Simply, Steampunk is a state of mind. While everyone's version of Steampunk is different, its about taking the disparate things and mixing them together in a manner that is at once striking and totally logical from this new perspective that has been created. What characterizes Steampunk is its use of Victorian sensibilities and Aesthetic, but many variants alter this paradigm, throwing in fantasy elements or changing the time period. Steampunks are fascinated by technology and while may at times have an ambivalence generally have the optimism of a Scientific Romance (The early science fiction works like Verne and Welles).
Steampunk has complicated history, but that's really a story for another time, so I will go into the basics here. It first came into being as a Literary movement, and has since become a Countercultural and Artistic one.
Like the Matrix, you need to see it to get it really, so here's a list of things to look at. I'll discuss each of these things and their significance in subsequent posts. (This is also by no means a complete list)
Movies:
Steamboy
Howl's Moving Castle
Wild Wild West
Treasure Planet
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (Technically a variant called Dieselpunk)
Books:
The Difference Engine
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Steampunk
Morlock Night
Websites:
Brass Goggles (A meeting-place for steampunks)
Music and Art are also extant, but if you're totally new to this, it will be clearest with movies and books.
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