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Steampunk: Extraordinary Engines
Dec. 31st, 2008 01:32 am(I’m risking losing motivation to write up this book when I finish it, here, but…)
When I order paperbacks from Amazon, I tend to try to get books the same price in the 4-for-3 sale because I save a teeny bit more in the long run, even though it also means I sometimes end up holding off on books I want more. A couple weeks ago I was ordering 2 $8.99 books and one $7.99 book, so I was poking around the “save for later” section of my Amazon cart (it’s easier to watch for prices to be lowered that way) and noticed a steampunk anthology called Extraordinary Engines. I think I hadn’t bought it yet because I hadn’t really heard anything about it, but I decided to go ahead and try it out blind.
When it got here, I noticed that 10 of the 12 authors were male. Ok, it’s a new-ish genre (though the introduction attributes the creation of the genre to two trilogies by Michael Moorcock in the 70s) so I can buy that there may be more men interested in writing it than women, even though part of the appeal of the genre is supposedly that it has elements that appeal strongly to both men and women. But I was also looking at the descriptions and catch phrases, and most sounded like they’d be male dominated, and the only thing that hinted at female presence was “automated harlots,” but some of the story titles indicate that there be girls.
So far I’ve read 3 stories, which puts me at page 132 of 441. I’ve noticed several things. One, the stories are a little longer (without checking the table of contents, they seem to range from about 30-50 pages each) which is a good length for me with short stories. Much shorter, and they usually aren’t long enough to really register with me, which is why I tend to stick to anthologies with limited themes, or where all stories are by the same author. The second is that it seems to be exploring steampunk as an idea more widely applied to the world than just airships and city advanced technology. The genre is also described as applying to both the Victorian and Edwardian eras, which tickles my fancy a bit. The three stories have had wildly different voices, settings and themes, and well developed worlds.
The other thing I’ve noticed, though, is that of the three stories I’ve read, only one had anything resembling a female. In fact, of the other two, the only thing female or that could be interpreted as female was one word of slang used to indicate sexual preference. And I’m not even positive about that. The one story that had female characters, naturally, was by one of the two female authors. (Haven’t gotten to the other one yet.) Now mind you, it was a steampunk murder mystery in a world where too much electricity in the air causes some people to have psychic powers, so I would have liked it under any circumstances, but you can guess which my favorite was.
Now, I know what the excuses are. Females in Victoriana are dresses and romance and social movements. Men in Victoriana are adventure and exploring. Except, remember above where I mentioned that part of the appeal was that the genre combined the supposed appeals for men and women? That’s kind of what I was talking about. In addition, there’s the fact that the genre itself is based on an anachronism. The idea is that you have an alternate history Earth, or a world based on the period, where science and technology have advanced far past where they had at the time, resulting in an altered world and society. So, you can justifiably ignore gender roles of the period, or you can do with society and gender roles what you do with science and technology and alter them accordingly.
Mind you, I have nine stories to go, so they could be the only stories where women apparently don’t exist in those worlds. I like to be an optimist.
[Poll #1323220]
(This ended up longer than intended...)
PS-"Ticky box" is only there so I don't have to click over to the poll to see results and can just see them in the post itself. (And yes, I know they aren't ticky boxes. I just wasn't feeling creative. That, or I accidentally clicked the wrong option and was too lazy to change it when I noticed. I'll let you decide which.)
When I order paperbacks from Amazon, I tend to try to get books the same price in the 4-for-3 sale because I save a teeny bit more in the long run, even though it also means I sometimes end up holding off on books I want more. A couple weeks ago I was ordering 2 $8.99 books and one $7.99 book, so I was poking around the “save for later” section of my Amazon cart (it’s easier to watch for prices to be lowered that way) and noticed a steampunk anthology called Extraordinary Engines. I think I hadn’t bought it yet because I hadn’t really heard anything about it, but I decided to go ahead and try it out blind.
When it got here, I noticed that 10 of the 12 authors were male. Ok, it’s a new-ish genre (though the introduction attributes the creation of the genre to two trilogies by Michael Moorcock in the 70s) so I can buy that there may be more men interested in writing it than women, even though part of the appeal of the genre is supposedly that it has elements that appeal strongly to both men and women. But I was also looking at the descriptions and catch phrases, and most sounded like they’d be male dominated, and the only thing that hinted at female presence was “automated harlots,” but some of the story titles indicate that there be girls.
So far I’ve read 3 stories, which puts me at page 132 of 441. I’ve noticed several things. One, the stories are a little longer (without checking the table of contents, they seem to range from about 30-50 pages each) which is a good length for me with short stories. Much shorter, and they usually aren’t long enough to really register with me, which is why I tend to stick to anthologies with limited themes, or where all stories are by the same author. The second is that it seems to be exploring steampunk as an idea more widely applied to the world than just airships and city advanced technology. The genre is also described as applying to both the Victorian and Edwardian eras, which tickles my fancy a bit. The three stories have had wildly different voices, settings and themes, and well developed worlds.
The other thing I’ve noticed, though, is that of the three stories I’ve read, only one had anything resembling a female. In fact, of the other two, the only thing female or that could be interpreted as female was one word of slang used to indicate sexual preference. And I’m not even positive about that. The one story that had female characters, naturally, was by one of the two female authors. (Haven’t gotten to the other one yet.) Now mind you, it was a steampunk murder mystery in a world where too much electricity in the air causes some people to have psychic powers, so I would have liked it under any circumstances, but you can guess which my favorite was.
Now, I know what the excuses are. Females in Victoriana are dresses and romance and social movements. Men in Victoriana are adventure and exploring. Except, remember above where I mentioned that part of the appeal was that the genre combined the supposed appeals for men and women? That’s kind of what I was talking about. In addition, there’s the fact that the genre itself is based on an anachronism. The idea is that you have an alternate history Earth, or a world based on the period, where science and technology have advanced far past where they had at the time, resulting in an altered world and society. So, you can justifiably ignore gender roles of the period, or you can do with society and gender roles what you do with science and technology and alter them accordingly.
Mind you, I have nine stories to go, so they could be the only stories where women apparently don’t exist in those worlds. I like to be an optimist.
[Poll #1323220]
(This ended up longer than intended...)
PS-"Ticky box" is only there so I don't have to click over to the poll to see results and can just see them in the post itself. (And yes, I know they aren't ticky boxes. I just wasn't feeling creative. That, or I accidentally clicked the wrong option and was too lazy to change it when I noticed. I'll let you decide which.)
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