What’s the deal with Steampunk?
I’ve been pondering the question since having a fabulous time at the Goulburn Waterworks Steampunk Victoriana Fair last month. I love Steampunk as a sub-genre of speculative fiction – it’s a blend of science-fiction and historical fiction (with a dash of fantasy) inspired by the visionary writings of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
It’s a reimagined Victorian Era where the Industrial Revolution has gotten more than a little carried away, run off with Mad Science and spawned all sorts of steam-powered gadgets.
It’s delightfully anachronistic, full of dirigibles and derring-do, corseted women who (ironically) won’t be bound by societal expectations, bold chaps with monocles and mutton-chops and, sometimes, werewolves in top hats.
When it wants to go wild it goes west – to the frontiers of a very Weird Wild West. Or it heads south. Way, way south. Check out the work of two talented and creative writers I know, who’ve done amazing things with Antipodean Steampunk – Geraldine F Martin and Felicity Banks.
It is, as the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences succinctly puts it – “modern technology, powered by steam and put in the 1800s.”
But it’s also much more.
It’s fabulous clothes and costuming. It’s engineering challenges and arts and craft and decorative styling. It’s music, film and art. It’s a whole lot of fun.
What I find amazing is the way it’s slipped sideways and, unlike some genre / pop culture fandoms which have fiercely loyal but very niche adherents, Steampunk has gone… well, I guess mainstream is too strong a word.
Still, Goulburn is far from alone in hosting an annual fair. Every year you can steampunk (I’m sure that’s a verb) at Lithgow’s Ironfest, the Hunter Valley’s Steamfest, Adelaide’s Steampunk Festival, Georgetown’s Steampunk Tasmania and more.
Across the Tasman, they’ve not only got fab festivals, there’s Steampunk HQ, an incredible museum and gallery, in Oamaru – recognised as the Steampunk capital of the world.
Check out The Unorthodox Society for the Elucidation of Retro-Futurism’s deliciously exhaustive Australia and New Zealand Steampunk Directory for links to groups, festivals, bands, artists, costumiers and, well, pretty much everything.
I don’t know why it’s so popular, other than that it’s a fun, creative way to play the game of ‘what if?’. And that’s a game that every writer, reader, dreamer and creative person loves to play.
So, why not give it a go?
Get your top hat goggled and your parasol poised, and I’ll see you at the next Steampunk soiree. Toodle pip!