Speculative Fiction

Yes, I am just filling this blog with all my YA homework. Hey, I want to remember it! Here is my 250+ words about sci-fi, fantasy, steampunk and gaslamp -

My grandfather's binoculars from the 1920s, the goggles that my son bought in Poland, the USB jump drives made out of old glass tubes that my husband orders from Latvia - I am surrounded by SteamPunk and have lived like this pretty much since SteamPunk was invented. I started dating my husband in 1987, the same year that Jeter first described “a genre of speculative fiction in which steam, not electricity, drove technological advancements.” (Jeter, 1987). He was an Asimov-reading, Renaissance-Faire-attending hottie and he made it look cool. Which is the short answer to why these genres are popular with young adults - they look totally cool!

But wait, there’s more!

The idea of another world where the problems are so very, very different has always appealed to teens. Jules Verne and his Journey to the Center of the Earth, H.G. Welles poor Eloi being hunted by the Morlocks - these problems are so far away from the teenage problems of bad skin, evolving family relationships and friendship drama that have plagued teens since teenager-dom existed that they are a welcome escape. 

I have always defined sci-fi as spaceships and fantasy as dragons. If the technology is overwhelming it is steampunk. I was unfamiliar with gaslamp as a genre until reading Keyes’ blog post but I love the addition of supernatural elements. 

Brock’s chapter on speculative fiction seemed to mostly consist of recommended books and since it included three of my all time favorites - Kristin Cashore’s Graceling, Lanai Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer and Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows - I heartily approve. She also has an interesting section from Neal Schusterman about world building that taps into the real magic of this kind of fiction - escaping to a different universe, or a different version of the multiverse. 

But don’t get me started on the multiverse!

Brock, R. (2019). Young adult literature in action. Libraries Unlimited.

Jeter, K. (1987). Steampunk [Letter to the editor]. Locus Magazine.

Keyes, L. (2011, October 10). A past that never was. Enchanted Inkpot. https://enchantedinkpot.livejournal.com/104323.html