Games: January 2008 Archives
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.