Some things are always cool, and some things have their moment in the sun. I suspect steampunk is going to sit somewhere in between. Steampunk – that gonzo form of Victoriana which reached its height with Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates, James P. Blaylock’s Homunculus, and K.W. Jeter’s Infernal Devices (all published within a few years of one another in the 1980s) – holds special appeal for my inner geek, and always will. It’s like the zeppelin thing. Who can resist?
Anyhow, I have the feeling that steampunk is only now going to have its moment in the sun – something that’s underscored by the pending arrival of two new anthologies. Next March Jeff and Ann VanderMeer will edit The Steampunk Anthology for Tachyon Publications. It collects previously published stories by James P. Blaylock, Neal Stephenson and so on, and should provide a pretty clear statement on what steampunk is and has been up till now. The VanderMeers are very smart and skilled editors, and this fourth ‘movement anthology’ for Tachyon should be the best of the lot.
The second book, Nick Gevers’ Extraordinary Engines, is an all-original anthology from Solaris Books that is due in the Fall. The tentative line-up for the book looks terrific and if all of the authors named deliver stories it should be a top notch book that would standard as a perfect complement to the VanderMeer anthology. Nick definitely knows a good story when he sees one, so I can’t wait to see the final book!
Steampunk has indeed hit the zeitgeist in a big way, led imho by cinema like A Series of Unfortunate Events, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Howl’s Moving Castle and Steamboy. Steampunk has a long(ish) history in computer gaming, and has more recently sprung up as a major trend in in “alternative” fashion, the world of computer modding and even music (although there are as yet only a handful of steampunk bands, the slickest being ex-goths Abney Park). It’s a genre-spinoff with strong acceptance by the mainstream, and the HDM films can only serve to spur it on.
Jeff remarked in an essay that what most of the public views as steampunk is actually a stylish embrace of clockwork mechanisms, brass trimmings and lace. There are websites and blogs devoted to ‘steampunk fashion’ and all of the cos-play involved are either cloistered academics (sometimes with sleeves rolled up so they might fire a spray-painted Nerf gun) or corsetted vixens under the cover of a parasol. We don’t see the dirt and grime or even the sweat. It’s a very elitist, colonial fashion.