Zebulon Vitruvius Pike (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dime_novel_hero) wrote2009-05-25 01:26 pm
dime_novel_hero) wrote2009-05-25 01:26 pm
Entry tags:
Marcon – Satrurday
The binary epoxy that I used to repair my cane on Friday evening seems to have set fairly well come Saturday morning.
Sue enough, the gentleman from Millennicon had not only put together a steampunk costume of his own, he had emulated mine. Top hat. Goggles on the top hat. The same model of goggles on his face. Red vest. Pistol in a cross draw holster. Another gentleman in a thrown together steampunk also had a red vest. Red is apparently a popular color for waistcoats and so I will need to get some other color. I had been thinking of a blue one even before this.
One thing that he did that I thought was brilliant was a take on a steampunk lightsaber. He had a wooden table leg with a belt clip and a few pieces. He had to pull it out of his pocket but instead of the Star Wars lighted lexan blade he had a telescoping metal extender to act as an electrified fencing foil. I was reminded of Agatha Hetrodyne's bug-zapping swords from “Girl Genius” and in the version that I will make will be two telescoping electrodes, like a Jacob's Ladder. An arcing effect would be impossible but a sound effect could be done. Brzzzzzzzp. Brrrrrrzzzzp.
There. You steal my ideas and I'll steal yours. But among costumers, it's not quite stealing. There's a lot of sharing, inspiring and collaboration. It's a maelstrom of ideas. The three of us stood in the hallway for an hour and, between having our pictures taken, talked about various ways of doing steampunk better.
Standing as we were in the main hallway, we attracted the attention of other steampunks. Lots of picture taking. I found out there was a club in Columbus, the Airship Archon. I'll have to look them up. At 2pm, we collected up all the steampunks we could find and had a collected photo op.
With the prevalence of steampunk there of course came the questions from people not involved about just what steampunk was.
Steampunk means many things to many people but one of the things I thought helped to explain it fairly clearly was to ask one to imagine that we are attending a convention of speculative fiction, scientific romance, gaslamp fantasy, gothic horror and edisonades. Jules Verne is Guest of Honor. Arthur Conan Doyle and H. Rider Haggard are newly published authors on panels trying to promote their books. There's a kinetoscope track. There is to be a scientific performance by Nikola Tesla. You run into a young guy named Wells working on some time travel story that he hasn't gotten published yet.
What would cosplay look like at Marcon 1889?
Yea. Steampunk is kind of like that.
Another question that came up was about goggles. People have noticed, as have I, that goggles seem to be an integral part of steampunk. Throw some goggles on almost anything and BANG. Steampunk. Why is that? I think it's something to do with 19th Century technology being somewhat inherently dangerous. Gears and pistons and myriad moving parts. Coal soot, steam and hot lubricating oil. Safety goggles seem to be a necessity for any gear jockey or mad scientist. There are also airship pirates and engineers of experimental heavier-than-air flying machines who need top protect their eyes from prop-wash debris.
Cyberpunk's mirrorshades came with the phrase “The future's so bright, you have to wear sunglasses.” Steampunk seems to come with the phrase, “The machines of the future will put your eye out, so employ appropriate ocular safety devices.”
And, by the way, I hate the name steampunk. As a fan of Verne and Wells long before Victorian became newly fashionable in fandom, I still don't think of in in punky terms. Steampunk was coined as a genre in 1987 by K. W .Jeter as an attempt to describe his Victorian science fiction to a publisher. Nobody paid much attention to it until about two years ago when a number of goths grew tired of the angst of their movement and moved into something a little brighter. It was then that steampunk took off and, in fact, became a lot more punky.
I prefer to call it by the name that was used to describe it in the late 19th Century: The Scientific Romance.
I spent some time at the Klingon Assault Group party. I wandered down the hall to the Bar Fleet party where they had blocked off half the hallway. People at the gate were demanding con badges and ID but since my wallet was inaccessible underneath my tool belt I decided I didn't want to see the drunken assemblage enough to retrieve it. It was also extremely hot with all the people. I don't feel I missed anything.
I changed into shorts and a t-shirt and went to see “Gamera the Brave” at midnight. Afterwards, back up to the room for shower, some writing and then bed.
Sue enough, the gentleman from Millennicon had not only put together a steampunk costume of his own, he had emulated mine. Top hat. Goggles on the top hat. The same model of goggles on his face. Red vest. Pistol in a cross draw holster. Another gentleman in a thrown together steampunk also had a red vest. Red is apparently a popular color for waistcoats and so I will need to get some other color. I had been thinking of a blue one even before this.
One thing that he did that I thought was brilliant was a take on a steampunk lightsaber. He had a wooden table leg with a belt clip and a few pieces. He had to pull it out of his pocket but instead of the Star Wars lighted lexan blade he had a telescoping metal extender to act as an electrified fencing foil. I was reminded of Agatha Hetrodyne's bug-zapping swords from “Girl Genius” and in the version that I will make will be two telescoping electrodes, like a Jacob's Ladder. An arcing effect would be impossible but a sound effect could be done. Brzzzzzzzp. Brrrrrrzzzzp.
There. You steal my ideas and I'll steal yours. But among costumers, it's not quite stealing. There's a lot of sharing, inspiring and collaboration. It's a maelstrom of ideas. The three of us stood in the hallway for an hour and, between having our pictures taken, talked about various ways of doing steampunk better.
 |
| Steampunks at Marcon |
With the prevalence of steampunk there of course came the questions from people not involved about just what steampunk was.
Steampunk means many things to many people but one of the things I thought helped to explain it fairly clearly was to ask one to imagine that we are attending a convention of speculative fiction, scientific romance, gaslamp fantasy, gothic horror and edisonades. Jules Verne is Guest of Honor. Arthur Conan Doyle and H. Rider Haggard are newly published authors on panels trying to promote their books. There's a kinetoscope track. There is to be a scientific performance by Nikola Tesla. You run into a young guy named Wells working on some time travel story that he hasn't gotten published yet.
What would cosplay look like at Marcon 1889?
Yea. Steampunk is kind of like that.
Another question that came up was about goggles. People have noticed, as have I, that goggles seem to be an integral part of steampunk. Throw some goggles on almost anything and BANG. Steampunk. Why is that? I think it's something to do with 19th Century technology being somewhat inherently dangerous. Gears and pistons and myriad moving parts. Coal soot, steam and hot lubricating oil. Safety goggles seem to be a necessity for any gear jockey or mad scientist. There are also airship pirates and engineers of experimental heavier-than-air flying machines who need top protect their eyes from prop-wash debris.
Cyberpunk's mirrorshades came with the phrase “The future's so bright, you have to wear sunglasses.” Steampunk seems to come with the phrase, “The machines of the future will put your eye out, so employ appropriate ocular safety devices.”
And, by the way, I hate the name steampunk. As a fan of Verne and Wells long before Victorian became newly fashionable in fandom, I still don't think of in in punky terms. Steampunk was coined as a genre in 1987 by K. W .Jeter as an attempt to describe his Victorian science fiction to a publisher. Nobody paid much attention to it until about two years ago when a number of goths grew tired of the angst of their movement and moved into something a little brighter. It was then that steampunk took off and, in fact, became a lot more punky.
I prefer to call it by the name that was used to describe it in the late 19th Century: The Scientific Romance.
I spent some time at the Klingon Assault Group party. I wandered down the hall to the Bar Fleet party where they had blocked off half the hallway. People at the gate were demanding con badges and ID but since my wallet was inaccessible underneath my tool belt I decided I didn't want to see the drunken assemblage enough to retrieve it. It was also extremely hot with all the people. I don't feel I missed anything.
I changed into shorts and a t-shirt and went to see “Gamera the Brave” at midnight. Afterwards, back up to the room for shower, some writing and then bed.