Test your knowledge of steampunk and all things related with this Steampunk Trivia Questions
Choose the best answer. Only choose one. You can view all answers at the bottom at the end.
1. What is steampunk?
A. A bunch of punks all steamed up.
B. Science fiction literature with lots of gears and rivets.
C. The reimagining the Victorian era with steam-powered technology.
D. An aesthetic that involves corsets, petticoats, and bloomers.
2. What science fiction author coined the term “steampunk” in 1987?
A. K.W. Jeter in Morlock Night
B. Tim Powers and James Blaylock
C. Edgar Allen Poe
D. None of the above
3. What year did the Japanese start using the aesthetics of steampunk in their manga and anime?
A. 1880
B. 1940
C. 1970
D. 2010
4. Speculative fiction authors considered precursors to steampunk fiction include:
A. Mary Shelly and Edward Ellis
B. H.G. Wells
C. Jules Verne and Edgar Rice Buroughs
D. All of the Above
5. What is Neo-Victorianism?
A. Creative works produced during contemporary times that explore the Victorian era.
B. An academic and scholarly examination of the Victorian and Edwardian era and works it inspires in today’s era.
C. An aesthetic that romanticizes Victorian sensibilities, fashion, art, etc. and adopts it into today’s culture.
D. All of the above.
6. Retrofuturism is
A. The future from the perspective of an earlier era.
B. The past as seen from the future.
C. The combination of retro styles and futuristic technology.
D. All of the above.
7. Why are clocks and gears featured in steampunk art?
A. Time ran out for the Victorians.
B. Getting in gear is important in clockwork.
C. Clockwork is simple, mechanical technology from the Victorian era.
D. The industrial look was popular in the 1800s.
8. What Victorian invention created by Charles Babbage, inspired automatons and clockwork mechanisms?
A. The light bulb.
B. The Analytical Engine, the first mechanical computer.
C. The Tesla Coil.
D. The ophthalmoscope, which went largely ignored at the time.
9. In order to achieve a steampunk costume aesthetic, one needs to include:
A. Gears, rivets, clockwork, keys, goggles, or something industrial.
B. Bloomers, bustles, corsets, top hats, monocles, metal, or leather.
C. Recycled materials.
D. Something from the Victorian era AND something industrial/mechanical.
10. Why are goggles so popular in steampunk art and costuming?
A. Airship and dirigible pilots wear them, vehicles commonly featured in steampunk aesthetics.
B. Goggles protect the eyes from steam in a boiler room.
C. Mad scientists need them for steam-powered experiments.
D. All of the above.
11. What inventor inspired the science fiction invention in The Prestige by Christopher Priest. (Both a book and film.)
A. Thomas Edison
B. Nikola Tesla
C. Edith Clarke
D. Ruth Graves Wakefield
12. What is the name of the part of a steam engine which opens and closes the valve (it could also describe many Steampunks)?
A. Poppet
B. Piston
C. Eccentric
D. Cosplay
Answer Key
- A
- 1940—I know this seems too incredible to believe, but this aesthetic was used in Japanese art before Westerners came up with the term for it.
- B
- D
- D
- D
- C
- B
- D
- D
- B (Just in case you want some extra trivia, Edith Clarke invented the Clarke Calculator, the first electric-run calculator during the Victorian era and Ruth Graves Wakefield invented one of the most important things in my life that I had to include even though it wasn’t invented in the Victorian era. Ruth Graves Wakefield invented chocolate chip cookies.
- C