight against?
(I talk about Krakens a lot. o.o)
I feel that intent is enough to make you
steampunk. If you say you are, you are.
That includes bands. If a band advertises
themselves as steampunk, they are. It's
as simple as that.
There are several draws that bring me to
steampunk. Depending on your main
character, the draw could be the adventure
and the exploration or it could be the fusing
of technology with our own persons and the
questions of morality. The Victorian Era setting
appeals aesthetically and it also appeals to
my rebellious side, if you can believe it.
There is such an abundance of loose, barely
dressed women these days. It feels good to
cover up every inch of skin. To return to a
time when manners mattered. Of course, I
wouldn't take it as extremely as the Victorian
Era did, though.
Anyway, all these things make up and are
important parts of steampunk to me. =D
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:33 am
It has no set definition for me.
To me it's there it's common to have a dragon flying alongside an airship as it is for said dragon to be sprinting alongside a steam train. Where knights wear steam powered armor and wiled fantastical weapons against rogue mechanical monstrosities. Where an inventor can be a hero as well as a villain. Where steam is the primary source of generating electrical and mechanical power.
As well as magic existing alongside or being meshed with technology.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 12:31 pm
Steampunk to be is victorian from the middle 1800s to WWI. The core concept of steampunk is the original mindset that those people had: hardwork through learning, as expressed through technology. From what I've learned, most people tinkered with something, whether it was guns, or factory equipment, etc. I always associated it with cogs, clockwork, steam billowing boilers, and brass machinery, as well as basic optics and the romanticism that can be captured from the synergy of the time.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 2:05 pm
Eumorpha Steampunk, to me, is as simple as giving advanced technology to a time that didn't originally have it. Say nothing of the Victorian Era. I prefer the Victorian Era setting, but things like DaVinci's flying machines and the game Bioshock have shown me that steampunk shouldn't be limited to the Victorian Era. Forgive me, but aren't what you're describing there anachronisms, not steampunk itself? A prochronism being when you give a time period advanced technology.e.g. Bioshock being biopunk; and things based on Da Vinci's inventions being renaissance-punk*? * or some better sounding name
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