He was runnin' down the grade makin' 90 miles an hour
When his whistle broke into a scream
He was found in the wreck with his hand on the throttle
A' scalded to death by the steam.
- The Wreck of the Old '97
When his whistle broke into a scream
He was found in the wreck with his hand on the throttle
A' scalded to death by the steam.
- The Wreck of the Old '97
Turing Weyland has been called out of world, for a length of time unknown, by his sundry commitments and obligations.
Esquire d'Argent Weyland was awarded the Library Militant's Order of the Lapin de Charbon in tribute to his far-sighted and creative work as the curator of the SteamPunk collection
The Caledon Library has suspended this publication (The Steampunk Lexicon) until further notice
The final steampunk collection that you will be able to access through the Caledon Library will almost be a mini-library unto itself. As noted in my previous post, Steampunk is a very new genre, although we can witness elements of it in older works such as the 1927 silent film Metropolis (watch here) or H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (read here OR listen here). However, the actual recognition of the genre and conscious effort to create such works did not develop until the 1980s and so I find myself with large truckloads full of steampunk works, but only little red wagons full of works that are in the public domain and thus freely available to read, listen, or watch online.
I am also faced with the problem, again, of what constitutes Steampunk. For example, the 2007 videogame of the year for the XBox 360 console, Bioshock (highly recommended original score for download here), is not only decidedly not in the public domain, but does not hold to the standard Victorian period that one usually associates with Steampunk. Indeed players will find themselves in a 1950s Art Deco underwater city, but the game contains so many wonderful elements of Steampunk, I would hate not to include it in some shape or form.
So what elements constitute Steampunk? A few things that pop right into my mind include:
These elements can be used to classify works such as Doctor Who or BioShock . . . but I'm unconvinced that unequivocally makes them Steampunk. And so, I'm left with the question, do I include them in our collection? Nevermind the fact that you will have to pay a considerable amount of money to experience either of these and I will only be able to link to resources about them, but do they have a place with us? Absolutely; for whether they have been influenced by Steampunk or Steampunk has influenced them, either way it builds up to a broader, richer definition of what Steampunk is and what it can be.
Speaking of which, I dare not leave you without some bit of new(ish) Steampunkery. Besides my obsession with OED (not always using it mind you, but even mentioning the OED in Caledon seems to gain one a modicum of respect), I am a bit of a gamer. One of my favorite web comics devoted to gaming is Penny Arcade, as it is for millions of other gamers. The authors of the comic, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, are apparently Steampunks themselves as can be seen in some of their rather nonsensical strips starring characters Twisp and Catsby (strips here and here). They are taking their fandom one step further with the development of a new Steampunk-themed adventure game they have named On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. Read about it on their site's news section here (scroll down to the third entry labeled 'Precipice Stuff').
PS - one of these days soon I'll have some remarks about the film adaptation of one of my most beloved books of all time, Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. First I have to clamp off the boiling outrage I feel in order to create a more objective entry . . . this might be a while coming.
I am also faced with the problem, again, of what constitutes Steampunk. For example, the 2007 videogame of the year for the XBox 360 console, Bioshock (highly recommended original score for download here), is not only decidedly not in the public domain, but does not hold to the standard Victorian period that one usually associates with Steampunk. Indeed players will find themselves in a 1950s Art Deco underwater city, but the game contains so many wonderful elements of Steampunk, I would hate not to include it in some shape or form.
So what elements constitute Steampunk? A few things that pop right into my mind include:
- Steam power
- Victorian setting
- Twist of science fiction or fantasy
- A mixture of historical setting and attitude combined with contemporary technology highly stylized for the time period
- The colors; in Steampunk we will often observe many earthy shades of color such as the shimmer of copper pipes, the dark browns of wood, the glow of gas lamps against the dark, and so on.
- A slightly, though usually not completely, dystopian setting.
- Technology that has not been mass-produced, but appears cobbled together and always just of the verge on falling apart (recent episodes of Doctor Who with David Tennant piloting the TARDIS flash before my eyes - it seems he never passed the exam . . . )
These elements can be used to classify works such as Doctor Who or BioShock . . . but I'm unconvinced that unequivocally makes them Steampunk. And so, I'm left with the question, do I include them in our collection? Nevermind the fact that you will have to pay a considerable amount of money to experience either of these and I will only be able to link to resources about them, but do they have a place with us? Absolutely; for whether they have been influenced by Steampunk or Steampunk has influenced them, either way it builds up to a broader, richer definition of what Steampunk is and what it can be.
Speaking of which, I dare not leave you without some bit of new(ish) Steampunkery. Besides my obsession with OED (not always using it mind you, but even mentioning the OED in Caledon seems to gain one a modicum of respect), I am a bit of a gamer. One of my favorite web comics devoted to gaming is Penny Arcade, as it is for millions of other gamers. The authors of the comic, Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, are apparently Steampunks themselves as can be seen in some of their rather nonsensical strips starring characters Twisp and Catsby (strips here and here). They are taking their fandom one step further with the development of a new Steampunk-themed adventure game they have named On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. Read about it on their site's news section here (scroll down to the third entry labeled 'Precipice Stuff').
PS - one of these days soon I'll have some remarks about the film adaptation of one of my most beloved books of all time, Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. First I have to clamp off the boiling outrage I feel in order to create a more objective entry . . . this might be a while coming.
Before being flapping my lips in an obsessive fashion about libraries and classifications and other such educational rot, let me note that there is more shopping to be done for the lil steampunk in your family over at Make.
Now . . .
While I was given responsibility for the steampunk collection this past August, it's only recently that I've devoted any significant amount of thought to it. And what a mistake that was - I can barely hear my phonograph over the mumbo-jumbo swimming around in my wee mind. Issues of gathering, classifying, sharing, etc. spill over into my normal musings leaving little in their wake.
As I am known in Caledon circles for waxing pathetic about the Oxford English Dictionary*, and indeed this page's name is inspired by my obsession, it is the first place I go to when I need a definition. I know, beginning with a dictionary definition is the stuff bad term papers are made of, but bare with me.
Hey - bare with me!
1987 K. W. JETER in Locus Apr. 57/2, I
think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long
as we can come up with a fitting collective term for Powers, Blaylock
and myself. Something based on the appropriate technology of the era;
like ‘*steam-punks’, perhaps. 1990 CU Amiga Apr. 66/3 Anyone acquainted with CU should be familiar with the concept of cyberspace by now
but steampunk is the next progression. 1999 Entertainm. Weekly (Electronic ed.) 8 Oct., The imaginative ‘steampunk’ concept eventually bubbled up to movies like Wild Wild West.
The definition is, as far as I have observed, spot-on, and being able to see the etymology is absolutely brilliant. However, my interests for this post have very little to do with either of those areas of the entry. If you're reading this, chances are you know a bit about steampunk or you're one of the friends my human bugged to read this page, so you're probably not learning anything terribly new. No, what I draw your attention to is the very top of the entry, where it reads DRAFT ADDITIONS FEBRUARY 2003. A four year old draft? Muggle has been officially added, but not steampunk, which finds its origins at least ten years earlier. (To be fair: JK Rowling and WB versus, what, the Wild Wild West? No bet.)
My point is that steampunk is not generally a recognized term. Though it claims millions of adherents, take a street poll and you will be quite disappointed with just how unrecognized it is by everyday people. Such difficulties present a challenge to steampunk librarians such as myself, one which I surely wish to address at the Caledon Library as much as possible; namely, the formal collection standards of a sub-genre that is only in the last decade beginning to claim the spotlight. The definition above and much of what has been written provides me with a fantastic platform from which to dive into the matter, but believe me when I say there is work to be done yet!
Despite our reputation for organizational skills bordering on the obsessive, the majority of librarians I've met are less organized than the inventory of a new avatar high on freebies. When people refer to wrangling cats as a basis for comparison with whatever they are attempting to organize, they really should be comparing their adventures to wrangling librarians. It is my hope in coming entries to address the various aspects of steampunk which will allow for easier classification, elements which we will all recognize when they are pointed out, but perhaps have not considered in great detail before now.
For now, my steamy friends and colleagues, I must retire and dream of beige rainbows set against the bustling cogwork city of my mind. Enjoy your weekend.
~Turing
*Hey kids! If you don't have access to the OED, write to your local reference librarian today or maybe pay them a visit - I'm sure they miss seeing you!
Now . . .
While I was given responsibility for the steampunk collection this past August, it's only recently that I've devoted any significant amount of thought to it. And what a mistake that was - I can barely hear my phonograph over the mumbo-jumbo swimming around in my wee mind. Issues of gathering, classifying, sharing, etc. spill over into my normal musings leaving little in their wake.
As I am known in Caledon circles for waxing pathetic about the Oxford English Dictionary*, and indeed this page's name is inspired by my obsession, it is the first place I go to when I need a definition. I know, beginning with a dictionary definition is the stuff bad term papers are made of, but bare with me.
Hey - bare with me!
DRAFT ADDITIONS FEBRUARY 2003
steampunk n. [after
butThe definition is, as far as I have observed, spot-on, and being able to see the etymology is absolutely brilliant. However, my interests for this post have very little to do with either of those areas of the entry. If you're reading this, chances are you know a bit about steampunk or you're one of the friends my human bugged to read this page, so you're probably not learning anything terribly new. No, what I draw your attention to is the very top of the entry, where it reads DRAFT ADDITIONS FEBRUARY 2003. A four year old draft? Muggle has been officially added, but not steampunk, which finds its origins at least ten years earlier. (To be fair: JK Rowling and WB versus, what, the Wild Wild West? No bet.)
My point is that steampunk is not generally a recognized term. Though it claims millions of adherents, take a street poll and you will be quite disappointed with just how unrecognized it is by everyday people. Such difficulties present a challenge to steampunk librarians such as myself, one which I surely wish to address at the Caledon Library as much as possible; namely, the formal collection standards of a sub-genre that is only in the last decade beginning to claim the spotlight. The definition above and much of what has been written provides me with a fantastic platform from which to dive into the matter, but believe me when I say there is work to be done yet!
Despite our reputation for organizational skills bordering on the obsessive, the majority of librarians I've met are less organized than the inventory of a new avatar high on freebies. When people refer to wrangling cats as a basis for comparison with whatever they are attempting to organize, they really should be comparing their adventures to wrangling librarians. It is my hope in coming entries to address the various aspects of steampunk which will allow for easier classification, elements which we will all recognize when they are pointed out, but perhaps have not considered in great detail before now.
For now, my steamy friends and colleagues, I must retire and dream of beige rainbows set against the bustling cogwork city of my mind. Enjoy your weekend.
~Turing
*Hey kids! If you don't have access to the OED, write to your local reference librarian today or maybe pay them a visit - I'm sure they miss seeing you!
So, here's my first real post. In the spirit of the season, let's bulk up that holiday wishlist with just a little steampunk, shall we? Though it might seem very commercial of me, I assure you, TLM is not selling out. . . *
Let us start with the Steampunk AnglePoise Webcam, available here. Though a relatively low-powered camera, can you honestly say you have anything this fine on your desktop?
Clockwork anything makes me giddy as a schoolboy and I promise you that if they ever create a steampunk MP3 player, I don't care what its price is, I will buy it. There are mods that people have created like The Ambience Enhancer, but for those of us whose mod skills are limited to Play-Doh©®TM, there is always the iPod Skin - considering how beat-up mine is at this point, I may very well be making such an investment.
This next item is, in my opinion, in questionable taste though undeniably interesting. The Titanic-DNA Watch is made from metal recovered from the actual ship. The price is yet to be announced, but expect to pay a steam-powered first-born for it. Despite being wonderfully attractive in keeping with the Steampunk aesthetic, capitalizing on such a disaster is questionable at best . . . but that didn't stop Celine Dion.
Finally, for you Radio Riel listeners and other various audiophiles, prepare to empty your wallets for these giant speakers from MBL. They're only $180,000 . . . but everyone goes into a little debt around the holidays, right?
*. . . but Mr. Weyland does have his price!
Let us start with the Steampunk AnglePoise Webcam, available here. Though a relatively low-powered camera, can you honestly say you have anything this fine on your desktop?
Clockwork anything makes me giddy as a schoolboy and I promise you that if they ever create a steampunk MP3 player, I don't care what its price is, I will buy it. There are mods that people have created like The Ambience Enhancer, but for those of us whose mod skills are limited to Play-Doh©®TM, there is always the iPod Skin - considering how beat-up mine is at this point, I may very well be making such an investment.
This next item is, in my opinion, in questionable taste though undeniably interesting. The Titanic-DNA Watch is made from metal recovered from the actual ship. The price is yet to be announced, but expect to pay a steam-powered first-born for it. Despite being wonderfully attractive in keeping with the Steampunk aesthetic, capitalizing on such a disaster is questionable at best . . . but that didn't stop Celine Dion.
Finally, for you Radio Riel listeners and other various audiophiles, prepare to empty your wallets for these giant speakers from MBL. They're only $180,000 . . . but everyone goes into a little debt around the holidays, right?
*. . . but Mr. Weyland does have his price!
