Backlash
Is there a Steampunk backlash? So says Design Observer via io9.
Myself, I do think one should distinguish between backlash as in: “Michael Phelps is a God!!…Oh, you know what, actually, he’s kinda boring…” and a backlash wherein something that has underlying intrinsic value gets copied/cheapened/ruthlessly exploited till it means nothing and then folks exclaim what a load of bollocks. Because to my mind “backlash” should be reserved for the former rather simple scenario, wherein we realize that it was a load of bollocks to begin with, and the latter scenario, wherein that which is lovely has been rendered a load of bollocks by forces larger that the original lovely thing.
Then to bring this post full circle—from one anthology edited by my host, to another:
Jeff’s Steampunk anthology -> Steampunk generally -> Paul DeFilipo, author of, inter alia The Steampunk Trilogy -> the Weird Universe that Paul just emailed me about this AM, totally check it out -> ta-da! Jeff and Anne’s other Tachyon anthology The New Weird!
(Ah, I love it when a post comes together…)
2 comments on “Backlash”
I like that Steampunk look, whether or not it makes sense in the context of the era it most often reflects. A lot of people didn’t like the Wild, Wild West with Will Smith, either, but hey – the guy with a Victrola horn sticking out from where his ear should have been – classic!
But at its best, Steampunk is more than a “look.” It can be downright profound. When Gibson & Sterling’s The Difference Engine comes to a close, we witness the seminal stirrings of artificial intelligence,
kicking
to
evolve
!
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