The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

Just wondering if anyone on the board is into the newish movement known as Steampunk? I occasionally work with a girl who's really into it and as far as I can tell it looks like it's for people who used to be into goth but that got to trendy and they've discovered the color brown and Terry Gilliam films. It doesn't seem like much more to me than a costume party every night at the bars and conventions and convention bars. Am I missing something? What is the "movement" about and why should anyone care?

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

Sub genre of Sci-Fi that's been around a long time. Probably gaining popularity recently because of the reasons you stated above.

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

I'm just curious as to what the appeal is? Maybe it's not so prevalent in Columbus (or anywhere) but the girl I know who's into it, she and her boyfriend and their circle of steampunks seem to throw events every night of the week and I can't get them to articulate it any more than that they like the fashion or "it's cool". But it seems silly to me to spend 4 hours getting dressed up as some anime/Jules Verne character or whatever to go out to a bar and listen to music that sounds like the cantina band in Star Wars (I went to an event once and it wasn't weird enough to be interesting). They also like to have days out at the zoo and and museums and stuff like that. Is there more to it? Or is it just a costume party every day? I mean I love horror movies, but I don't get together with friends and dress up as a horror movie character every night. Is there a common music scene that links them or is just some books. Just wondering if anyone on here is into the scene and if they can explain what the appeal is to them and if there even is a scene in Columbus. I understand dressing up at conventions and the like, but just to go to the zoo or a bar seems excessive to me.

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

Steampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Specifically, steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology or futuristic innovations as Victorians may have envisioned them; in other words, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, art, etc. This technology may include such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne or real technologies like the computer but developed earlier in an alternate history.

Other examples of steampunk contain alternate history-style presentations of "the path not taken" for such technology as dirigibles, analog computers, or such digital mechanical computers as Charles Babbage and Ada Lovelace's Analytical engine.

Steampunk is often associated with cyberpunk. They have considerable influence on each other and share a similar fan base, but steampunk developed as a separate movement. Apart from time period and level of technology, the main difference is that steampunk settings tend to be less dystopian.

Various modern utilitarian objects have been modded by individual artisans into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style, and a number of visual and musical artists have been described as steampunk.

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mmmmm....cryptobiosis

I can read wikipedia for myself. Once again, I was just wondering if anyone here had any personal experience with the movement and could explain it's appeal.

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

Growing up I was a huge fan of Wild Wild West (60's TV show) and I dig some of the recent fashions/costumes that I see, but I don't quite understand it myself. I could maybe see a theme for a party or a night out once in a while, but I can't explain the appeal to make it an everyday life style. I don't know anyone personally involved with the scene, so I guess I'm in the same boat as you when it come to steampunk.

There have been Steampunk threads running now for quite a while. Computer gaming made inroads with Ultima: Worlds of Adventure 2: Martian Dreams around 1991.

Tabletop gaming had a lot of entries, going back to Space 1889, which had several miniatures game spinoffs. GASLIGHT was doing a lot of alternate-history colonial era stuff throughout the late 90's and early 2000's. Penny Farthing mounted cavalry and Union steam-jump troopers, that sort of thing.

It's also been moving into film ("The Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec"), books ("The Difference Engine"), and comics pretty regularly ("The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen", "Girl Genius", or the highly recommend "Ignition City" by Warren Ellis.)

It lends itself very well to cosplay, as Steampunk computer mods are all over the Internet, the basic materials are readily available, and there's a lot of source material to draw from. As a result, it's been growing in popularity at Comic-Cons and media conventions.

It's basically a goth/sca/recreationist costuming movement more ideally suited to sci-fi fandom and literary conventions.

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David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
"Damnati Im Ludum" (VitruvianZeke@att.net)

Maybe it's just bigger in Chicago then and more of a everyday thing here. Not that it's big or anything, but the people I know who are into seem to have someplace to dress up and go drinking every single night of the week-no exaggeration. Their facebook walls are constantly flooded with photos and invitations to such and such. But the people I know can never articulate why they are so into it other than "it's fun". I'm a huge fan of Halloween but I think it would lose some of it's fun and appeal if I dressed in costume every night. I'm all for nerding out on things, but they seem to take it to extremes. I was just baffled, because most scenes are filled with people who coalesce around a type of music or art. These people just seem to like to dress up all the time. I think they follow some of the obsessions you'd expect but most of the ones I've talked to have never actually read any of the literature or seen the movies that you'd think they'd love. It seems to me to be a very superficial obsession of theirs based on nothing more than finding weird things. I'm pretty sure it's just because goth went too Twilight for them. But through this board, it definitely seems like a bigger thing in Chicago right now. And as any scene gets bigger I guess it's bound to be watered down and filled with poseurs.

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"I came here to chew bubble gum and kick a**. I'm all out of bubble gum."

I'm in Cleveland and not familiar with any Steampunk scene that hardcore here. That's not to say that it doesn't exist, just that I'm unaware of it. I do know that it has come up in the media a lot lately. There was an episode of Castle that focused on it and just last week I saw an article on the internet about a Steampunk theme bar in NY that had the Tardis as a bathroom entrance. I'm a huge Doctor Who fan, that's why it caught my eye.