Though I’ve been mildly aware of the whole Steampunk genre before, its allure hit me smack in the face recently in the form of the amazing Telectroscope art/technology installation in London and New York.  Just one look at that incredibly beautiful, completely awesome and totally hilarious object is enough to help you sort of get what Steampunk is about – a 19th Century-influenced literary and artistic worldview where Victoriana meets high tech, where the sensibility is joyously Jules Verne-ish (and H.G. Welles-y), and imagination totally rules.   

Clearly a lot of the visual appeal of Steampunk matches closely with the movies, with adaptations of Verne of course right up on top.  Hollywood has been there with popular versions of Verne’s fanciful novels like Mysterious Island, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Master of the World, and Around the World in 80 Days, their style no doubt a big influence on Steampunk adherents.  With an emphasis on shiny brass instruments and the supremacy of steampower, the world of Steampunk would give a hip hip hooray to James Mason’s Captain Nemo — in his sublime red velvet coat  – as he piloted his ornate Nautilus submarine 20,000 leagues down in the Disney version of the Verne novel.  Herbert Lom’s Nemo in Mysterious Island would also get a big thumbs up, with his similarly lush version of the Victorian high-tech undersea wonder vehicle also chock full of ticking timepieces, a fully-functioning pipe organ and mysterious viewing devices. 

Around the World in 80 Days, especially the most recent version with Steve Coogan and Jackie Chan, is also a good example of Steampunk-like movie design, with a fanciful flying machine prominently featured and the world of 19th Century London well depicted.  Steampunk also reveres adventure and derring-do, and Phileas Fogg’s globetrotting exploits are an ideal role model. 

H.G. Welles also moves in Steampunk circles, with his The Time Machine particularly well-suited to the genre, what with its ornate title gadget that played havoc with time itself, and the notion of a proper Victorian gentleman getting himself into heart-pounding adventures.  Both MGM’s classic Rod Taylor version and the more recent Guy Pearce-starring adaptation contain the requisite set decoration to make it into the Steampunk canon.  Possibly nothing else is more emblematic than Rod Taylor sitting in his exquisitely-styled time machine and getting ready to fling himself into the unknown future, full of intellectual curiousity and determined to test his own mettle.  These are prime Steampunk virtues, as I understand them, and no doubt when Steampunk fans play dress-up (as they enthusiastically do), Rod Taylor has got to be one of the movie heroes they emulate.

There are plenty of other movies we can point to when looking to Steampunk influences.  The movie version of Verne’s Master of the World, with its enormous tricked-out dirigible is surely on the list, and more recently, the fairly horrible (if you were a fan of the TV series) but undeniably Steampunk-y The Wild Wild West had some dandy devices that would slide it easily into the genre.  Kenneth Branagh as the key villain was full of ideas for ultra-snazzy Victorian-based weapons worthy of a madman genius.  The movie may have stunk and lacked all the wit and good humor of the wonderful TV show, but darn it all, it sure looked good despite it all.

Also visually on the same track as Steampunk would be the recent children’s fantasy film The Golden Compass, with its streamlined vehicles and over-the-top art and set decoration.  Something like The City of Lost Children kind of slides between Steampunk and Cyberpunk, but the animated film Steamboy is a total Steampunk world, with great huffing and hissing vehicles.

And though it might seem like an unlikely Steampunk influence, or at least a movie that might be emblematic of the style, the Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson-starring Old West meets Victorian England comedy adventure Shanghai Knights (the sequel to Shanghai Noon) fits in nicely, especially in terms of its derring-do, beautifully appointed sets and costumes, and the sense of good-natured bravado that finds the heroes hanging precariously from the hands of Big Ben — an ideal locale for extreme Victorian distress — and dashing madly about the streets of London.  I happen to think that these guys were adorable together, and never more so than when pitted against the staid decorum of London high society. 

I certainly am no authority on Steampunk, but I know what I like, as the old saying goes.  I would certainly urge all of you out there who find yourselves attracted to this romantic and delightfully vibrant view of the world to investigate the world of Steampunk more thoroughly.  I think you’ll find the whole community and its individual denizens to be emminently fascinating, amusing and thoroughly into it.  And needless to say, Steampunk was just made for the internet, with its ability to connect people from far-flung locations into a big enthusiastic fanbase. 

I have to say that one of the best images that I came across to sort of encapsulate the Steampunk philosophy is this rather incredibly great poster, which I did not find attribution for.  It’s too good not to show here, as it plants my very favorite historical figure of all time into a Steampunk mode, and boy, doesn’t he just look perfect?