things that are not mine

[sistawendy]

Will I be burned at the stake if I say I'm not as crazy about steampunk as everyone else I know? I mean, yes, Friday night was grand and everyone looked lovely, but the steampunk look doesn't excite me as much as, say, Helena Bonham Carter playing Bellatrix Lestrange. (Why yes, I did see the latest Potter flick with m'boy yesterday. Why do you ask?)

Speaking of Friday night, I'm glad I didn't pay to hear the Analog folks and just hung out outside Re-bar. Not bad, but again, not my thing.

And speaking of why I didn't go out Saturday night, Space Virgins keep scheduling or telling me about fun social things at times that don't work for me. Arg! I don't miss the events as much as I don't want to blow them off.

Ribs: nearly there.
Toes: not as close.

Resolution for the next time I'm out at the Usual Haunts: quit talking so much about )'( before everyone gets bored with me.

Comments

[evillinn.livejournal.com]

In all honesty, I'm not overly fond of the Steampunk thing. Friday was fun simply because SO MANY people were in the spirit of things. I just get giddy at community participation in stuff, and it matters much less about the specific theme.
I'm not fond of Victorian garb and lean much, much more towards the punk side of steampunk, venturing right on in to the apocolyptic elements. I realize that is probably the exact opposite of the preferences of most of the costumed fanatics I know, but I suppose we'll meet half way with Steampunk, eh?

I like pretty people that put time into creating a mood. I enjoyed the Pirate thing enough, and am sort of glad it is subsiding some. I think this will be The New Thing for a bit, and I'll enjoy it. And I'll be curious what The Next New Thing will be. :)

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It was the atmosphere more than the fashion, and people make the atmosphere. Now I'll have to see if I can come up with a new thing. :D

[evillinn.livejournal.com]

Also, you really should just figure out how to own your own version of Steampunk. It is a very flexible world. You do the whole ruffley dress, poofy sleeve thing so well, certainly there are some simple steampunk elements you could add that wouldn't detract from your preferred looks too much?

[vorona.livejournal.com]

I should probably add that my view of Steampunk has been shaped by admittedly interesting photoshoots of models covered in "coal" smudges. Interesting, but... coal dust is carcinogenic, and I just can't get past that. It makes me recoil on a fairly deep philosophical level.

I'll probably catch all kinds of hell for my replies here.

[icprncs.livejournal.com]

The point of steampunk is supposed to be Victorian with futuristic trimmings the way Victorians would have been likely to imagine the future. (Jules Verne is the epitome of steampunk.) From what I've seen, a lot of people don't get that, and instead do "vaguely period clothing with a lot of technology and distressing thrown on top." That I don't care for.

I've been trying for five years to get rococo to be the next big thing. So far I haven't succeeded. ;)

[sistawendy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, doing steampunk right takes more imagination & effort than some people are willing to put into it. I'll confess to not trying that hard myself because, as I said, my heart just wasn't in it.

Rococo? Yikes! I'd rather have the next big thing be the Jetsons: Sorayama meets New Look. Or maybe William & Mary. Or that darling of corset maniacs, the Gilded Age, which is so much like the one we're living in now.

Crying "weep! 'weep!" in notes of woe

[vorona.livejournal.com]

My problem with Steampunk is... why glorify pollution? No, I mean, SERIOUSLY, why glorify pollution? I look at a flyer for a Steampunk event, and I answer back.. no, in fact, I do NOT "long for" a time when people had to breathe coal dust and send kids to clean out chimneys and die painful, early deaths. Sounds like the Bad Old Days to me, and I do NOT yearn for it. It's not Pretty. The idea makes me sick. Fluffy skirts are always nice, but I don't want to live in a dirty, carcinogenic world - no, never - we have enough of that to deal with, now, for real. Apocalypse, my ass. Gasmasks, disease, and death are overrated.

[evillinn.livejournal.com]

I can understand that, as I occasionally flinched at the whole pirate thing for similar reasons. I do enjoy the aesthetic, though, and played along willingly.

I would be more bothered by sterilized themes. Victorian themes that simply do not address the grittier, uglier side of the times is more bothersome to me than a fantastical take on it that does acknowledge some of the ugliness.

Ultimately, today I think that we have the luxury of playing with aesthetic elements of any number of eras without having to constantly address the negative side. EVERY era, subculture, movement and fad has had bad sides. But we can take the good from them without having to harbor the bad. We'd kill ourselves if we had to carry the bad of everything that ever happened on our shoulders forever.

[vorona.livejournal.com]

One of my problems (the other being that I simply do not like to wear corsets) with Victorian-themed stuff, although I find it truly gorgeous, is that I do not identify with the upper class - at least not in that context. It's embarrassing. Even if I had the patience and the ability (which I don't) to dress up Victorian, I'd feel so much ideological conflict about it. I'd have to dress as a member of the working class to be able to deal with it. And obviously that would reflect a sooty, ugly reality.

But you're right... we can take elements of design from all eras before ours, and play with them. I like to do that, myself. My anti-corporate, anti-coal dust stance would not entirely keep me from enjoying a good pair of Victorian boots.

I think what bothers me about it, really, is pessimism. The idea that this would be an acceptable alternate future. That's a nightmare to me. The only way I can reconcile Steampunk is to see it as an alternate future to be cleaned up, or averted, somehow... through time-travel. Like Donnie Darko. Heh, I guess I'm just overly serious about the pollution thing, and there's no way around it, for me. I can't even play at accepting it. And yet I do like floofy skirts, with futuristic options...

[stryal.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes you MUST be burned at the stake!
Or, well, how about I just burn you a steak?
There are bits of the steampunk look I like, some I don't. *shrugs* To each their own.
Let's face it, I love the medieval/Elizabethan stuff meself!