Steampunk Dead?

I have been going about reading some of the steampunk blogs and sites that I have not been at since my computer died hideously. One of them, Voyages Extrodinaires, had an article on the rise and current death of steampunk. To many of the core followers of the movement see the embrace of steampunk by the mass media and "fringe groups" as the harbinger of doom for the genre. Personally I just cannot see that, and think that the supposed core followers are just sad gits.

The steampunk or Victorian science romance has been with us for over 150 years. I like to think that the big start was with the first publication of Verne with Five Weeks in a Balloon. The balloon had a device that allowed to to generate hydrogen from water through electrolysis loosely making it a scientific adventure. There is Man exploring nature and conquering adversity giving it the sense of a romantic adventure of the soul. The idea that Africa will be the next basket of civilization after the fall if the United States gives us a steampunk dystopian atmosphere with an aura of hope around it that the Victorian society embodied. Just the fact that a person would only be limited to their ability to gather food and water for survival for the distance that their explorations would carry them is incredible for the time. Not having to go back for coal or other fuel while maintaining such high speeds would make me long for adventure had I been in the time period. Heck it makes me yearn for adventure now!!!

As the steampunk movement progressed very slowly it seemed that only the cream of the crop was presented to the consumer of the genre. We did not see the large amounts of crap and clutter that is produced when something becomes popular and everyone tries to latch on. This crap and clutter may be bad, but a true connoisseur can select the gold from the dross. For every 10 bad items that will be produced there will be that one glint of purity that will be the excellence that we look for. With so many people working in the genre the amount of gold will dramatically increase along with everything else. We just have to look for it.

This is the case of the Castle Falkenstein RPG. It was published to early and did not get the attention that it deserved. If it were released now it would have a number of additional gamers playing it now. The only thing that could keep it from succeeding for a while would be WoW. Perhaps if there were a MMORPG it might draw a lot of people. I truly hope that Atlus Online will be able to get the MMORPG players hooked on to something like reading Verne or some wild thing like that. They can even get it from Project Gutenberg for the fancy digital copy for their steam powered iphones.

WoW has drawn away to many pen and paper gamers as it is. I got started with Castle Falkenstein when it came out. I own every source book and run a game now and then. I have even gone on to create alternative rules for the game using dice to make it easier for new players. Not that anyone will ever notice my site Mot's Castle Falkenstein, but hey I needed to put it up there for my other player so I might as well make it available for everyone.

I go out to find new steampunk, Victorian sci-fi, Victorian adventure, and the like quite a bit. With the Internet I can find quite a bit and sort through to get what I like out. Those who complain about the acceptance of the movement by the Mass Media are just lazy or stuck up wanting staying with their individualism just like everyone else. I say share with everyone else you want to, let people decide what they like on their own, and keep your version of steampunk true to yourself. Perhaps the merging of genres will create something really great and freaky.

The Military is at Least Honest

The US Air Force has released regulations and work flow process charts on how to deal with postings on blogs that are not complementary if the USAF. Now I can understand that the USAF needs to be looking out for people that are either confused or just plain lying about the honor of the air force. It is just very stereotypical of military mindset to have a flow chart of what a soldier is to when they find a post that they do not agree with.



It is actually a rather well done, if simple, flow chart with, I am sure, quite detailed and voluminous regulations to go with it. I feel bad that the AF has released that just to help their image, but they are open with it. The US government is significantly better than others on how it handles criticism and the rights of citizens to criticize it. The AF wants its people to tell the truth in a polite fashion with full disclosure of who they are.

Other organizations will either hide who they are or just lie about it. My Wife's third mother sent things to her from the Obama campaign that were criticizing other candidates (including the Libertarian FairTax). It turned out that all of the emails were a lie and the supposedly "third-party" website was owned by someone on the Obama campaign.

I am thankful that the USAF is far more honorable and honest in their press work than most countries and almost all politicians. I just find it sad that they seem to think that they will have people looking for blog posts that are defamatory to them. Perhaps they have a staff of hundreds of airmen checking all the blogs 24 hours a day. That is just a sad and pathetic waste of money.