I just finished one of the supposed founding classics of the steampunk genre, and I didn't understand it. The Difference Engine is by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson (who also wrote Neuromancer). I am not entirely sure of the relationship between Neuromancer being one of the defining books of the "cyberpunk" genre and The Difference Engine being one of the defining books of the "steampunk" genre, but I think "steampunk" was coined after "cyberpunk," and in relation to it.
On a side note, I didn't underline any of my book titles. I learned somewhere that I was supposed to do that, but it seems like a waste of time and effort. I dislike underlining anything, or even "bolding" anything. Italics and quotation marks are permitted.
Moving on.
I believe the concept of The Difference Engine (should I be capitalizing the "The" every time since it is technically in the title?) is that Charles Babbage, an actual historical person, hypothesized about the creation of some sort of rudimentary computer, called the difference engine, and then went from there to the analytical engine. In real life these were never built. In the story, we have massive ancient computer-like systems that aid in running the world around 1855. People have numbers that contain reports on them. The Engines perform a great deal of computing, including things as mundane as the production of music and printing pictures of people for use on their cards. The government institutions all have Engines.
It took me far into the book before I was even sure what the plot was, and it wasn't until I reached the end that I was even sure what it was about. And then only slightly. The book follows a few different people with about three to four narrative voices and some abstract narration thrown in for good measure. The stories might only be connected by a chance meeting and a small box of punch cards used to program the Engines. However, nobody even knows what these cards do until the end of the book.
Somewhere in the middle we get a strong picture of London at the time and the unwashed, unhappy masses that inhabit it. I see some of Gibson's flair for the creation of a scene in a way that leaves you there in the midst of polluted London during an event they called "The Stink," choking on the thick fog right along with the main character. You start to feel the frenzy as the fumes drive out the authority and shroud the streets in anonymity, where shop owners who haven't fled are protecting their shops with rifles, gambling rings crop up right out in the open, poor people tear apart a steam gurney left un-watched. Unable to escape and prodded by the socialist doctrines of an agitator, they take to the street violently, like wild dogs.
Much of the narrative does not seem to relate to the events that surround the characters, the things they struggled for. The punch cards are barely mentioned and are merely a pawn in some of the confrontations. The narrative instead peels back the facing on the characters, revealing their strengths, weaknesses, motivations, hidden sins. Some are never in the forefront and you learn about them through gossip and have to choose what to believe yourself. It is a cross-section of humanity, showing some of them at their worst.
The end is what some people have termed "dystopian," though I didn't much understand it. For some of the characters, their lives ended well. Mallory, the most featured character, lives to be a relatively old man of scientific success. Sybil grows old in her haven in France. But the ending, which seemed to be a collection articles, letters, and recollections, reveals the nature of the cards and the nature of some of the big names in the story, the leaders, the ones previously held in awe. Even the leaders can be sinners. And then at the end, there is a brief section of narrative that jumps you forward to 1990. Perhaps it would be better to quote. Even though it is Wikipedia.
"At the very end of the novel, there is a dystopian depiction of an alternate 1991 from the vantage point of Ada Lovelace. Throughout the novel's latter sections, there are references to an "Eye". At the end of the novel, human beings appear to have become digitized, ephemeral ciphers at the mercy of a sentient artificial intelligence." - Wikipedia.org
The book says something along the lines of "Paper-thin faces billow like sails, twisting, yawning, tumbling through the empty streets, human faces that are borrowed masks, and lenses for a peering Eye. And when a given face has served its purpose, it crumbles, frail as ash, bursting into a dry foam of data, its constituent bits and motes." - The Difference Engine
Surging humanity, all meaningless to the computer-thing that watches them, the computer-thing that gains sentience. I take to meant that their once great Engines, hailed as progress, the future, science, the epitome of knowledge and reason has somewhat turned against them and they become like pieces of a machine to the new consciousness, useful only in their time, life surging meaninglessly past them in their busy circles.
Sorry for the long sentences. I am still attempting to wrap my head around this book. All in all, it is an entertaining read. There is a complete world in it with many different inventions and political climates that are different from us and it is entertaining to see it unfold. I was actually curious about more of those and wanted to see more of the differences. The characters, while not always likable, are raw and realistic and you might find yourself rooting for one, encouraging them through the confusion that is their place in the story. And it makes you think.
Overall, then, a good book. Somewhat graphic in nature, so I recommend only to adults. Not David.
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