I’d like to preface this by pleading that I have tried. I really have. I have watched many steampunk proponents wandering around in their elegant outfits, looking like they fell through a warp hole in 1840’s metropolitan England. I observed their special vehicles and modified instruments, I have visited their shops and heard their music, and even though the whole “movement” is technically just beginning, I am officially done. I hate steampunk.
I do not hate the concepts behind steampunk – rather, I find them quite interesting. Steampunk, for you odd few innocents, examines a world where either the invention of electricity and modern mechanics have not occurred yet, or an alternative present or future where electricity has been skipped entirely and the gap simply covered by earlier-found means such as steam power or clockwork mechanicals. Steam power, of course, tends to be the most prevalent, hence the name. It has also been frequently compared to “cyberpunk”, in the sense that although the technological background is different, it covers many of the same themes as cyberpunk does, such as rebellion towards authority. The original inspiration for steampunk can be traced back to a handful of earlier fiction works, such as H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine and the works of Jules Verne. Verne’s works did take place in Victorian times, and may partly have inspired the Victorian aesthetic sensibilities surrounding steampunk, but since they were created by an author living in Victorian times, readers most likely took it as being set in the present.
Other works employed steampunk principles throughout the last century, and the term itself was coined for a specific few writers in the late 1970’s. However, the novel that really cemented the reputation of steampunk as a distinct genre was The Difference Engine, published in 1990 by William Gibson — yep, same fellow of Neuromancer fame. His novel, set in an alternate 1855, shows a timeline changed by the invention of the mechanical computer (the “difference engine” of the title) almost a century ahead of schedule, thanks to Charles Babbage. As a result, London commenced through its Industrial Age and Information Age simultaneously. Welcome to dirigible platoons, early-edition credit cards, and “clackers” – hackers, give or take a few consonants.
Steampunk, or at least the basic principles thereof, has been unobtrusive and omnipresent throughout the last century. Everyone has had some small amount of exposure. If you’re a fan of the old, old, OLD school, you might have read the adventures of Tom Swift and his fantastic inventions. If you prefer to get your Nihon on, you’ve probably been exposed to a wide range of steampunk riffs from a variety of anime-based sources. The most popular that come to mind are Katsuhiro Otomo’s “Cannon Fodder” and “Steamboy”, as well as Hiyao Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle” or his misunderstood-badly-in-Spanish opus, “Laputa, the Castle in the Sky.” And even if you’re content with the here and now, odds are you’ve at least heard of “Wild, Wild West” — both the 60’s TV show and the 1999 movie. While employing an American western theme rather than Victorian, both are firmly entrenched in the genre of steampunk.
There’s a lot more to steampunk than I’ve even mentioned, and the more research you do, the more neat stuff you’ll find. Still, this serves a good basic view of the idea – which is all it really is, you know? An idea, and an idea, really, is nothing but a toy. It’s something you play with and toss it around in your brain. While an idea can be good or bad depending on context, when all is said and done, I can’t hate an idea.
What I can hate, and virulently so, is a movement, as well as the specific people who comprise it.
I can hate the people who attempt to project their own ideas about anything that ISN’T steampunk, onto steampunk. This can range from people who like to dress up in Victorian garb and arbitrarily declare themselves steampunk, to people who suddenly display an intense interest in steampunk ideas or scenes because it’s getting popular, to the cadre of complete morons telling a panel at a recent crafts-and-invention fair that they love steampunk because it’s so open-minded and queer-oriented. (Thanks to the quick reflexes and cool head of my compatriot, they did not end up covered in soda. Steam-operated machinery does not care what you have sex with.) I can hate a band that effectively turned steampunk, apparently not due to any great love of the ideas or literary history, but because they weren’t cutting it as a basic rock band and needed to appeal to a niche market. A band made up entirely of electric guitars and violins, an electric drum machine and a synthesizer – oh yeah, that’s FUCKIN’ steampunk! Certainly, I can hate every time one of you brain-dead meatbags opens your fat mouth and begins blabbing about air ships and gears and sky pirates with absolutely no background on what you think you are talking about, other than Final Fantasy X. You know what happens when you do that? Jules Verne, William Gibson (if he were, you know, dead), Michael Garrison and Benjamin Franklin knock on the walls of each other’s graves and start a contest to outspin one another.
But in the end, I can rest easy. You know why? The joke’s on you. People who have always been genuinely interested in steampunk will continue to be, in their own quiet way. They’ll be reading and writing and trying to recreate the engine room of Captain Nemo’s Nautilus in their basement, and they will still be here when this shit blows over. As for you good folks, who are simply amped by being on the crest of the latest thing? Be proud, you are officially cool for the moment. You’ve got scenes all over, articles in Rolling Stone and the New York Times, your own fashion marketplace and all that jazz. But goth was only taken seriously for maybe half as long as punk was, and emo didn’t stay legit a quarter as long as goth, if that. How long do you suppose it’ll be before you see an illiterate 15-year-old girl in a mall wearing a watch necklace with exposed gears, for all the reasons you’d never own up to? Until “airship” aviation goggles are sold in Hot Topic? Until you realize that the only smart people in all this are the ones you are handing your money to, in one way or another, and that you’ve just fallen for everything, the way you always do, again and again, and have learned nothing?
Congratulations. You’re part of the next big thing. Take a taste of that, savor it, lick it and suck it down and swallow it. Because, in a couple of figurative seconds, it’s going to be gone. And the taste that follows is going to be bitter.
Audrey Soffa is the writer and artist for the online comic The Bunny System. She currently enjoys drawing, writing, shooting her mouth off, and combining two or more of these pastimes at once.
This piece was originally published on May 4, 2008.
1 • Caleb Kraft said:
May 14th, 2008 at 8:53 am, permalink
bullseye. wow. you nailed it.
2 • VickR said:
May 14th, 2008 at 10:43 am, permalink
Exactly! I always thought they were a bunch of douche bags anyway. No, you’re not cool in your overpriced outfit from the 1800s. You look like an idiot. This is the year 2008 and you are dumb.
3 • Jeremiah Tolbert said:
May 14th, 2008 at 11:03 am, permalink
You know, Fantasy, there’s commentary, and then there’s hate-filled ranting.
“OMG, there’s a trend around something I knew about before it became semi-popular, so now I must spew vitriol at everyone who thinks steampunk is trendy and hasn’t read its earliest origins!”
You can hate those people, but me, I just feel bad that you’ve chosen use your hate on something so utterly meaningless as a fad.
Steampunk as a fad could be a gateway drug into all those things you wish they knew about. But with attitudes like this from the so-called “true fans,” they’ll just move on to the next fad.
Enjoy your opportunity in this thread to laugh and lord over the poor saps that are interested in something you find silly. Take a taste of that condescension, savor it, and so on. Only it doesn’t taste bitter afterward. It just leaves you feeling empty.
4 • jeremy said:
May 14th, 2008 at 11:04 am, permalink
It’s articles like this, written by people like you that renew my faith in humanity. Thank you so much.
5 • K. Tempest Bradford said:
May 14th, 2008 at 11:18 am, permalink
But Jer, steampunk IS trendy. We even discussed that aspect of it.
And while I agree that steampunk can be a gateway drug for some, you and I both know that the majority of people (hipsters, mostly) who follow trends mindlessly aren’t going to be gatewayed because they’re not in it to be turned on to new ideas, they’re in it for the cache. They’re not interested in exploring steampunk beyond the surface, therefore there isn’t going to be crossover.
Again, not true for everyone, but then this post isn’t about people who aren’t just in it for the trendiness aspect.
I think you’re reacting in anger because you ARE into steampunk. But then you seem to have not noticed that the author isn’t talking about or to you or people like you. You also seem to have not noticed that the author did not call steampunk silly, but called the shallow trend-followers silly. She, in fact, expressly states, “I do not hate the concepts behind steampunk – rather, I find them quite interesting.”
6 • Aloysius Watermelontail said:
May 14th, 2008 at 11:19 am, permalink
So, your point is, again? I seem to have missed it.
Oh wait, you’re cooler than people who dress up in costume for fun. Good to know.
7 • William Gibson said:
May 14th, 2008 at 11:23 am, permalink
I won’t spin in my grave until I’m dead.
8 • Jenn Reese said:
May 14th, 2008 at 12:04 pm, permalink
I think this sort of elitism really hurts our field. People’s passions should be encouraged, not disdained. Personally, I love seeing a traditionally geek-only interest find a much wider audience. I would be thrilled to find goggles in Hot Topic. I don’t want science fiction and fantasy to remain the property of a select group of people — I want it to appeal to everyone. The current steampunk trend is a wonderful thing, in my opinion. Let’s use it to encourage people to explore more of our genre, not condemn them for not doing it right.
9 • Marguerite said:
May 14th, 2008 at 12:30 pm, permalink
I understand the concepts behind all of this excitement, but in execution, it’s merely kind of a blog post.
10 • Jaime said:
May 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pm, permalink
Let me state upfront that I’m NOT into steampunk. I don’t dress up in costumes, don’t build models in my basement. There are artists and photographers that work with steampunk images whose work I really like and admire. Good art is good art no matter the subject.
That other people have an intense interest in steampunk doesn’t bother me at all. Let them. I have intense interests in other things. It’s what makes the world a varied and interesting place, the fact not all of us are into the same things.
And I have to say the hate and contempt in this little essay makes me ill. The fact it was printed in what is supposed to be an up and coming genre publication appalls me.
What exactly was the point of this little exercise? To feel superior to people who have different interests than the person writing this essay or presumably the publishers and editors of Fantasy?
Well I hope it warmed the collective cockles of your tiny, shriveled little hearts. Welcome to the ranks of those working to fracture genre and convince the larger world we’re all a bunch of nut cases.
11 • JennaW said:
May 14th, 2008 at 12:54 pm, permalink
The next big thing, huh? You mean…like webcomics?
12 • Nicole said:
May 14th, 2008 at 12:55 pm, permalink
While I can mostly see where Audrey is coming from — we’ve all heard pretty much identical railing against people who declare themselves to “be” punk or goth or whatever trendy bandwagon they’ve aligned themselves with, I’m sure — there’s something about the delivery of this rant that’s getting under my skin.
I understand the points made here. I’m genuinely interested in the concepts behind steampunk, and the faintest hint of “trendy” is enough to send me running in the opposite direction. But on the whole I agree with Jeremiah and Jenn. I’ve witnessed trends act as gateways for people who do have that genuine spark of interest. It’s rare (in my experience) but it does happen. There’s no point in ruling it out.
And to declare that you actually hate — “virulently” hate — people who, in essence, disagree with you? Really? Aren’t there more productive battles to drag that soapbox to? This one already seems to be causing a lot more stress than it’s worth.
Peace, y’all.
13 • catrambo said:
May 14th, 2008 at 2:13 pm, permalink
I like steampunk, in the same way I like any take on fiction that moves us away from the usual way of doing things.
Steampunk is at its heart an expression of resistance to modernism and our factory culture. Steampunk expresses this through its emphasis on machines that are hand-made, unique constructions that are individual creations rather than mass-made and marketed things. It is a Romantic urge, one that insists on the sanctity of the individual, rather than an Industrial worldview, where we are all just cogs in the machine.
For the best steampunk story I’ve read, and one that really picks apart the contradiction at its heart, I refer you to Barth Anderson’s “The Clockmaker’s Requiem”.
I’m not a big fan of rants, but I’ve found some of the commentary on this one interesting. I’m much in agreement with Jen about the harmfulness of elitism.
14 • JoSelle Vanderhooft said:
May 14th, 2008 at 2:14 pm, permalink
I’m a casual steampunk fan (I got into it back in 2000/2001 when Girl Genius was first published). I really enjoyed Verne’s work, The Difference Engine and unsung comics like, well, the short-lived but so very smart Steam Punk, on which I wrote a college paper. A friend and I once collaborated on a novel set in an alternate Victorian England. But this all said, I have no real stake in this fight.
Overall, the article just sort of confused me. Audrey seems to be saying that she’s more ambivalent about steampunk than she is actively hostile. After all, she understands its roots, finds them interesting, but can’t get into it. And then she rails against … I don’t know, people who don’t get the roots but like the fashion? People who just call themselves “steampunk” just because they like wearing corsets?
It seems to me like she spends a lot of time and energy literally spewing hate (her word there, not mine) towards people who comprise a movement /aesthetic that she basically doesn’t care much for one way or another. Which just baffles me.
I mean: Certainly, I can hate every time one of you brain-dead meatbags opens your mouth and begins blabbing about air ships and gears and sky pirates with absolutely no background on what you think you are talking about, other than Final Fantasy X.
That’s pretty harsh language for people who aren’t doing anything but following a fad and, well, “doing it wrong.” If Audrey was a steampunk writer or someone who is building a Nautilus in her basement, I’d get it and I could even jump on the bandwagon with her. But she says she isn’t. And I just don’t understand when people have blinding rage towards 1) a misuse of something they don’t particularly like in the first place and 2) people who are just following a fad, who can be annoying but who are easily avoided under most circumstances. Even at cons or neo-salons or what have you.
I see a lot of heat being generated, but not a whole lot of light here.
Respectfully,
JV
15 • Indigo said:
May 14th, 2008 at 2:50 pm, permalink
No, you don’t hate steampunk. You hate people who hop on the bandwagon and make something trendy without reaching back into the movement’s primordial soup. You think that there’s somehow no way to separate the superficial aspects of a fandom from its deeper ones. You ‘liked it before it was cool’.
Except you don’t even really like it, so I’m not sure what all the fuss is about. Except maybe how well it illustrates that you could replace ’steampunk’ with any other group in this rant and it would be the same tired complaint.
Yeah, bandwagoners are annoying in some ways, but they don’t deserve the elitism and vitriol I’m reading here. That’s what I hate, by the way. Elitism. The devaluing of someone’s motives and experiences. If a 14 year old gets inspired by Howl’s Moving Castle or the Final Fantasy series, who cares? If someone finds the people involved in steampunk, or the works comprising the genre, to be open-minded and queer-friendly who cares? They’re not insisting that the whole fandom has to be the way they interpret or enjoy it. Oh, wait. You’re doing that.
16 • Jonathan Wood said:
May 14th, 2008 at 2:54 pm, permalink
OK – more importantly, is there any way to confirm if that really was William Gibson?
17 • Lawrence said:
May 14th, 2008 at 3:11 pm, permalink
Oooh. I’ve never seen a spleen that color before!
18 • Berry said:
May 14th, 2008 at 3:48 pm, permalink
Oops.
The genre buffet’s big, but you _don’t_ have to sample or even give second glance to anything other than your preferred foodstuffs.
19 • Ben Payne said:
May 14th, 2008 at 4:39 pm, permalink
I found the tone of the article a bit odd. It starts off as a fairly calm and self-reflective analysis of the author’s impressions of a genre, and then we get a paragraph of virulent anger kinda out of nowhere.
The transition felt forced, and the anger to me felt as artificially-produced and concerned with being cool as the targets of her rant.
Because hate-filled rants against pretty harmless things is just a trend… There have always been intellectual arguments about sub-genres. It goes back to Aristotle or someone… But lately it’s become cool to load your arguments with fervour and vitriol rather than actual reasoned debate. Because fervour equals wisdom, right?
When the trend blows over people will still trade arguments. The people who genuinely like discussion will still be doing it. And the hastily-erected edifice of “you” who is my imagined straw donkey in this argument will be left with nothing, which tastes a little like chicken.
20 • Ben Payne said:
May 14th, 2008 at 4:40 pm, permalink
(also, I learned about airships in Final Fantasy IX… so there!!)
21 • Willow Fagan said:
May 14th, 2008 at 4:56 pm, permalink
I’m frequently annoyed by fads too, but I mostly agree with other comments about the problems with using such vitriol. Phrases like “brain-dead meatbags” strike me as simultaneously creepily dehumanizing and just silly.
I think though that it would be ironically-awesome if Hot Topic started selling goggles and steampunk became the next goth. I mean, how sci-fi would that be?
This also very much reminds me of Jim Monroe’s Meet the Slackwaters, about a neo-Victorian subculture which becomes a fashionable trend.
More substantially, I disagree with the assertion that steampunk is “just an idea”. Although I don’t know much about it myself, this very article describes the history and personalities associated with steampunk. Like any genre, steampunk can be understood as an ongoing conversation, a collection of images, metaphors, and concepts which accrue together over time. I don’t think you can separate the culture out cleanly from the pure idea, and, while I don’t know enough about steampunk as stories or as a subculture to say myself, it seems clearly possible that steampunk could be queer-oriented. In a society where so many places aren’t, I think it’s dangerous to dismiss the value of safe spaces (including imaginary ones) for queer people.
Also, along the lines of Cat Rambo’s comment, I thought this quote from Ran Prieur was interesting:
If you look past the Victorian frippery, Steampunk is a technological ethic that trades the factory for the garage, standardization for uniqueness, and “progress” for a mix of tools from every age.
22 • Laird said:
May 14th, 2008 at 5:02 pm, permalink
Frankly, this reads like a crackpot journal entry. Thin gruel at best.
23 • catrambo said:
May 14th, 2008 at 5:19 pm, permalink
I’d love to see some quality queer-oriented steampunk. Someone write a good one and send it to me.
Immediately!
24 • Mike Allen said:
May 14th, 2008 at 5:45 pm, permalink
I guess recent slapfights have generated enough hits that Fantasy is trying to make them a weekly feature. I’m not sure whether that’s brilliant or bone-headed. Maybe both.
25 • Rachel said:
May 14th, 2008 at 6:31 pm, permalink
“Congratulations. You’re part of the next big thing. Take a taste of that, savor it, lick it and suck it down and swallow it. Because, in a couple of figurative seconds, it’s going to be gone. And the taste that follows is going to be bitter.”
Um?
Hard for me to take this personally, as I’m steampunk neutral, but it just seems like a really, really odd statement.
Why should any trend-followers be upset when it passes, even assuming it passes completely and not just wanders back to being a vague subthread of the genre (as you note it’s had a rich history of being)? Perhaps the people making money or careers off of it have reason to be bitter. But if there are people who, as you assume, are really just following a trend because! it’s! trendy! then they’ll just follow a new one.
Hardly tragic. Or even interesting.
26 • KS Augustin said:
May 15th, 2008 at 1:02 am, permalink
According to my memory (and a quick look-up!
), The Difference Engine was written by both William Gibson AND Bruce Sterling. I’m finding that, in discussions of steampunk (the recent popularity of which has taken me by surprise), either people forget that TDE was one of the first “modern” steampunk novels, or they forget Sterling’s name. Why is that? Did he boil some baby bunnies or something? Did he say something so heinous that people are trying to scrub him from reality? Just wondering.
27 • Anon said:
May 15th, 2008 at 8:05 am, permalink
“Did he boil some baby bunnies or something?”
Yes he did. And they were tasty.
There is a difference, I think, between vitriol used to create an exclamation and then backed by logic, and vitriol that exists to create arguments and nothing else.
The first emphasizes the context of the argument and creates a sense of immediacy. The second creates a false sense of power to something that has no actual logic, and therefor undermines it’s own existence.
For example, most manifesto’s use vitriol to provoke change, but back it up with logic. The angry words, the shouting, the screaming, the fire is used to provoke action in a required area.
This is a stimulus of debate. lesser people see it as a stimulus of argument, and only see the flashing anger and rising turmoil, without noticing that behind the rage is a justified series of philosophical truisms that can be debated on their own merit.
This is not that kind of anger. This is the second kind. A bunch of angry shadow play, without the required thought that goes into the background. Notice how the author has not responded to any of the comments? That is because she does not have a sound leg to stand on. She’s just spewing hate in order to get attention.
Sound and fury, signifying nothing. Or something like that.
28 • Soffa: “Why I Hate Steampunk” has high-school drama written all over it. « Enter the Octopus said:
May 15th, 2008 at 10:03 am, permalink
[...] by Matt Staggs on May 15, 2008 This is probably one of the stupidest things I’ve ever read. Mind you, I’m too old to claim allegiance to any particular “movement” or [...]
29 • Ben said:
May 15th, 2008 at 2:55 pm, permalink
I do a thing with the fiction , dose this make me “Not cool”?
This is from are home page (http://www.thewillowsmagazine.com/)
The Willows is an atmospheric horror and dark fantasy magazine with an emphasis on the traditional weird tale, in the classic style of Blackwood, Dunsany, Hodgson, Machen, and other macabre fantasistes of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Through the work of rising authors like G. D. Falksen, Lawrence Dagstine, and Paul Marlowe, we are also pioneering the genre of “steampunk horror,” in which elements of the golden age weird tale or Gothic romance are combined with an elegant 19th-Century proto-science-fiction aesthetic, such as that embodied by Wells, Verne, and the earliest pulp writers.
We love work set in Victorian times, in the European countryside, in a twisted fairyland, in the underbelly of an enchanted city, aboard a triphibian ambulator, or in the ruins of an undiscovered civilization.
If your favorite authors are those who initiated and maintained the unique movements of weird fiction and proto-SF, and those who continue these traditions today, The Willows is the place to read tales you will enjoy, and to submit your own work!
So dose this make me suck?
30 • Max said:
May 24th, 2008 at 4:30 pm, permalink
The way Audrey feels about Steampunk, I feel the EXACT same way about Star Trek. Put away those goddamned rubber pointy ears!
(I also hate the word “hoodie” even if it is queer-oriented.)
Now, who stole my rare and collectible steam-powered dildo?
(looking at Audrey)
31 • Christie said:
May 26th, 2008 at 11:56 am, permalink
In other words,
“Baaaw, I liked it first but now everyone else does too, so I’m going to pretend its stupid!”
Right? Right.
32 • Jon D. said:
June 25th, 2008 at 6:41 pm, permalink
Hmmm… I know I’m a bit late, but…
Has anyone considered the idea that steampunk isn’t steampunk without steam, and by proxy, should be relegated in terminology to those making steam powered machines not Victorian modeled clothing.
Perhaps it is an over used and mis-represented term bound for failure in the pop-culture market but the origins for the term were literary, developed into inventiveness; not music developed into dress and acutraments like every other pop-fad for the last 70 some-odd years. So the term needs to be changed. Let the Victorian dressed be named something else, and let the true tinkerers and metal-work artists reclaim their birthright.
I grew up with Wells and Verne as staple literary companions, but had no clue that they were considered so “counterculture” as to be coined as a variation of “punk”. The goofy thing about your rant is its focus on the articles of recent revelation. I think it’s hilarious to see such a misrepresentation of the term “steampunk”. Both those in garb and those writing these articles only want their name in lights. For crying out loud, they were wearing red and black, which screams “Classy Goth”. Steam-punk “fashion” should be functional not, well, fashionable. Where are the welder’s goggles (for that’s what they should be), thick leather aprons burdened down with milling and welding tools, Worker class dress, missing eyebrows, etc. The people living this stuff don’t dress like freaks from a Murder mystery convention. They don’t have to; their neighbors already know they’re freaks by the junk piled in the yard, the smell of burnt hair, and the ever-present hum of machinery in the garage.
This is a fantasy fiction genre lending itself to ingenuity and invention. Let steampunk be the Do-it-Yourself innovation revival that this country and the world needs. Punk leads towards a general disdain for “the man” a.k.a. government and big business. Why on earth would steampunk not head that way too.
I like true Steampunk.
I don’t like Victogoth, Goth, Punk, or Victor/Edwardian Punk.
Show by your work not by your wallet…
33 • Dr. Renfield said:
August 18th, 2008 at 2:21 am, permalink
I do agree. This fad is lame. I mean, to see people dressing like I do daily is a waste of a time machine!
To hell with this! I’m going back to 1883!
-J
34 • Just a guy said:
October 10th, 2008 at 10:16 am, permalink
Not to intrude in the conversation, but this kinda topic come sup whenever anything becomes “more popular.” Those who knew about it “first”, vrs. those who are just finding out about it. Technically, I am just finding out that it is a movement. Therefore I am excited about it. I’m just a nerd who’s into a bunch of crap. I’ve been into various aspects of the victorian era and never knew I’d be classified as anything. From growing up loving old sci-fi like Jules Verne and others. Loving stories from the victorian era. Plus I happen to hold a lot of the moral standards of that time, but not from reading about it on line, just from the way I was raised. Reading books like teh Barbary coast and wishing I lived in that era. I like the way the first guy put it, the people who are really into it, will be the ones still creating crap in thier basement after it passes. It’s frustrating because those who want to be trendy, and just “collect” cultures, are the ones that kill it. I think people need to know the difference between the genuinely curious and the copy-cats.
35 • dussst said:
January 1st, 2009 at 5:57 am, permalink
i’m gonna revive ‘emo’. it only died (again) recently. time for the fourth wave!
36 • Lucille said:
April 26th, 2009 at 4:41 am, permalink
To Whomever hates steampunk,
I have read a bit of this hate letter towards Steampunk but, I can not go any further ; to see such anger and such hate in a letter like this, is stupid. I love steampunk, its original, trendy and actually focuses on an era in history. Why do you hate it? Why do you care so much on getting your point that you hate steampunk so much? We already knew that in the first few lines of reading.
Hope you wake up a little and maybe learn a bit about how cool steampunk is on the way.
37 • Nyx said:
April 30th, 2009 at 3:08 am, permalink
I’m confused by the article and the comments.
First off, who cares if steampunk is trendy or not? I mean, I heard the term when I was in college in the early 90’s when me and my friends first played Cthulhu by Gaslight. Do I think I am superior by knowing about this 16 years ago? No, I don’t.
To me, steampunk is a genre of literature, it can be a fashion statement if you want it to be and you can be a person who likes to invent fantastic past yet future inspired objects in your basement. Why can it not have a strict definition?
Anyway, I feel people can dress Victorian goth or steampunk, both of which I intentionally or unintentionally (people say I am a goth or steampunk here and there, even if I didn’t plan to have that look, it is more of just what I like). I feel people should be able to be inspired by what is around them. Some people read books in their youth, like I loved Mysterious Island and the Time Machine as a kid and are inspired by those. Some people like roleplaying games that have steampunk influence, others watch TV or movies, still others go to the mall. I don’t think any one is better than the other. If fact, personally, I feel like I would be a snob to tell someone else I know so much more about Victorian and steampunk literature than they do.
It’s so weird because I thought steampunk had been around since 1992-1993 or so. I have seen industrial gothic people dressing in these elements for close to two decades. So why is it suddenly a trend?
I really wouldn’t want steampunk to be limited to inventions. I like the writing and I like the clothes. Sure, sometimes I see photos of people dressing steampunk and I think it is totally Victorian, but I like Victorian anyway, so no fowl.
I do agree with one of the comment writers that steampunk should be more worker class orientated. I mean you can also have an upper class look (I mean who would have the money to work on machines other than the upper classes?), but to me, steampunk clothing should be clothes you live in. Of course, I know many people who live in Victorian bloomers and goth inspired clothes during the summer, so one person’s comfy is another person’s painful clothing.
I feel the line between Victorian Gothic and steampunk is very close…it is cousins with Industrial/Rivetheads movements as well…I mean, I thought steampunk was a distant cousin to cyberpunk, the punk being a nod to technology in general.
38 • Phillip Sturtevant said:
May 21st, 2009 at 11:51 am, permalink
So to drag on a topic that deliciously survived over a year now…
According to our author, the the best way to handle what you might enjoy is to look into the world and find one thing or idea and grab hold of it, embrace it and PRAY it becomes a fad so you can say you loved it first.
That’s all I can say, I’m off to the basement to build my Retro-bolly-steam-death-j-metal-diesel-bio-cyber-goth-punk Machine (okay you heard it hear first, everyone else is just trying to fit in)
39 • Edward said:
July 17th, 2009 at 2:29 am, permalink
This makes me ill,
I mean, to me all Ive read in this article is someone who decided to pick on a genre.
Im NOT steampunk, but I am interested in becoming one, because of the idea of modding and building things yourself.
But I guess you’ll always find people who feel the need to try and put down something that is focusing on creativity.
40 • Sakari said:
August 2nd, 2009 at 3:24 pm, permalink
An unrewarding article fueled by personal peeves which does little more than prove the ignorance and close mindedness of the author. This is trolling dressed up in grammar, not worthy of having been published.
I am always saddened to see that people who are interested in whatever niche hobbies (wargaming, LARP, etc) themselves go so low as to insult other niche hobbies. Surely we should not replicate the intolerance that “normal” people sometimes show towards those with open niche interests.
41 • Jenne said:
September 14th, 2009 at 11:23 am, permalink
Cool story, bro.
There are always going to be things about people some of us don’t like. That’s a fact of life, and some of the smarter people have realized this and gotten over it.
But really? They make you this mad? Have they ever knocked on your door and tried to ‘convert’ you? Have they assoicated themselves in any way with you?
No, I didn’t think so. They left you alone. But you can’t reward them with the same kindness, can you? You have to be the on-looker who says “Hey! You’re not acting the way I want you to! I hate you, and here’s why! Here, everyone! Read this!”
Grow the fuck up.
42 • xsrowkx said:
October 17th, 2009 at 5:21 am, permalink
I hate people that think they know what something isand try to dis it in some sort of way, then the others who dont really know it come along and agree with her/him to feel like they are part of something. The truth is that most of you are probably some kids around 13+ that talk like adults because you think that others are. why dont you stop being gay?
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
43 • xsrowkx said:
October 17th, 2009 at 5:22 am, permalink
the game
44 • katy said:
November 28th, 2009 at 12:04 am, permalink
i totally respect your opinion and understand why you dont like steampunk but maybe you should to experience it in a different way.
also funny thing is that hot topic is now starting to sell steampunk clothes…lol
45 • Kristen said:
December 2nd, 2009 at 8:35 pm, permalink
While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, I believe you should look past the clothing aspect of Steampunk. You appear to be an intelligent person, so next time I suggest you base your argument on the full spectrum of the thing of which you want to write about.
I see nothing about the literature, which has been around for decades before dressing the part was “cool” — if not longer, now that the works of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and other speculative fiction authors from the 1800’s are now considered Steampunk novels.
46 • Joe G said:
December 9th, 2009 at 1:01 pm, permalink
Thank goodness we live in a country where people can have opinions and they are free to express them.
I read this article. Twice. I really wanted to try to understand why the author was so vehemently opposed to the genre know as Steampunk, but all I saw was someone who decided it was best to rail against something that really, in the end, is just a type of art. I don’t particularly like viewing paintings, but you don’t see me going off on a bender complaining about Impressionism, or Neo-Modernism, or Expressionism. I recognize that certain kinds of art do not appeal to everyone. And for the some that it does appeal to, excellent! Enjoy it!
I am a Steampunk enthusiast. I play RPGs and have placed some of my games in Steampunk type atmospheres. I’m also an aspiring novelist, and I have a completed Steampunk novel. Next year for Halloween, I intend on putting together a nice costume for the party we go to every year, and I will be dresses in some kind of Victorian ensemble, altered to make it Steampunk. I have Steampunk novels in my home, and I have spent an inordinate amount of time researching steam engines and clocks. I have read about Victorian life, and have read Victorian-era novels. All in an affort to understand the era the genre is placed in, so my imagination has fuel for the fires under its boiler.
Does this make me trendy? No. Does this make me an idiot meat-bag? No, it doesn’t. I have found a genre that I enjoy and want to learn as much about as I can. It has encouraged me to read about things I may not have. Will Steampunk last? Maybe, maybe not. But there are so many varieties of science fiction out there that there will be another trend that comes along for others to latch onto. If Steampunk flops, I will just go back to the overused and overdone fantasy section, or may drop into more mainsteam science fiction section.
I don’t think Steampunk will die. It’s popular and getting a major surge at the moment. But after a while, it will die down, but the art will still be there, no matter if its physical art, written art, just recorded art.
If you are so upset over people dressing up like Airship Captains and their like, how about you go look at the people who dress up as Neo, Darth Vader, Gandalf, and a myriad of other science fiction and fantasy characters. They put the same amount of effort and energy into their costumes, often more. How do you feel about them?
I rate this rant a 2 out of 10. You tried, but you really just turned into a frothing mouth of vitriol and bile with no real meat, just pissing and moaning.
47 • Joel said:
December 22nd, 2009 at 1:51 pm, permalink
Steampunk = trendy (?)
You missed the point somewhat there I think…
48 • Sam said:
February 1st, 2010 at 2:45 am, permalink
The thing I don’t like about a lot of steampunk fans is the whole, “Oh, I understand you don’t like it, BUT…” thing, and then they ramble on about how great it is and how you just don’t “get” it. It’s almost like people are expected to like it, or they’re some vain, iPhone-and-Paris-Hilton-obsessed airbrains. They ramble on against “consumerism” and “the man,” *while on computers*. Not even steam-powered ones. A lot are just holier-than-thou snobs. (Not at all saying all are like that, though.)
49 • Tea said:
February 2nd, 2010 at 3:05 am, permalink
I’m genuinely interested in steampunk and make all of my stuff, from goggles to my bustles. But…I’ve been interested in victorian stuff before it was even popular. I will continue to make my steampunk stuff, even when the movement dies. It’s what I like. But, I do not call myself steampunk, I’m just me. I guess I could understand how it would be annoying though.
50 • hey said:
February 8th, 2010 at 1:39 am, permalink
U mad?
51 • Azurite said:
February 15th, 2010 at 6:43 pm, permalink
Tea: I think the problem isn’t really that she claims to not like steampunk, but the reasons she gives for it and the vehemency of her hate. As the first answers here already say, it’s the elitism most of us seem to dislike most.
I don’t think everyone has to love steampunk, but can’t they just “not like” it and nothing else? Why the need to look down on people who like things you incidentally don’t like? I just don’t get this waste of energy.
And so it looks to me that this is really just about “waaaaaaaaaah I saw it first and now it’s mainstream, OMG I can’t be mainstream so I don’t like it anymore!!!”
52 • Riz said:
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:59 pm, permalink
Having been into steampunk for a long time, in all honesty i couldn’t care less if little idiots start running around with goggles on, lets face it they will move on when the next big thing hits, but till then it means we don’t have to go to plumbing supply shops to make a piece of clothing, might as well enjoy it while we can, instead of hating on it… but that’s just an optimists opinion, instead of someone who throws hate around on the internet for page views.. odd that…
53 • Why I Hate Steampunk: A Rebuttle « Trial By Steam said:
March 14th, 2010 at 9:40 pm, permalink
[...] Why I Hate Steampunk is a rant from Fantasy Magazine that takes aim at the growing popularity of Steampunk. The author, Audrey Soffa, makes the incorrect assumption that because Steampunk is becoming more familiar to a wider audience and is enjoying never before experienced popularity, that Steampunk is a fad driven primarily by frauds and groupies. Though she can enjoy the Steampunk aesthetic, she takes issue the people who compose Steampunk. [...]