What is Steampunk, anyway?

After Cruel Numbers got picked up for publication, I had to field a lot of questions about Steampunk. I expected this from my older relatives. Aside from Harry Potter, they’re not into speculative fiction. But I was a little surprised that many of my friends didn’t know what it was either.

They had an idea, of course. But they wanted it nailed down. Was it a specific setting, like Tolkien? Was it alternate history? Or was it a general term for, as one friend put it, “the gnome-stuff in Warcraft”?

I answered these questions as best I could. I usually focused on the idea that Steampunk was about technology and style more than setting. It's about fantastic steam or clockwork contraptions and the adventurous souls who build and pilot them. I also felt Steampunk was about alternate history. I was careful to mention that it had, on at least one occasion, mated successfully with Tolkienesque fantasy.

As I started promo work for Cruel Numbers, though, I noticed something. Most Steampunk literature took place in England. That didn’t bother me. England was a hopping place in the 19^th century, a natural hub for an adventure. What bothered me was how Steampunk books were decidedly pro-British. It’s an observation that I’ve seen repeated on several Steampunk oriented websites. This interest in England even extended to the writing style of the authors.

These websites and books made me wonder if I’d wandered off the reservation. Was Cruel Numbers Anti-Steampunk? ‘Anti-Steampunk’ meaning that it goes in the opposite direction from other Steampunk novels. It’s set in New York City, not London. Donovan—the protagonist—drinks black coffee and calls British people ‘limeys.' You have to forgive him, though. He’s got some unresolved issues concerning British involvement in the War of Southern Secession. While we’re on the topic, don’t ask him about Southerners either.

The fact that he has a low opinion of British people isn't meant to be a thrown gauntlet, however. It's the natural consequence of being an embittered veteran of a lost cause. Similarly, the prose in Cruel Numbers is gritty and American because the narrator is a hard-boiled former Pinkerton.

I could hardly blame people, though, if they preferred a certain style of writing. Many people were probably attracted to Steampunk precisely because they wanted the more disciplined, almost florid prose associated with British literature.

And there was another problem. When I wrote it, I used broad strokes of the 19^th century: sprawling Dickensian factories and soul-crushing inequality, the results of massive and relentless change. The divergent timeline only served to deepen these problems. In our history, national governments were outright incompetent in handling the technological innovations of the period (sound familiar?). So I found it impossible to imagine society adjusting well to the monumental changes of High Steampunk. This cynical interpretation heightens the noir element, though. That was, in many ways, more important to me than the technology. (I won’t debate noir today because frankly, it deserves its own post.)

My divergent timeline was thus dreary, pessimistic, and above all, industrial. For some reason when I imagined Steampunk, it was factories that I saw and the crumbling brick buildings around them. In contrast, several Steampunk writers on the Web described Steampunk and Retro-Futurism as "optistmic," which isn't a word I'd use to describe Donovan.

I was left wondering if I'd violated some kind of Steampunk Code. Would Steampunk enthusiasts appreciate a new viewpoint or would they see it as an act of war? Was I misreading them entirely on this Anglophile thing? Was Cruel Numbers really going someplace new or was this just my imagination?

Most of these questions hinge on what Steampunk is. Do dirigibles and mechanolimbs qualify a book, or is it more than just technology? Many people suggest Steampunk is an aesthetic rather than a genre. That seems clear when dealing with art, but what about literature?

Donovan’s trajectory has already been plotted. I completed the sequel a few months ago. It’s now navigating that hazardous strait between Manuscript and Book. His later adventures are also, for the most part, charted. I hate to be narcissistic, but this discussion is for my illumination. I may be opening a can of worms here, but I pose this question to you: What is Steampunk? Should all Steampunk follow one style or can it vary?

I guess I can't avoid those compound questions, even when I'm not teaching anymore. Some habits are hard to break. Leave your comments and I'll moderate accordingly. Thanks and I hope you enjoy Cruel Numbers.

Next week's can of worms: Noir.