Captain Slowpants of the Airship Dude.
Sep. 15th, 2008 07:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
momebieI debated whether I should just post this to the steampunk filter or not, but decided against it. Technically, it's a Dragon*Con panel write up, which means it's probably of interest to quite a few of you for various reasons. More than me waxing obnoxious about the novel project of epicness anyway. (Though, there will still be flailing. Sorry.) So without further ado, write up numero uno!
First things first, a list of the panelists and their sites/projects/what have you:
* Cherie Priest, author of American steampunk novels. You can find her official blog here.
* Emmett and Klaude Davenport of the Clockwork Cabaret, a podcast for steampunk music and ponderings which I really should start downloading.
* Brad and Valerie of the Hellblinki Sextet. Their myspace is here. Give them a listen.
* Stephen H. Segal, editorial and creative director of Weird Tales magazine. (Note to self: subscribe to that when loans come in.)
* Robert from Abney Park, another awesome steampunk band. Their official website is here. There's a decent video of them performing Herr Drossermeyer's Doll at the show at Dragon*Con here.
* Scott Rorie, an artist who is admittedly just getting into steampunk.
* Moderator DJ Nemesis, whose site is here.
Okay, the following is taken from notes of the panel which I jotted down to share with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theemdash later, because she was ON another panel at the time and couldn't come with me. It is not an entirely comprehensive write up, but I hope it will be as entertaining to you as the panel itself was to me. (Seriously, my favorite panel of the whole con, and I went to the Torchwood panel where I got to hear GDL talk about his ass twinge and how it in no way relates to John Barrowman. Just saying.) So now, in note form!
1.) Steampunk is brilliant because it's like DDR.
N asked the panel: 'Why steampunk? Why now?' Stephen Segal said that he had a threefold answer to the question, the first prong being that 'steampunk is brilliant because it's like DDR.' What do girls want boys to do that boys hate doing? Girls want boys to dance. No amount of poking or prodding or holding out over the years has made dancing a cool thing for boys to do. So, some genius turned dancing into a video game, and now boys do it all the time. Steampunk has done a gender twist in reverse. It takes things that are stereotypically feminine, like lace and tea and Victorian England, and said 'here, have some cool robots with that'.
2.) Nothing drives technology like war.
Much of the genre technology coming out of steampunk is based on necessity, just like the technology of the real world does. (It was also interjected that nothing drove technology like porn, but that would have been a whole other kind of panel.) Cherie Priest talked about how she got into steampunk. In the past she has written in other genres, but she ran across some wank on the internet about how Americans couldn't write steampunk unless they were trying to be British. Her reaction to this, much like mine probably would have been, was 'watch me.' In her books she reimagines the Civil War so that it lasts roughly fifteen years longer than it did in real life. In this way she can push the American technology to new places based on need.
3.) Science fiction was becoming too clean.
My favorite part of the panel was the discussion about how steampunk diverged from not only the science fiction/cyberpunk tradition, but also the tradition of goth aesthetic. I'm not sure here, who said what, but I know that all of the panelists had opinions on the matter, and Stephen Segal gave his third reason for 'why steampunk, why now'.
The way that current writers and media people were pushing science fiction, it was becoming very clean. We were given the Starship Enterprise which brought us the Macbook. Everything is clean and bright, consoles are small and ergonomic, we wave our hands to bring up the information we need and then wave them again to send it away. By definition of being user friendly, everything in this version of the new world works exactly like it's supposed to every time. Our lives are also turning into this.
When science fiction first started, many people assumed that we would begin living that way, eventually, but where are our jet packs? We've gotten all of the small, quirky parts of science fiction. We can carry our entire music collections in our pockets, our cars can tell us where to go and in some cases drive and stop themselves. Also, in moves that are less fun for humanity as a whole, we can pretty much destroy entire countries with the push of a button. We've come to realize that we're living in Blade Runner, and that's the depressing bit. We need a way to go back and reset our destination, to set things right.
Steampunk is a way to get dirty. It's tesla coils and steam engines and exploding jelly and oil and the dirt of the old west and the very first self-lighting lanterns on the streets of London. Steampunk is a way to have fun with the world and be hands on. Part of the fun of the culture growing out of this literary genre is the way that people who are mechanically minded can pretty much create anything they want and incorporate the aesthetic, if not run things entirely on the alternate power sources. (The other day Em found this gorgeous Mac Mini conversion.) And on top of all of that, steampunk is a way to reinstate wonder into the genre of science fiction and life in general.
4.) Goths take vampires too seriously.
There was a little bit said about the steampunk aesthetic growing out of the goth scene, and how people seemed to be jumping ship to steampunk because it didn't have that feeling of elitism that some of the goth contingency can. It was also noted that lay people are more open to the idea of steampunk than they usually with people who wear all black and lots of makeup. Stephen Segal made the comment that some people feel that goths are people who take vampires too seriously, and that scares people because they think (mostly wrongly) that a goth is going to bite them or hurt them in some way because they're into dark things. Where as with steampunk you can't really be afraid of someone who's too into pocket watches. He also made the point that if some dork tries to tell you they're a better dork than you, then you should give them what they are asking for at that point. Because, really. :p
I have a whole passel of recs that will go up in another post. I apologize. I've been trying to sleep like a normal person since I've been so stupidly tired lately. Heh. JUST KNOW THAT THEY'RE COMING. Hopefully soon. If you have any questions you think I might be able to answer, or want to discuss something, please leave a comment! I could talk about this stuff all day. It makes me happy. ♥
Also, I know a fair few people have joined the insanity since my last post and poll. I'm currently writing a collaborative, original fiction, steampunk novel withtheemdash and I do from time to time wax on about it or post bits of character studies or um, porn. >.> If you'd like to be put on that filter, please let me know!
First things first, a list of the panelists and their sites/projects/what have you:
* Cherie Priest, author of American steampunk novels. You can find her official blog here.
* Emmett and Klaude Davenport of the Clockwork Cabaret, a podcast for steampunk music and ponderings which I really should start downloading.
* Brad and Valerie of the Hellblinki Sextet. Their myspace is here. Give them a listen.
* Stephen H. Segal, editorial and creative director of Weird Tales magazine. (Note to self: subscribe to that when loans come in.)
* Robert from Abney Park, another awesome steampunk band. Their official website is here. There's a decent video of them performing Herr Drossermeyer's Doll at the show at Dragon*Con here.
* Scott Rorie, an artist who is admittedly just getting into steampunk.
* Moderator DJ Nemesis, whose site is here.
Okay, the following is taken from notes of the panel which I jotted down to share with
theemdash later, because she was ON another panel at the time and couldn't come with me. It is not an entirely comprehensive write up, but I hope it will be as entertaining to you as the panel itself was to me. (Seriously, my favorite panel of the whole con, and I went to the Torchwood panel where I got to hear GDL talk about his ass twinge and how it in no way relates to John Barrowman. Just saying.) So now, in note form!1.) Steampunk is brilliant because it's like DDR.
N asked the panel: 'Why steampunk? Why now?' Stephen Segal said that he had a threefold answer to the question, the first prong being that 'steampunk is brilliant because it's like DDR.' What do girls want boys to do that boys hate doing? Girls want boys to dance. No amount of poking or prodding or holding out over the years has made dancing a cool thing for boys to do. So, some genius turned dancing into a video game, and now boys do it all the time. Steampunk has done a gender twist in reverse. It takes things that are stereotypically feminine, like lace and tea and Victorian England, and said 'here, have some cool robots with that'.
2.) Nothing drives technology like war.
Much of the genre technology coming out of steampunk is based on necessity, just like the technology of the real world does. (It was also interjected that nothing drove technology like porn, but that would have been a whole other kind of panel.) Cherie Priest talked about how she got into steampunk. In the past she has written in other genres, but she ran across some wank on the internet about how Americans couldn't write steampunk unless they were trying to be British. Her reaction to this, much like mine probably would have been, was 'watch me.' In her books she reimagines the Civil War so that it lasts roughly fifteen years longer than it did in real life. In this way she can push the American technology to new places based on need.
3.) Science fiction was becoming too clean.
My favorite part of the panel was the discussion about how steampunk diverged from not only the science fiction/cyberpunk tradition, but also the tradition of goth aesthetic. I'm not sure here, who said what, but I know that all of the panelists had opinions on the matter, and Stephen Segal gave his third reason for 'why steampunk, why now'.
The way that current writers and media people were pushing science fiction, it was becoming very clean. We were given the Starship Enterprise which brought us the Macbook. Everything is clean and bright, consoles are small and ergonomic, we wave our hands to bring up the information we need and then wave them again to send it away. By definition of being user friendly, everything in this version of the new world works exactly like it's supposed to every time. Our lives are also turning into this.
When science fiction first started, many people assumed that we would begin living that way, eventually, but where are our jet packs? We've gotten all of the small, quirky parts of science fiction. We can carry our entire music collections in our pockets, our cars can tell us where to go and in some cases drive and stop themselves. Also, in moves that are less fun for humanity as a whole, we can pretty much destroy entire countries with the push of a button. We've come to realize that we're living in Blade Runner, and that's the depressing bit. We need a way to go back and reset our destination, to set things right.
Steampunk is a way to get dirty. It's tesla coils and steam engines and exploding jelly and oil and the dirt of the old west and the very first self-lighting lanterns on the streets of London. Steampunk is a way to have fun with the world and be hands on. Part of the fun of the culture growing out of this literary genre is the way that people who are mechanically minded can pretty much create anything they want and incorporate the aesthetic, if not run things entirely on the alternate power sources. (The other day Em found this gorgeous Mac Mini conversion.) And on top of all of that, steampunk is a way to reinstate wonder into the genre of science fiction and life in general.
4.) Goths take vampires too seriously.
There was a little bit said about the steampunk aesthetic growing out of the goth scene, and how people seemed to be jumping ship to steampunk because it didn't have that feeling of elitism that some of the goth contingency can. It was also noted that lay people are more open to the idea of steampunk than they usually with people who wear all black and lots of makeup. Stephen Segal made the comment that some people feel that goths are people who take vampires too seriously, and that scares people because they think (mostly wrongly) that a goth is going to bite them or hurt them in some way because they're into dark things. Where as with steampunk you can't really be afraid of someone who's too into pocket watches. He also made the point that if some dork tries to tell you they're a better dork than you, then you should give them what they are asking for at that point. Because, really. :p
I have a whole passel of recs that will go up in another post. I apologize. I've been trying to sleep like a normal person since I've been so stupidly tired lately. Heh. JUST KNOW THAT THEY'RE COMING. Hopefully soon. If you have any questions you think I might be able to answer, or want to discuss something, please leave a comment! I could talk about this stuff all day. It makes me happy. ♥
Also, I know a fair few people have joined the insanity since my last post and poll. I'm currently writing a collaborative, original fiction, steampunk novel with
theemdash and I do from time to time wax on about it or post bits of character studies or um, porn. >.> If you'd like to be put on that filter, please let me know!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 11:52 am (UTC)oh that. just. the whole paragraph.
it's one reason i love ursula k le guin because it's all sort of 'human' and gritty still.
anyway. i'm NOT into steampunk yet. because i don't have the psychic space for another obsession.
but every single word/image/idea you post makes me sort of tingle.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 12:12 pm (UTC)You know, I have two Ursula K. Le Guin novels about the apartment somewhere that I'd stolen from work and hadn't read yet. I should get on that. They probably want them back. :p
I totally understand not having room for more obsessions, but this is definitely shiny, and so filled with possibilities. It's kind of starting to infect the people around me now too. Heh.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 12:30 pm (UTC)In the second write up, please don't forget to mention hands-on ownership of inventions!
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:00 pm (UTC)Er...the second write up will not be so much of a write up as a list of recs, but I think I could work the inventions in.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 12:54 pm (UTC)I've wondered if there's something about steampunk in general that just seems more familiar for both readers and writers. Of course not all SF is hard, pure-tech SF, and it's not like mechanics and alternate history are easier to research and write about than, say, quantum theory--but they certainly feel more accessible to the average person. Or maybe that's just me. :|
Where as with steampunk you can't really be afraid of someone who's too into pocket watches.
I adore that sentence. ♥♥♥
...you know, I think I totally missed your original mention of the steampunk filter. Would you sneak me on, please?
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:06 pm (UTC)I think the thing with dreaming up sci-fi and living sci-fi is that it's just like any other dream we have. I would like to sit at home and write all day and make enough to live on it, but that's not happening at the moment, so instead I buckle down and come to work. We want all of those fantastic things, but the real world often gets in the way. We can't live on the moon because we can't even get the people on this world under control first. We can't use flying cars because we can't get the ones we drive to run in a way that's satisfactory to the environment. You know? We could probably use a few more dreamers in the high positions.
I think you're not far off. It's probably a part of ownership, as well, as Em reminded me. A lot of the steampunk people I saw at the con were carrying weapons and jewelry and accouterments that they had made themselves. It's a very hands on genre, and it's easier to touch and feel own than say, living in space. ;)
I loved that sentence too, that's why I couldn't forget it. Mr. Segal, all the way. ♥
And sure thing! :D
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:15 pm (UTC)Which isn't to say steampunk isn't just as awesome ;) GUH. I love it.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:42 pm (UTC)Again, not saying steampunk suffers or that futuretech stuff is better, just that there's a difference. And, to me personally, the difference is enough to probably keep me from attempting to write steampunk, whereas I'd be up for trying something based on the possible future quantum theory and particle physics.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:46 pm (UTC)Oooh. What kind of other particles?
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Date: 2008-09-15 01:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:40 pm (UTC)this is so super interesting! Thanks for writing this up! I can't wait for the recs. That's the thing with Steampunk for me, I've always love the aesthetic and that but never really known where to get it. Is Final Fantasy considered steampunk in some ways? I mean, it has lots of zeppelins and whatnot and is in parts, as far as I can remember, really industrial feeling. Anyway, I've always loved those games but I haven't played them in ages.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:43 pm (UTC)I do know that there are lots of things which incorporate bits of steampunk into other types of universes. The anime Ergo Proxy is one that comes to mind immediately. It's a very dystopic, post-cyberpunk sort of society, but some of it has crumbled enough to where factions of people have gone back to 'old' ways of doing things. Did you ever watch Ergo Proxy? I'll send it to you if you haven't. I quite enjoyed it.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 01:51 pm (UTC)No, seriously, thanks for posting. I know you've told me about this numerous times, but it's great to see it and have a point of reference for later.
What's steampunk? An old lady in Victorian dress -- WITH GOGGLES!
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Date: 2008-09-15 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 02:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 04:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 04:58 pm (UTC)2. You know, I've only sort of vaguely been aware of what steampunk is, and only sort of vaguely interested... but this post makes me want to look more into it, a LOT.
So thanks for that... I think. :P
edited because I am lame and left out a word... yeah
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 05:30 pm (UTC)When I had the idea for the story that Em has poked and prodded into being an actual work of something I knew a little bit about steampunk, but not nearly as much as I know now. And the more I learn the more I want to know. It's one big slippery slide of like, clockwork men. There will be recs to further your slide soon!
They don't call me the Sucker for nothing. Moo ha ha!
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 05:44 pm (UTC)And thank you for all the shiny shiny links *-*
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 05:50 pm (UTC)(but not literally, because ouch)
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Date: 2008-09-15 05:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 08:50 pm (UTC)By that I mean, can it be found in books by Verne or are their modern authors that have a better grasp on the concept?
I ask because I wonder, what a steampunk DJ would wear. If I could I'd have meters on my headphones wired in to measure the "oonze" (thumping bass). I already have goggles with mirror lenses, so that should reflect light nicely.
Unfortunately, I think people more then 10 feet away wouldn't be able to truly appriciate any effort.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-15 09:34 pm (UTC)There is also a whole flickr of steampunk costumes from the con to be seen here. (http://www.flickr.com/groups/dragonconsteam2008/pool/) You can probably garner ideas from that.
Having your headphones wired in would be pretty cool. I'm sure you could figure a way to do it.
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Date: 2008-09-15 10:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-16 01:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-16 02:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-16 01:14 pm (UTC)Adding! ♥
no subject
Date: 2008-09-16 10:11 pm (UTC)I've always wanted to get into steampunk, but didn't know how. XD Thank yoooou!
eta: oh wow, I totally commented to the wrong post. this was supposed to go to your ACTUAL steampunk rec post. -fails-
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Date: 2008-09-16 10:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-18 03:20 am (UTC)I thought you may like this shirt.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-18 03:24 am (UTC)