In a recent query, someone asked me if I’d consider reading a Steampunk story for Distant Worlds. I’m not going to say who as I haven’t asked their permission, but the question started me down an interesting train of thought. The reason this person asked is because many editors/people seem to dismiss the sub-genre as Fantasy.
Really? Steampunk is Fantasy?
If I sound like I’m arguing, maybe I should ask myself what it is before saying what it isn’t.
In Steampunk, the author takes Industrial Revolution scientific sensibilities (steam power often being the key, surprise, surprise), assumes them to represent reality to some significant degree, and extrapolates from there to tell a story. Doesn’t sound much like Fantasy, does it? In fact, this sounds a little bit like something else to me: Alternate History, where the author takes some key event, large or small, and extrapolates the changes from it to tell a story. Steampunk seems like it’s a specialized form of Alternate History. However, in and of itself, Alternate History is a sub-genre of Literary Fiction.
Wait a second. Literary Fiction? Aren’t we supposed to be talking about Science Fiction? Sure, I haven’t stopped. Remember Damon Knight? Well, I’m pointing at Steampunk. Some of it, anyway. Some of it I’ll point to and say Fantasy or Horror or Alternate History or Secret History or even Historical Fiction.
You see, Steampunk isn’t just a sub-genre of something, but a reimagining of a chunk of the past, all the potential of the early industrial age exploding out of that tiny little box we’ve tried to shoehorn it into by labelling it. What overall genre you feel like putting a given story under will depend on what you bring to it. I don’t mean just “did you use SF tropes like robots and rayguns or Fantasy tropes like fairies and magic”, but what you’ve got in mind when you write (or read) the story.
Because intent is important. If you write any story, Steampunk or otherwise, intending it to be Science Fiction, you’re going to push yourself in that direction. Why should I tell you you’re wrong? At worst, I might tell you it doesn’t work for me. On those infrequent occasions I say something isn’t SF, it’s for one of two reasons:
- There is no identifiable speculative element whatsoever.
- The speculative elements involved make it clearly fantasy to me.
Catch that last? To me. Genre is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. None of us sees the universe in exactly the same way. It stands to reason that we might not see the same story in the same way.
So, to come back to the original question, I said yes. If the person who asked the question can get the story done and in by the deadline, and can call it SF, I’ll happily read it. One of my rules of thumb is to never let my own preconceptions stand in the way of a good story.
Too few people remember the ‘eye of the beholder’ point.
I’m interested: what do you think of Anne McCaffrey’s insistence that the Pern novels are science fiction? (One of my own back-burner projects has an equally slim claim.)
If I look only at the first three books, it becomes difficult to say SF. She may have had later developments in mind, but the further you get into the series, the more the SF elements become part of the story. I don’t know whether she initially intended it to be SF (which, considering how much Fantasy she’s done wouldn’t surprise me) or if things developed that way as she told more and more stories, but the primary fantasy elements involved initially would be the dragons and the riders’ individual telepathy with them, and she eventually gave things a genetic engineering justification. Taken as a whole, with the other elements added in, I can easily go SF.
But, of course, your mileage may vary.
i think (can’t swear to it) that she always envisaged it as sf, because ‘fantasy usually contains magic’. I dispute that – fantasy needn’t – and i have to say the experience of reading the Pern books feels just like fantasy even though the dragons are supposed to be genetically engineered which brings them within sf. To me, simply inventing a vague scientific reason for the existence of creatures or conditions essential to the story doesn’t make the story sf. Nor do most stories need to be sf, most of the time.
But i can’t quite decide where i myself draw the line. i’m happy to stop at ‘I don’t know’. Most genre boundaries are a bit fuzzy and i prefer cross-genre fiction anyway. My own mileage varies even when i re-read the same work, so i can’t be doing with semantic arguments! Though it’s endlessly interesting to try and pin down what my personal criteria are.
I’d definitely dispute that fantasy has to contain magic, but it’s probably safe to say that it usually does. I think the main thing that pulls it into the SF zone for me is the Thread itself and its extra-planetary origin. Fighting it with fire breathing dragons does seem a little more like fantasy, but why would being both necessarily be bad? Mixing things up can be fun.
Most genre and sub-genre lines are very wide and fuzzy. There are times when you can definitively say ‘this belongs here’, and that’s fine, but there’s a lot of interesting space in the borderlands too. And I find my own personal criteria sometimes shift when I’m not looking.
I hate it when i agree with every word someone says. ;0)
But i do agree, entirely, and i love the wide n fuzzy borderlines too. They make ‘crossing the line’ more of a challenge.
I started a steam punk themed story for Sonar Four recently. Very “steam” oriented and Victorian aged, I have a lot of research time accumulated in this 5000 word endeavor.
Consider Jules Vern’s writings. Or anything with clockwork machinery that brings about extraordinary events.
Heinlein coined the phrase Speculative Fiction and he certainly was open to a broad sense of the genre. I feel you are right to allow the person to submit to Distant Worlds. A well written story will not fail to entertain readers.
Now watch my hard line sci-fi get aced out
by steam punk.
Mike
The submissions I’ve had so far are pretty eclectic, sometimes easy to define and sometimes in those fuzzy borderlands. One or two stories have bent my own perceptions a little bit, too, making the borders a bit wider and fuzzier. With almost two weeks left, I’ve got a feeling I’m in for more surprises before the end and that’s a good thing.
[...] in November and I’d like to say thank you to both. And someone read my recent ramble on what genre Steampunk belongs in over at Fantasy Magazine, adding it to their Steampunk Links for January, which is very cool. If [...]