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 Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 3:50 pm
I absolutely love the atmosphere of Steampunk, but I must say I'm rather tired of seeing it presented as a humourous gimmick and am more than a little annoyed by the way in which the entire concept has been hijacked by larpers and cosplayers (no offense to anyone here).
Steampunk provides plentiful opportunities for an extremely grim, surreal atmosphere (One of my favourite writers, China Mieville, is a prime example of this) and I'm tired of seeing light humour overused in Steampunk art, movies, literature, etc. (something of which Steampunk magazine is unfortunately very guilty. Of course, I don't mind Steampunk themed humour when it takes a very dark, sour, tongue-in-cheek turn, i.e. Series of Unfortunate Events).
But basically, now that that little rant is over, can anyone recommend any novels, short stories, or films with a steampunk setting that have strong elements of horror and surrealism and take themselves entirely seriously (or if not use extremely dry humour)?
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 5:19 pm
City of Lost Children springs to mind, but I'm not sure if that's exactly Steampunk.
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Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2008 8:21 pm
Well, seeing as my primary purpose in posting was to recommend Mieville to you... But I find I must agree. It's something that has rather irked me about the "Girl Genius" series upon my first having heard of it. I'll admit that I keep up with the webcomic simply to follow the plot, but I'd rather not associate my interest with the steampunk genre in any way. (And I've never really thought of the Series as steampunk. I suppose I see your point, though...)
But to each his own. Some people do prefer it in a more light-hearted manner, and frankly, the presence of the lighter side serves to make the darker side more attractive.
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Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:41 am
Oh, I agree with you. My favorite aspects of steampunk are the definitely the darker, more gothic, grim versions. Here is a short film with a style I really enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiYvlyRIar8Darker... And I recentally bought two steampunk books (as I have mentioned in another thread) and I am not sure if they are too extremely dark or grim... but they are definitely not the overused and abused humorous style. They are darker. One is Whitechapel Gods, by S.M. Peters (reading currently) The other is Iron Angel, by Alan Campbell (have not read yet)
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Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:43 am
Oh, and as for a wonderful steampunk movie: Howl's Moving Castle
It's a great anime, not so gimmicky, and a wonderful version/cross of steampunk and fantasy (fantasteampunk)
Not as dark, but not gimmicky.
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Posted: Sun Aug 10, 2008 2:18 pm
I would recommend looking for some Cthulhu Mythos based writings. The writings of HP Lovecraft are commonly portrayed in the 1920s and the Victorian era, and there have been many grim, dark crossovers involving heavy steampunk influences. Of course, if you enjoy Lovecraft, then it works out even better.
Try reading Charles Stross' A Colder War. Wikipedia also has a fairly good list of steampunk works, many of which have synopses as well.
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Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:51 am
"Fitzpatricks War" is a great book. Not super dark, but in hindsight, it really can't get much darker than genocide...
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