The Future Past that Never Happened

The question was asked of me about a dozen times in the last week:  What is steampunk?  At least twice it was asked by people who were actually AT the steampunk ball.  They heard about the party last minute and threw costumes together with the help of friends, but they still weren't sure what the heck steampunk really was.

Steampunk is the future past that never happened.

Steampunk is an alternate reality when steam engines could do more than what steam engines should ever be able to.

Steampunk is Victorian science fiction.  Steampunk as a concept is very new (within the last two decades), but the writing of Jules Verne is often highlighted as quintessential steampunk.  H.G. Wells and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein are also decent examples, as well as some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's non-Sherlock Holmes works.  (Although the new Sherlock Holmes movie has a steampunk flair to it.)

In modern works, the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is very steampunk.  Then again, it does star a Jules Verne character.  Wild Wild West is also steampunk.  The anime Howl's Movie Castle is set in a magical steampunk world.

Steampunk is a world of airships, mad scientists and giant steam engine machines.  Technology is science fiction, but it's generally large, as it's understood to run on vacuum tubes, steam pipes, pulleys and gears.  As such, brass ray guns are fairly popular.  Etiquette runs the gamut from Victorian high society to egalitarianism, with women just as commonly taking on the persona of mechanics, pilots, and scientists as they are a bustled damsel.