Blog Entry #5- Response to Lord Kelvin's Machine/Seventy-Two Letters

My interests in Steampunk literature rise ever-higher as we progress through the unit. After reading the short stories Lord Kelvin’s Machine, and Seventy-Two Letters, arguably cornerstone texts of this literary style, my understanding of steampunk literature has also matured. In order to fully understand these texts, it is necessary to identify the many notable differences; as well as determine some common threads which motivate their co-inclusion in an anthology. Of the myriad literary styles, steampunk is certainly the engineer’s bedtime reader.

The first text, Lord Kelvin’s Machine, documents the trials of St. Ives to prevent both a mad doctor from careening the planet into a comet as well as prevent Lord Kelvin from initiating his “solution” to this threat. Set in traditional Victorian England, the text clearly incorporates the gentlemen-like sensibilities of the men as well as includes some famous, real scientists (Rutherford, Maxwell) from the era to give it some perspective and justify parts of the plot. What I can best describe as a futuristic past, this text takes real theories of the day, many of which are incorrect, and expands upon them both in terms of complexity and scale. No longer is there just a damsel tied to the train tracks, but rather global chaos and mayhem. Rather than some localized region, the earth itself is endangered. It is for this reason that this text can be classified as steampunk: the scaling-up and extension of scientific and pseudo-scientific principles (medium) and formulating a story within the confines of a different scientific framework.

The second text, Seventy-Two Letters, describes the trials of a nomenclator, Stratton, in finding a way to preserve the existence of the human species through automata and genetic manipulation. Unlike the first text, this one adopts a future-is-now structure; emphasizing the power of genetic engineering within the context of another pseudo-science, nomenclature. Throughout, there is proactive, scientific research with one revelation after another, rather than retroactive scientific response. This is especially the case because of the highly-developed and detailed pseudo-science of the second text. I believe that this text can be classified as steampunk because it also possesses an extended scientific/pseudo-scientific dogma within which the universe of the story operates. In this case the scientists are merely looking inward with microscopes rather than heaven-bound with telescopes.

Though the two texts trace different paths, there are many repeating factors between each story. Firstly, there is a threat to the human species. In this case, the threats are physical and biological respectively. Another major commonality, also supported by Tichi, is the heroism of the scientist/engineer in the novels. There is no question that it is the scientists and engineers that solve the problems in each of the texts. Granted many of the villains in steampunk novels, like Lord Kelvin’s Machine, are also educated. The implication there is that scientists/engineers are endowed with power (good or bad) for being masters of the pseudo-science(s) that a steampunk novel adopts.