at despair’s end lies hope

*extremely debatable depending on which punk you ask.

**objectively debatable depending on the game and system

Way back in November 2013 I made a post about the aestheticization of the subculture that STILL stands:

Steampunk: VICTORIAN LONDON VICTORIAN LONDON TOP HATS CORSETS ARISTOCRACY GLORIOUS BRITISH EMPIRE AIRSHIP PIRATES RAY GUNS APOCALYPSE APOCALYPSE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!

Me: …Industrialization, colonialism, imperialism, exploitation of the working class and oppression of POC culminating in violent socialist revolution because fuck yeah the working class and don’t you dare forget it?

Steampunk: ::crickets::

[Steampunk]:  THE GREAT GAME COGS GEARS VAMPIRES BUSTLES EXOSKELETON GOGGLES ANGLOPHILIA SUPER CREEPY OBSESSION WITH ORIENTALISM INCLUDING CLOCKWORK GEISHAS MANOR HOUSES TEA!

Me: ::sigh::

^ you are doing exactly this.

The punk ethos is primarily made up of beliefs such as non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, a do-it-yourself ethic, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate greed, direct action, and not "selling out". That is what 'punk' means, in terms of subculture.

When steampunk arose as a subculture, out of Goth mind you, it was entirely a DIY and small business scene.

What steampunk music, fiction, craft groups, or meetups have you been to? Steampunk is, like cyberpunk, about the stories it told/is telling. Often stories of revolution (often violent), the overthrowing of governments and toppling of monarchies, civil rights movements (emancipation from chattel slavery! Indian wars! Rising against colonial powers!), the dawn of first wave feminism and women's suffrage, the original source of communist and socialist thought, workers' rights movements, the fucking enlightenment...

What is more punk than The Communist Manifesto(1848)

What is more punk than The Battle of Greasy Grass(1876)

Who's a more OG Punk than John Brown?

Steampunk literally music and fiction set in and about the Age of Revolution.

Judging Steampunk as a subculture by the part that was heavily commercialized is like judging all of Goth and a subculture by Hot Topic (which is not punk rock).

Go read China Mieville's Bas Lag cycle.

Go read Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Go read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Go read Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (crossover with dieselpunk and biopunk!)

Go read Steeplejack by AJ Hartley

Go listen to some The Cog is Dead and some Abney Park and some Rasputina and some Steam Powered Giraffe and, hey, let me link Painless Parker one more time. You will note that that recording is from Occupy Wallstreet.

Also keep in mind that labor/union songs are wildly popular steampunk standards; you will hear Solidarity Forever and other songs from The Little Red Songbook at steampunk song circles. You will hear marching band and orchestral covers of The Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen and The Clash's London Calling. You'll hear songs from Chumbawumba's album English Rebel Songs 1381-1984.

I'm gonna linkspam a bunch of my older writings on this:

Other steampunks of my followers, please reblog with more recommendations about Steampunk stuff that's actually PUNK.

fresh air so crisp, water so clear

happy birthday hong lu!