Elsewhen.. Steampunk, VSF, and Pulp Adventures

What's a proper Era?

I've seen some interesting commentary here and there about what is and what isn't appropriate architecture for Caledon. Some well-meaning hints have been levied about this or that structure either being too modern, too out of place or unseemly for an "Independent Nation of Caledon with a Steampunk Theme". The discussion seems to center around where the "When" starts and ends for steampunk, or VSF, or whatever we may call it. Defining a genre is not an easy thing, as there is always a fuzzy area around edges. Is the Regency period "Victorian?" Are Gothic Horror stories "Steampunk"? It's about as easy as nailing jello to the wall. What we do know is that there are some common themes that well seem to accept as being "proper" for Steampunk. One of them is Victorian Science Fiction, which, according to writer Thomas Disch in the The Stuff Our Dreams Are Made Of,


owes more to Poe rather than Mary Shelley-- the acknowledged progenitor of Science Fiction as a genre. In the chapter "Poe: Our Embarrassing Ancestor", Disch describes Poe as introducing the foundations of occult and scientific romance to the literature. Perhaps this is so-- we can see the ancestors of the Mesmerists, Mad Scientists (Frankenstein notwithstanding), conspiracies, Secret writings, ancient wisdom and much more in Poe's work. Poe's short and unhappy life ended in 1849 and he was most prolific in the last decade of his life. If I were to fix a date to the beginning of the era, I'd choose the year 1840, for no particular reason other than the start of industrialization, emergence of the steam engine, and beginning of the industrialist class.



Victorian Science Fiction has had its giants-- Jules Verne and H.G. Welles often are mentioned, and rightly so-- Verne's work, in particular, defines the genre for me. Airships! Submarines! Mysterious subterranean civilizations, balloon journeys, mysterious islands, enigmatic captains, two dimensional heroic types, floating cities, the list is extensive! Verne created the visuals for the VSF era, to my mind, and many of the arch types of Victorian men and women that we use in Caledon owe him a tremendous debt. Looking across from the bonfire at Middlesea dock at the Nautilus suspended in the sky, or perhaps going on an exploration in one of the professor's Steam Elephants, I would have to assume I am not the only citizen to be inspired primarily by Verne.



Let us not, however, forget the influence of early visionaries such as George Chesney, well known among historians of science fiction for his work on The Battle of Dorking, postulating a sinister invasion of England by fiction's favorite bad guys, the Germans. Another unheralded voice in VSF would be Richard Jeffries, author of After London, a post-apocalyptic fantasy that would have done justice to Welles.



Towards the end of what I would call Victorian Science Fiction as a genre, we see the other giant of the era, H.G. Wells, as well as many of his compatriots. Everyone knows of War of the Worlds, and the gloomy vision of the world prostrate before the feet of an alien invader, only to be saved by basic biology. I love the Martian invasion, and it is a great work of science fiction, but Wells' foundations for the genre are broader than that-- The War in the Air, First Man on the Moon, Island of Doctor Moreau, Time Machine and the Shape of the Things to Come contribute a lot of our fundamental set dressing we enjoy about the era.

Concurrently, we have the penny dreadful "Edisonades", the work of Edward Ellis, Luis Senarens and other writers crop up from about mid-19th century onward. Much of the the fantastic imagery of VSF comes from the illustrations in the "comic books" from the 19th century.

I make a distinction between Steampunk and VSF, myself. Steampunk is a limited genre that cropped up in the 1980s and 1990s, largely the work of four authors: Tim Powers, James Blaylock, Derek Jeter, and Bruce Sterling/William Gibson (as the team that the Difference Engine together). Much of the work in the genre since derives from the pioneering work demonstrated in the Anubis Gates, The Difference Engine, Homunculus, Infernal Devices, and possibly the Diamond Age. Citizens of Caledon know these books and probably have read them. One wonders if we would have seen The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or even the Golden Compass without the groundwork of the first steampunk novels.

One of the discussions being held these days is when does it all end? The 20th century? Edwardian England? Largely this seems to be a question of taste. I personally wouldn't end the period with the death of Victoria in 1901 but might extend it to the year 1906. By that time, we have heavier than air aircraft, the first zeppelins, the birth of the Dreadnought battleship, but we don't have the hell of the trenches, mass slaughter, and the end of the Gilded Age. World War One (and the Interwar period directly after) appeals to me greatly as a historical period of study-- but I don't want to role play it. I greatly prefer the sunny optimism of Jules Verne and Frank Reade to the harsh reality of the Great War. Therefore, for me, Steampunk/VSF means 1840 to 1906. wouldn't want to dictate my point of view to anyone, just voicing my opinion.