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 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!