Reading this made me curious as to how steampunk was begun, so I asked Wikipedia. Looks like the phrase was coined as a variant of cyberpunk, which also got its start as a science fiction genre (with a 1983 book of the same name). In other words, it's very much a Tolkien-style explosion, only moreso because there's no 'canon' work to dictate conventions and hold everything else in its shadow.
In fact, the literary scene has been the backbone of every craze I can think of (e.g. zombies, vampires) that has significant cross-pollination with movies, video games, jewelry on Etsy, etcetera. Does this mean that literature is still the prime mover of popular culture? That's a little encouraging.
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In fact, the literary scene has been the backbone of every craze I can think of (e.g. zombies, vampires) that has significant cross-pollination with movies, video games, jewelry on Etsy, etcetera. Does this mean that literature is still the prime mover of popular culture? That's a little encouraging.