

Charles Stross' polemic against steam punk - yanowitz
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/10/the-hard-edge-of-empire.html

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jdavid
I think the accessibility of steampunk is what makes it so popular. Popular
like say a fantasy novel of orcs, elves, and fairies.

Charles seems to lump steampunk in with science fiction the way Starwars fans
seem to think that Starwars has anything to do with science.

The reality is that there is very little 'steampunk' that actually has
anything remotely to do with science. 'Steampunk' like the 'Diamond Age' is
not really even about steam, unless you consider 'clouds' steam, and then
consider that nanopunk is cloudpunk, and then cloudpunk is somehow steampunk.
'Diamond Age' in contrast to your typical steampunk adventures is very much so
about the ubiquity of technology, about the ubiquity of information, and the
ubiquity of how connected we are. it actually has nothing to do with the
notion of using steam to power a mechanical device, and more looks at how
cloud services and nano tech will effect our lives.

I think steampunk really is becoming a more modern place for fairy tales, a
place where the modern age can look back and go look how quaint that story of
the knight in shining Armour is ( or rather that inventor who used technology
to save us ). If you look at steampunk as a modernization of the fairy tale
and the fable into something closer to modern day, then you can see why it has
so much power.

I mean how many of us can really relate to castles and forests? How many of us
can relate to zeppelins and trains?

If you look at steampunk as the modernization of culture it's amazing to
watch. I am sure at some point the tales of the primitive hunt were modernized
into those of knights and kings.

What will the fairy tales of 200 years from now be about? what realities will
we do away with? which ones will we latch onto?

