[H&F] "On why nostalgia for the past sucks"

[rfmcdonald]

Sadness
Originally uploaded by etherflyer

I've a post up at History and Futility that draws from the discussion about the terribly false asumptions of some steampunk fiction initiated by Charlie Stross. The past sucked; the present really is better. It got so much better.

I illustrated the post with Robert's picture of the tombstone of a poor girl, Margaret McNevin, who died in Toronto in the mid-19th century before her eighth birthday. The era that gave rise to steampunk certainly wasn't good for her.