Plasmapunk?

[Tom Ligon]

Who do I see about establishing a new SF subgenre?

This topic came up at Balticon yesterday, as I was carrying my model of the WB6 magrid (a fusion reactor part featured in a talk I had just given) down the hall. Somebody asked if it were a "steampunk" prop, and I responded it was more like a "plasmapunk" prop.

It turns out the term has been used before, in an interview by Steampunk Magazine of a steampunk artist: http://bostodelphia.blogspot.com/2008/02/bostodelphia-steampunk-go-go-taking.html

A search for the term returns a couple of hits related to the interview above, a bunch on a band of that name, and somebody uses it as a screen name. The Hemogoths don't actually seem to exist, or if they do, they are computerphobes.

I propose that the architypical practioners of plasmapunk are the fusion hobbyists on fusor.net and talk-polywell.org: essentially they are high-tech steampunks, per the definition given in the interview linked above. I can think of a number of stories that would qualify, but if "El Dorado" became the prototype, I could claim I established a genre instead of being a golden age throwback.

[Roy]

I think you have to send Jetse an archetypal plasmapunk story and then once IZ accepts it I publicize it all over the SF websites and with a bit of luck we get a new movement.

Trouble is people might think that name applies to a new form of Vampire fiction, vampires in virtual or sucking info out of peoples implanted chips perhaps.

Alternatives? ionpunc, or fusionpunc?
Maybe we could suggest an all punk issue with steam, clock, plasma and cyberpunk stories.