Good point! It may be that some of the reaction against it comes from people feeling like it's too different.

One thing that's interesting to me about subcultures is that it's a small group of people all conforming together in anti-conformity to the larger group. I think people really enjoy that us-against-them feeling, on either side of the majority/minority line, but for different reasons. The majority likes being normal, and therefore correct. The minority prefers being different, and therefore innovative. And subcultures tend to splinter because the people who are drawn to being non-conformist eventually rebel against the established subculture.

Those are the citizens I'm talking about. *g*

I don't see it as an ethic at all--a philosophy, or set of moral principles--but I'm sure many do, and maybe that's part of the problem. I see it as an aesthetic. Who gets to define it, if it is an ethic? Or an aesthetic, for that matter?

There's the real problem! People are too cranky! Or they take themselves too seriously, but maybe that's a subset of cranky.

I haven't read Ayn Rand's stuff, but some of the authors at Fourth Street Fantasy were talking about her overt message-sending. It sounded like they thought her way of writing propaganda was clumsy; there was an obvious message she wanted people to take from her writing, for their improvement. This is hearsay, but I've gleaned it from good sources.

Outside of writing technique, I think lots of people just don't like her message. That's all I know! From all that I've heard about it, I've developed an aversion to the idea of reading The Fountainhead, but I probably should someday.

That *would* be awesome! And she could dress up in edgy neo-Victoriana gear to use it, which would be HAWT. :)

Steampunk started out as a word for a subgenre of science fiction or fantasy that's set in a world where steam power is used, usually in the Victorian period if the story is on Earth. Technology is usually shifted from what we really had in that time, toward more fantastical things like time machines that work but use steam power, for example, or dirigibles. It could also refer to alternate history stories where workable analog computers were developed earlier in history than we had computers, or any steam-powered technology took over and made the modern world turn out to be different from what it is now. There's more to it, but that's a quick explanation of where the term came from.

The current subculture of steampunk fashion developed out of the fiction, leading to people wearing neo-Victoriana clothing that can be very dressy and proper, with corsets, hats, and bustles for women and elegant jackets and trousers for men, or people dress like Victorian adventurers. Usually accessories like goggles, monocles, pocket watches and chokers are involved. It can also be crossed with other subculture style, and made more goth or lolita, depending how people decide to wear it. Here's a page with a few examples that I like.

There are some extremely beautiful and expensive mods of current technology and furntiture--computers, laptops, desks, and more. Here's a picture of a gorgeous desktop computer mod.