Choose Steampunk

[drcuriosity]

Choose Steampunk. Choose brass. Choose leather. Choose Victorian sensibilities. Choose harking back to an age that never was. Choose difference engines, traction engines, and anything that might conceivably have exposed pistons or control rods. Choose a big fuck-off pair of goggles that you never actually use as goggles. Choose making a corset out of something other than PVC. Choose ornate, baroque wordings with which to pen your missives. Choose pocket watches. Choose top hats. Choose your friends. Choose matching leather-bound lunchboxes. Choose a three-piece suit on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering what time period you are in on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that settee watching mind-numbing spirit-crushing fashion shows, stuffing fucking hors d'oeuvres into your mouth. Choose gluing second-hand cogs to things so they don't actually work as clockwork. Choose reliving the Industrial Revolution without the workhouses and soot and misery.
Choose your future past.
Choose Steampunk... but why would I want to do a thing like that?

This came out of a few recent discussions I've had with or seen between people online who are either directly or peripherally involved with Steampunk themes, organisations or activities. It doesn't necessarily reflect the views of management, etc., and it mostly tries to stay similar in tone to the Trainspotting original, but there's still a few interesting tensions highlighted there. Between aesthetic and function. Between creativity and commodity. Between romantic notion and realism. There's a place for all of these things, and more interesting stuff that could still come out of the genre/aesthetic/mode of Steampunk, but some of what I see seems... fettered, somehow. It's rather disturbing that there are already people who seem to delight in telling others what is authentic or not when dealing with a setting that never physically existed. It's almost like combining the worst traits of medievalist groups, sci-fi fans and popular high-school cliques in the same place. I'd rather see creation than stagnation, y'know?

(Because it won't fit in the field -
current Music: Everything Goes Cold - I've Sold Your Organs on the Black Market to Finance the Purchase of a Used Minivan)

Comments

[specialknives.livejournal.com]

elle_kabong wrote a piece that appears in the current Nocturne Magazine as at the time they couldn't find anyone in New Zealand who was doing it... although he isn't exactly a steampunk.

Someone said something poignant about it to me recently, "It looks cool when done well, but most of the people who are into it have no clue," which I thought was a pretty reasonable summary.

[basal-surge.livejournal.com]

yep, I like quite a bit of steampunk stuff, but it's currently too much image and not enough functional gadgets. I prefer medievalism, because steampunk is still mostly props, in most cases, whereas large parts of the medievalist movement have managed to break out of that and into stuff that works.

[jwm.livejournal.com]

Neat, but perhaps a little too slavish to the Trainspotting original towards the end. I'd use 'language' rather than wording, and drop the profanity as it seems out of place with the setting.

[drcuriosity]

*nod* Fair comment. But hey, that's five minutes' thought for you - I'm sure it could use some editing. Most of my care and attention was going into the subsequent paragraph.

[xenogram.livejournal.com]

I'd replace "fucking" with "bloody". You should make a t-shirt

[drcuriosity]

Yes, "bloody" would fit better. Hmmm.

[i-e-d.livejournal.com]

but damnit! my vision of make believe is better then YOUR vision of make believe!

[murnkay.livejournal.com]

Ha! Nice.

[anarchangel23.livejournal.com]

Hey, thanks for the Everything Goes Cold link, they're pretty cool!

[unwoman.livejournal.com]

That's my friend's band, yay!

[drcuriosity]

Indeed, structurefall does (and has done) a bunch of nifty stuff that's well worth pimping out. He's my favourite pineapple-headed musician ;-)

Speaking of musics, I just now spied the link to your latest on CDBaby, which is downloading as we speak! Looking forward to hearing it.

[unwoman.livejournal.com]

Brilliant!!

[unwoman.livejournal.com]

...seem to delight in telling others what is authentic or not when dealing with a setting that never physically existed.

I couldn't agree with you more.

[tatjna.livejournal.com]

The lolita followers have exactly the same geekish high-school-cliqueish bullshit going on too.

I like the steampunk type look, but the fact that it has a name that causes people to divide into groups and sling shit at each other over who's more steampunk than who, not so much.

Meanwhile, my project this weekend is adding fluoro trim to an off-white cream tutu, and making a laceup to to go with it, which will all match my seriously weird multicolour rainbow wig with horns.

Because when it comes to fashion/a look, my look is.. umm.. cyberfairysteamravegothpunkfucknose.. er.. mine. Because it's about the creativity and whether it looks good, not about how well it fits someone else's box.

[tatjna.livejournal.com]

PS 'about whether it looks good' - hahaha I'm now laughing at myself because some folks would say that in this outfit I look like I got crapped on by rainbow unicorns.

[drcuriosity]

The rainbow unicorn crap look does suit you well, though ;-)

Haha!!!

[angryangeltoo.livejournal.com]

That's fab :D

Sadly it has turned into a bit of a clique. It's mostly amongst the guys that just see it as an extension of Cosplay and not the guys that make stuff or are genuinely in love with the "mechanics" of the genre. It weirds me out someone telling someone else what is and isn't "Steam" in a genre that Science Fiction!

I'm just in it for the metal, nd the Giant Mechanical Steam Powered Robots. ;oD

PS

[angryangeltoo.livejournal.com]

I went to a comic con this weekend and saw some Steampunk Nazis. Interesting concept.

Re: PS

[drcuriosity]

Have you seen the film Jin-Roh? While a bit more advanced in the tech, their CAPO armour is very much styled on German WWII stuff.

[porphyre.livejournal.com]

With a bit more tinkering, that's going to be really really a fun bit of writing.

[drcuriosity]

*nod* I may have to give it a good mull.