For me, steampunk is a
confusing, highly-contested, ill-defined wannabe subgenre that sometimes tries
really hard to have something profound to say about technology, history and
rebellion yet oftentimes abandons any such messages altogether. It seems to me
that steampunk is regarded mostly for how it looks as opposed to what it says,
which I find profoundly problematic for a genre or subgenre that wants to be
taken seriously.
Type in “science fiction” in Google images and you’ll get a myriad of other-worldly places and beings. Type in “steampunk” in Google images and you’ll get a bunch of schmucks in costumes.
Based on my exposure to steampunk texts like The Difference Engine and Boneshaker, as well as a myriad of other supposedly “steampunk” pop culture examples from television, film and comics, it appears that any authentically “steampunk” work has far too many criterions to be a genre or even a subgenre. In the following blog, I explain how genres and subgenres are classified and compare some classifications of popular genres to classifications for steampunk. With these comparisons in mind and with Doctor Who as my example, it will become increasingly clear as to why steampunk is best suited to be thought of as an “accessory” or “aesthetic” in a world of other popular genres and subgenres that don’t put writers and producers in a chokehold that forces them to conform to every one of its dizzyingly specific conventions.
Type in “science fiction” in Google images and you’ll get a myriad of other-worldly places and beings. Type in “steampunk” in Google images and you’ll get a bunch of schmucks in costumes.
Based on my exposure to steampunk texts like The Difference Engine and Boneshaker, as well as a myriad of other supposedly “steampunk” pop culture examples from television, film and comics, it appears that any authentically “steampunk” work has far too many criterions to be a genre or even a subgenre. In the following blog, I explain how genres and subgenres are classified and compare some classifications of popular genres to classifications for steampunk. With these comparisons in mind and with Doctor Who as my example, it will become increasingly clear as to why steampunk is best suited to be thought of as an “accessory” or “aesthetic” in a world of other popular genres and subgenres that don’t put writers and producers in a chokehold that forces them to conform to every one of its dizzyingly specific conventions.
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