~~~SteamPunk~~~

In terms of literary genres and aesthetics, steampunk is still a relatively new culture. It may be little hard to pin down because it’s so deeply rooted in the views of various fantasy authors and open to interpretation, but the deeper I delve into it, the more I’m enthralled. 

If you’ve never heard of steampunk, let me try to describe it. Imagine an alternate universe where we never delved into the wonders of the atom, and instead were blessed with rayguns and fantastic airships powered entirely by Newtonian physics. Sure, we don’t have any plastics beyond Bakelite (invented in 1909) or microchips yet, but we still have many of the same machines that we do today – just engineered a little differently, and depending on who you read, possibly harnessing invisible cosmic energy instead of circuits. Think of items made entirely of wood, brass, copper tubing, pistons and a little bit of electricity – all housed in amazingly elegant, Victorian aesthetics. Goggles, top hats or pith helmets, orgone guns and robot arms are all part of this reality. It’s really pretty incredible.
- Colin David 

http://www.collectorsquest.com/blog/2009/10/21/collecting-all-things-steampunk/