PBS’ Off Book Takes a Closer Look @ Steampunk
You have to sign in via Facebook or Google to see this amazing video series by PBS, but then you have access to all 45 windows into the media and how it influences our culture. I also really enjoyed their piece on how fandom and fan fiction are a dialog with society.
Steampunk Book Review: Clockwork Angel (Infernal Devices 1)
When I decided to start this blog one of the first things I did was head to my local library. The more I learned about Steampunk, the more I realized I had a lot of reading to do! I picked up a mix of classic sci-fi like H. G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau. but I had also heard good things about Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices trilogy so in I decided to read a mix of the old and the new at the same time.
I’ve only gotten as far as the first book in the series, Clockwork Angel, but I will definitely be reading the trilogy to the end. The Infernal Devices series takes place before Clare’s earlier trilogy (Mortal Instruments) about an angelically infused group of warriors fighting the forces of darkness to keep us “mundanes” out of the crossfire, but it is not meant as a prequel. (Clare stresses on her website that the books can be read in any order.) The story takes place in dreary streets of Victorian London and follows the misadventure of sixteen-year-old Tessa Gray.
The story starts with her imprisonment in the hands of the strange Dark Sisters, who help her unlock her previously unknown supernatural talent. With the help of a deliciously malicious (not to mention handsome) rising Shadowhunter Will, Tessa escapes and finds herself sucked into a race against time to stop a clockwork army in the hands of the mysterious and powerful Magister. You can read and excerpt here. Next on my reading list? The Strange Affair of Spring-heeled Jack (a Burton and Swiborne novel).
Steampunk Sourcebook- The Golden Compass
For die hard fans, His Dark Materials (known as the Golden Compass trilogy in the US), wouldn’t technically fit into the definition of Steampunk.
The series is set in the present/near future so steam power is a thing of the past and the story has nothing to do with Victorian England or an alternate history, but the parallel universe Lyra Belacqua inhabits has some decidedly Steampunk elements to it. The images in this post are all from the 2007 film release of The Golden Compass.
First, England gets “punked.” Lyra lives at Jordan College within Oxford University, which doesn’t exist in our universe. She later travels to an alternative London with dirigibles floating over head and horseless hansom cabs, apparently their answer to the automobile.
The spaces that she inhabits in while in the power of the evil Mrs. Coulter remind me a lot of the work of Alfonse Mucha (1860-1939).
There are also so some fun alternative technologies, for instance, a projector (which they call a spirit projector) that uses glassy orbs to create 3D, moving images of of the mysterious Dust (which is basically powdered sentience). The bad guys also employ “spy flies” which are clockwork insects “with a bad spirit pinned to it” and sent to locate Lyra and her band.
Fun Facts and Context
- The Golden Compass was originally released under the name Northern Lights.
- The trilogy explores contemporary concepts in science such as quantum entanglement (lodestone resonator), dark matter (dust is invisible without the amber spyglass even though in the Golden Compass film they depict it clearly as visible by the naked eye) and human evolution (how did we become “more” than animals? Where did sentience come from?)
- The Golden Compass film stops short of the plot of the first book. The real ending of the Golden Compass is darker and sadder, but I think they stopped where they did in hopes of continuing the trilogy and that needed a more hopeful note.
- Unfortunately, the films of The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass were never made. Many people, including actors in the film, blamed the Catholic church for killing the series. I admit that I watched the movie before I read the books and I couldn’t understand why they didn’t continue and why the church would protest so much. Then I read the books and I totally get it. (Spoiler alert) Even if the story wasn’t overtly about killing god (or at least the one posing as god), there are multiple scenes of a violence against children, like in Citegazze (a city in another alternative universe), that would have been hard to stomach on the silver screen.
Adam Lambert Rocks Steampunk Finery on Glee
Mere days after I wrote my Steampunk in the Mainstream post I watched the November 7 episode of Glee (Season 5, Episode 4). Adam Lambert shows up as “Starchild,” aka Elliott Gilbert, a golden-throated vision in top hat and tails to join Kurt’s band in NYC.
Steampunk Disney Princesses
You may not have heard about the scandal of Merida’s sexification for the Disney princesses line, but this is a makeover I can definitely get behind! Nice work MechaniqueFairy!
MechaniqueFairy (deviant art) is a Canadian digital artist who’s been creating these fun steampunk versions of various characters from Disney princess movies. See below for my favorites and check out their dA gallery for more!
Music to Steampunk by: Just Glue Some Gears On It
Don’t be fooled by the title, this song is actually advocating that people DON’T simply glue gears on things. Thank you Reginald Pikedevant! This song is hilarious and I appreciate the sentiment.
Mythbuster’s Grant Imahara Goes Steampunk for Clockwork Couture
I was looking at some tasty Steampunk fashion at Clockwork Couture and I thought I recognized one of the male models. It turns out I was right! Grant Imahara, who is the robotics guru for one of my favorite shows, Mythbusters, appears in the online catalog. You can also see pics featuring Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Emma Caulfield and Felicia Day of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long Blog (among other things.)
Photos by PixieVision
For Whom the Gear Turns 