I didn’t say they don’t care about it at all. Did I? You did.
I said their care is a subjective, temporary emotional drive to identify with a current new trend, as they perceive it, that will help define their existence.
This pattern of behavior has happened zillions of times before in the human recorded history. This steampunk thing is just another fad.
For the record, I’m not a genius of sociology. My sociological knowledge is average. It’s the knowledge of most other people that is lacking.
I know I probably just need to relax and drop it but it needles me every time you use this sort of terminology about steampunk. “Device” to me sounds like something that does something. Maybe “prop” or “artwork” or something would be better.
Its a genre. Certainly its one thats in vogue right now, but its not really any more a “fad” then science fiction or historical fiction are “fads”.
Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction. It also has developed a fan base that likes to dress up as charcters who woudl fit into a steampunk story. This includes modifying their gadgets (like ipods, cell phones, or flash drives) to look as if they were made by hand in an Victorian workshop. And as CalMeacham pointed out, the aesthetic is much more “Hollywood Victorian” than anything actually made 150 years ago.
And, aside from a few hobbyists who restore or build steam engines, none of the gadgetry works or enhances the workings of the devices. That’s the beauty of it – it does nothing! Personal time and effort expended for purely decorative results! Yes, it is in part a reaction against the bland, functionalist design philosophy of most consumer goods produced today. (Many of the photos online are from conventions and other events – judging how Steampunks dress or act by those photos is like expecting homosexuals to act like it’s Gay Pride Parade day every day.)
There will be many folks who don’t “get it.” No problem, there are a lot of things people are into that I don’t “get.” (Sports fans, reality shows, most partisan politics, excessive tattooing or piercings, I can come up with an extensive list.) If you happen to be the type of person who prefers a Garmin GPS to a brass sextant, so be it. But as an aesthetic choice, and all else being equal, I will pick the brass-bound, hand-crafted alternative or a reasonable simulation. Because it looks cool.
… and upon thinking about it a little, over the past two years or so we are seeing people being attracted to the Steampunk tweed-leather-brass-mechanical style as a fashion statement without any awareness of the genre. I don’t expect them to stay.
I agree. It’s a *romantic *response to technology and user interfaces, not exactly a backlash.
There was an anime convention in a hotel I was staying at where a bunch of kids were dressed up in what looked like victorian dress combined with lots of brass molding and borg like attachments. I don’t know if it is about anything more than looking kinda interesting.
If the Steampunks really hated modern technology, they wouldn’t create all those websites!
Do the Renaissance Festival and the SCA reflect a desire to return to medieval times?
The aesthetics of steampunk strike a chord with certain people, just as the aesthetics of medieval times strike a chord with others. Other people really adore the 1930s, and we’ve seen an increase in younger people wearing fedoras and newsboy hats.
As with every small subcommunity, the internet has allowed those people who have a fondness for a particular aesthetic to communicate and congregate. It looks like a movement or fad when it’s really just people who’ve always enjoyed a thing finally being able to get together and talk about it.
Are you saying that, say, a steampunk casemod isn’t a “device” because the guy didn’t build the electronics himself? because that would be pedantic.
It’s a prop or a piece of artwork designed entirely for aesthetic purposes. That’s what differentiates it from a device.
There’s people doing things like telephones and typewriters and I think bicycles such that the ornate mechanics are actually part of the working machine. Not that those things then work any better, I suppose. It’s still a pure aesthetic.
But they work. They’re designed as aesthetic works *and *as **functioning **keyboards/laptops/guitar amps/etc.
It’s no different than if I built a working steamroller, but I buy the boiler I use from an outside boilermaker. The steamroller is still a device, and so is one of Datamancer’s keyboards.
The stuff about sociology is called sarcasm. The fact that you want to dismiss a phenomenon because it is short in duration means you are showing little knowledge of sociology. This is the type of stuff sociologists study. They know that fads do not start randomly. Eventually they always get to the point where people only do it because it’s cool, but that’s not why they occur. Even my pet rock has sociological implications: the idea that an imaginary pet can make up for the real thing is ridiculous on its face, but apparently people found that type of companionship useful during that time period. What we can learn about human behavior is outright fascinating.
Oh, and I think steampunk is about the juxtaposition of the past with the future. In stories, it can make the past more relatable, or it can take the wonder of science fiction and use modern technology. It’s a creative exercise. When we get out in the real world, it’s a fashion statement, a less sleek aesthetic, a pull towards the amazing things you can do simply.
To elaborate on the last point, think about special effects in movies. They don’t wow us anymore. It’s all CGI. But, when you find out that a special effect was a practical one, and it looks good, isn’t that a lot more impressive?
Steampunk is a lot of things. It’s romanticism of the past without giving up the future. It’s even got elements of Hipsterism in it. What was once ugly is now cool. It’s a unique blend of all these things that could not have happened earlier in history. It’s a weird mix of retro nostalgia and futurism, and that is sociologically fascinating.
There’s been a definite hipster fetishisation of pre-digital techologies that seems in some way a reaction against the digital milieu. Loads of records are released on tape again now and vinyl is perhaps the most popular its been in 20 years. Conversely CDs are increasingly considered pointless wastes of space by many. How this all fits in exactly with the steam punk ethos I don’t know, but releasing an audio cassette in 2011 seems like an activity at least on the same continuum.
Well overall it is clearly a device. And no doubt it fits a certain definition of “steampunk device” as long as it is understood that what that means is “a device that works in the usual way but with steampunk styling”. It all works as long as it is well understood that steampunking is merely decorational frippery and nothing of substance. If one hasn’t fully grokked that, then one gets the wrong impression when one hears of a “steampunk device”.
To expand on that, if you read through the first page of this thread, there is a lot of discussion about steampunk harking back to a time when things actually worked via brass gears and pipes and steam and levers etc. I’m the first to admit that I’m so unhip it’s a wonder my arse doesn’t fall off, but when I read through all that stuff and then read of “steampunk devices” I think “devices that work via brass gears and pipes and steam and levers etc”. So when I hear that a device is a “steampunk device” when in reality it is a steampunk device in the same sense as a chicken is Marilyn Munroe if the chicken is wearing a tight white dress and red lipstick, it jars.
For some people, steampunk is their prefered form of fantasy.
When I was a kid, magic existed. I could wave a wand, and a fairy might appear, or a unicorn. The rainbow lead to a pot of gold and wishes made on a shooting star might come true. The future was going to be full of new technology, which was a lot like magic. The Jettsons had a flying car, and a robot that walked the dog. Star Trek has transporters and communicators.
Today, tech comes in plain silver, white or black boxes, with cables connecting them to each other or to me. Rainbows are light refracted throughwater droplets.
Steampunk is partially about recapturing a sense of wonder, while still dealing with computers and MP3 players.
Is there an element of “what if” in steampunk?
“What if” Hannibal brought land battleships (tanks) instead of elephants, that sort of thing. I always thought so.
In Johnny Depp’s Sleepy Hollow (1999), his character, Ichabod Crane, pulls out a few odd devices that he uses in his murder investigation. Sleepy Hollow (1999) Almost steampunk?
In Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West”, does the mechanical spider classify as steampunk?
Yes to both those questions. The whole Wild Wild West movie is chock full of steampunk devices.
In Steampunk literature, the ‘what if’ thing is definitely part of it. Generally there has been an industrial revolution in time period, which is very often Victorian ages, but electricity has not been discovered, or simply not utilised.
It’s often associated with gothic styles. When I went to the Whitby Goth Weekend (in the UK), I saw a hell of a lot of people wearing Steampunk outfits. It gels well with the corsets and Victorian dress sense.
I’m mildly into Steampunk (I’ve got the mandatory goggles) and in my view it’s just a style of fashion that appeals to some people and gives them a way to be different. I don’t think it’s a reaction to today’s style because a lot of Steampunkers like, for example, the Apple aesthetic.