Steam's the Thing

A weekend spent gnashing at higher technologies, and also reading a quite entertaining but VERY badly written book (as in, small repetitive vocabulary, clunky pacing and thin, thin characters) which convinced me to abandon anything and everything invented or perfected after 1812 and revert to steam power. hence, these notes are being typed out on a 1789 vintage steampress movable type compositors' galley, and I walk to work.
Seriously, though, steam...
The good/bad book is theodore Roszak's 'Flicker', soon to be butchered and bowdlerized by Aronofsky of 'Pi' and 'Requiem' notoriety. It's dark, like a baby Burroughs tale, but has them ideas in it.