Ok, I just stumbled upon this on BoingBoing, and it sounds like a very interesting approach to science fiction, a genre that may inspire interesting things.
According to Da Vinci Automata, the site linked from BB, Clockpunk:
Clockpunk can be divided into historical and non-historical Clockpunk. Historical Clockpunk explores how the world would have turned out if certain technological developments that occurred later had happened in the Renaissance and or certain inventions in the time of the Renaissance were created on a mass scale in the time period.Non-historical Clockpunk is set in settings similar to the Renaissance but on alternative worlds, planets etc.
It also goes on to explain that the punk thing isn’t really right, but it’s the name that stuck, and it’s what the genre has become known as.
Now…I love what-if historical SF…the 1632 series by Eric Flint, with its tons of contributers via sanctioned fanfic in the Grantville Gazette, the tons of attempted stories in the baen forum dedicated to the posting of stories and so on, is one of the most active SF universes I’ve ever witnessed…and it’s an incredible fun read :) So…Clockpunk sounds to me like what-if historical SF, within a specific period or developmental constraint (in the case of those books/stories that are in alternative worlds), which sounds…pretty much like the 1632 series lol! Except, of course, for Clockpunk being set in an older historical period (14th-16th centuries).
Unfortunately, DVA’s post with bibliography for the genre is empty, which means…time to search around and see what books are out there within this genre. Of course, if you know of any books in this genre, I’d love to hear about it…otherwise, I’ll have to spend a couple of days searching and I’ll post whatever I find some time this week :)
UPDATE: Of course, once my brain started working, I decided to go to Wikipedia and see what it said about Clockpunk, and found a short, way too short, list of works that seem to qualify for this genre:
Clockpunk works include Pasquale’s Angel by Paul McAuley. There are also clockpunk elements in the Marvel 1602 comic series and its sequels, and in the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett, most notably a da Vinci space shuttle in The Last Hero.
So…there’s at least a couple of books worth searching for to see what the deal is, and hopefully they’ll be as fun as the genre sounds like
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Tags: Books, Thoughts
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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 10th, 2007 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Books, Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Seriously… it’s just steampunk. If you need to differentiate the genre because of the fact that perhaps the fiction takes place in a time slightly before they had steam - you’re taking it too seriously. Clockpunk is not new, though the term may be.
For a good Steampunk/Clockpunk movie, check out Steamboy.
I understand what you are saying…but…subgenres like this are nothing new in SF/F, and they come and go with ease. On the other hand, some times they just explode and become entrenched in the minds of readers. Truth is…I like the *name* clockpunk better than steampunk…and a good genre name helps :)
As for a movie…I don’t do movies, but thanks for the recommendation, maybe some reader will like to check it out :)
I see Etruscan already suggested Steamboy so now I don’t have anything to add unless you count Wild Wild West with Wil Smith, which is also a movie so not what you’re looking for either.
I’ve got Marvel 1602 sitting around here somewhere I’ve been meaning to read, maybe I’ll give it a look. I’m a fan of the genre.
I think my first encounter with clockpunk was tick-tock the clockwork man of oz. :) Oh, that was a long time ago wasn’t it? Those were Hardy Boys years those were… I’d love to re-read those books to recapture the sense of wonder I felt while reading them, but I was so much younger then… I’m afraid they wouldn’t hold up or be as great as I thought they were when I was in my single digits. I’ve changed a little since then… just a little. :)
Genre name shouldn’t matter, and I think the difference here is so subtle, there shouldn’t be a distinction. We’ve compartmentalized fiction too much already.
But I defer to your disinterest in movies and give to you… some literature! For a good Steampunk/Clockpunk BOOK, check out The Difference Engine (William Gibson and Bruce Sterling).
I knew I had read something like this before besides the Flint and Weber stuff! I read Difference Engine a few years back…uhm…when I got into my cyberpunk stage and got to read Hacker Crackdown and other Sterling articles, as well as Neuromancer and the rest of the stuff Gibson wrote in that universe…good stuff :) And both Gibson and Sterling are great writers, whom I enjoy immensely :) Guess I’ll re-read it now lol!
And yes, I can see your POV about the fragmentation…but thing is…I think that sooner rather than later, one of the two names will eat the other one, whether because it’s a “prettier” name (for some definition of such) or because the fans/authors just decide to ignore one or the other names. Time will tell, I guess :)