ext_57928 ([identity profile] baeraad.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] james_davis_nicoll 2013-08-31 06:18 am (UTC)

Is steampunk science fiction?

A definite borderline case, that. Steampunk is meant to emulate science fiction written in earlier centuries, isn't it? Its conceit isn't that its stories could possibly happen in the future, it's that its stories could possibly have happened in the future as envisioned by people in the past. It's kind of retro-science fiction. Which makes it weird enough to be outside of easily defined categories.

Star Wars, on the other hand, implicitly says, "let's say, for the sake of the argument, that if our technology was sufficiently advanced we could build stuff like this." It's science fiction, at least by my definition of it.

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