So, I got creative today and decided to start a movement…
This is the first draft of this image. What do you think? Did I miss any vital elements? How do you like my font choices? Is the balance all right? Do you think it should say “before I knew it was a genre” instead, of can we just enjoy the self-righteousness? Do you think I should I print some Tshirts? I got the idea, talking with my Mom about our shared love of the genre. She can claim to be a fan from well before the first appearances of the word “Steampunk” even appeared, but since I was born in the 80s, I can’t. Even so, I’m always saying that I was a Steampunk way before I knew that was even a thing. Here’s just a few examples of my world before I knew what the word “Steampunk” meant.
My favorite cartoon as a kid was TaleSpin: not Victorian, but filled with airship pirates. My favorite movie has always been, and will always be, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (do yourself a favor and watch the Giorgio Moroder soundtrack version): Steam-powered dystopian paradise with a robot chick. My favorite TV show was Brisco County Jr: basically a B-version of Aliens Vs Cowboys, with Bruce Campbell. In my teens, I loved the Myst games so much that I learned how to write whole letters in the in-game language “Shorah!” and had a vast collection of ink-dip pens and parchment: heavens, what ISN’T Steampunk about those games? And, just a few years before someone told me what Steampunk actually was, Firefly captured my heart: You can’t take the sky from me…
Talking with other fans of the genre, I hear similar stories frequently. What about you? Did you find that all of your favorite things were always Steamy, and you just had to be told the name of your life-long obsession? Were you there well before us all, reading Verne and dreaming in steam? Let me know in a comment. I’d love to know.
In the meantime, why not enjoy a little well-deserved hipstery indignation? Tug your woolly scarf tighter in the summer breeze, slip on a pair of chunky retro lens-less specks, and repeat after me with self-important pride: “I liked Steampunk before it was cool…” Doesn’t the just feel delightful? I love it.
Clockwork Twist 