On Steam- and Clock-punk....

[digitaldiscipline]

Over at lisamantchev's place, responding to a genre writer's conversation about what is and ain't steampunk, there's apparently been some sort of professional wank going on.

My thoughts on steampunk, tersely, are "Steampunk is the new Pirate."

The recent rise in popularity of S-punk seems to mimic the PotC-inspired crest for all things piratical.

There are some folks who have been sporting this look for a while, and whom it seems natural to associate with it; its recent ubiquity is one of those things that seems to spring from a spontaneous gestalt reaction to a lot of factors, most of which I'm flatly ignorant.

Does it make any sense? There's probably a sociological paper or essay in the subject, which I am singularly unqualified to write, but may blather about anyway.[1]

While I'm fond of weathered brass and leather, clockwork does nothing for me, and steam is too "cutesy" - it's sloppy but prim, clunky but prissy, if you take my meaning, which simply doesn't work for me.

I do not cotton to a world of wind-up dandies.

Also, I *loathed* The Difference Engine, which has essentially soured me on the genre(s) even further. The fact that it was recommended to me by someone who I would not take the time to piss on were I to encounter their body in flames is only further steepening the slope.


[1] An argument could probably be made that the American descent into a secretly-purient Neo-Victorian state of surface ethics and prissiness means the parallels to a plausibly steampunk world are ripe for the picking, and it may be the shortest sideways path to social commentary. It may be a matter of edgy fashion wanting to take a new direction away from the soft, formless, hippie-infused crap of the last several seasons. Maybe there's been a dramatic downturn in the price of broken clockwork, and all the DIY folks are accessorizing with it these days (onceupon, your shit is deeply cool, and I hope it sells like hotcakes).

Comments

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I harbour the faint hope that it will actually lead to building clockwork machines. We may be in dire need of them soon.

[cerisefemme.livejournal.com]

But wind up dandies are so very close to coin operated boys! Progress man! :)

[serpentstar.livejournal.com]

I thought _The Difference Engine_ was the weakest book I'd seen from either Gibson or Sterling, & still is. It was also appallingly researched.

I'm not that big on steampunk in general, either... it can look OK. Brass & leather are good. Broken, detourned clockwork is more appealing than the perfectly working stuff though. :)

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I was non-plussed by Gibson's no-longer-latest, Pattern Recognition (and what does it say that I can't even name his current release, when I've read everything else to tatters?); my attitude tending towards "the closer to the present/real world his work gets, the less I go for it."

I think steampunk fashion is pretty cool (though its recent surge in ubiquity has made me wonder at the cause - I worry when I'm in danger of being hip ;-) ), though not something I can really pull off (I end up more cyber-y, because no matter how much I sweat, plastic won't rust, for one thing).

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

I figure will come a time when conventional energy sources will just get too damn expensive for common use.

[invertedcross.livejournal.com]

Random person comment forthcoming:

Oh dear, I do hope steampunk doesn't become the new pirate. All of the hip chic Johnny Depp fangirls certainly don't need to touch the beauty that is steampunk fashion; and everything certainly needs to lose the priss.

Anyway, I'll end this random comment with a random quick sketch, because the world needs more cool steampunk, and less gay steampunk.