A few weeks ago I made a very lame Australian political joke about steampunk submarines. It’s not worth repeating. But it reminded me about how hopeful I was just over a decade ago regarding steampunk exploding onto the fiction scene. It never happened.
And I started thinking about why not, and timing, and how times of crisis change our fiction consumption, and how mythology is more powerful than history.
Which led me to a new prediction.
::insert drum roll::
Retropunk.
Sadly, I think the chance of steampunk becoming more than a niche subgenre has passed. However, retropunk, which reimagines the past and the future, while critiquing the present, and without being limited to steam engines and Queen Victoria being all “we are not amused”, is really well-positioned to claim attention.
Whatever world we wish we had, retropunk can inhabit it. Retropunk can push us forward to a future of delirious disintegration or of flourishing space colonies. It can be anything, but whatever it is will be framed by nostalgia. That nostalgia provides the stepping stones, ones that steampunk lacked, to bring the popular imagination along with it.
[If you’re curious about my steampunk adventures, I recommend The Icarus Plot for a traditional London setting and Clockwork Gold for an Australian version.]
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