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How Do You Celebrate Father’s Day?
Cards? Gifts? Outings? Giving appreciation to the men who made our lives possible is definitely the theme of the day.
When I was a kid, I’d make my dad a card and buy him a yellow shirt. He had blue eyes and somewhere, somehow, I decided that yellow matched his eyes. Weird? Yeah, but I was a kid.
Something Different for Father’s Day
Today, I thought I’d do something a little different for Father’s Day: a blog post about Steampunk’s founding fathers: James Blaylock, J. W. Jeter, and Tim Powers.
Founding father’s sounds very serious and important, but from the research I’ve done, I get the feeling these three men aren’t all that serious. Although those of us who like Steampunk might think Blaylock, Jeter, and Powers are important, they act like ordinary guys out on a lark.
What Makes Them Fathers of Steampunk?
I know what you’re thinking: Jules Verne and H. G. Wells wrote fantastical stories of Victorian England, but they were Victorian writers.
The Steampunk genre is contemporary writers, like Blaylock, Jeter, and Powers, writing about Victorian London in very punk-ish ways, lifting the metaphoric curtain and exposing the underbelly of a prim and proper society.
These three Steampunk authors populate their books with bizarre, fanciful characters, crazy events, and circumstance, as well as wildly imaginative machines and gadgets. They stoke the fires of days gone by and write about steam, clockworks, strange people and happenings, as well as the poor, the downtrodden, and the eccentric rich.
Without taking themselves too seriously, they imagine a different London and Victorian empire. Consciously or unconsciously, they created a sub-genre of science fiction.
It was Jeter, in a letter to Locus magazine in 1987, who dubbed the movement “steam-punks.” Their novels are filled with steam technology, funky gadgets a Victorian might dream up, and enough punk attitudes to make a fun romp.
If cyberpunk is “a genre of science fiction set in a lawless subculture of an oppressive society dominated by computer technology” then Steampunk might be defined as a sub-genre of science fiction set in a Victorian culture where characters, rich and oppressed, expose the underbelly of polite society and stumble about in world filled with steam and clockwork technology.
So, Who Are Blaylock, Jeter, and Powers?
Back in the 1970s, they were students at California State University Fullerton, just about five miles from where I live, where they encountered and became friends with Philip K. Dick, who undoubtedly influenced their writing.
During that time, they read Victorian literature, lots of Victorian literature, and decided it would be fun to write stories set in the time period. This sounds far more academic than their zany novels, which are imaginative science fiction with some outlandish fantasy thrown into the mix.
They often met at a pub in Orange, CA, and hashed out stories over drinks. Read a couple of their books, and it’s pretty evident that they were having fun.
James P. Blaylock was born in Long Beach, California, attended college in Fullerton, and settled in Orange, California, and has been married to his wife for over forty years. He sounds pretty stable for someone who writes fanciful stories.
If you are interested in reading Blaylock, you should check out his “loose” Steampunk trilogy loose because the first book isn’t set in Victorian times, but it still has Steampunk elements: Digging Leviathan (1984), Homunculus (1986), and Lord Kelvin’s Machine (1992). Homunculus won the Philip K. Dick Award in 1988. A note: Steampunk novels aren’t always set in Victorian London. Novels and stories in this genre can range wide and far from Victorian London.
In my research, I couldn’t find K. W. Jeter’s birthplace. All the bios I found start with him attending California State University Fullerton with Baylock and Powers. Unlike Blaylock and Powers, Jeter didn’t stay in Southern California. Apparently, he lives in Ecuador.
In addition to Infernal Devices (1987 a seminal Steampunk novel), Morlock Night (1979, a sequel to Orson Wells The Time Machine), and Dr. Adder (1972 cyberpunk), he’s written horror and science fiction.
Tim Powers does have a birthplace, Buffalo, NY. He stayed in California after graduating from college. Here’s an interesting factoid: the character David in Philip K. Dick’s novel VALIS is based on Powers.
Like Jeter and Blaylock, Powers is an award-winning author: he won the World Fantasy Award for Last Call and Declare. His novel On Stranger Tides, a pirates yarn with a protagonist named Jack, was the basis for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. If you read a Powers’ novel, you’ll come across historical figures, some supernatural elements, and odd explanations for unexplained historical events. If you are interested in time travel books, The Anubis Gates is a Philip K. Dick Award winner.
Ordinary Beginnings
If you are a Steampunk fan or if you are curious about Steampunk, these are the three fathers of Steampunk. They met in college, chummed around with Philip K. Dick, hung out at a bar, talking Victorian literature and plotting out novels.
Steampunk has changed and been reshaped over the years. There’s an active and popular Steampunk subculture. When people in the Steampunk movement think about Steampunk, most think of clothing styles or steam and clockwork gadgets or artisan who make Steampunk crafts rather than novels. Even Hollywood picked up Steampunk’s popularity and made some fun movies, like Sherlock Holmes!
Remember, Steampunk started with three men writing novels about Victorian England.
The Usual Reminder
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