Hm. I wrote that in haste, and now have to consider it. Steampunk is derived from cyberpunk, but only, I think, in the word, not in the nature. I haven't noticed steampunk having that quality of a grungy, banal existence that good cyberpunk evoked. Not that steampunk has failed - it just doesn't do that. Cyberpunk was an alternate future, in opposition to the (perceived by the cyberpunk authors) Gernsbackian Bright Future of Science! Steampunk seems to be an alternate past, in which we had cooler stuff. Were there to be a 'cyberpunk' steampunk story, I think we'd look at it and call it...Dickenspunk? David Copperfield we've seen before, even if he is in an orphanage that services an enormous Babbage Engine.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-05-04 12:48 pm (UTC)Hm. I wrote that in haste, and now have to consider it. Steampunk is derived from cyberpunk, but only, I think, in the word, not in the nature. I haven't noticed steampunk having that quality of a grungy, banal existence that good cyberpunk evoked. Not that steampunk has failed - it just doesn't do that. Cyberpunk was an alternate future, in opposition to the (perceived by the cyberpunk authors) Gernsbackian Bright Future of Science! Steampunk seems to be an alternate past, in which we had cooler stuff. Were there to be a 'cyberpunk' steampunk story, I think we'd look at it and call it...Dickenspunk? David Copperfield we've seen before, even if he is in an orphanage that services an enormous Babbage Engine.