C'est quoi le Steampunk ?

[jerome]

Voici la réponse d'un blog spécialisé (en anglais).

Je vous mets le début de cette fausse interview :

What is “steampunk?” No, seriously. Fifty words or fewer. I dare you.
Steampunk is a style (of books, clothes, video games, movies, etc.) that draws its inspiration from old science fiction stories. By “old” I mean Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Mary Shelley, and their ilk. Steampunk art is often (but not strictly always) indicative of a place and/or time wherein steam is the dominant form of high technology. Or at least it usually looks like it is. [Whoops, that's more than fifty words. But not much more.]

Okay. But why?
Because it’s fun. Also, it’s a reaction to the school of design that says all tech must look flat and shiny and inscrutable; it’s a rebuttal of disposable culture and wasteful consumption; it’s a rejection of history books that only tell stories about rich dead white dudes; it’s indicative of a desire for technology that’s easily understood, easily repaired, easily maintained; it’s hands-on; it’s a creative outlet; it’s pretty.

So “steampunks” are all about Victorians with ray guns? Because that’s kind of what it looks like.
Sometimes, but not exclusively. I would argue that steampunk has its roots firmly entrenched in the 19th century, yes — but there’s oodles of room for it to stretch its legs. Some people steam up WWI tech (for example, see Boilerplate: History’s Mechanical Marvel by Guinan and Bennett), or let the aesthetic influence stories and artwork even farther down the time line (see Mignola’s Hellboy). Aviator/aviatrix-chic is quite popular in steampunk fashion circles, but the early days of aviation represented are typically from the 19-teens to the 1940s.

There are scores of “second world” steampunk settings — which is to say, pretend places that look very much like the 19th century did here in the real world (i.e., the “first world”).

I’ve also seen people push it back the other direction a century or two. These stories or costumes (reflective of periods before steam power was in common use) are often referred to as “clockpunk” instead.