The Machine Anxieties of Steampunk

Ever wonder just what steampunk is and why people across the globe eagerly embrace its neo-Victorian aesthetic? Are you intrigued by the look of old-fashioned eye goggles, lace corsets, leather vests, brass gears and gadgets, not to mention mechanical clock and airships? Well, you can learn more in this cool book from one of my art historian friends! Kathe Hicks Albrecht's The Machine Anxieties of Steampunk will come out in mere days, and you can preorder it right now!

Kathe argues that steampunk is both an aesthetic program and a way of life, and that its underlying philosophy is the key to its broad appeal. She suggests that steampunk champions a new autonomy for the individual caught up in today's technology-driven society. Optimism for the future combines with a note of caution about our human role in a world of ever more ubiquitous and powerful machines. Thus, despite an aesthetic straight out of the Victorian scientific romance, steampunk addresses 21st-century concerns about what lies ahead for humankind and challenges us to ask what it is to be human today.