Steampunk -- Culture
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
The Victorian era witnessed the birth of the Modern, just as World War II signalled the birth of the Post-modern. The Victorians drew heavily on their perception of the past and sought to re-integrate it into their daily lives, possibly as a reaction against the technological advancements of their time and a desire for grounding. The result is expressed in such things as the neo-gothic style, which is not gothic at all, but a re-interpretation of it through the Victorian lens.
Steampunk, as a sub-culture, aligns itself with the Victorian period in the same way, and for the same reasons, that the Victorians re-interpreted the Middle-Ages. One might call it neo-neo-gothic.
Just as the Victorians transformed their reality by imposing their perceptions of the past upon the present, steampunks counter post-modern, globalised, disposable culture by imposing their romantic notions upon their world in an effort to address an imbalance between the World of Form and the Worlds of Soul and Spirit.
They embrace older values now left by the wayside such as good manners, honour, loyalty, courage and even nationalism, but without the negative taints of repressed sexuality, female and child abuse, and racism commonly associated with the 19th century.
Through the science-fiction sub-genre of steampunk, the infusion of the Victorian style and values into the modern world of the electronic media is given a recognisable form to inspire the steampunks. For example, e-mail becomes electro-magneto post. Therefore, as a style, steampunk rejects the world of plastic tools and clothes for something richer and more attuned to the human experience, thus maintaining the essential grounding which is healthy for the human soul.
Steampunk, as a sub-culture, aligns itself with the Victorian period in the same way, and for the same reasons, that the Victorians re-interpreted the Middle-Ages. One might call it neo-neo-gothic.
Just as the Victorians transformed their reality by imposing their perceptions of the past upon the present, steampunks counter post-modern, globalised, disposable culture by imposing their romantic notions upon their world in an effort to address an imbalance between the World of Form and the Worlds of Soul and Spirit.
They embrace older values now left by the wayside such as good manners, honour, loyalty, courage and even nationalism, but without the negative taints of repressed sexuality, female and child abuse, and racism commonly associated with the 19th century.
Through the science-fiction sub-genre of steampunk, the infusion of the Victorian style and values into the modern world of the electronic media is given a recognisable form to inspire the steampunks. For example, e-mail becomes electro-magneto post. Therefore, as a style, steampunk rejects the world of plastic tools and clothes for something richer and more attuned to the human experience, thus maintaining the essential grounding which is healthy for the human soul.
