by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author
Have you ever wondered what it was like to ride an airship? Or maybe you have been curious about hoop skirts and corsets? Or perhaps you just like the aesthetic of gears, clocks, and antique metal as decorations?
If you have never explored the world of steampunk, you may already be lost. Gears? Clocks? What does any of that have to do with writing a novel?
For the next several months, we are tackling the topic of Genre Expectations, and one of the most intriguing genres in fiction is Steampunk. I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but you may not know what it is. Actually, you may have even heard of other types of “punks” like dieselpunk, cyberpunk, solarpunk, lacepunk, among many others. There are all sorts of punks these days.
But another genre has started popping up recently that’s similar to steampunk in its aesthetic, but as a genre it’s completely different in the elements readers expect from it. That genre is Gaslamp.
On the surface, Steampunk and Gaslamp seem identical. They are both driven by aesthetics. Characters wear top hats and corsets and hoop skirts and carry canes and use monocles. There’s usually some technology that doesn’t actually belong in a historical context, adjusted to be operated by some other power source than electricity. You’ll see clocks and pocket watches and gears and things of that nature all over the place.
But they aren’t the same. Actually, they don’t even originate from the same primary genres.
Let’s start with Steampunk.
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction, so at its core the genre is driven by technology or discovery on some level. In most instances, steampunk stories are set in the Victorian Era. However, they are not limited to England at that time. One of the best-selling steampunk series on the market is The Clockwork Century by Cherie Priest, which takes place during the Victoria Era but in America.
One of the books in this series, Boneshaker, is a fantastic example of the steampunk genre, featuring elements of steam-powered technology, scientific reasoning for the obstacles the characters encounter, and the fascinating complexity of an alternate history.
Steampunk books obviously include a story beyond the technological focus on the genre elements. For example, the main story in Boneshaker is a mother’s search for her son who is lost and trapped on the other side of a protective wall. But in order for the main character to achieve her goal, she must make use of the technology she has available. That includes airships and all sorts of other steampunk-genre essentials.
Steampunk looks at the past and asks what the world would have looked like if technology had advanced more quickly with steam power rather than electricity.
So what about Gaslamp?
Gaslamp (sometimes called Gaslamp Fantasy or Gaslight Romance), on the other hand, looks at the past and asks what the world would have looked like if magic or supernatural elements existed in society.
Gaslamp did not originate in science fiction; it is a subgenre of historical fantasy, which already sets it up to have a completely different purpose than steampunk (you’ll recall the difference between space opera and science fantasy that we talked about last month).
Granted, gaslamp shares many aesthetic similarities with steampunk and they usually take place during the same historical era, but the driving core of gaslamp fantasy stories is different than steampunk. While steampunk focuses on exploring science or discovering new technologies, gaslamp approaches the unknown as something that doesn’t need to be explained.
Gaslamp accepts the unknown as something that simply exists and has to be understood without being able to explain it. This is how many gaslamp stories can include magical elements or supernatural/paranormal elements.
For many years, I labeled the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger (the first book is called Soulless) as steampunk because I didn’t know what else to call it, but now that I’m more familiar with the idea of gaslamp, I can pretty confidently say that’s what it actually is.
The Parasol Protectorate features vampires and werewolves as major characters, alongside airships and top hats and corsets. But there’s no attempt to explain how paranormal creatures came about. They are simply part of society.
The gaslamp genre makes use of fantasy elements that don’t need to be explained. They don’t have to be possible; they are magical or fantastical. The steampunk genre includes fantastical elements but always incorporates a reason how they exist within the context of the storyworld. Monsters were created by science or influenced by a chemical reaction (this is what happens in Boneshaker). There’s no magic involved.
So if you have a fondness for Victorian aesthetics and a love for alternate timeline stories, you might consider writing either steampunk or gaslamp. Just make sure you know the difference between the two!
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