Hey Guys,<br><br>Been doing some more musing on
the nature of this "Steampunk" thing. At the risk of
being pedantic, will you let me send it round once
more?<br><br>First of all, I've decided that there are actually two
distinct things which we have heretofore been lumping
together as one thing and calling "Steampunk";<br><br>1.
"Extreme Adventure Fiction" which was actually written
during the Victorian/Edwardian Age by period writers
(i.e., "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Verne, "Time
Machine" by Wells, etc.) In other words, these stories are
set in the 19th/early 20th centuries because THAT'S
WHEN THEY WERE WRITTEN.<br><br>2. The same type of
stories, but written AFTER THE FACT--deliberately set IN
THE PAST (i.e., the Victorian Age) by an author not
actually living during that time period. For example, a
modern movie version of Verne's FIRST MEN IN THE MOON
would not be simply a story about a trip to the moon
(as it was to Verne) but a story about a trip to the
moon which took place in the Victorian
past...<br><br>This may sound like a pretty fine distinction, but the
more you think about it the more important it becomes.
Fact is, these are really two very different things;
and the quirky, "punky" thing which is such a big
part of the genre's appeal to us simply wasn't there
for 19th century audiences. This being the case, I
wonder if we shouldn't reserve the use of the term
"Steampunk" for this second category of stories only--SF
"period pieces" so to speak. (Not that we shouldn't
continue to enjoy both, of course, but just to make our
terms more useful).<br><br>If this is really a
legitimate insight, then I think I can isolate the actual
INVENTOR of Steampunk: Walt Disney. Yup, as far as I can
tell from my research the very first person to have
the odd, quixotic notion of making an SF movie out of
a 19th century book WITHOUT UPDATING IT was Walt
Disney, when he decided to make "20,000 Leagues Under the
Sea" in 1953. Check up on me (and correct me if I'm
wrong) but I think ALL earlier versions of Verne/Wells
etc. were either made during the period itself ("Trip
to the Moon" 1902) or else updated to the present
day ("The Invisible Man" 1933).<br><br>Ya'll stew on
that for a while. ;-)