Dieselpunk + Steampunk Culture
STEAMPUNK: What in the hell is it anyway?
Steampunk: What in the hell is it, really?
Many will argue that when H. G. Wells was writing, people believed in the possibility of time machines, making animals sentient and traveling to the center of the earth and finding live dinosaurs down there.
Now, if what H. G. Wells wrote was science fiction and most people agree that – along with Jules Verne – Wells created the model for anachronistic fiction (i.e. Steampunk, Dieselpunk and the like), then is Steampunk science fiction?
Yet, you find Steampunk on the fantasy bookshelves, not the science fiction ones. Unless, of course, the Science Fiction and Fantasy titles are, annoyingly, combined onto one set of shelves, a la Barnes and Noble.
So, is steampunk science fiction, or is it fantasy?
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, “Steampunk”, please check outhttp://chroniclesofharriet.com/2012/05/24/punk-101-steampunk-dieselpunk-and-a-three-year-old-genius/, orhttp://chroniclesofharriet.com/2012/01/23/state-of-black-sci-fi-2012-why-i-love-steampunk/.
The Difference between Science Fiction and Fantasy
Both science fiction and fantasy present things that do not exist. All fiction does this, of course. That’s what makes it fiction. But science fiction and fantasy include not only imaginary characters and events but settings, creatures, concepts, or devices that are qualitatively beyond our normal, everyday experience.
While Science Fiction and Fantasy share some characteristics, there is a clear and unambiguous distinction between them.
Jules Verne and H.G. Wells are two of the earliest true modern science fiction writers. Both stretched the bounds of what was known at the time to posit things that did not exist. Unlike earlier, and even much of the other speculative fiction of the time, though, they based their plot devices on extrapolations from current science and technology. Previous visits to improbable lands, encounters with strange creatures, and even fictional travels through time were often the result of a dream or mystical insight. Both Wells and Verne presented their readers with fantastic machines, but these were based on scientifically explained principles. They included strange creatures, but they were natural rather than supernatural, with abilities explainable, at least in theory, solely in terms of biology and evolution.
Fantasy is less constrained. It can include just about anything – magic wands; fire-breathing dragons; shiny, shimmering vampires; werewolves; genies in lamps; lizard men and sentient swords. These things just ‘are’ and don’t need to be explained from a scientific perspective.
While the magical elements must be internally consistent, they do not need to be based on known science. If the story includes supernatural or mythological characters or forces that are not supported with plausible sounding techno-babble, then it is fantasy.
When asked to explain the difference between science fiction and fantasy, Isaac Asimov, the prolific writer of science and science fiction, replied, “Science fiction, given its grounding in science, is possible; fantasy, which has no grounding in reality, is not.”
TO READ THIS BLOG IN ITS ENTIRETY, PLEASE VISIT: http://chroniclesofharriet.com/2012/07/19/steampunk-what-in-the-hel....
Tags: africa, african, afro, balogun, black, dieselpunk, fantasy, fiction, science, steamfunk, More…
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Cap'n Tony on -
I agree with your final coclusion: "Perhaps Steampunk is just…Steampunk."
Trying to shoehorn it into Science Fiction ro Fantasy is difficult because of both the huge discrepancy in what types of scientific vs. fantastic elements are used in a given story and because of what I call "Philpott's corolary to Clarke's Third Law" (and Niven's Corrollary thereof), which states:
"Any sufficiently outdated and discredited science or science fiction is indistinguishable from magic, or at the least requires the fantastical to make it possible"
Hard to blur the lines too much more. Same applies to Superhero comics and other genres that rely on some kind of "Phlebotinum" to work: your "science" is based upon something ultimatley "fantastic".
That's why I consider all these things -- Science Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Sword & Sandal, Urban Fantasy, Magical Realism, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Steamfunk, Dieselpunk, Atompunk, Clockpunk etc. -- to be subgenres of the more general Speculative Fiction supergenre.
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Permalink Reply by Balogun Ojetade on -
Well said!
While I resisted it for quite a while, I have given in to the term Speculative Fiction as a "supergenre". I agree - the lines of Steampunk, Steamfunk, Superhero fiction et al are, indeed, hard to blur much more.
Thanks, for your comment.
Cap'n Tony said:I agree with your final coclusion: "Perhaps Steampunk is just…Steampunk."
Trying to shoehorn it into Science Fiction ro Fantasy is difficult because of both the huge discrepancy in what types of scientific vs. fantastic elements are used in a given story and because of what I call "Philpott's corolary to Clarke's Third Law" (and Niven's Corrollary thereof), which states:
"Any sufficiently outdated and discredited science or science fiction is indistinguishable from magic, or at the least requires the fantastical to make it possible"
Hard to blur the lines too much more. Same applies to Superhero comics and other genres that rely on some kind of "Phlebotinum" to work: your "science" is based upon something ultimatley "fantastic".
That's why I consider all these things -- Science Fiction, Fantasy, Science Fantasy, Sword & Sandal, Urban Fantasy, Magical Realism, Cyberpunk, Steampunk, Steamfunk, Dieselpunk, Atompunk, Clockpunk etc. -- to be subgenres of the more general Speculative Fiction supergenre.
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Permalink Reply by Cap'n Tony on
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Thanks, Balogun, and I share your hesitance to use the "Speculative Fiction" term. The fact that the term was originally used by self-important writers trying to distance themselves from "mere Science Fiction" doesn't make it too inviting to say the least. That said, for the reasons stated it's about the best blanket term I can think of to encompass how the genre lines have blurred and expanded so much over the decades. I've joined the rest of the non-elitists in taking the term over for ourselves and to hell with the genre-liturature "glass ceiling"!
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Permalink Reply by JoHnny ~ on -
steam-punk is a pair of clockwork goggles, a pinch of 'goth' & not much else.
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Permalink Reply by Cap'n Tony on
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In that case you're doin' it wrong, mate! ;-)
JoHnny de-Lux said:steam-punk is a pair of clockwork goggles, a pinch of 'goth' & not much else.
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Permalink Reply by JoHnny ~ on
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the roots to all things 'Steam-Punk' lie this side of the pond..Grant Allen wrote a fine novel called 'The British Barbarians'..in 1895..it's an urbane fantasy involving a visitor from the future..came out the same year as The Time Machine...read it if ya can ~ more punk less steam...hahaHa.
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Permalink Reply by T. von Kramer on -
Personally, I like to keep it simple. Even with my long-winded linguist roots, there's no reason to get too heady about it. I consider it to be Science Fiction set in the Victorian era.
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