The word ‘steampunk’ was first used by novelist K. W. Jeter in 1987, but a steampunk way of thinking was in practice long before that. Jules Verne, the French writer and explorer born in 1828, and H.G. Wells, the English writer born in 1866 are among the first inventors of literary Steampunk gear.

What is Steampunk?

Steampunk is a genre of science fiction that re-imagines an alternative history for the world. In that history, technological advancements are based on steam and there’s no such thing as a petroleum economy. Besides, anything one owns can be tweaked, be it high-tech gadgets or clothes.

Today, Steampunk is collectively imagined further, with ideas that continue to evolve with the world we live in. Nevertheless, it begs some analysis to figure out whether we could possibly build a Steampunk world. Does Steampunk really “do” history anew? Or, is it a common visual language we speak for our literary, DIY or fashion crafts?

Retrofuturist Aesthetics of Steampunk

The collective imagination revolving around Steampunk has some very special traits. It helps masses think about what could have happened if the past developments in technology and global industry were based on steam. In a way, we are in a retrofuturistic realm, with a past that never actually was and a future that never actually will be.

The Victorian era was an important era of mass growth for the state and an important milestone for the emergence of many social issues in a class-based society in the pre-petroleum economy. It was an era where many, including science fiction writers like Verne and Wells, mused about what future technology could look like. Many Steampunk creations simply follow up with their creations, making it easy for us to refer to them as “neo-Victorian”.

Some Steampunk creators focus on the delicately messy tinkerings they wear or own. With some of those creations, one can sense lines of protest against the featureless, minimalist technology design that dominates the economy today. The visual iconography of Steampunk usually includes some sort of goggles, vests, corsets in sepia tones accompanied with brass accessories.

Steampunk is Do-It-Yourself with Anti-Consumerist Tendencies

Many in the Steampunk community now speak of two main waves of Steampunk culture’s accelerated development. The first wave of Steampunk was brought to life by a handful of white men (including K. W. Jeter, Michael Moorcock, Howard Waldropand Tim Powers, to name a few), who were in similar ages and from similar cultural backgrounds.

The second wave, which has been going on since the late 2000s, mainly comes together on the Internet and sometimes in many conventions that usually take place in the Western world. This wave is believed to get its start through the revived interest in Steampunk technological gear, like the below laptop by Datamancer, in the many messaging boards that roamed the Internet those days.

The late 2000s witnessed the emergence and wide popularity of the first iPhone. The cold, sterile design and the sleek branding awed many consumers and lured them into the rabbit hole of mobile connectivity.

Many see the Steampunk gear customizations as a disguised form of protest against the closed nature of dominant post-industrial technologies. Like with the iPhone, it is usually not wished that the consumer bonds with a technological gear they own by carefully tinkering with it. Because if they do, they might never buy the sequel, the +1, the pro or the premium of the phone.

From companies’ point-of-view, consumers should be able to dump their existing technological devices regularly, ideally in a matter of years. The gear they design is intended to spend most of their days in the dump.

Post-Colonialism

Few Steampunks prefer to go beyond physical elaborations in their creations. They make up alternate storylines of non-exploitative history, in which their Steampunk characters find their way, battling through and trying to right the many injustices. However, it’s not possible to claim that Steampunk is anything beyond the costumes and the entertainment in the public eye. Most times we see anything Steampunk, we can’t really derive any critique or actionable advice on dealing with patriarchy, colonialism or racism. Steampunk is mostly a material culture.

In the words of Jaymee Goh, a writer and essayist of science fiction, …

Multicultural steampunk must move from mere aesthetic into active policies that center non-white steampunks and steampunks of colour, and provide ample opportunity and encouragement to reclaim, retell, represent their own histories in narratives that will run counter to a world that would rather do violence to them than let them speak.

Just as the historian John Clute argues in his essay on Steampunk, the best kind of Steampunk tales expose the gears of the world and analyze how various dominant systems of exploitation operate. Like the exploitation of nature by industry, of the poor by the rich, of women by men and of entire continents by violent forces.

The punk should be there for a reason: Steampunk must point to things going wrong and suggest ways to rebel against them. Otherwise, it runs the risk of fully morphing into just another source of mindless entertainment, with its profit-makers, avid consumers and capitalist rituals.

Looking Forward

It seems like Steampunk awaits a next big moment of epiphany for its tales to converge towards a common language with more punk elements that dare to say more loudly what’s wrong with the world we live in.

Still, Steampunk is a valuable example of crowds’ collective imagination made possible by the Internet. It helped the emergence of many further forms and structures of collective imagination, including Solarpunk, which has more mature forms of active participation and comes with clearer, more grounded advice.

Could we build a Steampunk world? I doubt it. Steampunk, overall, seems to have become a material culture that promotes certain kinds of aesthetic for entertainment purposes. Put simply, Steampunk is a playground for adults.

The lead image for this article was generated by HackerNoon's AI Image Generator via the prompt "build a steampunk world".