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[FARTRON]

Last week Sterling dropped eamespunk as a possible more palatable *punk for a design critic. It's quickly taken off on it's own mini *punk theme.

I started thinking more about brickpunk too. At first I thought, well, babylonians had bricks.. but I guess brick style is really associated with the industrial revolution. Which makes it something of a subset of steampunk. Perhaps an alternative-alternative-victorian history, in which metal is far more rare and intricately packed mud leads to mechanistic marvels.

And then I thought "punkpunk" which is either an alternate mechanical history of alternate mechanical histories, or is an alternate history of DIY punk culture in which Anarchy comes to 1970s U.K. (as well as New York and other environs) in the form of basement-made robots and AIs.

[dmoonfire]

According to Wikipedia, bricks were used clear back in 7,500 B.C so its a fairly wide-open time frame. In my fantasy world, they are just entering the industrial revolution so that is where I focus most of my stuff. Of course, in that world the couple from my story are considered country bumpkins because they don't use proper iron and steam to power their stuff.

[Cymon]

I think it's funny that the "punk" aspect is being over looked in all of these _____punks. The setting, environments, and technology were always secondary to the original stories, but they were so cool that they lived on when the antiestablishmenttarionistic theme of the story had been forgotten.

Woot, first time I've gotten to use that word in a sentence. Hope I spelled it right.

The problem with that (the separation of the thematic elements from the technological environment) is that we end up with things like Will Smith's Wild Wild West, where we get a 50 foot mechanical steam powered spider in the old west, but no one cares.

[Lukas]

I didn't read any of the posts in this thread.

The only thing I want to say:

STEAMPUNK FUCKING RULES   

I'm not too sure about Cyberpunk.

anyway... I wouldn't call Steampunk Steampunk.
People with Iros and revolvers don't make me fuzzy the Steampunk way...
Beautiful women in victorian clothing with revolvers do.
It should be called... Steam Fiction. 

[Hideous]

I think it's funny that the "punk" aspect is being over looked in all of these _____punks. The setting, environments, and technology were always secondary to the original stories, but they were so cool that they lived on when the antiestablishmenttarionistic theme of the story had been forgotten.

Woot, first time I've gotten to use that word in a sentence. Hope I spelled it right.

The problem with that (the separation of the thematic elements from the technological environment) is that we end up with things like Will Smith's Wild Wild West, where we get a 50 foot mechanical steam powered spider in the old west, but no one cares.

Antidisestablishmenttharianistic.

[Seth]

The problem with that (the separation of the thematic elements from the technological environment) is that we end up with things like Will Smith's Wild Wild West, where we get a 50 foot mechanical steam powered spider in the old west, but no one cares.

maybe it's too long to be worth it, but there it is

[team_q]

Antidisestablishmenttharianistic,
not quite right, that means someone who is against the separation of church and state.

[muku]

I think it's funny that the "punk" aspect is being over looked in all of these _____punks. The setting, environments, and technology were always secondary to the original stories, but they were so cool that they lived on when the antiestablishmenttarionistic theme of the story had been forgotten.

I agree. With cyberpunk, I think you get that anti-establishment vibe, but I never really got where the punk is in steampunk, and I only just learned through this thread that there are even more "*punks". The term just seems to be a backformation from cyberpunk, without heeding its roots, and to me it doesn't make much sense. So, I also agree with BaronCid that "steam fiction" would perhaps be a more fitting name, but on the other hand you gotta admit that that doesn't sound anywhere near as cool as "steampunk".

[dmoonfire]

I chose to read the "*punk" is doing beyond the ordinary and pushing the limits. So, building a steam-powered mecha (Five Fists of Science, a great comic considered steampunk) is just as appropriate as somehow managing to recreating a TIE-fighter with LEGO while inspired by steampunk. For me, even cyberpunk was less about fighting against the corporations and goverment and more about pushing the limits of technology (cyber). That is why I wrote about the brick powered robot. That is basically pushing the limits.

[FARTRON]

History review:

Bruce Sterling and William Gibson were two of the founding fathers of cyberpunk. Their cyberpunk stories often involved anti-establishment themes, either as characters or as a general characterization of the corporate run world as a distopia.

The two of them wrote The Difference Engine, the progenitor of all things steampunk, which also had strong anti-establishment themes. Steampunk deserved its suffix in the beginning.

Bruce Sterling has gone on to coin several other *punk terms, in a slightly sarcastic fashion.

Part of what I think makes something *punk is DIY spirit, and an acknowledgment of the malleability of social convention. Simply claiming that things could have been/could be different is a radical position.

That said, greekpunk has room for expansion.

[Cymon]

That said, greekpunk has room for expansion.

That's funny. I've long thought that the sciences we consider exclusive to our "advanced" and "enlightened" age are not as exclusive as we thought. Only that there was no passing on of technologies in the past. There's a story I've been developing for a while now that would take place around the ancient world where the rise and fall of these technologies would be plotted, only in my story the Chinese representative would be more mechanically inclined and the Greek was more focused on genetic manipulation resulting in centaurs, minotaurs, and mermaids.

I've got some drawings, one of them being a giant clockwork robot, that have been lost in the move. They'll turn up at which time I'll happily scan them in and share them with yawl.

[Cymon]

maybe it's too long to be worth it, but there it is

That was funny. 20 minutes to get to the punchline, and you can't just fast forward to the punchline and get it. You absolutely have to at least listen to every minute of the blasted thing. But so worth it.