steampunk 一定要有氣

作家 Catherrynne M. Valente 代班 Ecstatic Days（Jeff VanderMeer 的 blog）的第一篇文章就獲得廣大回響。

她提到一般甚至於行內人對 steampunk 的迷思。大家都只想到維多利亞時代及其空想科技的浪漫面，並未考量到進步表象的背後所造成的種種衝擊與破壞。有的作品甚至連蒸氣都沒有，充其量只能算是 clockpunk 或 gearpunk，也有的根本就不 punk。X-D

因此以下引用的這番話特別擲地有聲：

Dare to tell your wee wastrels that it’s not all quaint manners and cufflinks–steam technology caused horrific scalding and often death, thrilling explosions and the utter terror and unfathomable joy–and which one often depended entirely on whether you owned the factory or worked in it–of a world which was changing so very fast, devouring itself in an attempt to lay just one more mile of railroad track. Again, I return to seriousness as a necessary addition to fantasy: if you want Victoria in your coat pocket, if you want the world that comes with her, all that possibility, all that terrible, arrogant, gorgeous technology, take it all, make it true, be honest and ruthless with it, or you’re just gluing gears to your fingers and running around telling everyone you’re a choo-choo train. Get punk or go home–and think, for just a precious second, about what punk means, the rage and iconoclasm and desperation, the nihilism and unsentimental ecstasy of punk rock. I’ve heard the punk suffix mocked soundly by everyone I know–but we should be so lucky as to live up to it.

我坦承我滿喜歡 steampunk 作品裡的浪漫情懷。不過對我而言，New Crobuzon 那種缺乏都市規劃，污染源和破敗地域充盈其間，階級金字塔牢不可破卻總有傻蛋意圖衝撞體制的社會就是有莫名的吸引力嘎～～～

全文在此，底下的討論亦值得一觀：
http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2007/11/28/blowing-off-steam/