4 Reasons We Adore Steampunk
Steampunk! There’s just so much to love! From the endless creativity, to the excuses to eat splendid things, to the the way people continue to surprise and awe us with how they take Steampunk culture and do unexpected things with it. Here are four of my personal reasons for loving Steampunk:
4. Some people SAY that every day is Halloween. For us, every day is Halloween + April Fool’s Day. I can dress in a manner quite unusual in the normal world, and know that I am not alone. I can be silly if I’d like, recognizing that there’s an entire genre of other people out there who enjoy the silly, the whimsical, and the eccentric. And I have an infinite canvas upon which to draw fantasies and ideas!
3. There has never yet been a human being who didn’t look better in a top hat. It’s just a basic fact of life. Actually, there isn’t anything that doesn’t look better in a top hat. Put a top hat on your bookcase – it suddenly becomes more distinguished. Put a top hat on your lunch; you suddenly get hungrier and more excited for your meal. Put a top hat on a pug, and that pug will immediately rival Winston Churchill for solemnity and grace.
2. I get a secret thrill when I see Steampunk in mainstream media. Remember all those years when people kept saying, “OH NO! STEAMPUNK IS OVER, I SAW IT IN SO-AND-SO PLACE”? Steampunk never died; it just got more and more inventive. For heaven’s sake, Steampunk was on reality TV, and we didn’t just survive it – we came out of it with lots of people who’d never considered stepping outside of the mundane world, who now wanted to join us. (If you’re one of those people, WELCOME!) And speaking of welcomes:
1. I have a community which embraces me and which will NEVER make fun of how I’m dressed or how much of an “expert” I am, or anything like that. That might sound like a little thing, but it isn’t. It’s huge. I can’t count on my own family giving me as much leeway to be my peculiar, ridiculous self as much as I can count on Steampunk to take me in and make me feel at home. And that means the world to me.