The worst thing about waiting for Christmas is not being allowed to open one’s presents. So here’s our special gift for you: Sweet little GoH-interview-packages the week before Christmas. Today we start with Steampunk Emma Goldman, the others following in two-day intervals. Enjoy reading!
1) If you were to give away a Steampunk-book for Christmas, which one would it be?
Emma: But The Anatomy of Steampunk is quite good. Not that I observe religious holidays, of course, but there’s never a bad reason to give your friends books.
2) What do you find most fascinating about Steampunk?
Emma: The intersection of past and future; the blending of possibilities when we are able to reimagine history and the future.
3) In your opinion, what are the main parallels or differences between Science Fiction /Fantasy and Steampunk?
Emma: I consider steampunk to be, roughly speaking, the intersection of sci-fi/fantasy and history, but I think what they have in common, at their best, is imagination.
4) Is there an author (dead or alive) you really would like to meet, and if so, why?
Emma: I was supposed to meet Oscar Wilde once in the late 1890s, and we barely missed each other. I would dearly love to have met him.
5) Is it actually possible to write Steampunk that is not feminist?
Emma: Absolutely! It is incredibly possible to write steampunk that is not feminist; steampunk is written in the present, in which misogyny is alive and well, and it draws from the 19th century, in which it was even stronger. But I think at its best steampunk plays with the infinite variations of gender and gender roles.
6) Ursula LeGuin said that Science Fiction /Fantasy is not about the future but about the present. Does something similar apply to Steampunk, too?
Emma: I think so. Anything that portrays the past, or the future, is really about portraying our own time.
7) Finish following sentence: “Steampunk taking place in space…”
Emma:… should probably include the possibility of establishing anarchist colonies on uninhabited planets.