The controversial post regarding the life expectancy of Steampunk versus the life expectancy of Cyberpunk keeps receiving feedback and a certain picture is forming which is encouraging for some parts of the world but rather disheartening for others.
The Good:
The scene is doing well in North America, the UK, and in the Netherlands. This is the sum of the feedback I have gotten from the Netherlands, Canada , Britain and the United States. And there will hoepfully be a podcast on the UK scene in late September or October, Cthulhu willing.
The grievances I voiced (i.e. mainly older people in the scene, younger folks few and far between or missing) also do not apply there. In The Netherlands and the UK especially, teenagers and youth in their early 20s form a visible chunk of the scene.
The scene in Portugal and Spain is also still active, but has shrunk somewhat compared to previous years.
The Concerning:
The rest of Europe seems to be in trouble. Not only did my friend Anja Bagus (to my knowledge Germany’s most successful Steampunk author) confirm my observations regarding events in Germany but my friend Dan Aetherman, the most prominent Steampunk in Switzerland, has written a blog post in response to my article (in German), in which he agrees with me and states the very same problems I mention are present in the Swiss scene.
One possible explanation for this, as he writes, is, that the Swiss scene is maybe just a southern extension of the German scene and thus shares the problems. If this is so, then all the Swiss scene needs, is its own identity and I hope they will find it, because the German scene is more in trouble than I thought.
Obviously, I got the most feedback from German Steampunks, since most of my contacts are in Germany and some of that feedback is cause for alarm.
From what I learned, the scene in Germany is not only very fragmented and cliquey, there also seem to exist a noticable number of people who consider themselves the guardians or even lords and ladies of the scene and who actively keep newcomers out, if they do nt have the ressources (time, skill, money) to meet their arbitrarily declared standards of what a true Steampunk should do or wear.
Also, I have not heard anything directly from France or Italy but have been informed that both scenes have first fragmented more than the German scene and then basically imploded.
If anyone from France or Italy is reading this, please let me know if you have any first-hand knowledge.
In Conclusion:
It looks like the Steampunk scene is likely to continue for some time but simply not everywhere, which is rather sad, since it made such a good and strong start all across the world a few years back.
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http://daily-steampunk.com/