Raising Steam
Aug. 31st, 2013 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daibhidcAs all Discworld fans know[1], the new novel is out in November and involves steam trains being introduced to the Disc. And the reaction I've seen includes a lot of comments to the effect of "Discworld advances from medieval fantasy to the Victorian period" or even "Discworld goes steampunk!" And these comments annoy me, because they're wrong.
We'll start with the second one. Trains aren't steampunk. There is nothing steampunk about "The Signalman", Murder on the Orient Express or Thomas the Tank Engine. Steampunk is about things that didn't really exist in the Victorian era, most often advanced mechanical computers. And the Disc already has an advanced mechanical computer, albeit one that's powered by magic and biological components rather than steam.
Which brings me to the first point. Discworld hasn't been medieval for years. It already has many of the trappings of the Victorian era, including newspapers, pocket watches, the Penny Post, an optical telegraph system, department stores with Hosgwatch Grottoes, paper money, flushing lavatories, a Football Association, and people wearing cravats and top hats. It also has magical equivalents to cameras (including speed cameras), PDAs, a nuclear power station, and - as mentioned - a mainframe computer. Trying to map it directly onto any period of Roundworld history is ludicrous.
And that's all assuming that this is a permenant addition like the clacks and the newspapers, and won't be neatly removed by the end of the book like the moving pictures and music with rocks in. In which case, the Disc hasn't really gone anywhere. (Although, admittedly, Terry seems to be less inclined to do that these days.)
[1]Or possibly not, there was a woman behind me at Ad Lib who went "Ooh!" when Pterry mentioned it, leading me to wonder if she didn't have the internet.
We'll start with the second one. Trains aren't steampunk. There is nothing steampunk about "The Signalman", Murder on the Orient Express or Thomas the Tank Engine. Steampunk is about things that didn't really exist in the Victorian era, most often advanced mechanical computers. And the Disc already has an advanced mechanical computer, albeit one that's powered by magic and biological components rather than steam.
Which brings me to the first point. Discworld hasn't been medieval for years. It already has many of the trappings of the Victorian era, including newspapers, pocket watches, the Penny Post, an optical telegraph system, department stores with Hosgwatch Grottoes, paper money, flushing lavatories, a Football Association, and people wearing cravats and top hats. It also has magical equivalents to cameras (including speed cameras), PDAs, a nuclear power station, and - as mentioned - a mainframe computer. Trying to map it directly onto any period of Roundworld history is ludicrous.
And that's all assuming that this is a permenant addition like the clacks and the newspapers, and won't be neatly removed by the end of the book like the moving pictures and music with rocks in. In which case, the Disc hasn't really gone anywhere. (Although, admittedly, Terry seems to be less inclined to do that these days.)
[1]Or possibly not, there was a woman behind me at Ad Lib who went "Ooh!" when Pterry mentioned it, leading me to wonder if she didn't have the internet.
