Steampunk is dead.. or at the very least, should die.
I am sick and tired of every single person who sees anything mechanical, or old (really, it's just old people), or old, mechanical and made from, *sigh*, brass and squeals, "Ooh, how Steampunk!" as they adjust their mental monocle and bowler cap while a shiver of self-satisfaction rises up their spine because they feel the glow of played-out trendiness shining upon their face. I'll admit it, I fell into the brass trap that is Steampunk when I first saw it. I saw the thoughtful reworking of new objects into technology that seemed to come from an alternative history where old meets new and grows old again, and I appreciated the thought and effort that went into making it look that way. Victorian computers, steam-powered vehicles, and old fashioned clothing became what it never could have, and that was awesome. But, my feelings of enjoyment didn't last long. Suddenly every luddite poseur starting slapping brass-ish anything on everything under the sun, attempting to capture that special Steampunk magic and keep it for their very own. At least a year after it first started as a great idea, executed very well by a small group of individuals, it started being picked up by mainstream media and we saw it all over the place. It was in movies, video games (Bioshock, but it was pretty, so I don't care), and it even creeped into hipster lifestyle a little in the form of mustache everything. If you don't believe that one, just search for "mustache" on the Etsy website and see how many "crafty" people are being innovative with the concept of the handlebar mustache.
So, now whenever I hear someone assign the label of Steampunk to anything, I feel the same way as when I hear a middle-aged man blurt out, "Fer Shizzle, my nizzle!"
