Are you a Steampunk fan? Then enlighten me. Will Steampunk succeed and survive under its own head of steam? Will dirigibles dare to displace Dracula? Or Alucard? (If you are old enough, you will remember this: “Serutan” is “Natures” spelled backward).
I wonder about this: How far forward on the technological time-line is fair game for the enabling of the means to acquire monstrous mechanisms for a Steampunk tale? Will the devices of Steampunk be forever hobbled by the very real Laws of Thermodynamics so that the writer can never quite achieve a sufficient blurring of the division between fantasy and reality to obtain a breakthrough-level readership share? Can I possibly write a longer sentence?
Perhaps we don’t care that the devices are not believable. Would the devices be any less fun if they were powered by one ring that ruled them all, rather than springs and boilers? Is that what Steampunk is really about? Do we voluntarily check our disbelief at the door before we open the book and begin reading? Is all the responsibility on the reader, and none on the writer? And should Steampunk remain unadulterated by the introduction of vampires (actually, it’s too late for that)?
I hope your steam safety valve is about to blow, because I want to know what you think. You can contact me from the form on this blog site, or from the one on my website: www.hortondeakins.com
