Steampunk Stories: The Hide of a Different Beast

Are Steampunk stories so vastly different from other stories; are they truly the golden fleece, the Chupacabra, the hide of a different beast?

A reader can tell something about a book or a story if it has the label Sci-fi, Romance, Historical Fiction, or Non-fiction. Classifications help in ‘knowing’ rather than guessing about a book. The entire idea of libraries placing books in ‘subject’ order is the principle at work in its finest example, however, where does one place Steampunk?

How then, is Steampunk the Hide of a Different Beast as far as story is concerned. I shall make several explorations of this question. For now Steampunk can be a theme, a novel, a graphic novel, a work of art (including clothing and trinkets), created wholly for expression unto itself or it can be a matter of atmosphere, a story setting, a mind-set, or some stage decoration.

Steampunk stories can be ‘straight’ or ‘hyphenated’: straight, like just Steampunk in a glass or, it could be hyphenated, a ‘cocktail’, a mixture. That is as far as I will go with the comparative analogies. Is Steampunk a genre or ‘sub-genre’ of stories I will not say either way, which would be for the reader to enjoy being busy making up her or his own mind.

Steampunk stories and Post-modernist philosophy relish the blending aspect likened to blending or mixing genres or memes by shredding them and next putting all the pieces back together as a new whole Frankenstein-esque. Post-modernism is so prevalent we hardly notice the evidence of the ‘pieces-sewn-together’ aspect.

We might even expect the aspect of bits of yarn mixed with denim so to write. The mixing of a little Victorian setting to go along with a mysterious machine, a measuring device, an alethiometer , a difference engine as a stand in for a computer and a nano-imp communication device that is reminiscent of a cell phone. The ‘machines’ are powered by a tiny being who must be “fed”, or “dust” or “aether” or “anbaric current” included from the novel.

A popular phrase is applicable to mixtures post-modern fashion; this mixture is ‘mash-able’; ‘morphing’ the difference engine, the nano-imp, and the alethiometer as featured in novels. The question of what sort of energy is available is not so different from Sci-fi which uses ‘crystals’ for engine power or ‘generated’ space drives, or energy from the universe to do their work. Energy is a practical matter; after all it is ‘steam’ that makes Steampunk work as an ethos and as a story.

Interesting how the writers take antique words from various languages and combine them to describe devices in modern terms taking old mechanics to craft a new way to express the idea of energy or power in mystical terms that transports the reader out-of-the-present into the world of their own crafting.In the story The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman takes a few words to show the reader an alethiometer–

“It was very like a clock, or a compass, for there were hands pointing to places around the dial, but instead of the hours or the points of the compass there were several little pictures.”

Another point about Steampunk; it goes beyond ‘steam’ and mechanical power, fabrics died the shade of prunes, and ‘sootiness’, if you will, the stories dig into the loam of everyday wonder (I hesitate to write ‘magic’) as encountered by their characters in settings whether historical, Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian, contemporary, or future and the various stripes and ‘shades’ thereof. Technology plus wonder are created within the Steampunk story. Even though I recently hesitated to write ‘magic’ it is undeniable that the supernatural does figure massively in some Steampunk stories.

Steampunk borrows something new, recycles something old, adds a bit of a known epoch with sprinkles of the bizarre, and special technology, or fundamentally unique view of the world all the while getting deep in with epistemology and metaphysics, as writers do whenever they craft a story.

Print Examples for Steampunk Flavoring
Cherie Priest, Boneshaker
Alan Moore, graphic novels about The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
K. W. Jeter, Morlock Night (interesting use of Wells’ literary invention the Morlocks)
H. G. Wells, The Time Machine
James Blaylock, Homunculus
William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, The Difference Engine
Michael Moorcock, Warlord of the Air, The Land Leviathan, and The Steel Tsar

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Evangeline–Steampunk Pistol Finale

Small Bolter Finale

I must say this has been an enjoyable build. Specifications were easy, I made some changes as requested, and a restrained use of materials seemed to make the whole flow together nicely.

Many people give special names to firearms, this is no exception; I understand this build will be christened Evangeline*. Perhaps I shall also make a Gabriel™, with apologies to the poet Mr. Longfellow.

Evangeline™ before crating

As the maker I like the composition and build process. I seek balanced components and  simplicity of line in the structure. I tend to add a little surprise as in color or shape or ornamentation. Sometimes I learn more about the build once it has left the toy shop. It is not bitter for me when this happens. It keeps the piece alive in my imagination.

Reference to Evangeline

Link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evangeline

A Steampunk Armatage™

Something New Everyday

Here is a gander at a last-minute commission for an upcoming regional Steampunk Fair over the Labor Day Weekend.

Scrabbage

The idea of scrabbage is making a construction that I call a workment or Armatage™ in this case.  As the maker I am the Armaturge©.

Scrabbage is insightful scrounging, purposeful rummaging, and artful collecting, with a somewhat organized storing of parts for later use. It has to be organized and useful or else it is merely junk. My way makes all the clutter and mayhem into Junque and I do intend the capitalization.

“This is a bits and parts construction after all. Just slap something together. It will be fine.” Sorry lass, that is not the way I scrabbage something.

Armatage

Armatage, n. a construction or a fanciful but non-functioning weapon. The process and construction is Armaturgy.

Armaturge

Armaturge is a portmanteau of “arms” as in weapons and the noun thaumaturge from Greek wonder thaumato-  plus,  -ourgos working, from ergon work. One who makes miracle weapons from junk. How pretentious!

 

Raygun Build—Mock-Up

A good soak in SuperClean™ degreaser and general great cleanser insures the inner Raygun chassis will be ready for the inner works installation.

                                     Clean and ready for components

I do not know what is moving me forward on the Raygun build. I really want to see what the bits n’ bobs will look like when they all come together. The deadline is six weeks out. Plenty of lead time– I just step over to Raygun Central and poke and prod for a few minutes whilst the paint dried on a paint challenge.

I have employed a little Blue Tack and some Painters’ Tape to try out ad hoc design in real time, no drawing this time, which is my usual tack when I build a project.  I have not used the Dremel ™ yet because I intend to work with what material as is.

                                                      A Tape n’ Tack Mock-Up

I have thought a little about a name for the Raygun. It is not part of the challenge but every project has a name or a title. Same should hold true for this build, besides, I am getting tired of just calling this build a Raygun.

What is a good name for the Raygun?  Suggestions welcome!

Raygun Build Part II

To begin a project requires planning, imagination, and time. Often I do a trial fit and if I like the outcome then the project is finished in short order. What I make depends on what I have on hand. I usually just scrounge the parts.

Here is what I found when I opened my find. Yay!

All of these build activities are in the toy shop where I can find anything I want or have not finished; it just takes a little time.

During summer my projects come in order of emphasis:   a little behind work (Ech!), just after sports (Score!), and a long way behind relationships (Cheers!). I shall endeavor to move this Raygun build along in a timely fashion. The deadline is for late October.

For this build picking the parts takes the place of an initial drawing. I use what I have on hand. This is the sculptural aspect. It is great that the parts have threaded ends or existing holes for easy assembly. The divine is in the details to wit, the parts.

The box of bits includes a flashlight (torch) lens, several couplers, a cut crystal jewel, a pump bulb, two shell casings; a battery powered light, a small key, tape roll thingy, etc. Remember the inner parts of my Raygun may also yield some interesting tidbits once they are thoroughly cleaned. The housing has a lot of space to accommodate some LED’s or other secret gizmos.

How I understand the term ‘Steampunk’

In regards to a personal definition of Steampunk I get the reference of ‘power’ as steam. Then add ‘punk’ to a noun as descriptor, (I thought adjectives did that job) and lo, a new genre is formed. Crimeny-Ned!

I interpret ‘punk’ as ‘imaginative trend-bending’ of historical artifacts as ‘powerfully projected alternative renditions of everyday items with a patina of the Victorian ethos’. One of the shared interests is making that stuff consistent in the world of imagination with a 19^th century swagger.  I enjoy the idea that the limits of historical influence are undone or at least mixed with the present.

Can you tell what I might combine on this build?

Raygun Build

Part I

Scrap Punk: I make personal disasters.

The Ridiculous Diversion part of Wargaming involves the influence of other people on me. Victorian Sci-Fi and Steampunk are both truly outside my orbit. That is until something comes along that piques my interest. I have a certain magnetic attraction and wonder at the reuse of parts from one thing to make another thing, a transformation of sorts, as in reuse from refuse.

      “What can it become?” is my favorite question.

Moding or modifying is another term that I use interchangeably with scratch building or kit bashing both older phrases.  The fourth term in constant use with DiY’ers is altered as in ‘altered books’, ‘altered boxes’, and ‘altered toys’. Altering, bashing, scratch building, homebrew, moding and punking (even pimping) convey the idea of making something from various left-over bits and parts. It is not called kit-bashing for nothing, hence, the need to keep a lot of parts on hand.

There is a sculptural aspect to making decisive additions to the template material (as in the picture above) and putting the pieces together in 3-D. It is a collage of bits in the round.

A few of my associates needed a new term for making things from scrap and so I invented Spiking. Graphic artists to artful MiG and TiG welders took the term and ran with it. My phrase for this upcoming challenge shall be:  Scrap Punk.

All the world’s a dust bin,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their bits and their parts,
And one man in his time plays with many toys. . .

My next in-between projects diversion will be a Victorian Sci-Fi / Steampunk Raygun Construction Challenge. I have just the place to begin, in my toy shop where I deconstruct to re-construct, all very post-modernist (Po-Mo). I began bashing kits before Po-Mo was cult.

I say, the games afoot…

I make custom disasters.

Scrap Punk is my own term, and a Steampunk Raygun is closer to reality. Please accept the oxymoron.