This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Describe Steam Punk Discussion here.
Kersey475: Is Steampunk science fiction or is it fantasy?
- Tricksterson: I would say it's a blend, mostly coming down on the fantasy side.
- redfish: Steampunk tries to imagine technological developments, and, like most sci-fi, can't possibly be accurate, so I don't think its any different than any other science fiction. Its speculative sci-fi. Sometimes steampunk is also mixed into settings that also have fantasy elements like magic.
redfish: Victorian Fantasy isn't different because of the tone—-it goes beyond retro-futurism and into retro sci-fi. A good example is the game Martian Dreams... you travel to Mars by being shot out of a space cannon, the vehicle powered by something called phlogistonite, a play on phlogiston. Things on Mars are like Victorians imagined—you find an abandoned series of canals, creatures that are half-plant, half-animal, robots that run on radium, chewable oxygen, and berries that give you psychic powers. It imagines outmoded views of the world as if they were true. Something similar to this is Spelljammer in AD&D, where the universe is made of crystal spheres and you have flat planets, or the sun orbiting the Earth. Stories that features alchemy as if it were real, and The Golden Compass can also be seen as offshoots of Victorian Fantasy, in that they try to imagine the world as if it had a different set of scientific rules. It shares themes with Science-Fantasy, which refers to stories like a Wrinkle in Time.
Maggoty Anne No one says "Steam Punk," It's all one word. You wouldn't say "Cyber Punk," would you? STEAMPUNK! Fix it!
Daibhid C: Who wouldn't say Cyberpunk?
Meta Four: Removed Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow. That's Diesel Punk, not Steam Punk.
Anonymous Steampunk: Maybe I should have removed Bio Shock as well. It's Biopunk / Diesel Punk, not Steampunk.
Redwulf25_ci: From the Film section: "The movie version of Wild Wild West was Steam Punk, but the TV show wasn't (though the show had some examples of Clockpunk)."
From the Live Action TV section: "The Wild Wild West (but less so the movie)."
Which is it damn it?
