I've noticed something.

[pantryslut]

Have you ever noticed how steampunk seems to completely elide the American Civil War, even though it's sitting right smack in the middle of its purported time period? Is this just vestigal Eurocentrism, or is something else going on? Or have I gone off my rocker?

Comments

possible reasons?

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

1. Most steampunkers I know actually like later Victorian to Edwardian better, aesthetically.

2. Steampunk owes a lot of its ancestry to pulp adventure stories about exploration of other lands, and encounters with Others. The Civil War doesn't have much to do with that.

3. Steampunk is *alt* history, not actual history.

Re: possible reasons?

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

4. ZOMG! SLAVERY! OMGWTFBBQ!!!11!ONE!

Most steampunkery is Victorian nostalgia with the colonialism and racism conveniently expunged. Civil-War steampunkery would cut too close to what was expunged, and the expunged lacunae would be too big to ignore.

Re: possible reasons?

[bifemmefatale.livejournal.com]

Quite true. I had a huge post on steamfashion deleted because we started talking about racism and colonialism in steampunk and it ruffled feathers. But it birthed steampunkdebate and some interesting posts while it was hot.

Re: possible reasons?

[srl.livejournal.com]

Civil-War steampunkery would cut too close to what was expunged

Since pretty much all US technology of the 1850s and 1860s owed its existence to an economy built on slavery, it's not like you could just handwave things away by sticking to a New England background.

That said, I can imagine someone doing interesting steampunky things with an alternate history of successful revolt by the enslaved metalworkers at the Tredegar Iron Works or Buffalo Forge.

Re: possible reasons?

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

That would be awesome.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

You're supposed to read Harry Turtledove if you want American Civil War fic.

And steampunk isn't dealing with much of the politics of Europe either, is it?

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

The one alternate-history timeline I'm interested in is one where John Brown didn't get captured at Harpers Ferry, and various other things happened along that line. I wrote a piece in that timeline for Glorifying Terrorism but haven't done much other work in it. I'm noodling a story in that universe now, having first thought about writing one in the not-Poland universe (which I have been convinced is just too late for steampunk).

Since steampunk is also a fashion movement, there are a lot of people involved in it who just want to have fun and they don't address a lot of things.

Is Freedom and Necessity pre-steampunk? It has Friedrich Engels as a very attractive minor character . . . but it's way over in the fantasy corner. Not a dirigible in sight, though there are steam trains.

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

The one alternate-history timeline I'm interested in is one where John Brown didn't get captured at Harpers Ferry, and various other things happened along that line.

Have you read Terry Bisson's Fire on the Mountain? I liked it.

Since steampunk is also a fashion movement, there are a lot of people involved in it who just want to have fun and they don't address a lot of things.

Very true.

(Haven't read Freedom and Necessity, so I can't really say.)

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I hate it when people say you have to read things, but I'm going to be one of those. You might not actually like it, depending on your taste in fiction (there were parts I was less interested in: one of the characters is too mystical for me and I found her slightly boring, so I tended to skip her and go on with the other guy), but you have to give yourself the chance: get this: it has Friedrich Engels as a minor character who gives advice and aids the protagonist in his struggle against wicked supernatural forces. Also, Tolpuddle martyrs.

[abostick59.livejournal.com]

I don't know if pantryslut has to read Freedom and Necessity, but I rather think imnotandrei does, if he hasn't already.

[amarama.livejournal.com]

YES! YES! HAVE NOTICED! YES!

[seyewailo.livejournal.com]

Steam punk is not about any time period, but instead about an imaginary time of dirigibles, magical realism, and fake British accents. Silly.

Now stop bringing up those inconvenient ideas about colonialism and come play dress up!

[sigh]

[jeliza]

Have you read any of Cherie Priest's Clockwork Century novels? The American Civil War is fairly prominent in them.

(Though certainly much of the steampunk I've encountered is awash is unconsidered Victorianish colonialism; Priest seems to be more of an exception in terms of the commercially popular literature)

Furthermore...

[the-ogre.livejournal.com]

..they are excellent stores, as well.

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

I thought Steam Punk was more 1870s - 1920s, so later than the Civil War. But what do I know? Are they doing a lot of stuff with France's Second Empire?