Steaming into a Victorian future: a Steampunk anthology

361 Pages·2014·22.826 MB·English

by  Miller, Cynthia J.;Taddeo, Julie Anne

Steaming into a Victorian Future
A Steampunk Anthology
Edited by
Julie Anne Taddeo
Cynthia J. Miller
THE SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
2013
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Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2013 by Julie Anne Taddeo and Cynthia J. Miller
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Steaming into a Victorian future : a steampunk anthology / edited by Julie Anne
Taddeo, Cynthia J. Miller.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8108-8586-8 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-8587-5 (ebook)
1. Steampunk fiction—History and criticism. 2. Steampunk culture. I. Taddeo, Julie
Anne. II. Miller, Cynthia J., 1958-
PN3448.S73S74 2013
809.3'8766—dc23 2012024041
™
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper
for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
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In honor of steampunk’s
Rebels, Idealists, Explorers, and Visionaries,
from artisans to airship pirates,
and all those who inspire them
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Contents
Foreword ix
Ken Dvorak
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Cynthia J. Miller and Julie Anne Taddeo
Part I: Reimagining Characters/Reconfiguring Relationships
Chapter 1 S ome Notes on the Steampunk Social
Problem Novel 3
Catherine Siemann
Chapter 2 U seful Troublemakers: Social Retrofuturism in
the Steampunk Novels of Gail Carriger and
Cherie Priest 21
Mike Perschon
Chapter 3 C orsets of Steel: Steampunk’s Reimagining of
Victorian Femininity 43
Julie Anne Taddeo
Chapter 4 L ove and the Machine: Technology and Human
Relationships in Steampunk Romance and Erotica 65
Dru Pagliassotti
v
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vi Contents
Chapter 5 “ Anything Is Possible for a Man in a Top Hat with a
Monkey with a Monocle”: Remixing Steampunk in
Professor Elemental’s The Indifference Engine 89
Jamieson Ridenhour
Part II: Refurbishing Time and Place
Chapter 6 “ In Sum, Evil Has Prevailed”: The Moral Morass
of Science and Exploration in Jacques Tardi’s
The Arctic Marauder 105
Erika Behrisch Elce
Chapter 7 “ Fulminations and Fulgurators”: Jules Verne,
Karel Zeman, and Steampunk Cinema 125
John C. Tibbetts
Chapter 8 A irships East, Zeppelins West: Steampunk’s
Fantastic Frontiers 145
Cynthia J. Miller
Chapter 9 E nacting the Never-Was: Upcycling the Past,
Present, and Future in Steampunk 165
Suzanne Barber and Matt Hale
Chapter 10 O bjectified and Politicized: The Dynamics of
Ideology and Consumerism in
Steampunk Subculture 185
Diana M. Pho
Part III: Retrofitting Things
Chapter 11 “ Love the Machine, Hate the Factory”:
Steampunk Design and the Vision of a
Victorian Future 213
Sally-Anne Huxtable
Chapter 12 S teve Jobs versus the Victorians: Steampunk,
Design, and the History of Technology in Society 235
Amy Sue Bix
Chapter 13 R emaking the World: The Steampunk Inventor on
Page and Screen 255
A. Bowdoin Van Riper
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Contents vii
Chapter 14 S teampunk’s Legacy: Collecting and Exhibiting the
Future of Yesterday 273
Jeanette Atkinson
Afterword: Steampunk: Looking at the Evidence 299
Jeff VanderMeer
Index 303
About the Editors, Contributors, and Artists 327
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Foreword
Ken Dvorak
As this anthology demonstrates, steampunk presents the popular culture
scholar with a multitude of venues from which to investigate this science
fiction and fantasy subgenre. Ray Browne (1922–2009), the founder of the
academic study of popular culture in America, wrote that popular culture “is
the everyday world around us: the mass media, entertainments, and diversions.
It is our heroes, icons, rituals, everyday actions, psychology, and religion—our
total life picture. It is the way of living we inherit, practice and modify as we
please, and how we do it. It is the dreams we dream while asleep.”1 And what
if these dreams are steampunk influenced? Steampunk turns upside down the
world of science fiction and fantasy. Reimagining both the past and the future,
often through a neo-Victorian lens, steampunk also allows us to debate serious
social, economic, political, and cultural issues relevant to our present lives.
Since the 1980s steampunk has witnessed the emergence of a global com-
munity of followers whose interest has moved beyond its Victorian literary
foundations, and the genre has split into a mash-up of creative influences.
A new generation of tinkerers and entrepreneurs make and sell steampunk-
themed products, including home décor items; laptops retrofitted with gears,
brass, and knobs; and fashion designs with such “must haves” as goggles,
corsets, and skin art. Steampunk has crossed over into feature films, fandom
groups, video games, and music (e.g., steampunk fair headliners Abney Park
and Professor Elemental). One can even fantasize with steam-powered vi-
brators (beware, you need to wear welding gloves because the vibrator gets
“hot,” according to one inventor!).2
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