Do Alternate Historians Hate Steampunk?

If there is one constant criticism I get from alternate historians from AlternateHistory.com and other sites its that Alternate History Weekly Update has way too much steampunk content on it. One person even suggested I change the name to "Steampunk Weekly Update". You would think there really wouldn't be that much tension between the two genres, since many steampunk works have alternate history elements to them, but than again many also don't. Nevertheless, alternate historians remain critical of steampunk. So I ask: do alternate historians hate steampunk?

Some background first. In 1987, KW Jeter came up with the term "steampunk" to describe a new literary movement where stories were set primarily in Victorian England or the American Wild West, but featured advanced technology and modern social mores. As mentioned before many of these stories had alternate history elements. Good examples include The Warlord of the Air and The Difference Engine, which are both alternate history novels that were influential on early steampunk creators.

So the two genres, alternate history and steampunk, can be considered at the very least cousins in a sense. Despite these shared origins, the history of steampunk and alternate history would begin to diverge at this point. While alternate history remained primarily a literary genre with most communication between fans and creators taking place on the Internet, steampunk would evolve into an atheistic movement that received mainstream acceptance and was embraced by many different formats. Heck there is even a realty television show dedicated to steampunk fashion.

The divide has only grown as steampunk's popularity increases. In 2007, searches for “steampunk” on Google began to trend higher than “alternate history”. In 2013, an IBM supercomputer even predicted that steampunk would be the next big retail trend. Some alternate historians even believe the increase in popularity in steampunk has begun to negatively affect the genre. For example, Robert Schmunk, Uchronia founder and former Sidewise judge, told Motherboard:

In the past several years, alternate history has been fading, or perhaps I should say morphing, because there’s been a big increase in the publication of steampunk stories and novels…Many steampunk works are legitimately alternate history, but a lot are not…I think the Roman Empire theme has faded, and perhaps the ‘Hitler wins’ theme just a bit, also…’The South wins the Civil War’ seems to be hanging in there, especially as this is often used as part of the background for alternate-history-steampunk works.

Which got me thinking: are alternate historians just the hipsters of the speculative historical fiction community? Do they reject whats popular and embrace obscure works only because "you probably haven't heard of them"? Perhaps, but then again, alternate historians are at their core lovers of history. To be able to craft plausible alternate histories, you need to understand just what you are changing. For alternate historians, the mark of a good creator is someone who can make a plausible alternate history, while still providing us with an entertaining read.

Steampunk, while often set during different historical periods, often plays fast and loose with our history and sometimes drop it altogether and the laws of physics along with it. Thus steampunk can be set on a magical world where steam powered mecha exist alongside late 19th century mores, even if the place names don't match anything on this Earth. Blatant disregard for plausibility just for the sake of what looks or sounds cool is enough to set off any serious alternate historian, regardless if the the subject is popular with the mainstream or not. So do I think alternate historians hate steampunk? No, they just don't like bad alternate history.

Personally I have no major issues with steampunk and can even recommend a few good steampunk books (like Cherie Priest's Boneshaker or Alan Gratz's The League of Seven). Being a lover of stories, however, I actually have no plans to cosplay as some intrepid airship pilot. Its not because I think its silly or stupid, its just that I am not interested. I will always put the story over everything else (and there may be many other alternate historians who will agree with me), but I still think there can be peace between steampunk and alternate history. Hey, we are family after all.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Warping History Update 7/2/15

I thought I would take this opportunity to provide a quick update on my Sideways in Time paper: "Warping History: An Overview of Fans and Creators of Alternate History in the Internet Age". So far I have...done nothing. Seriously I haven't put a single second of work into it since I learned about the essay collection. That was back in April and deadline for the abstract wasn't until September 1st, so I thought: I got time.

Now its July and suddenly September is that much closer. Granted they are only asking for abstracts at that point with the full papers not being required until 2016, but I would like to have a final draft ready soon, especially since I want to hire a professional copyeditor to take a look at it (if you have any recommendations, please let me know).

I am writing this post not only as a wake up a call to myself, but to share with you dear reader my plans for "Warping History". For you see, not only is it possible that the paper won't be finished by the deadline, it may not even be accepted. Personally I put a lot of work into this thing and I would like as many people as possible to read it. Some of you have already gotten a taste by watching my Sideways in Time presentation on my YouTube channel, but the actual paper has a lot more detail. You couldn't imagine the stuff I had to cut and the stuff I will still have to cut to have a finished product ready for the collection. The current paper is over 10,000 words, but the the essay collection is looking for something around 6,000. That means I am going to have to cut about 40% of what I have written. What should I do with that 40% of history regarding the online alternate history community?

Well here are two ideas I have:

• BEST CASE SCENARIO: If I finish the paper in time and it is accepted, I will see what the reaction is to the collection and then do one of the following: A) write a longer and even more detailed version and publish it or B) parcel out the remainder of the paper as separate posts on this blog.
• WORST CASE SCENARIO: If I can't finish the paper or it is not accepted, I will write a longer and more detailed version as mentioned above and publish it myself.

So as you can see, "Warping History" will be published one way or another. Now the only thing left to do is to get to work editing and formatting it. I will probably start working on it during my summer break. Expect to get more updates in the months to come.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Out On Break (But Planning My Triumphant Return)

Just in case the wildings attack while I am in the North.

Well this Friday I leave for Britain to go to the Sideways in Time Conference in Liverpool. I'll be able to look around London for a day, then its a train ride north on Sunday for the pre-conference social event at Waterstones Liverpool One before the conference officially begins on Monday. I, however, am not giving my presentation until Tuesday.

From now until April 5th, I will not be doing any blogging here or at Amazing Stories (although you can still check out the awesome interview I did with the master himself, Harry Turtledove). So that means no Weekly Update, Map Monday, New Releases, guest posts or other articles, reviews or interviews for the foreseeable future.

Don't you fret. I will be back on the 6th with an extra long Weekly Update to celebrate my return to blogging. I am also returning to my weekly Amazing Stories schedule with a run down of what happened at the conference and I have an interview lined up with one of my favorite map makers, Lynn Davis. If anyone has any guest posts they would like to submit for that week, please let me know at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. If you need an example of what I am looking for in a guest post, go check out Mark from Atomic Skies's excellent Alternate Nuclear Wars article.

For those interested in reading my paper, "Warping History: An Overview of Fans and Creators of Alternate History in the Internet Age", there was talk of the conference papers being published in an anthology, but if that falls through I will probably publish it myself either on Amazon or here on the blog. I may even record my presentation, either the one at the conference or an edited one I will do later, and post it on my channel.

Speaking of the channel, my trailer currently has 500+ views. I hope to throw myself into making new content for it once I return and as I mentioned before my script on Deseret is finished, so all I need to do is record. After that I will probably have a video review to post on The Years of Rice and Salt.

To be completely honest: holy crap, you guys are freaking awesome! This last month has been wild with all of these opportunities I have had and it is all because of you. Thank you so much for following Alternate History Weekly Update and I really think you guys are going to enjoy what is coming up in the months to come.

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Sideways in Time Schedule

The Sideways in Time schedule it out now! You can check out the international slate of alternate historians set to present on March 30-31 (including yours truly):

Sunday, March 29

5.00pm: Free Pre-Conference Social: Stephen Baxter and Adam Roberts discuss their fiction at Waterstones Liverpool One

Monday, March 30

8:30am–9:30am: Registration

9:30am–10:30am: Keynote: Karen Hellekson, “Agency and Contingency in Televisual Alternate History Texts”

10:30am–12:00pm: Panel 1 – Examining Female Perspectives of Alternate History

• Amanda Dillon, University of East Anglia (UK), “Speaking Unspoken Timelines: Feminist Time Travel and Alternate Histories in Kage Baker’s The Company”
• Rosie M. Lewis, Durham University (UK), “Re-envisioning Female Subjectivity, Aesthetics and Collective Resistance in Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames”
• Sarah Lohmann, Durham University (UK), “On the Edge of Time: Feminist Utopias, Complexity Theory and Parallel Future Histories”

12:00pm–1:00pm: Panel 2 – Responses to the Enlightenment

• Alex Broadhead, University of Liverpool (UK), “The Romantics in Alternate History from Hawthorne to Card: Beyond Enlightenment Historiography”
• Jim Clarke, Coventry University (UK), “Unwriting the Reformation: Anti-Catholic uchronias in Science Fiction”

1:00pm–1:45pm: Lunch

1:45pm–2:45pm: Keynote: Stephen Baxter, “Alternate Cosmologies”

2:45pm–4:15pm: Panel 3 – Moments and People of Power

• Francis Gene-Rowe, Birkbeck College (UK), “Blasting Open the Historical Continuum: Antihistoricism in Benjamin, Dick & Le Guin”
• Fred Smoler, Sarah Lawrence College (USA), “Refiguring the Heroic in Two Alternate Histories: Stephen Vincent Benét and Harry Turtledove”
• Jonathan Rayner, University of Sheffield (UK), “‘Forever being Yamato’: Alternative Pacific War Histories in Japanese Film and Anime”

4:15pm–4:30pm: Break

4:30pm–6:00pm: Panel 4 – Alternate History in Europe

• Mikhaylo Nazarenko, Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University (Ukraine), “Post-colonial alternate history: the case of Ukrainian literature”
• Marzena Sokołowska-Paryż, University of Warsaw (Poland) “Ideological (Mis)Uses of Genre: Dystopian Visions of the ‘Past-Present’ in Daniel Quinn’s and Stephen Fry’s Alternate Histories”
• Chris Pak, (UK), “‘It Is One Story’: Writing a Global Alternative History in Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt”

Tuesday, March 31

8:30am–9:00am: Registration

9:00am–10:30am: Panel 5 – Examining the Place of Alternate History

• Daniel Dohrn, Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany), “Counterfactuals in Historiography – A Philosophical Assessment”
• Matt Mitrovich, (USA), “Warping History: An Overview of Fans and Creators of Alternate History in the Internet Age”
• Ursula Troche, “Alternate History as re-imagining/re-writing: with particular reference to Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ and Evaristo’s ‘Blonde Routes’”

10:30am–12:00pm: Panel 6 – Blurring the Boundaries of Alternate History

• Pascal Lemaire (Belgium), “Our world, really ? Techno Thrillers and Alternate History”
• Andrew M. Butler, Canterbury Christ Church University (UK), “Quest for Love: A Cosy Uchronia?”
• Leimar Garcia-Siino, University of Liverpool (UK), “Alternate [un]Realities: The Possibility and Impossibility of the Fantasy Alternate History”

12:00pm–1:00pm: Keynote: Adam Roberts, “Geoffroy, Tolstoy and the Fragile Solidity of History”

1:00pm–1:45pm: Lunch

1:45pm–2:45pm: Panel 7 – Different Landscapes

• Alan Gregory and Dawn Stobart, Lancaster University (UK), “The Survival of a President: Rewritten American Histories and the Failed Assassination of John F. Kennedy in Stephen King’s 11/22/63”
• Laura Ettenfield, Leeds Beckett University (UK), “‘The sea is everything… the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence… it is the Living Infinite’: the alternate reality of subaquatic space in Nineteenth-century literature”

2:45pm–3:45pm: Panel 8 – Alternate History after 9/11

• Anna McFarlane, (UK), “Lavie Tidhar’s Osama (2011) and Alternate History After 9/11”
• Rachel Mizsei Ward (UK), “Impotent in the face of history – How superhero narratives (didn’t) engage with 9/11”

3:45pm–4:00pm: Break

4:00pm–5:30pm: Panel 9 – How Do We Know?

• Chloe Alexandra Germaine Buckley, Lancaster University (UK), “Cthulhu versus Sherlock Holmes: Shadows over Baker Street, epistemological disruption and the ‘willing surrender of disbelief’ in postmillennial alternative-history Weird fiction”
• Hellen Giblin-Jowett, (UK), “A ‘whiff of printer’s shrapnel’: HG Wells and the nostrils of divergence”
• Molly Cobb, University of Liverpool (UK), “‘Time is a private matter’: The subjective nature of time and the lack of a universal continuum”

5:30pm–6:30pm: Wine Reception

I'm going to be missing some of the pre- and post-conference events because I want to sight-see a little on my first visit to Britain, but there seems to be a lot of interesting topics to enjoy. I can't wait!

* * *

Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.