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Steampunk Research Thread

Makemakean

Mr Makemean
Pronouns
Logical, unlike those in German
So, as some of you already know, I've for the past year been working on this thing that was supposed to be a TLIAW but that has quickly turned into something looking more into a novel length book, and while I've got an entire chapter written out and excess of fifty pages of notes, I have yet to properly publish anything on the site (as unfortunately is how it often goes with matters like this for me). But I hope that this time I can make an exception and finish it, because the whole thing is not open-ended this time, I already have a clear idea of beginning, middle, and end, acts, and all that sort of thing.

The the PoD is way back in 1770, the story is set almost entirely on Friday 28 June 1867. And the world it's set in is a steampunk world.

My question to you folks is, what would you guys like to see in a steampunk world?
 
Idk,actually.Politics,culture,people in general being affected by events possibly relating to steam powered technology.The world being slightly more advanced.Some form of critique of society?

I do like however the Swedish Strangerverse world you created.Just go wild,I trust you.
 
Well, I feel I'm already pretty satisfied with the "message of the story" if it can be called such. At the moment, I am mainly looking at things to help figuring out the feel of the whole matter, so to speak.

To give an example of what I'm looking for, I kind of really enjoyed a factoid @Redolegna once told me about how aluminium was considered a luxury metal back in the day on account of being so rare to find in its pure form that Napoleon III had his cutlery made not in gold, but in far more expensive for the time aluminium.

The whole idea about how the Chartists had curiously among their many demands for democratic reform advocated the introduction of primitive voting machines, etc., stuff like that. Minor things that you keep in the background that doesn't necessarily impact the story but helps establish the feel of everything...
 
Actual working class people and less fascination with the world of the upper classes.

Steampunk rarely works as it typically bogs down in COGS! COGS! EVERYWHERE! and a fascination with the upper classes, who also quicky adapt to 20th century western values and enlightened attitudes to others then everyone has a dance in fancy dresses, adorned with cogs.
 
Actual working class people and less fascination with the world of the upper classes.

Steampunk rarely works as it typically bogs down in COGS! COGS! EVERYWHERE! and a fascination with the upper classes, who also quicky adapt to 20th century western values and enlightened attitudes to others then everyone has a dance in fancy dresses, adorned with cogs.
Quoted for truth.

I would add (because I can't leave well alone) that not only do the upper classes quickly adopt modern western values and enlightened attitudes, they do so with no explanation as to why they should, and it just arises out of authorial fiat.

One rarely gets to see the viewpoint looking up, and on the few occasions one does, it is generally written with a complete lack of nuance or understanding.

No, I agree with you entirely, and I truly am doing my best to get as many working class and tenant farming class people into my story as I can.

I do admit though that my vantage point as an early twenty-first century member of the comfortable (upper) middle class kind of obscures my view a little, so I would much appreciate if you fellows could elaborate a little further as to what themes it is that you feel a steampunk story or universe should explore vis-a-vis the working class characters?
 
Actual working class people and less fascination with the world of the upper classes.

Steampunk rarely works as it typically bogs down in COGS! COGS! EVERYWHERE! and a fascination with the upper classes, who also quicky adapt to 20th century western values and enlightened attitudes to others then everyone has a dance in fancy dresses, adorned with cogs.

Didn't Charlie Stross basically that Steampunk should shine a light on the horrors of the Victorian era and not a cogs-based pulp adventure novel?
 
To give some more background, one of the four main stories I have making up the book is set in Åbo/Turku, the capital of the Grand Principality of Finland. Once a city that was almost entirely Swedish-speaking, by 1867, thanks in great part due to industrialization, it now has a more even distribution among Swedish and Finnish-speakers, but unfortunately, it has become somewhat segregated on its own, with most Finnish-speakers living on the west side of the river flowing through the city, and most Swedish-speakers living on the east side (as in OTL). What with rising Finnish nationalism, there are tensions between the Swedish-speakers and the Finnish-speakers. There is also a bilingual upper class (as in OTL). Also, there an exilic Russian community in the city of immigrants seeking better jobs and better wages, but, well, the wages they earn are somewhat lower than that of Swedish- and Finnish-speakers.

The main character for that story is a policeman working for the station on the East Side. The fellow is actually a native-Finnish speakers, but because of cultural and historical reasons, he has ended up with a Swedish surname. The fellow comes from poor farmer stock, and is a veteran of a recent war.

Didn't Charlie Stross basically that Steampunk should shine a light on the horrors of the Victorian era and not a cogs-based pulp adventure novel?

Why not both?
 
To be able to write good steampunk you just need to watch this video.


Seriously, though, I have put a lot of thought into how the lives of people, especially the working classes, would be affected by the technology I write about in my books. However, it's hard to bring it in to the story when your narrative is centred on a squadron of pilots without making it feel artificial. One of the upcoming books will be based in the slums of London and there I will show how the shift in technology and necessary resources has affected the common people, but I do mention in the book based in Russia, for example that the Tsar actually sponsored research and development into farming machinery which freed his people from backbreaking field work and allowed them more time for the arts, science and fun.
Remember that not everything has to be changed, though, in the fifth book in the series, based in Malta, the lives of the fishermen are very much like they would have been in our world.
 
I agree with the mentions of the Working Class, particularly how they were viewed as rather disposable, essentially if you weren't a middle class or higher white cis male you were seen as lesser by most of those folks. This was the period where Eugenics and Malthusian idea were popular amongst the wealthy so I would recommend giving them a quick look in.

I would add that the 1860s was during the high point of Anarchism and the beginning of a number of Socialist movements they could be interesting to include

(Difference Engine is rather good at this stuff, it ain't perfect but it's a Steampunk novel that deconstructs Victorian values and Imperialist ambitions).
 
I might take you up on that, David, if only to see the British side of the coin.

That all said, I think the big issue with steampunk is the fact that it's moving away from the punk. You need to write something with a touch of grit, and then find a social thing and hammer on it a little to build a table you're putting the rest of the story on. Anarchism, syndacalism, communism; you need something to use as a backdrop to the inevitable class conflicts. If you're writing from the top down, you're doing it wrong-

-looks over to the entire ZQ series, Fortunate Son starts in background-

-and you should probably find some bullshit to throw in there to break apart whatever upper-class tomfoolery you've been doing this whole time. I do this with perpetual debt and the occasional boiled-down text wall and liberal use of globe-hopping (With a side of 'fuck white guys' because it's la belle epoque, what else ya gonna do) to open the door.
 
* all the aforementioned class stuff, because steampunk should be a big change there and force some things to the surface

* how much worse is pollution and environmental degradation at this point?

* General look at what the popular culture and high art is like here. Is it the same as the real 1867 in broad strokes or has stuff changed? Like, if technology has advanced, do you have the equivalent of 1920s Brooklands' racing tracks but early, with steamcars?

(Al Ewing did a few steampunks in the mid-00s and chucked in proto-hip hop, what Andy Warhol is doing, and the equivalent of Nazi punks. Had an interview where he said what interested him was seeing how far it could go: 'is it still steampunk if Grandmaster Flash exists? If not, why not?')
 
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