Punks.

For about a year, I have been fascinated in the sci-fi sub-genre of Steampunk. It's basically a style that combines the use of Victorian steam power with futuristic elements. Hard to describe, but easy to understand if you see concept art and other creations within this genre.

But, as I have come to learn, Steampunk is one of many sub-genres under the umbrella genres of Retrofuturistic/Futuristic Derivaties. (I am personally very attached to the former, as it is more nostalgic, like myself.) Basically, they are very imaginative forms of speculative fiction.

Let me try and convey this in a more applicable way.

Recently, while researching various wallapers and other things, I came upon [this valuable Wikipedia article] on these derivatives, such as Cyberpunk and other sub-catagories. I even discovered a new one that I adore: Dieselpunk. NOM.

Each of the genres also have their own "missions", as in if you were to live in a realm where one is embraced as a lifestyle, your problems and culture would be very different. Like, the "mission" in a Steampunk story would be different from a Cyberpunk or Atompunk, due to limitations, contexts, etc. You can dig deeper into that yourself. I'm just here to help plant interest in digging deeper into each ideal, and will try an pique your interest with a lil' spot on each.

Most of these "-punk" themes have been coined via literature, so if you REALLY want to know more, just look up books/movies steeping in whatever you want to know most about.

So if you are curious as to what all of these different categories really are, I have simplified it for you by finding an example of each, just to give you a foothold. Click on each title if you want a more informed article on what each of these is all about.

(this is basically elaborating off the Wikipedia article, with more images and some other links)

Enjoy, punklets.

CYBER-DERIVATIVES

I. [Cyberpunk]: focused mainly on digital sci-fi. (The Matrix is a nice example)

II. [Post-cyberpunk]: Sorta like Cyberpunk that has decayed a bit.

RETRO-FUTURISTIC DERIVATIVES

III. [Steampunk]: My personal favorite. Victorian-era steam power with a sci-fi mission.

IV. [Dieselpunk]: A new discovery I have decided to embrace. Gears more towards the "interbellum" (during wars) period of 1920-1965.

V. [Clockpunk]: a sub-genre of steampunk, based a lot on Da Vinci's work, with more mechanical-powered items.

VI. [Atompunk]: A lesser-known genre, it seems. Based on the pre-digital, atomic-era styles between 1945-1965 (like when your grandparents were young married couples. This guy looks like a re-assembled refrigerator from that time)

FUTURISTIC DERIVATIVES

VII. [Biopunk]: Pretty self-explanitory. Biomanipulation + cyberpunk tendencies. Kinda spooky, if you ask me. (It made me think of the art of H.R. Giger, which is rather bizzare, and is shown here.)

VIII. [Nanopunk]: A little non-descript right now, but something along the line of manipulating things on a molecular-structure scale. Here's the cover of the book that apparently started the idea.

SOME PROPOSED DERIVATIVES

IX. [Elfpunk]: Something about putting fantasy stuff in an modern urban settings. Sort of like urban fantasy. Looks like your best resource here would be literature within this theme.

X. [Mythpunk]: Similar to Elfpunk, but using more ideas from mythology than fantasy. Not a huge difference, perhaps, but enough, I guess, that two "-punks" had to be created.

XI. [NOWpunk]: This one was invented by Bruce Sterling after Sept. 11, and apparently there is so little on it, people are sorta like....ooooook. It's something about the present day, I guess.

XII. [Splatterpunk]: I'm not going to even elaborate on this one. It's basically some genre where violence and gore is off the charts, coined by some author. Horror fiction. You don't even get a picture for this one. If you're weird enough and want to know more...I had nothing to do with it.

XIII. [Etherpunk]: I don't know why Wikipedia would even list some of these ideas as sub-genres. I mean, they are in a sense, but only because one dude said so. Anyway, Etherpunk is one of these. It basically refers to this one guy's books, The Dragons of Ether. Brazillian stuff, I guess. Translate if you want.

And last but not least, a proposed "-punk" I personally love:

XIV. [Stitchpunk]: A proposed genre based on the movie 9. That movie was basically Steampunk, but apparently people really like narrowing things down. Oh well. I highly enjoyed that film.

Well, there you go. I hope that you found a few of these interesting. It took me a good afternoon to put together, you know... :P

I think I'm more of a nerd than I'd like to admit. That's alright.