Having never heard of the term "steampunk" until today, I am surprised to find myself already a fan of the genre. I've long been a science fiction fan, loving the futuristic works of Ray Bradbury
, Isaac Asimov
, and the like. I've also liked The Leauge of Extraordinary Gentlemen
which is based on the comic book series by Alan Moore who also created the anti-hero V of V for Vendetta
fame Apparently those movies are somewhat Steampunk. Similarly, I've always been intrigued by the movie starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline which is based upon a television series of the same name - Wild Wild West
. Apparently, this is Western Steampunk. And, of course, I have long read H.G. Wells
and Jules Verne
, which apparently a lot of steampunk artists base their stuff on. Do you find yourself scratching your head and saying, "Huh?" out loud to yourself? 'Cause I certainly did earlier today.So, I did a little research and found out that steampunk actually has a long and fascinating history. What I find equally as fascinating is the apparently large cult following of all things steampunk and how little I previously knew of this interesting genre and its audience. A quick search on Amazon.com for steampunk turned up everything from books to apparel to props and more.
My momma always told me, "You learn something new every day." Today I learned more than one thing. I learned about a new genre, I learned something about what the future of writing might be and how it could involve the internet and I learned that steampunk is a word...okay a made up word...but, hey, Shakespeare
made up a whole bunch of words that we don't call made up any more!
