The first Steam Punk novel I read was The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It was an early classic of the genre and envisaged a world in which Charles Babbage had got his Difference Engine beyond the theoretical stage: Victorian London sees the world's first steam powered mechanical computer and there's lots of fun and games with Lady Lovelace, Byron's daughter, Mary Shelley etc. Steam Punk is basically cyberpunk but set in an imagined technological past. Neal Stephenson writes a lot of these books and one of my favourites is Alan Moore's comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol I and II (especially II). What I didn't know until today was the fact that you can buy Steam Punk clothing for men and women from The Steampunk Emporium , but of course it makes sense. If they sell Star Trek uniforms why not techno Victoriana? (I particularly liked the Emporium's gear for "Dewey Oldfield, the autoist" and "Barnaby Clifton the intrepid motorist.")...
When I was at Oxford I remember there was a lecturer who rode around on an old fashioned bicycle and dressed in Edwardian clothing. He was an amiable nut, but as we saw with the costumes of Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman in the film version of The Golden Compass, Steam Punk kit is much, much cooler for tootling around the city of dreaming spires, tootling around anywhere in fact. BTW, I have no idea who the people are in the above pic but it's nice to see the sheilas getting into the spirit of the thing too.
33 comments:
Two things:
1. Just finished HIDDEN RIVER. Good stuff. Didn't want it to end.
2. Merlin Mann's got a great video on his steampunk lifestyle. http://www.vimeo.com/860821
As a long time fan of Tim Powers I remember when steampunk was a term that was tossed around to try and describe the fiction Tim Powers, James P Blaylock and Kevin Jeter. The works of them that were loosely tied together (probably more due to the fact that they were all college buddies and friends) merely represented a phase of each of their respective careers so for an entire sub-culture to have sprung up from that is a little odd to me.
But hey -- if it works for them.
Sandra and I were at Wal-Mart over the summer and the cashier had on a pair of steampunk goggles. Don't know if that means SP has jumped the shark or arrived. You decide.
That photo is.... wow.... commitment.
I love the concept o Steam Punk, but have yet to read a really good Steam Punk novel. I hated The Difference Engine. Great attention to detail and some beautiful writing, but where was the story? I didn't get it, sadly. I'll take your advice and read LXG. Alan Moore rarely puts a foot wrong.
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. One of the novels that was written before the creation of the term.
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
I prefer The Drawing of the Dark, translated here as Il Re Pescatore (The Fisher King),sadly losing the AWESOME pun.
Back to steampunk, my favourites are probably Anime like Full Metal Alchemist and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
The Girl Genius webcomic was also pretty good.
v-word: (small?) presses
I had never really considered Nausicaa as a steampunk but it probably fits. Just gives me an excuse to reread it.
Hmmm. I wonder if the rest of Miyazaki's work could be thought of as SP as well. Food for thought.
Another cryptosteampunker would be Thomas Pynchon, in V and Mason&Dixon at least.
Sheilas? Are you going native?
I had a look at that store, because frankly, this is the kind of fashion statement Santa Cruz could really get into. At least, at the bookshop, there was a big craze around the book Fruits. But the website seems to show just Victorian fashion, with no effort to trick it out, Steampunkwise. People are going to need a little more help than that.
Rob
Thanks for the that. Interesting book to read in Denver in the snow I would have thought.
I'll check out the vid, thank you mate.
Brian
Derek Jeter writes Steampunk Novels? Man that guy is versatile, you'd think he'd be happy with the supermodels and playing shortstop for the...
Oh wait different Jeter. Ok now I'm feeling stupid.
Dan
I hope they werent dressing up to go somewhere but just wear that all the time.
Mike
God you're hard to please. I preferred LOEG book II, but you shouldnt really read them out of order. They're nice books to have too because of all the extra bells and whistles.
Brian
Havent read the anubis gates but I will rectify that.
Marco
Full Metal Alchemist sounds good.
Brian, Marco
Miyazaki - well finally someone I am familiar with.
Marco
Against the Day has quite a few Steam Punk elements.
Seana
A little bit native I think. I think their goggles would go down well in Santa Cruz, unfortunately the really good ones appear to be sold out.
Havent read the anubis gates but I will rectify that.
No! You should read The Drawing of the Dark!
There's an Irish bouncer as hero and it's about the mystical, supernatural, life-giving
[spoiler]
....
....
....
Herzwesten dark.
Marco
Ok maybe I just will then.
Its funny that I havent read Tim Powers because in my battered Blade Runner retitled Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep the dedication is to Tim Powers.
While they were in college Tim Powers, James Blaylock and Jeter were all friends with PKD for the last decade of his life. All three of them appear as characters in PKD's VALIS.
Just for the record though my favorite Powers (and an all-time favorite) is Last Call.
Near the end of his life PKD gave Tim Powers an entire collection of signed first editions (possibly inscribed though I can't remember) with the express instructions to hold on to them and sell them if he ever was in a position of needing the money. That day came and he sold the collection. Some of the individual titles pop up on the secondary market from time to time.
Brian
That is very interesting. I wonder how much they sell for?
I like VALIS. I think PKD's last 3 or 4 books were a step above and a sign that he really was hitting his stride. But then of course...
Powers must have felt some sort of spiritual transmission in that, like the Buddhists. It's kind of a shame that he had to let go of them.
Yep, pity about the goggles. Santa Cruz is definitely the kind of place where if something like this caught on, no one would wait for a party to wear their gear.
Seana
I think no matter how hard up I would have got I would have hung on to them.
Oh,I know you wouldn't have sold them. But maybe if you felt it was what PKD really wanted you to do, you would at least have been in conflict about it. It is kind of nice that a lot of people have a signed first rather than one person having a lot of signed firsts from the master.
My friend Rick Kleffel just told me today that he has an interview with Mr. Powers that he is going to air on his radio show at some point soon, maybe this coming weekend--he said he's a really, really interesting guy.
Adrian
OT, but it looks like you were dead-on in a previous post:
Cameron admits Avatar is Dances With Wolves in space
"Emotion-capture software". Hmm.
Seana
You have quite the influential little posse there dont you?
I'd hang on for grim eternity and let me heirs sell it.
Brian
I havent seen it yet but I have heard some rumblings that he ripped off a Poul Anderson story too.
It's not my posse, though. The thing I like about Rick's show is that he is the fanboy's fanboy, he's always well prepared and he's kind and enthusiastic. You never feel unhopeful about the state of literature in his company. Oh, and his own ego never comes first. Pretty good, I'd say.
I can bet that picture came from DragonCon here in Atlanta...I saw hundreds of people dressed like this when I was there to Shatner and Nemoy in Sept. They had loads of vendors selling all sorts of fun steampunk accessories for those who hadn't made their own or who were latecomers to the trend...they certainly seem to have fun :)
Jennifer
Thanks for that. I figured it couldnt just be a birthday party or something.
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