If you are reading these lines there is no doubt that you are looking for information about Steamgoth. I have written this blog post as an introduction to it, so let’s see if I can throw some gaslight on this issue.
1.1.- Steamgoth: the concept
Our first mention to this may be found at the first blog post we dedicated to our attendance at Wave Gotik Treffen 2013. As far as we know, the term Steamgoth was coined by the British writer James Richardson-Brown back in 2007:
‘Steamgoth is a far darker view of the steampunk world. Whereas steampunk can often be said to be science fiction set in an alternative Victorian-era world, Steamgoth would be horror set in that same world’.
Source: Steamgoth – An Introduction
But wait a minute. Is Steamgoth something brand new? Is it called to have significance enough per se? Is it a real answer or it just does not make any sense at all? Certainly these are not minor questions as, the way I see it, many of the trends derived from -punk (or let’s say cyberpunk derivatives) add very little.
For the Western world, the Victorian era was probably a time of wonder. It was a time of adventure, discovery, progress and, from the perspective of the contemporary man, romanticism. However, this historical period had an obscure side difficult to ignore. Not only due to colonialism, child labour, gender repression or racial discrimination, but to the widespread obsession with all things mysterious and paranormal.
I have always thought that both utopian and dystopian visions have room within the Steampunk genre; however, I feel that the current of thought that gradually prevails is the utopian one. As The New York Times stated quoting Captain Robert from Abney Park: ‘Steampunk is not dark and spooky, it’s elegant and beautiful’. If this comes to be true, Steamgoth is called to fill its own space offering a less ingenuous and idealized approach to the Steampunk paradigm. Does this mean that any manifestation of Steamgoth must be dystopian? Probably not. But with all certitude it should offer a different perspective to the Steampunk realm.
1.2.- Steamgoth: the roots
What fires Steamgoth? Which sources can we track back? What shall inspire it? I will try to answer some of these questions in the following parts of this blog post:
- Steamgoth in a nutshell (1 of 6).- Intro: The darkest side of Steampunk
- Steamgoth in a nutshell (2 of 6).- Literature: The Precursors
- Steamgoth in a nutshell (3 of 6).- Technoscience: The Knowledge of the Supernatural
- Steamgoth in a nutshell (4 of 6).- Occultism: The Forbidden Wisdom
- Steamgoth in a nutshell (5 of 6).- Victorian Society: Lights… and Shadows
- Steamgoth in a nutshell (6 of 6).- Fashion: The Black Obsession
Without further ado, let’s begin our walk on the darkest side of Steampunk: Steamgoth!
JF Alfaya
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Jonathan Baird says
I was using the term SteamGoth by 2004 for a roleplaying game I was running. I began to write that game into an actual manual in 2007 (I have the original files which show them last modified in October of that year). By 2010 I had published an anthology of SteamGoth stories called Monsters, Magic, and Machines and have published. I am now working on the third SteamGoth anthology. While I am not claiming to have coined the term I am claiming that about five minutes after hearing the word Steampunk for the first time I was calling my interests SteamGoth and I have been very active in the Speculative fiction community for years. So I may stake my claim of having coined the term if the furthest back you can find it otherwise is 2007.
JF Alfaya says
Dear Mr. Baird,
Many thanks for your comment, both Irene and I are thrilled to learn more about Steamgoth!
Please note my qualification ‘As far as we know, the term Steamgoth was coined by the British writer James Richardson-Brown back in 2007′ 😉
My research about this subject has taken me to Mr. Richardson-Brown (let’s have a look at Wikipedia, for example), but naturally it would be great to gather further information… maybe we could even get Mr. Richardson-Brown’s insight in order to throw light over this issue.
Thanks again for your contribution, we look forward to going in depth into Steamgoth!
Jonathan Baird says
I just recalled when and where I first heard and used the word SteamGoth. It was at the Fantasm science Fiction and Fetish convention held in the early 2000s in Atlanta.
JF Alfaya says
Early 2000s, amazing… feel free to let us know more about it, please.
Jonathan Baird says
http://www.oort-cloud.org/?q=taxonomy/term/137
http://www.customize.org/winamp2/skins/5088
http://customize.org/dfx/skins/10187
Here are just a few websites that predate the article by months and years in some cases. As I said the word was in use long before.
James Richardson-Brown says
Hello Mr. Alfaya,
A wonderful article and I look forward to seeing where the future parts of the article lead.
Thank you for the e-mail in which you asked me to respond to Mr. Baird’s comments.
I had been using the term steamgoth for a period of time prior to 2007. However, it was in 2007 that I mentioned it in a magazine interview and was thereby said to have coined the term.
I think the fact that I used the term in a public arena as opposed to in a private manual in the same year as Mr. Baird would give me more of a claim to having coined the term. There is also the fact that the magazine provides a citable source to show the date at which the term is first used.
JF Alfaya says
Dear Mr. Richardson-Brown,
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with us.
There is no doubt that Steamgoth has potential to become a exciting field of study. Hopefully the remaining parts of this blog post will help to spread interest about this subject 🙂
Jonathan Baird says
As I show in the reply above the word was in use many years before and even used on websites back into the 1990’s.
Craig Hallam says
Great post! It’s good to know that there’s a niche for this genre out there. I love the darker aspect of anything, but Steamgoth really hits my buttons. At the risk of being a self-promotion beast, you should check out my novel, Greaveburn, and let me know if you like it! I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Craig
JF Alfaya says
Dear Craig,
Many thanks for your feedback and for your reading suggestion, we will have to read your novel!
In the meantime, feel free to propose any aspect of Steamgoth that you would like to see covered in future blog posts 🙂
Come back soon!