I don't think I've made it a secret that I'm a little bit (read: a lot) obsessed with steampunk. I guess in part it's because my dad's an engineer and takes me on tours of steamships, and in part because I think gears and goggles are pretty freaking cool. It's to the point where I carry around my own windup clockwork-showing on-a-chain pocketwatch and made a steampunkish dress.
Oh, and writing a steampunk book.
(Well, kind of. It's more clockpunk, and also, faeries. And Czech culture.)
But steampunk as a genre and as a movement kind of bothers me. It seems really...superficial. I'm being the worst kind of hypocrite when I say that, because I love all the shiny gears and corsets and stuff, but it's true. Steampunk is superficial. It's about the cool clothes! airships! clockwork creatures! machines! gears! pirates! and so forth. It's pretty and shiny and we geeks are attracted to it like Twihards are attracted to the latest paranormal romance novel.
This realization happened upon me after reading several "steampunk" novels that have been published within the last few years or so: Clockwork Heart, Leviathan, Boneshaker, Soulless, Mortal Engines, The Scar, Perdido Street Station (though the last two aren't so much steampunk as they are...weird...) ...and so forth. And it's kind of weird, but to me, the less steampunky novels (that is, ones that had some elements but were more general fantasy/weird fiction) were the better ones.
Airborn is a great YA novel. The Scar/Perdido Street Station are favourites of mine. The others weren't bad (except for Leviathan, which caused me to lose faith in Scott Westerfield, and Mortal Engines, which are super steampunk but I can't help but adore) but they were all kind of plagued with a certain sameness. They seemed to be running on the "holy crap, STEAMPUNK!" feeling. Like someone was stuffing shiny things into our gazes. Look, mechanical wings! Oooh, giant mecha-ships! Corsets! Leviathan was the worst of the bunch - World War I became nothing more than a backdrop to lots of gears and living ships. Trivializing something like that bothered me. But they were all kind of...well, shallow. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, the two Fathers of Steampunk, had many similar elements, but they also had interesting themes and interesting commentaries on society and a whole lot of stuff that could be an essay in its own.
So, I don't know. This sameness issue isn't limited to the steampunk genre - don't we all wish people would stop writing books about the Ordinary Girl falling in love with the Supernatural Hottie? Or the Farm Boy Destined For Greatness? I know that trends happen, and once a trend is set there's not a whole lot of originality. The difference for me, at least, is the fact that steampunk has potential. A whole lot of it. There's so much to be done with it, because it's a *relatively* new movement. It's hard to write an original fantasy book about dragons or vampires or werewolves because there are literally millions of other stories with those same elements. Steampunk's still in the toddler stage, for me.
But instead of going for that distance and trying to make a really good book, authors are satisfied with rehashing all the cool stuff. Which, on a level, I understand. Steampunk is cool. Steampunk is fun. Writing steampunk books (as I'm experiencing) is incredibly fun. I just wish people would try to make something more of it, and dig beneath the shiny layer of pretty Victorian lace and brass goggles.
I'm going to give it a shot.
Oh, and writing a steampunk book.
(Well, kind of. It's more clockpunk, and also, faeries. And Czech culture.)
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| From Gearfuse.com |
This realization happened upon me after reading several "steampunk" novels that have been published within the last few years or so: Clockwork Heart, Leviathan, Boneshaker, Soulless, Mortal Engines, The Scar, Perdido Street Station (though the last two aren't so much steampunk as they are...weird...) ...and so forth. And it's kind of weird, but to me, the less steampunky novels (that is, ones that had some elements but were more general fantasy/weird fiction) were the better ones.
Airborn is a great YA novel. The Scar/Perdido Street Station are favourites of mine. The others weren't bad (except for Leviathan, which caused me to lose faith in Scott Westerfield, and Mortal Engines, which are super steampunk but I can't help but adore) but they were all kind of plagued with a certain sameness. They seemed to be running on the "holy crap, STEAMPUNK!" feeling. Like someone was stuffing shiny things into our gazes. Look, mechanical wings! Oooh, giant mecha-ships! Corsets! Leviathan was the worst of the bunch - World War I became nothing more than a backdrop to lots of gears and living ships. Trivializing something like that bothered me. But they were all kind of...well, shallow. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, the two Fathers of Steampunk, had many similar elements, but they also had interesting themes and interesting commentaries on society and a whole lot of stuff that could be an essay in its own.
So, I don't know. This sameness issue isn't limited to the steampunk genre - don't we all wish people would stop writing books about the Ordinary Girl falling in love with the Supernatural Hottie? Or the Farm Boy Destined For Greatness? I know that trends happen, and once a trend is set there's not a whole lot of originality. The difference for me, at least, is the fact that steampunk has potential. A whole lot of it. There's so much to be done with it, because it's a *relatively* new movement. It's hard to write an original fantasy book about dragons or vampires or werewolves because there are literally millions of other stories with those same elements. Steampunk's still in the toddler stage, for me.
But instead of going for that distance and trying to make a really good book, authors are satisfied with rehashing all the cool stuff. Which, on a level, I understand. Steampunk is cool. Steampunk is fun. Writing steampunk books (as I'm experiencing) is incredibly fun. I just wish people would try to make something more of it, and dig beneath the shiny layer of pretty Victorian lace and brass goggles.
I'm going to give it a shot.
