Oooh kay,
I just finished sifting through 9 pages of posts on this one and thought that I might want to chime in.
I saw a lot of people posting back around page 4 or 5 about “when I was running in ______ circles, I had this conversation." I had the same conversation when I was running around with the kids that called themselves punks, the kids that called themselves goths, etc. etc. But it wasn’t until I started teaching high school and seeing the alternative kids have the same conversations where I had the epiphany that I did.
1.) To label yourself is dangerous. By doing this, you are putting your faith in the understanding that the label you use will not be misinterpreted by the listener. The reason language works (sometimes) is because I move my mouth and utter sounds (or insert typed-analogies here) and you are able to listen, evaluate, and interpret those sounds to have meaning. If the word “punk” is used, you had better be sure that the listener knows exactly what you mean or else you will have a problem. And self-labeling ALWAYS causes this problem, whether you use “Steampunk”, “Goth”, “Christian”, “Libertarian”, etc. All labels have connotations that may or may not be what you are going for. So be aware of what it means to label.
2.) The Ramones and the Sex Pistols never actually labeled themselves “punk”. They were labeled by those around them. They just had a style of music and dress that allowed them to be labeled together by a 3rd party. When I was into the punk thing, that was just it. I wasn’t a punk, but I was into punk music, into punk dress, etc. The tougher punks I knew would never actually say that they were punks. The 3rd party did. The ones that actually labeled themselves were the posers... and were disrespected by those that actually were into the thing.
3.) On or around page 2, someone used the phrase “Steampunk enthusiast”. I think this is probably the most appropriate label if you need a label. You are people that have an interest in some aspect of this genre, be it the literature, the films, the modding, what have you. It’s not that you are steampunk, it is that you are into the steampunk thing. So dress the way you want to dress, and if you meet others like you… Cool, mod the way you want to mod, if you have some personal rebellion against technology or whatever, fine. But just know that you are not a steampunk, you are just a person who is into the steampunk thing.
Hopefully that doesn’t make too many people mad…..
-Patrick
