The ‘lost’ article of the steampunks

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Thanks to careful readers of Jacket Copy who e-mailed me about Friday’s steampunk posting, especially those pointing the way to another article about the steampunk movement that was commissioned by the New York Times a year ago and was spiked. Freelance writer Richard Morgan (who happens to share his name with a contemporary science fiction writer) has posted the article he wrote for the NYTimes at his website. Called ‘Steampunk: Remembering Yesterday’s Tomorrows’ (great title), this article provides what the NYTimes article lacks: a deeper sense of the philosophical attitudes behind the movement. Ruth La Ferla’s article makes it all sound like fads and surfaces; Morgan argues otherwise. You be the judge.

What a fine piece, Richard. I can’t imagine why that other paper didn’t publish it (though Ron Hogan, at Galley Cat, suggests rightly that your piece didn’t talk about steampunk fashions enough. Shame on you!). I wish you had come to us first.

Stay tuned for my June column of the Siren’s Call at www.latimes.com/books: Steampunk will be the topic, and a new feature, ‘Reader Feedback,’ will be included for your insights and help.

Nick Owchar

Photo: Paramount Pictures; from 1999’s ‘Sleepy Hollow’