(C) Dr.Dismal^LFG
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In the second issue of our 'crazy' publication, I told you about
cyberpunk, as a new trend in SF literature (naturally on
west). Yes, undoubtedly, it was stylish, unusual, pretentious and
very shocking, but everything eventually comes to its inevitable
completion. Cyberpunk didn't want to leave just like that...
Steam powered computer...
As you probably remember, cyberpunk literary
the revolution ended in a very unusualnovel -
"The Differential Machine" (1990), which was co-written by
two cyberpunk leaders. It was after the appearance on the shelves of this
books have entered the dictionary of modern English
the word "steamrink". "Alternative" XX depicted by the authors
The century came thanks to one single invention. B
in the real 20th century it remained in the project, and in
fantastic story described by Gibson and Sterling - was
successfully implemented!
But first things first. England XIX century.
Naturally, there were no pagers or CD-ROMs then in
at all. But there was a real mathematician and inventor Charles
Babbage. A young and beautiful woman worked for him as an assistant.
female mathematician - Augusta Ada Lovelace. So this is the one
Babbage almost created the world's first computer then. Few
that he built a functioning and, at that time, unusual
efficient machine for compiling logarithmic and
astronomical tables. In his daring projects, the inventor
moved on. And in 1823 he sketched drawings of another machine,which he called differential. In his project he provided:
programs on punched cards, RAM, data banks,
blocks of input and output of initial information, block of its arithmetic
processing... For the successful construction of the first high-speed
the computer lacked only vacuum tubes and transistors...
The year was 1923. Not electronics - electricity did the first
steps as a human assistant, and even an enlightened public,
to which Lord Byron and Mary Shelley belonged, treated
this element with a mixture of admiration and mystical horror. A Babbage
with his assistant, who was just working on the problem
supplying initial data to the unit, which can deservedly
claim to be the first programmer in history, close
approached the creation of a computer. At their disposal
Then there was a reliable, proven power - steam. But to build
"steam" computer with mechanical wheels, shafts,
gears, it had to be made very large. And the idea
remained only in drawings and non-working models.
This is in reality. In the novel by Gibson and Sterling
it tells exactly what would happen to our civilization,
if onlyBabbage succeeded in his daring plans. The world that has taken over
"steam computer" at the beginning of the 19th century, of course, went along
a different path of development. London at the beginning of this century is even more
scary and inhumane than in Dickens's novels: the city is suffocating
from smog, dirt, industrial waste, traffic jams,
epidemics - in short, ready to collapse, burying under the ruins
plague-ridden and hunted inhabitants. And behind all this
the disgrace is observed by a giant computer that has evolved
from Babbage's first "differential" machine.
The novel simultaneously gave birth to a new witty term - and a whole
current of literary thought. Although the term itself is not entirely true
simple. For example, in the most complete English-language "Encyclopedia
science fiction", it seems that you can find a definition for everything that
has at least some relation to the fantasy genre. Steampunk
the authors devote a separate article, but from its exact definition
diligently evade. "A term invented in the 1980s by
analogies with cyberpunk. Denotes a subgenre of modern literature
with elements of science fiction and the indispensable presence
specific historical background - the 19th century. In this subgenre
a number of significant works have been written, but not too many of them
a lot."That's it.
The first significant steampunk work was the translated
we have a novel by the English writer Christopher Priest "Machine
space" (1976), although the term was not popular today
there was no trace of it. However, whatever you call it, Priest’s novel became
the first work in English-language science fiction where the action
unfolded in London at the end of the last century, among the heroes
was listed as "living" Herbert Wells, and the plot wittily closed two
his books are "The Time Machine" and "War of the Worlds". of course
the story presented in this work is, as it were, not quite
real, but alternative. Not like ours. The one that could
would have happened if everything had developed as Priest described. Later
he wrote another novel, "Prestige" (1995), which is already without
shadows of doubt can be attributed to steampunk. His hero was the one who lived
at the end of the last - beginning of this century, Czech inventor
Nikola Tesla. He emigrated to America (as in reality) and
discovered there a way to instantly move material objects to
arbitrarily large distances, otherwise
speaking, zero-transportation.
Priest's "comrade-in-arms" is also considered a forerunner of steampunk.
according to another revolution in science fiction that broke out at the beginning
sixties (meaning "new wave") - Michael Moorcock.
Among the works of this prolific author, who has tried everything
conceivable genres, there is also a trilogy about an alternative beginning of the century:
"Commander of the Air" (1971), "Earth Leviathan" (1974), "Steel
Tsar" (1981).
It is curious that the novels of yesterday's rebel and subverter
the foundations this time are full of sincere nostalgia. True, not according
the past, and the future - how it could seem
an Englishman from the distant “Victorian” era.
However, these books are still not pure steampunk
form. Not what they turned into, imbued with nostalgia
"retro-fiction" by American writers. And the explanation is here
lies in the differences between them and the English authors.
For Priest, turn-of-the-century London is a reality, if notfamiliar, then at least “historically close”. For modern
Americans, even if they speak the same (or rather similar)
language, the London streets where Sherlock Holmes walks during the day
with Dr. Watson, and Jack the Ripper prowls at night, -
as exotic, even “fantastic” as Mars.
So, steampunk is mainly an American phenomenon. But
created by those American authors who are irresistibly drawn
into the past of their ancestors. To Victorian England, in which, according to
Rumor has it that during the days it was so good, but at night the situation was better
you can't imagine it for a bloody thriller.
A dank and foggy labyrinth city in which the last
achievements of technical progress coexisted with
seances, bloody mysteries and various secret
sects and occult societies, it was no coincidence that it seemed
contemporaries of Wells and Arthur Conan Doyle "new Babylon".
The city woke up to the ringing of Big Ben's clock, the sound of cab wheels
cobblestone streets and the screams of newsboys; morning meant -
a fresh copy of the Times for breakfast (the main course of which is
oatmeal, also unchanged for centuries), from which it followed: today
everything -the same as yesterday and a year ago. At 17.00 followed
essential tea. And in the evening, having wished good health to the Queen,
respectable subjects of the Empire fell asleep peacefully. Behind their walls
the fortified houses could not hear the screams of the victims of Jack the Ripper,
Count Dracula or the second "black" half of Dr. Jekyll
Haida, who reigned supreme on the night streets in
dim light of gas lamps...
In truth, all this is rather not the real London on the verge
centuries, and ideas about the “good old days”, which, like
it is known that they are always kind, if only because they are old...
Modern, elitist ideas that arose not so much under
influenced by the novels of Dickens, Stevenson, Conan Doyle or the same
Bram Stoker with his "Dracula", but rather under a fresh impression
from cinema. Such films as "Eraserhead" (1976), and
"The Elephant Man" (1980) by the great esthete and hoaxer David
Lynch, "Jack the Ripper" (1988) with the incomparable Michael Caine in
starring as a Scotland Yard detective or produced by Spielberg himself
"Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985). Precisely depicted in them
phantasmogorical London becomes the scene of action and
at the same time the main character of steampunk.The prophets of the current should be called the American trinity,
who began writing fiction in the 1980s, James Blaylock,
Tim Powers and K.W. Jetter.
The first to make his chronological debut in science fiction was
the last one is K.U. Jetter. Titles of his novels: "Night of the Morlock"
(1979), "Infernal Inventions: A Mad Victorian Fantasy"
(1987) - speak for themselves, if you remember in whose novel
These "Morlocks" were brought onto the stage. Of course, in the classical
Wells's "Time Machine", the same age as those Victorian
times that are so dear to the hearts of steampunks.
Blaylock was made famous by the novel Burrowing Leviathan (1984), as well as
duology consisting of the novels "Homunculus" (1986) and "Machine
Lord Kelvin" (1992); Powers - "Anibus Gate" (1983). A them
both - a joint elegant literary hoax: friends
the couple came up with an English poet who had never existed
William Ashbless, who supposedly lived in the last century. To the phantom poet
the heroes of "Homunculus" refer to, he is also one of the main
characters in Anibus's Gate, and Ashbless's poems are quoted liberally
and Blaylock and Powers.
This is no longer jokes, not banter, but a real counter-revolution - with
point of view of an aggressive and “left-leaning” cyberpunk! (in
in this case, “leftism” means the left hemisphere
brain, responsible for logical thinking.) The fact is that
cyberpunk is usually associated with the wonders of high-tech, to the extreme
technological future of humanity, completely based on
"information" needle; but the authors of steampunk, apparently, are looking for
inspiration from the past. Although not cave-prehistoric, but
after all. Compared to today - so simple and
calm.
If cyberpunks relied on computer networks,
virtual reality and other technical toys, then the authors
steampunks turn to dark and blood-stirring images
literature of the past. Their heroes are werewolves, "explained" scientifically
(a series of novels by Brian Stableford - "Werewolves of London",
"Angel of Pain" and "Carnival of Destruction"), or vampires forced
coexist with people (Barbara Hambly, "Those Who
hunt at night"). In the duology of the young author Kim Newman - "WithChristmas of Draculov" and "Blood-Red Baron" - all
ends badly: the legendary Transylvanian count in 1888
year marries Queen Victoria and establishes in England
the kingdom of those who like to miss the “red from the throat”. And so
further in the same spirit.
Even those who are not familiar with the books mentioned can make
get an idea of steampunk from the films shown on our
TV screen. This is an original time travel in the film
"Age by Age" (1979), perfect - from Wells' London
straight to San Francisco 1979! - first
Jack the Ripper and then young Wells pursuing him
(Malcolm McDowell); film by veteran Roger Corman
"Frankenstein Is Free" (1990) - film adaptation of the same name
a science fiction novel by the English writer Brian
Oldis; and the popular television series "The Chronicles of Young Indiana"
Jones" with its mixture of real history and historical fantasy -
also, if you don’t find fault too strictly, a typical steampunk!
So, on the eve of the new millennium, the thought of free
science fiction writers traveling in space and time againreached out to Europe of the last century. And above all in
Victorian England. To the homeland of technical progress,
which gave a familiar appearance to our “today”, and modern
science fiction, if we count it from the novels of Wells.
A funny twist, to say the least.
Symbolic detail: our readers' favorite Harry Harrison,
author of one of the earliest pre-steampunk works, the novel "Hurray"
transatlantic tunnel! (1972), moved to Ireland -
closer to the patrimony of the steampunk...
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