I am not a big fan of Steampunk, but have found it strange to see the shitstorm accusing the genre of being something akin to a literary Hitler Youth movement in its alleged celebration of imperialism, classism, racism and sexism.
Nick Harkaway offers a spirited defense of Steam Punk which I wholeheartedly agree with,
From 150 years in its future, Victoria’s reign looks like a hellhole. But that’s because the battles fought during the period are part of what defines who we are now.
And that isn’t even why Steampunk is good or important. That’s just why the critique is a bit broad-brush.
The reason Steampunk is important is not what it says about the Victorian Age, or even what that age was. What’s important is why people like it now. It’s not some kind of subrosa fascist movement people flock to because it provides a covert sexual fix of jackboots and imperial pagentry. There are other clubs for that, whether they identify as being bondage clubs or political parties which want to “defend Englishness”. The appeal of the Steampunk movement simpler than that. The reason Steampunk attracts people is that it is premised on a technology which is visible and pleasing to the naked eye, and whose moving parts are comprehensible on a human scale.
And that is precisely why I generally don’t enjoy Steampunk. Technology that is “visible and pleasing to the naked eye” is, frankly, a bit boring. But the claim that people who do are fetishizing imperialist oppression is just bizarre.