Jazzaram
I'll say this much to her name; she raised a half way valid point. I like working with steam ideas in other cultures and settings, and I think that insisting there be steam engines every time dosen't always quite set it up.
I agree. I have a sort of Lawrence of Arabia aspect in my persona. I think that drawing from that age--the age when the British Empire was using steam--makes something steampunk. I love working in elements of the middle east and the far east into my back story. On the other hand, I think most of us who try to work out the actual physics of our machines often find that Steam power, as we know it, is limiting. Hence the popular use of the vague omnipotence of "Aether"
Still, there are some complexities which are harder to fit in. It's difficult for me, for example, to incorporate my interest in my own central American heritage into this. The fascinating indigenous population had been colonized and were in the process of being robbed of their culture for it to be replaced by Spanish culture. How do you reflect that without internalizing that oppression and yet still exist in the larger Euro-centric storyline of Steampunk?
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