Some Free Disease Knowledges

Ruth La Ferla in the NYT:

If steampunk has a mission, it is, in part, to restore a sense of
wonder to a technology-jaded world. ???Today satellite photos make the
planet seem so small,??? Mr. Brown lamented. ???Where is the adventure it
that???? In contrast, steampunk, with its airships, test tubes and time
machines, is, he said, ???sort of a dream , the way we used to daydream.
It???s like part of your childhood???s just bursting forward again.???

For
some of its adherents, steampunk also offers a metaphoric coping
device. ???It has an intellectual tie to the artists and artisans dealing
with a world in turmoil at the time of the industrial revolution,??? said
Crispen Smith, a Web designer and photographer in Toronto, and a
partner in a steampunk fashion business.

Now, as in the late
19th century, ???we have to find a way to deal with new ethical
quandaries,??? Mr. Smith said, alluding to issues like cloning, the
dissemination of information and intellectual property rights on the
Web.

Steampunk style is also an expression of a desire to
return to ritual and formality. ???Steampunk has its tea parties and its
time-travelers balls,??? said Deborah Castellano, who presides over salonconvention.com, which organizes neo-Victorian conventions. ???It offers an element of glamour that some of us would otherwise never experience.???