A very common theme throughout the genre of Steampunk is that of catastrophism. The settings within most Steampunk stories tends to be somewhat post-apocalyptic. The air is dark and gloomy and society tends to have crumbled upon itself. Man, feeling the weight of this, gives in to his base desires, furthering the process.
In The Difference Engine, Iterations 3 and 4 paint a picture of a frenzied and lost society, marred by recent events. Edward Mallory journeys through England and sees many horrible things. He sees a group of children breaking shop windows in the middle of public and stealing whatever they can. One is greatly injured, but the others leave him behind. Mallory also comes across the dead body of a sailor and is almost shot by the same man who killed the sailor. Edward, too, gives in to his base passions with Hetty. Society itself seems to be crumbling under the weight of all that has happened, and it doesn't seem to be getting much better.
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2 comments:
I never thought of Mallory's and Hetty's interaction was some form of "violence" that could be proven to support the catastrophic theory, but I believe you're right.
I like the way you compared the scientific theory of Catastrophism to social theory in London.
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