‘Sex, violence, and babies! That’s what get’s attention!’
These were the wise words of the first person I worked for, who I would describe without hesitation as ‘inspiring’.
Her name was Helen, and I was a fresh recruit at a local environmental regeneration charity in my adopted home of Leeds. I was working on a voluntary basis, after graduating from Uni and being unemployed for over year, in order to get some work experience doing something that would help me to develop my writing skills, and as such I was the freshly minted Events & Communications Officer being shown the ropes by my manager.
She was, in the first of many such conversations, imparting some wisdom about the practicalities of writing the kind of promotional copy which the local newspaper might agree to publish.
At the time, in the late 1990’s, anything to do with the environment was definitely not sexy, hopefully not violent, which left us pitching most of our stories to the baby and child oriented audience…. ‘Did you know about this local conservation project, its a great opportunity for kids to learn all about creepy-crawlies!’ etc
The problem is, this piece of pocket wisdom is still true, and when it comes to fiction, a little gratuitous sex and violence can mask a lot other weaknesses in the plot, characterisation and setting.
This at least is my pet theory about why so many fiction titles in our bookshops today seem to be focused on murder and abuse in the extreme, either that or racy ‘romances’ involving whatever unlikely combo is currently in vogue:, bad-boy millionaires, home-sick cowbosy, vegetarian vampires, singleton surgeons, ventriloquist veterinarians!
For me at least, this means I often struggle to find new books to read, because I’m looking for the good stuff… those that just focus on the story, the characters, fantastical concepts and amazing settings.
That’s one reason why I started to read, and then started to write in the Steampunk and Dieselpunk genre’s.
Mark Hodder’s Burton and Swinburne series was just plain and simple entertainment, as was Andrew Mayne’s Chronological Man series, Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines, now also a blockbuster movie.
Sticking to the silver screen, there are great adaptation of Philip K Dick’s Man in the High Castle, and Len Deighton’s SS-GB.
Yes, the Steampunk and Dieselpunk genre has its fair share of other genre authors trying to pass off their books as belonging, but every genre has that.
Why are these two, relatively new genre’s so special, so much more optimistic and less prone to distracting their readers with gratuitous Sex, Violence and Babies? That I don’t know.
Perhaps its their very ‘newness’ that causes this. The stereotypes and tropes aren’t so rigidly defined as yet, and as a consequence the fetters of expectation fit a little more loosely around their authors creative extremities.
Perhaps its some vestige of narrative style or tone, that the writers of these stories subconsciously borrow from their Victorian through to interwar counterparts, along with the grand houses, historic clothing, and period mannerisms.
This might be a time period plagued by body-snatchers, murderous barbers and infamous serial killers, but it was also an epoch of public restraint and at least superficial conservatism, even if the reality of what went on behind closed doors was starkly different.
I could speculate further, but the point I’m trying to make is actually a very simple one. For whatever reason, if you like good old-fashioned stories that don’t compensate for their inadequacies with added sex and violence, then why not take a stroll along the growing bookshelves of Steampunk and Dieselpunk novels, including some of those I’ve mentioned above, or those I’ve written myself, linked in the footnote below.
Alternatively, if your mood is for something a little more light-hearted and guaranteed to put a smile on your face, at last once in a while, then why not check out the Kickstarter of a friend of mine Bonsart Bokel and his Association of Ishtar series -