Gatehouse Gazette #9 released

The steampunk movement is prone to resist the mindless use of technology prevalent in our society today. As SteamPunk Magazine put in their sixth issue (September 2009), “We adore the machines that come from an age before endless replication reduced everything into soulless copies of itself.” According to them, steampunk is “non-industrial”—the genre loves the machine, the magazine declares, but hates the factory.

Is that indeed the steampunk ethos? We easily disregard those characteristics of the Victorian era we dislike: racism, sexism, colonialism. But industry too? In spite of all its vices (pollution, poverty, uncontrolled urbanization and the terrible exploitation of workers) it paved the way for a new era of economic growth and prosperity. We live in that era today and the accomplishments of industry are undeniable.

Because it has achieved so much and brought us so far, it is not unnatural for many to forget the downsides of technology. But although steampunk revels in the beautiful products of the progress of times past, it is very much aware of the ills associated with the often sudden and violent arrival of change. Yet we too much appreciate the greatness of the machine to allow ourselves to submerge in any sort of depression about its depravity and decay.

We dedicate this issue therefore to “Beautiful Industry” with several articles and reviews related to big machinery and the impact of progress. Besides, we feature an interview with author Carol McCleary of The Alchemy of Murder along with the familiar columns and a short story by Andrew Singleton, entitled “Stormbringer.”

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