What Is Steampunk?

Defining steampunk isn't as easy as one would think. Someone described the steampunk culture as "Jane Austen meets Mad Max", and that would seem fairly accurate. Basically, steampunk incorporates 19th century and early 20th century elements with Nikolai Tesla, Jules Verne, and a world where internal combustion engines and modern firearms don't exist. Throw in Victorian style clothing, goggles, and a lot of gears, sprockets, and brass, and you have an inkling of what steampunk is.

Steampunk has become a pervasive part of our modern culture. Some analysts speculate interest in steampunk has increased over 1000% between 2009 and the present. Considering this is only a three year period, this type of explosive growth in a cultural element is quite amazing. We now have steampunk bands like Abney Park, television shows like Warehouse 13, movies including Wild Wild West, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, City of Ember and the Golden Compass. We have steampunk jewelry, steampunk artwork and furniture, and even steampunk computers.

Like the SCA, steampunk has captured the imagination of so many people because it represents a type of escapism and a fashion statement. People get to dress up and play, and in a society where stress and information overload are causing significant problems, this is a welcome distraction.

Comparing the growth of steampunk to science fiction is a good place to start when considering the importance of this new societal trend. Before John W Campbell founded Astounding Science Fiction Magazine in 1937, science fiction was a relatively small niche in the literary world. With the advent of Astounding, however, the Golden Age of science fiction came into being.

This age is generally seen as being from 1938 to about 1950, though science fiction has continued to grow ever since. Fictional universes, like the Star Trek Universe, Star Wars, and the alternate histories of Robert Heinlein allow people to explore cultural and technological possibilities that are not based in our current reality. Arthur Clarke, a science fiction writer, conceived of communications satellites.

Robert Heinlein invented the water bed, and accurately forecast the effects of fallout from nuclear weapons. He also extrapolated our current cultural devolution in his alternate histories concerning the Howard families. Heinlein also predicted the cold war, and the stalemate that arose from mutually assured destruction as a military strategy. Science fiction writers have often predicted the societal effects of technologies more than the technologies themselves. Arthur Clarke also predicted the misuse of widespread unregulated communications, like pornography, extremism, and also government misuse of communications. The extreme nature of much of the internet and social media is an example of Clarke's vision.

Given the explosive popularity of the steampunk universe, it is conceivable that this new cultural influence will have a profound effect on our society as a whole. As our collective stress levels continue to rise, the need to escape will increase as well. So, in the final analysis, steampunk, like medieval and civil war reenactments, and science fiction, is another safety valve working to protect us from psychological implosion.