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 Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 4:34 pm
Steampunk, on the surface, may seem more aesthetic/literary/artistic than political. Someone outfits a laptop in brass and gears, or listens to Abney Park, or reads H. G. Wells, or sews a corset. All quite interesting, at least for us in this guild.
And yet. It takes a sizable amount of effort to DIY, or money to buy, Victorian outfits and suchlike, and as with all small subcultures, the overwhelmingly non-steampunk world may raise an eyebrow at gentlemen (or ladies) in top hats. Still merely a steampunk-in-training myself, I’ve become curious as to what motivates practicing steampunks. The politics or the creativity of DIY? The ideals of the Victorian era, or its fashion sense?
So ... is steampunk, for you, a political statement? If so, what statement is it? (That sounds like an inexpertly written essay prompt, and near the beginning of summer. My apologies.)
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Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 5:19 pm
I'm afraid I must admit that the political aspect that steampunk could present never crossed my mind, nor do I believe I will ever pursue any political possibilities of steampunk.
However, if I were to make a political statement using steampunk, I know for a fact that it would be along the lines of a call to the people to revive and redefine the morals of the current society. Chivalry, decency, and morality have more or less completely died, and the ideals of the victorian era could greatly improve the world. I have never liked how pathetic the morals of the later generations have become. It's very sad. Gentlemen are an endangered species, and decent women are just as rare(I'm not saying anyone here is a pig or anything. I'm sure all of you are fantastic).
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Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 11:35 am
I choose to emphasize the late Steampunk era, i.e. Edwardian times, with my dress. Specifically a pilot from the first world war. I do it because I'm weird, an have had a long standing obsession with WWI aviation. As unhealthy as I am sure it is, there are times when I despaired that I could not be one of them. But than the breakthrough came when I realized I could still ,at times, emulate them with my dress and mannerisms. So, uh... I do. ninja
I now realize how insane I sound...
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Posted: Thu May 29, 2008 6:26 am
Steampunk is, for me, a mixed statement. On one hand, there's the nostalgia that the Victorian look dredges up for refined manners and gentility, the tremendous hope for a brilliant future... Not only a time when western civilization not only believed it was approaching a pinnacle, but that it had no place to go but up. That's a tremendously appealing mode of thinking for the modern age, when so many of the changes promised by retro-futurism have not materialized. (Where's your robot friend and your hover car, hm?) In addition, the theme of exploration appeals to us, living as we do in a world where the average person's opportunities to visit an uncharted frontier are extremely limited... lacking, as most of us surely do, the millions of dollars it takes to charter a space flight.
Yet, the grandeur of the Victorian age came at a terrible cost- Behind the prosperity of the industrial revolution was labor abuse on an appalling scale. The oh-so-appealing manners and gracious lifestyle of the aristocracy was not only built on a centuries-old stratified and mostly unnavigable system of class oppression, but by the late Victorian era was a crumbling and endangered institution in itself. The British colonies and American west romanticized in adventure fiction were founded on principles of apartheid, exploitation, and genocide. Coal-fired engines and steam power brought environmental devastationt- London's famous pea-soup fog was a toxic smog of sulfurous fumes that settled on the streets for months at a time and killed thousands.
I believe the best steampunk (and alt-history and sci-fi in general, really) addresses both the appealing and the horrifying... our hopes for the future, our fears of how it might all go wrong, an acknowledgment of how our actions in the past and present have affected the future. By extending steampunk past fiction, into fashion and other crafts, we challenge the world around us to share this awareness.
On a more personal note, the aesthetic appeals to my politics because of the way it rejects commercialism and mass-production (Despite embracing the visuals of mechanization and industrialization, which is a nice irony) There's not a lot of steampunk clothing made by slave children in overseas factories and sold by minimum-wage workers in suburban malls they can't afford to shop at, which is a nice change from other subcultures with a strong fashion element. Neither are most of the trappings of steampunk disposable, like so many other things in our culture. Whether it's something as simple as making a cup of tea instead of opening a can of soda, as effortless as using antiques instead of buying new things for the sake of being on the bleeding edge of technology, or as skill- and labor-intensive as creating an entire outfit from scratch or restoring a piece of antique technology, it's a rejection of the cheap plastic modern alternatives that we use a few times and then throw out, of sweatshop labor exploitation and needless consumerism.
By embracing the steampunk DIY aesthetic, I make a choice to examine my lifestyle and decide in which ways I can avoid throwing my money in directions that are at best wasteful, at worst morally reprehensible, and by publicly displaying what I make- wearing what I make in public, keeping my antique radios, record player, and sewing machines in good usable condition, and so on- I hope to make people around me at least give a moment's thought to the possibility of avoiding all the throwaway plastic garbage that we're bombarded with on a daily basis, and consider the appeal of something more permanent and less wasteful.
Egad, longpost is long. Heh.
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Posted: Fri May 30, 2008 9:04 pm
I just like the basic feel of the curiosity in the period. The edges of the map were being filled, only a few reaches of the globe unexplored, nobody knew what was there... and slowly but surely, technology is taking its first steps.
And Steampunk follows that to the Nth degree. Unseen territories, new discoveries, new inventions, amazement and madness all coming at you from various angles.
Politics aren't normally that great no matter what period you live in, to be honest. sweatdrop
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2008 1:00 am
Appreciation and importance of sustaining, preserving, and engaging in our past.
At least that's the view of this aspiring archaeologist. =B
Very often does the question of, "Why do we need to preserve our past or learn history? For what purpose do we spend government tax dollars to maintain cultural history, and rescue artifacts from under the shovels of developers?"
The answer is often the weak statement, "so we don't repeat the same mistakes we've made in the past." I doubt that purpose alone justifies the amount of fascination and effort we put into the past. The true purpose of learning about the past is to remember from where we came from and to know from what context do we exist and live in today. Steampunk engages us in both what we were and what we are today. It's a whole new way of looking at the past.
It's like taking Renaissance faires to a whole different level, not just by acting out our past, but showing people that it isn't a bad idea to pick out ideas and practices from our past and integrate them into our society again long after they've been forgotten. It gives us a whole new realm of ideology to delve into.
Too many people do not see the point of remembering the past, and look only to the future. A truly wise person, a steampunk enthusiast, knows that both the past and the future are the same.
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Sir Regulus Lyonhart Crew
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 4:06 pm
-♪ For myself, I quite think that both are important. ♪- -♪ I am in love with the fashion. The designs people come up with are dashing or beautiful, and brass is a wonderful colour. ♪- -♪ And I would dress up as often as I could just to make people look and wonder what on earth I was wearing and why (which is a bit hypocritical, because I'm a little shy). ♪- -♪ But I also find myself listening to conversations between people at school and wonder what happened to manner, tact, and chivalry? ♪- -♪ While sometimes I'm not too fond of certain aspects of Victorian era mannerisms, I'd rather it to all the disgusting remarks people seem to use these days... ♪-
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Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2009 9:50 pm
Harlequin of Horror I'm afraid I must admit that the political aspect that steampunk could present never crossed my mind, nor do I believe I will ever pursue any political possibilities of steampunk. However, if I were to make a political statement using steampunk, I know for a fact that it would be along the lines of a call to the people to revive and redefine the morals of the current society. Chivalry, decency, and morality have more or less completely died, and the ideals of the victorian era could greatly improve the world. I have never liked how pathetic the morals of the later generations have become. It's very sad. Gentlemen are an endangered species, and decent women are just as rare(I'm not saying anyone here is a pig or anything. I'm sure all of you are fantastic). Yes, the moral values of the Victorian era were especially high, whilst today we wear what are those whatcha-me-call-its... uh.. mini skirts, yes.
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Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 6:14 am
That's one of the biggest draws to steampunk for me is the mindset of a more polite time. I do have mixed feeling, with the prevalence of racism, lack of women's rights, the fact that the politeness was merely a hypocritical facade, and for some reason the colonialism of the Victorian age always irked me.
But people are always dumb so I take the high society manners and ignore the bad things. That's the beauty of steampunk. I'm able to partake in a manufactured world were the bad points can be ignored. I must say the manners and politeness, even if it was fake, is a step up from the blatant douchebaggery alot of people subscribe to now.
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Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:59 pm
Thani10 That's one of the biggest draws to steampunk for me is the mindset of a more polite time. I do have mixed feeling, with the prevalence of racism, lack of women's rights, the fact that the politeness was merely a hypocritical facade, and for some reason the colonialism of the Victorian age always irked me. But people are always dumb so I take the high society manners and ignore the bad things. That's the beauty of steampunk. I'm able to partake in a manufactured world were the bad points can be ignored. I must say the manners and politeness, even if it was fake, is a step up from the blatant douchebaggery alot of people subscribe to now. Blatant Douchebaggery FTW. biggrin It seems like the lest racist and sexist we got, the mode rude we became? neutral
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Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:17 pm
In a way, almost any lifestyle has some kind of statement, but I think that Steampunk makes one about conformity. With some of the ways people behave, they seem to think people should conform as a matter of course. As steampunks, we make our own solutions to things, rather that just accept what other tell us simply because we are told to.
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Posted: Fri Sep 18, 2009 2:19 pm
I don't usually associate my Victorian sensibilities with Steampunk, though I probably should.
Still... I don't usually get much into politics, as I am also affected by Jedi morality, which usually leads me to Obi-Wan's observation that politicians are full of s**t (paraphrasing, obviously).
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Posted: Mon Sep 21, 2009 8:52 am
I vote Radetsky our spokesperson. o.o
And personally- even before I knew what it was, I followed victorian mannerisms to some degree; I have been seen as rather stiff, I fear, throughout life- but I've always believed in having a chivalrous spirit. And though it gets me more negative sanctions than "poppin a cap and doin dope" would, I wouldn't trade it to fit in for anything... Though a nice earl grey is sounding good right now... =/ I'm hungry, so this is my statement.
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