The death of Steampunk

[sparr]

I am appalled at the ongoing watering-down of "Steampunk", which apparently this year means "anything vaguely Edwardian or Victorian". It was bad enough in 08 and 09 when it meant "anything Edwardian or Victorian, with gears and/or brass paint". Next year will it have any meaning left at all? Does anyone making "Steampunk" costumes these days have any idea what _____punk means, or why "steam" is part of the name?

Comments

[londo.livejournal.com]

Evidence has taught me that steampunk==goggles.

[horrormoviegeek.livejournal.com]

My experience with Steampunk, which is minimal, all comes from the Anime Last Exile which is awesome. The shit that passes for steampunk at Cons...not so much.

UM

[jolefay.livejournal.com]

I really beg to differ on that one. I would say that Exile took parts of what was in video games at that time.

Listen

[jolefay.livejournal.com]

You all gotta leave what the Elder Goths live through. And the real Punks..and the real Rock and Roll peeps. It happens to everything there is nothing and never will be anything Unique. It's just how it is. Lily Tomlin said it best "You are unique just like everyone else"

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

'swhy I tend to use "pseudo-Victorian" or "gaslight fantasy" when referring to my own projects. I can't write punk, and I don't know enough science to write steam.

Also, those of us who know how to dress Victorian/Edwardian (/Regency) laugh at those who are just kinda faking it. (Not that I actually fall into the category of knowing, but I hang around enough people who do enough costume recreation that I can at least tell you what I'm getting wrong, and how badly)

See also, this rant.

~Sor

[keenmixer.livejournal.com]

Heh..I could really do a huge post based on my training as a costumer and the research I've done into said genre. But first you have to realize there are really two categories of Steampunk. Victorian and Post-Apocolyptic. For Victorian, imagine we developed steam as a major source of power instead of electricity. As for post-apocolyptic, we've lost everything and now we use steam...then you get into other variations..Diesel Punk (think Rocketeer), and of course the long standard, Cyber Punk.

My fav description of Steam Punk goes like this...Goths are very serious about Death. Steam Punkers are very serious about their Pocket Watches.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

Either of those categories requires *STEAM*, the single feature completely missing from 99% of all "steampunk" costumes.