Jared Axelrod

Steampunk has become far too shiny. I don’t want to be that guy, the guy who stops liking something once it becomes popular, ’cause that’s not how I feel. I love alternate history, and have written many a technologically advanced 19th century tale. Steampunk, as a pure conceit, is a goldmine of story concepts and characters. My problem is that so few people have been mining it deeply enough. I mean, we’re talking about airships and bionic arms in the time of cholera and slavery, and no one seems to notice.

Jess Nevins—who, as the writer of Fantastic Victoriana is a bit of an expert—recently deconstructed what exactly steampunk came from, and what it has turned into. Here’s what Nevins had to say about steampunk’s origins:

Steampunk. Essentially, as I see it–and I go into more detail in my essay on this, which, again, is in the Vandermeers’ excellent Steampunk as well as the New York Review of Science Fiction–the history of steampunk begins with the Edisonades, which were about boy explorers using steam- and electricity-powered vehicles and weapons to explore, loot, and conquer. First generation steampunk, which goes from the 1970s up to Sterling & Gibson’s Difference Engine (1990), pulls a Levi-Straussian “raw and the cooked” on the elements of the Edisonade, inverting them on a number of levels: dynamic-v-static, rural-v-urban, American-v-British, mastering-v-surviving, optimist-v-pessimist, etc.

This first generation of steampunk, which in all likelihood was not consciously or deliberately written as a rebuke to the Edisonade, was political, self-aware, and angry and rebellious against much of what the Edisonades stood for–hence, the “punk” part of “steampunk.”

He goes on to speak about what steampunk has turned into—more on that further down—but let’s examine what that last sentence means. Edisonades, are essentially stories where technology makes it all better. Technology is used to reinforce the status quo, and better yet, spread the status quo to other, less civilized corners of the world. In a steampunk story, then, technological advancement is something to rebel against. becuase the ones who afford technology are the ones in power, the ones who can afford not to be covered in shit, not to be dying of cholera. Technology, then, is the tool of the Man. Technology is the badguy.

This makes perfect sense as a literary conceit. How many sci-fi stories about the abuse of technology? Cyberpunk, steampunk’s older sister, wallows in this: tech allows the anti-heroes to accomplish marvelous things, but never to make their lives better. One of cyberpunk’s most indelible characters, Molly Millions, has eyes that are covered with mirrored shades. This technology allows her an enhanced vision, among other things, but cuts off her main form of expression. Her tear ducts have been re-routed; she spits out the emotional residue that, is no doubt, distasteful to the character on several levels.

Cyberpunk is just another twist on punk, and carries on the punk themes of aggressive confrontation, anti-authoritarian behavior and the DIY atheistic. Steampunk then, should do no less. Which is, essentially, Nevins’s point. Steampunk originally celebrated the scrappy, angry underclass. Modern steampunkers (what a great term!) are mostly of the upperclass sort. Waistcoats and bustles abound, as do bowler hats, monocles, and complex skirting. Yes, there are mad scientists, but let’s not forget, in the 1800s, science and technology was a gentleman’s hobby.

Of course, there’s no fun in dying of cholera, either, the end result of many a 19th century rabble rouser. So why not embrace the hoi palloi, and ignore the racially and sexually segregated world around you? It is after all a fantasy, right?

Part of this argument is, of course, the difference between a litterary conceit and fashion conceit. Steampunk litterature is basically the same as it always has been; it’s fashion that’s taken a step to the side. I wonder if gothic fiction enthusiasists expressed their displeasure that “Goth” came to mean, in the words of my good friend and goth enthusist Nick, “Looking good while moping to a beat.” But this is not to say that fashion can’t get a more litterary. One of the great things about photographer Libby Bulloff‘s steamy subjects is that they look just as punk as steam. Part of Nevins’s complaint–and certainly mine–may be the lack of imagination. The 1800s were a time of social and polical upheveal, and ripe for punks of every stripe. I mean, there’s a reason that Finn Von Claret, the model in the linked photo, wears blue stockings. I’m kind of surprised that she’s the only one I’ve seen wearing them.

Now, I’m as guilty as anyone of fetishizing the upwardly mobile. And while I take pride that my unfinished steampunk novel has the proper amount grit and grime, I’ve written my share of Edisonades as well. So perhaps my annoyance at modern steampunkers is, in whole or in part, directed at myself. I mean, we are talking about a century! There’s plenty to pick and choose from.

I was discussing with J.R. about who were the true punks of the American 19th century (one of my personal issues with modern steampunkers is that everyone seems to believe the 1800s only happened in Europe), and we came to a pretty solid conclusion: Abolistionists. Harreit “Moses” Tubman was hardcore. Why, then, are there no Underground Railroad Steampunks? The Underground Railroad plays a small part in Paul Di Fillippo’s Steampunk Triliogy, but where else? Granted, playing with the era of slavery is a tricky proposition at best, but considering the era already has such powerful iconography, it really shouldn’t be that hard to adapt. Heck, add some aether-powered nightvision lenses, and those goggles finally make sense.

Now, I intend to play with this concept, both in fiction and otherwise, but I don’t lay claim to it. In fact, I hope more people take it. Take it, use it, and then take more. There’s one hundred years of history full of punk concepts, cholera riots, gold rushes, sufferage, wars abroad and at home, and the fight for the right of entire subsets of humanity to be treated as people. The status quo was challenged often in the 19th century, often violently, and those challenges gave us the world we live in today.

By all means, let us add the airships and mechas to the 1800s. Let’s add the rayguns and the medical experiments and the mad scientists. Let’s steam the 19th century.

But let’s quit cleaning it.