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I'll admit it: I feel somewhat self-conscious and embarrassed by being into steampunk. A lot of it is done very poorly, by the standards that I care about. But I like it. I like having a fantasy genre that focuses on my favorite technological aspects of my favorite period of history. I don't care that it is goth turned brown -- I like the goth look too, it just isn't for me. And with all due respect to Charles Stross, I really don't care that it glosses over 19th century class struggles.
Beyond it simply being an aesthetic that happens to speak to me, though, I find it all very... refreshing. The last 15 years have been very good for fandom. (Maybe too good, but that's another post.) I've enjoyed seeing the energy and excitement that has come in with every new fan-friendly media property. I've gotten into more than a few myself. But they're all properties, owned by someone. Or, worse, something. Most turn a blind-eye towards fan remix culture, but the threat is always there. They're someone else's sandbox. More creepily, being a fan for a commercial enterprise makes your enthusiasm into free advertizing. I'm rather uncomfortable with my excitement being... harvested. Particularly if we're talking about a large corporate IP owner. I'm glad that there is a business model which means big awesome media properties get made, but that doesn't make me entirely comfortable with all of the details.
Steampunk, obviously, isn't like that. It's a genre that people are getting excited about. No one owns it. No one is cynically making money from your honest devotion. There are conventions but no cannon. No lingering background threats of DMCA takedowns or copyright lawsuits if you do too much free publicity for it.
Plus, how often do you get to see an entire genre being invented? I used to think steampunk was going to be a brief fad, but now I'm not so sure. It's starting to have the feeling of a core mythos now. I wonder if this is how the explosion of Tolkien-style fantasy felt.
Beyond it simply being an aesthetic that happens to speak to me, though, I find it all very... refreshing. The last 15 years have been very good for fandom. (Maybe too good, but that's another post.) I've enjoyed seeing the energy and excitement that has come in with every new fan-friendly media property. I've gotten into more than a few myself. But they're all properties, owned by someone. Or, worse, something. Most turn a blind-eye towards fan remix culture, but the threat is always there. They're someone else's sandbox. More creepily, being a fan for a commercial enterprise makes your enthusiasm into free advertizing. I'm rather uncomfortable with my excitement being... harvested. Particularly if we're talking about a large corporate IP owner. I'm glad that there is a business model which means big awesome media properties get made, but that doesn't make me entirely comfortable with all of the details.
Steampunk, obviously, isn't like that. It's a genre that people are getting excited about. No one owns it. No one is cynically making money from your honest devotion. There are conventions but no cannon. No lingering background threats of DMCA takedowns or copyright lawsuits if you do too much free publicity for it.
Plus, how often do you get to see an entire genre being invented? I used to think steampunk was going to be a brief fad, but now I'm not so sure. It's starting to have the feeling of a core mythos now. I wonder if this is how the explosion of Tolkien-style fantasy felt.
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Of course, if one is going to critique steampunk for not recognizing class issues, one would have to make the same statement about much of fantasy not recognizing class issues of medieval settings. (Which it often doesn't--actually an issue I have with much of fantasy, that kings/queens/princes/princesses or "chosen ones" etc. should matter more than common folks.)
-B.