Victorian Science in Context: Annotation

Lightman, Bernard V. Victorian Science in Context. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press, 1997.

The book itself is a compilation of papers by different authors on different aspects of science in the Victorian Age. I may use more than one of the papers, but for now I am focusing on an essay by Paul Fayter entitled "Late Victorian Science and Science Fiction". It covers many aspects of Victorian age science practices and much of its influence on science fiction and the culture surrounding science fiction.

This book will be good for my paper because it covers many of the topics I plan on discussing. It describes much of the influence that steampunk draws from, as well as citing literary and scientific examples. It is more of a scholarly source than a popular source and as such is more reliable than much of what I have been finding in the way of research. Because of that, however, it is a bit of a dry read. The information is interesting, but the way they present it is not.

In pop culture

Before initially researching the phenomenon of steampunk culture, I didn't realize how prevalent it was in popular culture. I have, so far, found aspects of steampunk in film, fashion, social websites, and videogames.

Most obviously, (and, frankly, easiest to access as it is something that I own) is the movie The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which is based off of a comic book/graphic novel series. The film is full of steampunk style, both in theme and in artistic direction. From steam powered cars, to clockwork instruments the film took the direction of being an artistically steampunk science fiction movie. The settings are perfect for the genre. Set in the 19th century, the Victorian era and the styles related to it, show through. The Victorian era is a common focus point for people involved in steampunk culture.

In video games, the Final Fantasy series has a strong steampunk influence. While quite a bit of the video game series focuses on the magic of their worlds, other aspects (such as the airships in Final Fantasy X and XI) are set with that influence. Their ships are almost exactly what one might imagine if modern electricity had not been discovered. Powered by steam and gears, they use imagined science to fly and operate. Other games, such as Lost Odyssey, there is a lot of the beauty of steampunk art, which can involve gilded clockwork, and colorful vacuum tubes.

Many other video games, as well as books and movies, are set in steampunk-type civilizations and draw influence from the concept of the future-that-never-happened of a past that did.

What is Steampunk, anyway?

I wanted to spend a little time to address and define what Steampunk is, at least a little.

Steampunk is a movement, sometimes defined as an artistic movement, based on a future that never came to exist. It is a movement that involves literature, fashion, art, science fiction, television, video games, and all around fun. Music is one of the only types of entertainment to be left out of the Steampunk scene, and I am not sure why.

It has no real definition. How you define it depends on what it means to you. If you asked two people what steampunk is, you might get two similar and yet all together different explanations. There would be, of course, places where their descriptions intersected. I have seen steampunk described as “the path of future not taken” and “What the past would look like if the future had happened sooner”.

Imagine, if you can, living before electricity, or right at the time of its invention. The only means of power that you knew of would be clockwork and steam power, and that would reflect on, if you were a writer, your writings. With that in mind, it might be easier to understand the steampunk movement. It draws much of its inspiration from writings of authors such as H.G. Wells and Jules Verne and their science fiction views of how the future could pan out.

Say that Volta had never “discovered” electricity and men like Tesla, Franklin, and Edison had never learned how to harness it. Would we have still developed our technologies? We would not have airplanes or cars as they are now. This is what steampunk is. It is science fiction culture the way it could have been if the tomorrow of yesterday had not turned out the way it is now.

Not the assignment, but....

So this is very much not part of the assignment, but I found this while doing research and I have to post it. A good example of somewhat steampunk artwork or a steampunk trend is the fascination towards clockwork insects and animals.

Intro, in a way

Choosing a research topic is proving difficult for me. I know I am already supposed to be decided about it, but my true interests are limited. I don't really have time for interests.
Punk Subcultures already interest me, so I am going to attempt to research them. What are their impacts on different aspects of pop culture, such as film, fashion, and other forms of entertainment. Have they impacted anything else in world?
Is this even a topic I want?

I decided to go with Steampunk.... as will be obvious later