How to stress my point

Question: OK, so my story is somewhere between fantasy and sci-fi. I find it pretty close to steampunk myself. Anyway, several elements of the culture are influenced by Europe around the era of WW2, particularly Britain and Germany. From government to technology to almost everything else; their military even goose-steps. I personally just really like the style, but I just know people are going to instantly jump to similarities between the setting of my story and Nazi Germany. HELP! The Nazis have got nothing at all to do with my story! I mean, it takes place in a fictional universe! This fictional culture shares only superficial similarities to the Nazis (by which I mean their development of technology and things like that) but nothing even remotely close to their ideologies. Any advice on stressing my point that I simply took artistic influence from a particular place around a particular era, and that I DO NOT, IN ANY WAY, SUPPORT NAZISM? All help would be more welcome than you can imagine. Thank you!


Answer: The World War II aesthetic is often called dieselpunk, whereas steampunk is based more on a 19th century aesthetic.

A good example of dieselpunk with no mention of Nazis is the film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. Frankly, I think it's the policies that would make the association with Naziism. So as long as your good guys are not fascist or racist or anti-Semitic, I think you'll be okay.

Comments for How to stress my point

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Thanks a ton!
by:

Thanks a lot for the input, it really helps put my mind at ease. But what if my story combines the tw genres of dieselpunk and steampunk? I mean, I actually aimed to base it more in the steampunk genre but obviously got soem dieselpunk in there two. All things considered, I'd say it's probalbly about 60-65% steampunk, with dieselpunk filling in the rest. Thanks again, Glen!

Response
by: Glen

Perhaps one day there will be a name for dieselpunk/steampunk crossovers. Perhaps Edwardian-punk? In the meantime, there's nothing wrong with making books in the neutral zone.

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