Whenever I mention my writing projects, inevitably someone either says "Oh, like The Difference Engine" or "You mean like Hellboy 2?", or (but not so often) "Like that Treasure Planet". And although there is a lot of similarities, to be honest I've never read The Difference Engine.
But what constitutes steampunk? More specificially, what do I mean when I say I'm writing a steampunk romance? Of course, I mean romance in the literary sense of "containing extraordinary characters and an overarching theme", although these ladies can provide fine examples of your modern romance.
But back to steampunk. It is often confused with cyberpunk, and between the confusion of the two and the fact that they mainly developed on the Internet makes research tricky. From the two genres comes clockpunk, pirate-punk, and no doubt other types of "punk" will be discovered. The Foglios also have made the distinction of gaslamp fantasy for more widesweeping changes in both scientific achievement in both physics and biology.
Origins- Early examples of what would eventually be termed cyberpunk and steampunk come from the 1930s and 1940s, with Fritz Lang's Metropolis being one of the prominent examples of cyberpunk. As such, it portrayed a harsh, brilliant world of science both originating from and struggling against human emotion and desires. The world of the future is rooted organically in its architects- both villains and heroes. Such is cyberpunk, which commonly can be detected by the anachronistic presence of outdated and obsolete-looking equipment alongside incredibly advanced technology. Think of the real world Neo wakes up in at the middle of The Matrix. Or most of futuristic anime. If you see goggles or a victrola in a space setting, it's cyberpunk.
Steampunk is the reverse, featuring advanced scientific achievement and gadgets in a Victorian/Regency setting. Victorian era = steam engines, hence Steampunk. Clockpunk is very closely related, but I think of it as more stylistic since the big thing seems to be gears, escapements, and automata made from such, and there doesn't seem to be a huge difference in ethos. Steampunk and clockpunk describe the same world: Victorian clothes, awesome gadgets, and amazing gallantry. That is my version of steampunk, and what I will review and post on. For Science!
