Steampunk in Time

Imagine my surprise when I flipped through my recent copy of Time Magazine and found an article about Steampunk.

That got me all excited because it meant the culture is making more headlines. But then I got a tad depressed because it appears Mr. Lev Grossman -- who wrote the article -- spent much of it glossing over a heckuva bunch of stuff in favor of instead talking to Scott Westerfield (apparently one novel in the genre makes you an expert).

Now, I'm not bad-mouthing either gentleman. I've worked as a reporter (like Grossman is) and it is all kinds of not fun. The daily deadlines you have to hit or be reamed out by your boss are like the Sword of Damacles hanging over your head with an evil imp waiting to slice the thread. I'm also not trying to say Westerfield's not an articulate gentleman who spoke very well about the genre. I'm quite happy with his comments in regards to why he wrote Leviathan as a steampunk novel.

I should be happy that Steampunk got a shout-out in a major publication like Time. As it is, I'm merely bothered by it being back matter (tucked away at the end of the magazine) and not somewhere center stage where it belongs. Not like I'm, you know, biased or anything.*

* And if you believe that I have a nice little bridge in New York to sell you.