Steampunk, is it Erudite to Me?

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, or perhaps I’m misinterpreting the article, finally, mayhaps I just have the wrong definition in my mind (much like those three years where I thought erudite was pronounced with a long “e” sound . . . irony can be pretty ironic and embarrassing at cocktail parties) but I’ve always thought of the model of steampunk and cyperpunk genres as different than that which is defined in this WSJ article Why Steampunk’s Time Has Come by Tom Shippey (here).

I planned to start this post with the admission that I like steampunk as a genre and idea. This would not have been surprising if the reader considers this post wherein I reference Neil Stephenson’s Snowcrash (here) that I wrote sometime in the past two years. But I decided against it as it seems I have the wrong idea about the genre.

Other than Snowcrash, I think of the Terry Gilliam movie Brazil as the best or most accurate visualization of steampunk. Computers that work like adding machines, monitors that are seen through a large lens, tubes, gears and other oddities used with gusto throughout the society. Each scene is fun to look at and imagine for these details. Other than Snowcrash (again, questionable based on ones definition) I haven’t read much steampunk. For a while I toyed with the idea of reading Android Karenina by Ben Winters (here), a re-telling of Anna Karenina through a steampunk lens, but gave up on the idea sometime last year. This WSJ article may have re-invigorated the drive in me. Tom Shippey makes Robert Jackson Bennett's The Company Man and Stephen Hunt's The Rise of the Iron Moon seem imminently interesting and readable. More on this tomorrow.