Let’s Try This Again, Shall We? (A Soft Reboot)

It’s wild to me to think that it’s been over 15 years since I started this blog. It feels weird just writing the word ‘blog.’ Who blogs anymore? Everyone who writes is on Substack or Ghost these days. Fifteen years ago, my kids were tiny, now they’re grown. Back then, my hair was brown; now it’s going grey and there’s less of it. In 2008, I was starting my PhD; now I’m an Associate Professor at MacEwan University. Back then, I was learning what steampunk was; now I’m an “expert” who’s written a bunch of articles and a book on the subject.

It's also wild to me that it’s been about five years since I posted here, in January of 2019. I was all set to start posting about steampunk again, and then got an offer to submit an academic article to a special journal issue focused on Neo-Victorianism and steampunk. That wound up becoming a project I completed with two of my brightest students, and while the journey to completion was one of the worst editorial experiences I’ve ever had (with the people who ran the journal, not the guest editors of that issue), the finished product was worth the trip.

By the time that was wrapping up, the world was headed into the pandemic. I spent the next three years learning how to teach all over again. I posted my lectures as videos on YouTube and the audio on a podcast called Triple Bladed Sword. At the tail end of lockdown, I taught a course on steampunk for the first time. Someone might question why it’s taken me so long to teach a course solely on steampunk: I simply never wanted to be one of those profs who inflict their PhD on their students. And while the course was a delightful experience with a wonderful group of students, I don’t know if I’ll ever do it again. It’s weird to teach content that keeps referencing me. I mean, that was the goal back in 2008 – to research something new and become one of the voices future steampunk scholars would reference. All that said, you can check out the video lectures from that course here.

When lockdown ended for good in the fall of 2022, I was teaching new courses and working on another academic publication on steampunk (the editorial process was lovely this time around). The book was just released by Brill, and I’m really excited about it. I wrote my chapter about the book and film Mortal Engines; it’s also an updated version of my Steam Wars article from back in 2010.  

Last fall, my first academic article on steampunk, “Finding Nemo: Verne’s Antihero as Original Steampunk” got a reissue in print in Gary Westfahl’s Jules Verne Lives: Essays on His Works and Legacy. It was an honour to be included in that book, given that Westfahl was one of the first academics I used in my steampunk research. The book was also a tribute to the Eaton Conference, which was the first academic conference I presented any work on steampunk at. Consequently, that publication had me thinking back over my work as “The Steampunk Scholar” and reflecting on how fortunate I’ve been in my career.

And just when I was convinced I should probably cull my steampunk shelves and get on with some new avenues of research, I received a series of invitations that made me wonder if the steampunk boiler is getting fired up again. The first was for an interview on NPR radio in Connecticut on the show Where We Live. The second was to teach a University style course to seniors here in Edmonton (which was sadly canceled due to low enrollment). The third was to give a talk on steampunk at an event at the Telus Spark Science Center in Calgary. This morning, I was in a Zoom meet with a bunch of steampunk luminaries talking about the state of the aesthetic. I haven’t been thinking and presenting about steampunk this frequently since 2014.

And while all of that’s happening to me, I’m seeing friends from the steampunk scene at conventions in the States. Critical Role is doing Candela Obscura, a campaign that has serious steampunk vibes. Netflix had a hit with Arcana, which was unabashedly referred to as steampunk. Image comics had two big hits with steampunk properties: Bitter Root, set in the Jazz era in the US, and Monstress, set in a secondary world of Asian Art Deco steampunk. What gives? Is this the swell of the third wave of steampunk? A steampunk scholar can only hope.

Regardless, it’s been too long since I ‘ve attended to this dusty old virtual space, and high time to start writing again. While I love a good academic publication, there’s nothing like writing here, in the freedom of my own editorial lethargy or vigour. If nothing else, I’d like to redress some of the sloppy work I did at the outset of this project when I was still figuring out what the hell academics do and how academics write. After fifteen years, I know what I do and how I write, and I’d like to revisit some of the books I wrote about way back when (particularly Westerfeld’s Leviathan, as I was playing the pretentious “associate the argument with an ‘important’ work of literature’ game, and consequently failed to write about the book at hand). There are just so many wonderful works of steampunk I never properly wrote about, and many great ones still being produced, and I want to talk with you all about them. Again. 

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