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I came across Steampunk Magazine today, read their intro and thought, this could be a pretty cool read. This is what they say:

Before the age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.

Sounds interesting doesn’t it? Well, I thought I would check it out. Man, was I ever wrong. Talk about folks that are too full of themselves. They start out with a ton of overly pretentious verbiage. For example in just their description of “What is Steampunk”

Steampunk is a re-envisioning of the past with the hypertechnological perceptions of the present. Unfortunately, most so-called “steampunk” is simply dressed-up, recreationary nostalgia: the stifling tea-rooms of Victorian imperialists and faded maps of colonial hubris. This kind of sepia-toned yesteryear is more appropriate for Disney and suburban grandparents than it is for a vibrant and viable philosophy or culture. First and foremost, steampunk is a non-luddite critique of technology. It rejects the ultra-hip dystopia of the cyberpunks—black rain and nihilistic posturing—while simultaneously forfeiting the “noble savage” fantasy of the pre-technological era. It revels in the concrete reality of technology instead of the over-analytical abstractness of cybernetics. Steam technology is the difference between the nerd and the mad scientist; steampunk machines are real, breathing, coughing, struggling and rumbling parts of the world. They are not the airy intellectual fairies of algorithmic mathematics but the hulking manifestations of muscle and mind, the progeny of sweat, blood, tears and delusions. The technology of steampunk is natural; it moves, lives, ages and even dies.

Huh? I had to call the wife in and break out a dictionary just to be able to figure out what the magazine is about!

Also, exactly what is this picture? Is she a robot? Why is the boy looking on?

Sheez do you understand it?

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Before this magazine will ever get off the ground they need to get over their pretentious verbiage and make it easier to read.

No one wants to slog through this kind of magazine.

The idea is a pretty good one, and could be very interesting. But an easier read for all will definitely  increase circulation.