Mutation and Innovation: excess in

Steampunk fiction and the

presence of the Gothic

Venetta Uye
Manchester Metropolitan
University
 ‘By retrofitting contemporary technologies or imagining
new ones built with 19th century components, Steampunk
fiction and practice refuses a purely passive acceptance of
new technologies and mechanisation’

The Mysterious Geographic Adventures of Jasper Morello (2005). Dir.

‘Alongside the machinery of Steampunk is usually expected the
depiction of a particular historical and geographical location.
More often than not this is England – or more specifically
London – in the 19th Century’

Steamboy (2004). Dir. Katsuhiro Otomo

torical/geographical locale is central to or implicit in numerous Steampu

A Gentleman’s Duel (2006). Dirs. McNally & Velasco

‘Examples of texts that trouble the waters of an easy, trope
orientated, definition of Steampunk’
‘Casshern is a Japanese live action anime shot entirely on a
digital backlot’

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

‘With the introduction of the mysterious saviour figure
Casshern…

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

…we might easily find nothing notable in terms of
Steampunk at all, disregarding it as a SF/superhero flick’

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

‘However, the visual look and feel of the film’s mechanical
technologies point resolutely backwards, retaining a flavour of
Victoriana if not quite a fidelity to the actual historical period’

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

‘Casshern’s represented technology is not merely functional, it is
ornate and overt…

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

nd the visually presented retro technologies – be they airships and dirigi

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

… or clock work automata are tied into the narrative’s portrayal
of entropy and pre-apocalyptic despair’

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

‘Similarly, in Bioshock, it is the
temporal location of the game’s
narrative that seems to be the
sticking point for an unqualified
Steampunk status, coupled with
an advanced genetic or
biotechnology’

Bioshock (2007). 2k Games

‘The player character discovers a world ravaged by civil war and
haunted by the gore-hungry Splicers, victims and addicts of
Rapture’s discovery of genetic and body modification’

Bioshock (2007). 2k Games

‘In order to hack machines in
Bioshock, you are not required to
reprogramme it or access its
electronics…

Bioshock (2007). 2k Games

‘Instead you must redirect the flow of liquid running through
glass and brass tubing. The entire infrastructure of Rapture is a
network of machines that run on something very akin to if not
identical to steampower’

Bioshock (2007). 2k Games

‘Perhaps the most audacious example of excess in Steampunk is
apparent in Joe R Lansdale’s “The Steam Man of the Prairie and
the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel”’

Image from: www.bigredhair.com/steamman/index.html

 ‘…the SF history of Steampunk has an Other. It has a presence
that is at times more overt and at others more clandestine but
which I would argue is always present. This is the haunting
presence of the Gothic’

The City of Lost Children (1995). Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro
‘Tinkerers, makers and
costumers working within
Steampunk subculture
can be visually
suggestive of not only of
the real world and
fictional Teslas and
Edisons…

…but also of the Victor

Frankenstein’s and Dr
Jekylls of classic and
derivative Gothic texts’
 ‘Within narrative Steampunk, the somewhat sinister motif of
the morally transgressive scientist or inventor figure is also
rampant’

The City of Lost Children (1995). Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro
‘Within narrative Steampunk, the somewhat sinister motif of
the morally transgressive scientist or inventor figure is also
rampant’

Steamboy (2004). Dir. Katsuhiro Otoma

‘It is in figures like the ‘Manimatron’ that horror can be seen to
function in Steampunk and that Steampunk might be considered
a continuation of Gothic concerns’

Steampunk: Manimatron (2001). Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo