What's the steampunk?

[Aedilred]

I never got how Sky Captain counted as Steampunk when it's all electricity based and is ridiculously pulp.

I don't think pulp is a barrier. The electricity might be, although I remember the film maintaining a vague steampunk aesthetic even if the power source wasn't technically steam. Then again, my brain melted out of my ears about five minutes in and I've since done my best to smother any remaining memory of the experience, so I probably recall incorrectly.

[Grinner]

I never got how Sky Captain counted as Steampunk when it's all electricity based and is ridiculously pulp.

If anything, I'd say it's because, in review of Wikipedia's list of steampunk works, steampunk seems to be a label defined more by aesthetic than technical requirements or theme. To paraphrase Randall Munroe, everything seems equally old-timey.

Or maybe the Steampunk Club is just desperate for membership.

Who knows?

[Milo v3]

If anything, I'd say it's because, in review of Wikipedia's list of steampunk works, steampunk seems to be a label defined more by aesthetic than technical requirements or theme. To paraphrase Randall Munroe, everything seems equally old-timey.

Or maybe the Steampunk Club is just desperate for membership.

Who knows?

..... Treasure planet is considered steampunk.....

[warty goblin]

If anything, I'd say it's because, in review of Wikipedia's list of steampunk works, steampunk seems to be a label defined more by aesthetic than technical requirements or theme. To paraphrase Randall Munroe, everything seems equally old-timey.

Or maybe the Steampunk Club is just desperate for membership.

Who knows?

I can't say I thought Sky Captain looked steampunk. For one thing there seemed to be a real lack of, well, steam. Maybe I'm not up with the cool kids, but the absence of steam does seem probative. It also lacked a gear fetish. Really it was drawing aesthetically from either World War II era technology or what we think 1950's sci-fi looks like. Sorta like Fallout, but not terrible.

[Urpriest]

I can't say I thought Sky Captain looked steampunk. For one thing there seemed to be a real lack of, well, steam. Maybe I'm not up with the cool kids, but the absence of steam does seem probative. It also lacked a gear fetish. Really it was drawing aesthetically from either World War II era technology or what we think 1950's sci-fi looks like. Sorta like Fallout, but not terrible.

Dieselpunk then?

[warty goblin]

Dieselpunk then?

Not really. In part because I'm not overly enamored of sticking '-punk' on the end of a source of mechanical power and calling it a genre - look a knight on a horse! So horsepunk! But mostly because Sky Captain was in my opinion mostly rooted in classic pulp stories, and I generally find it a mistake to backdate modern ideas of genre onto things the predated them, or indeed to apply very modern genre labels and ideas to things that are deliberately playing in older waters. That just leads to nonsense like saying Beowulf is fantasy and thinking it means something, or a tacit assumption that what's interesting and worthwhile about any particular story is how it influenced the current ossification of genre as if these are fixed and inevitable, rather than a story written in its own time and context for that understanding of genre.

Which is not to say that an understanding of genre evolution is not a worthwhile investigation itself. However I think such an undertaking has to remain grounded in the realities that produced each particular work, and follow those through time, rather than start with the modern understanding of 'fantasy' as a universal and start slapping it willy-nilly on everything that contains dragons.

The tl;dr of which is that I probably read too much mid-twentieth century weird stuff.

[Rainbownaga]

Not really. In part because I'm not overly enamored of sticking '-punk' on the end of a source of mechanical power and calling it a genre - look a knight on a horse! So horsepunk!

Now Ive got the thought of a setting where literal horse-power is driven beyond it's logical maximum into sci-fi realm completely bypassing fossil fuels. Horse-mills and gears everywhere!

Edit: And horse-pulled main battle tanks; lots of those :)

[warty goblin]

Now Ive got the thought of a setting where literal horse-power is driven beyond it's logical maximum into sci-fi realm completely bypassing fossil fuels. Horse-mills and gears everywhere!

Edit: And horse-pulled main battle tanks; lots of those :)

Horse-drawn main battle tanks were actually more or less a thing, although they're more commonly called war wagons. But a big tough wagon with reinforced sides to shelter handgunners and crowsbowmen and a smallish cannon on top is functionally pretty much a tank. Thanks to pre-made breachloading charges, they could apparently have a pretty decent rate of fire as well.

The great thing about history is that it's always weirder than we give it credit for.

[Urpriest]

Yeah come to think on it Attack on Titan is basically horsepunk.

[toapat]

I don't think pulp is a barrier. The electricity might be, although I remember the film maintaining a vague steampunk aesthetic even if the power source wasn't technically steam. Then again, my brain melted out of my ears about five minutes in and I've since done my best to smother any remaining memory of the experience, so I probably recall incorrectly.

the closest to steampunk anything in Skycaptain is are the robots. Most of it otherwise is an equal blend of 50s Scifi, WW2 Tech, with 20s gangsters painted over an Indiana Jones movie. The submersible planes were badass though. Avengers does Helicarriers better

[GorinichSerpant]

Yeah come to think on it Attack on Titan is basically horsepunk.

I am tempted to sig this.

[Urpriest]

I am tempted to sig this.

Go ahead!

Granted, the amount of steam tech means it may technically be steampunk...but for the most part, it's emphatically "let's make a dystopian, high-tech society out of medieval europe", which seems like it should be the definition of horsepunk.