steampunk

It’s always weird to see the mainstream press picking up on a subculture. Kind of like when your parents drop the latest slang: it doesn’t quite feel right. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see Steampunk get some respectful publicity.

The LA Times blog Jacket Copy had a post Saturday from Nick Owchar, the inevitably titled “Working up a head of steam”.

Steampunk is another entry point into the Victorian era by way of a wormhole: a subculture movement that is the result of an “intersection of technology and romance,” as it was reported in some East Coast newspaper this week. Philip Pullman’s alternate version of the world—with zeppelins, golden compasses and anbaric-powered gadgets—in “His Dark Materials” taps into it; so do the stories of Jules Verne and the movie “Brazil”; William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s “The Difference Engine” anticipated it.[…]

According to Owchar, there’s a new Steampunk anthology from Tachyon that looks interesting.

The “some East Coast newspaper” referred to is the NY Times and its more sedately titled article “Steampunk Moves Between 2 Worlds”, which does more tracing of how Steampunk has been embraced by various groups for various purposes, but all in good, artistically spiffy fun:

It is also the vision of steampunk, a subculture that is the aesthetic expression of a time-traveling fantasy world, one that embraces music, film, design and now fashion, all inspired by the extravagantly inventive age of dirigibles and steam locomotives, brass diving bells and jar-shaped protosubmarines. First appearing in the late 1980s and early ’90s, steampunk has picked up momentum in recent months, making a transition from what used to be mainly a literary taste to a Web-propagated way of life.

To some, “steampunk” is a catchall term, a concept in search of a visual identity. “To me, it’s essentially the intersection of technology and romance,” said Jake von Slatt, a designer in Boston and the proprietor of the Steampunk Workshop (steampunkworkshop.com), where he exhibits such curiosities as a computer furnished with a brass-frame monitor and vintage typewriter keys.

I’ll admit it: I am a sucker for bombastic rock ‘n’ roll. Give me a “Bohemian Rhapsody” or “Cherub Rock” or “November Rain” any day, and the goosebumps will start cascading up and down my arms while I lift them triumphantly in the air during the loud parts.

Ahem.

I am also a sucker for the pseudo-historical trappings of Steampunk and Goth, whether thought-provoking literature, simple style, movies, or music.

Not that I wander around in a top hat and waistcoat muttering about the economic situation on the Subcontinent, much less sit in the dark burning black candles, but I think it’s a cool subculture.

Taking those two pieces of information about me, you can probably guess what I think of the song and video for “The Black Parade” by My Chemical Romance.