I’m not sure if I understand what steampunk is. Please explain. Also, is it the same as “steam horror” which I saw mentioned in a comment on Instagram?
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Answer: steampunk is an imagined alternate reality in which steam based technology wasn’t outcompeted by electricity and internal combustion engines.
So rather than electronics you have lots of boilers, valves, pipes and gears permeating all of technology. Electricity is stuck on an old stage, with Leyden jars and such.
Steampunk embraces showing off the internal construction of stuff. You don’t have sleek devices like an iPhone. Everything has lots of details, moving parts and visible innards.
Airships also tend to be prominent.
The other answer is a great definition of steampunk the genre I will add it often contains Victorian themes and social norms such as a stratified class system and elaborate dress/ornamentation for the wealthy.
IIRC, the term was coined to describe Gibson and Sterling’s *The Difference Engine,* which sort of started the genre and defined the aesthetic. It’s an alternate history novel set around the time of Babbage.
“Steampunk” is an obvious reference to “Cyberpunk”. Both Gibson and Sterling are most famous for novels written in the cyberpunk style.
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