I was not aware. How about this:
Yep, those work fine!
For what it’s worth, all of @DPRK’s images show up fine for me, both the ones posted earlier and the more recent ones.
No, I just get
This site can’t be reached
i.ompldr.pw took too long to respond.
ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT
Must be a uk thing.
Edit: I can see those last pics fine !
Uggh, no. Verne wrote straight-up, forward-looking science fiction. Steampunk is necessarily retro at the time it’s written. Verne is a big - the biggest - influence on steampunk, but is not, himself, steampunk.
For people arguing over what steampunk is or isn’t:
Steampunk most recognizably features anachronistic technologies or retrofuturistic inventions as people in the 19th century might have envisioned them — distinguishing it from Neo-Victorianism[4] — and is likewise rooted in the era’s perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art.
I don’t have a lead on steampunk lamps, but for a long time I’ve appreciated Datamancer’s steampunk-styled keyboards. Per the OP’s descriptions, they have a variety of Victorian styling cues, but are not overwrought; they all look like something that someone might have used 100-130 years ago.
I was going to suggest this. But if you REALLY want the Steampunk aesthetic, you need a Carcel Lamp. It has a clockwork mechanism to deliver the Colza oil (which was pretty thick, I understand) to the flame that is perfect for Steampunkerry.
I have an Argand lamp, myself – a little pricey, but not ridiculous. I wanted one because it was the first in a series of lighting advances in the 19th century 9actualy, in this case, late 18th century) that caused a revolution in artificial lighting. the incandescent lamp was only one of the advances in this chain. The Argand lamp burned many times brighter than a candle or a standard kerosene lamp, because it used a cylindrical wick that was air-fed from the center. It had both a larger flame area, and the flame was hotter (hence, brighter). A perfect example of steampunk-style geekery.
Those keyboards look like something from the show Warehouse 13. Actually, many of the devices the warehouse agents used on that show could probably be described as “steampunk”.
Yes, that is exactly what I said. Or did you miss that I used the word “influence” several times, and that the piece you quoted was surrounded by me talking about influences?
Of course influences are not considered the thing they evolve into at the time they are created. But whether we–today–call Verne Steampunk or proto-Steampunk or something else is an irrelevant distinction. My point was simply that if you want to transmit the aesthetic of Steampunk to someone unfamiliar with it, you would not go wrong to simply say “Jules Verne”, or more specifically “would that artifact make sense as a fixture on the Nautilus?”
That said, I also can’t disagree that the word largely has moved on to refer to gluing on gears and shit. Perhaps the issue is that in practice, it is as much a fashion aesthetic as a worldbuilding exercise, and fashion never made much sense.
I wonder if Flavor Flav is steampunky? I suspect he has some quartz in there most of the time.
Here’s a nifty rabbit hole you might want to investigate:
http://timetunnel.bigredhair.com/boilerplate/intro.html
BTW, didn’t most appearances of Dr. Loveless on The Wild Wild West have a steampunk theme? That giant, mechanical spider from that Godawful TWWW movie sure seems to be steampunk oriented.
That surprises me. That one I quoted seems like it’s just as overwrought as the other ones you didn’t like–a ton of extra doodads that do nothing.
That to me is what steampunk is. Sure, in theory the doodads are supposed to be functional, but, in actuality, they’re always just aesthetic. And you usually have no idea what they do.
The other one I do get, as it seems far more simple than the others. It looks like it could just be a gas lamp that got converted to LED.
I meant the embedded picture worked fine, not that it was a good example of Steampunk! The previous images simply didn’t show up at all due to some technical glitch. I agree that it has that same overwrought look.
The lamp–actually a portable “flashlight”–that I want is the Galvanick Lucifer from the book Cryptonomicon. It is essentially a portable arc lamp using some high-powered, short-lived chemical reaction to provide the electricity. It’s described as being steampunky, with brass fittings and glass jars of chemicals. Recreating that with modern LEDs and batteries would be great.
No, it’s not. There’s a difference between calling it steampunk (proto-steampunk is not a real thing as the retro-anachronism part is essential, making proto-steampunk oxymoronic) and calling it an influence on steampunk.
I didn’t miss anything.
Very little of the modern steampunk aesthetic, with its fake prostheses and general grunginess, is Vernean. Only the decor sometimes approaches Verne’s combination of pure Victoriana with a clean industrial look.
I do get what you’re trying to say. But actually calling Verne steampunk, as you’ve just done again, is not the way to say it.
The retro-anachronism is not essential to the aesthetic. It is, arguably, essential to the genre as a whole, but in terms of appearance it doesn’t matter much when this advanced Victorian technology was imagined. In any case, alt-history is indistinguishable from sci-fi set insufficiently far into the future.
I think it’s worth distinguishing fashion from other artifacts. The fashion is definitely grungy and non-Vernean. I suppose that’s to be evocative of mechanics, train engineers, gentleman scientists, etc. The artifacts, on the other hand, seem to typically range from well-used to pristine, but generally not what I’d call grungy.
I take back one thing. If I had to describe the aesthetic of steampunk in a sentence or two at a party, I wouldn’t say Verne. Instead, I’d mention the end of Back to the Future III. That cool flying train with the magnets and valves and stuff? Steampunk. Of course, even within the movie it was directly inspired by Verne, but regardless, it’s probably a more accessible example for most. And falls directly within the genre.
OK, I get a better sense for what you mean, now, and don’t disagree.
I’d call any of those iron-plumbing-pipe-lamps, linked to earlier in the thread, “grungy”. Basically most anything with exposed ducting and piping, so beloved of many steampunks and so antithetical to actual Victorian aesthetics.
Oh, very.
I’ve had many occasions to explain Steampunk to others in social settings like parties, and in the past, I’ve found the Wild Wild West movie to actually be the most recognizable reference for many people not otherwise into genre stuff. That and video game references.
Myst.
Well, this is an interesting thread! The OP had me thinking, “Huh?!”, but after fifty odd posts I get it.
Just a thought: Instead of looking everywhere and never finding what you really want and then probably settling for less, you kind of make a sketch design and take it to someone who could make it a reality for you. The cost overall would be more, of course, which is a negative but, if you can afford it and end up with your dream lamp, it would be worth it.
Sure. Also Bioshock Infinite, Arcanum, Final Fantasy VI and later ones, Thief series and that Victorian Assassin’s Creed release - Syndicate, IIRC. Hell, even some of World of Warcraft’s aesthetic.