I think the popular perception that were a lot like the Victorians is in large part correct. One way is that were all constantly in a state of ongoing technoshock, without really being aware of it - its just become where we live. The Victorians were the first people to experience that, and I think it made them crazy in new ways. Were still riding that wave of craziness. Weve gotten so used to emergent technologies that we get anxious if we havent had one in a while. But if you read the accounts of people who rode steam trains for the first time, for instance, they went a little crazy. Theyd traveled fifteen miles an hour, and when they were writing the accounts afterward they struggled to describe that unthinkable speed and what this linear velocity does to a perspective as youre looking forward. There was even a Victorian medical complaint called railway spine. Emergent technologies were irreversibly altering their landscape. Bleak House is a quintessential Victorian text, but it is also probably the best steam punk landscape that will ever be. Dickens really nailed it, especially in those proto-Ballardian passages in which everything in nature has been damaged by heavy industry. But there were relatively few voices like Dickens then. Most people thought the progress of industry was all very exciting. Only a few were saying, Hang on, we think the birds are dying.
Posted on: Fri, 08 Nov 2013 13:02:05 +0000
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