Steampunk - An Introduction to the Genre.

Hi Readers,

Today I went to the Steampunk Market at the Mill. Its a small fair at the historic Queens Mill, Lancashire, UK. I went last year, but it seems that I didn't write about it and that I've never done a post about Steampunk! I'm still a novice about the genre really and today was only my second fair and my first time dressing up, (see photo below). Though now I've a taste for it I'm eager to do it again!

The best way to describe today is probably to compare it to a comic/Scfi/game convention and a Victorian themed market. Spreed throughout the mill were a number of different stalls groaning under the weight of handmade and specialist items. The streampunk theme echoed within them all. There were Victorian style clothes; top hats, mini hats, corsets, dresses and waist coats but most had been 'punked' up with metal cogs/wooden cogs, goggles and metal embellishments. You could also by all of these separated. There was a fantasy games area, a poster/postcard stall with bespoke images of airships. There was also jewelry and other accessories, though some of it looked gothic to me. There was an afternoon tea and cake stall and I just had to try out the carrot cake. Which turned out to be awesome. My only small disappointment was that three of stalls I actually wanted to visit again from last year weren't there! They were the Victorian sweets, fudge and handmade soaps.

The mill itself is a museum and you can see how they made textiles there. They have a working loom room, which is really noisy and you have to wear ear defenders. A steam engine which provided all the power needed for the factory and lots of different hand looms. It's a good afternoon out, but I prefer Manchester's museum of Sciences and Industry.  

What exactly is steampunk?

In it's basic form it is a sub-genre from science fiction, though it is fast growing into a genre of its own now. The setting is normally an alternate version 19th century Britain, the Victorian era or the America Wild West. The biggest theme of steampunk is the growing industry and the use of steam run technology, only its more extreme and inventive then in the actual Victorian era. It influences everything; fashion, art, style, culture and architecture. Another big feature is airships and hot air balloons as these as a symbol of the Victorian era and fit in with the Steampunk style well.

Being a sub-genre is is very easy -especially in fiction and movies- for elements of other genres to appear in steampunk. These are mostly; history, horror, fantasy, supernatural, adventure and detective/crime. Though it can be crossed or mixed with just about everything. Mostly these are used in plot lines to add more to the story. They work well alongside the steampunk genre and can also add the the realism.

Elements of steampunk begin appearing in the 1950s/60s, but it was in the 1980's when it was coined as a humors take on cyberpunk* from there it has grown steadily and been most prominent in fiction. I think it's only been in the last few years though that it has really taken off and people have become interested in creating the fashion of steampunk.    

However, for some people there is no clear definition of steampunk or else there are a lot of different alternatives.
   
*Cyberpunk is another sub-genre of ScFi and it is normally set on earth in the near future in a post-industrial dystopia. It's main theme is advanced science, where technology is used or is able to do things that were unanticipated.*

Steampunk Fashion

For me the fashion of steampunk is one of the biggest draws. I think this is because there is a lot to it and there's no right or wrong. I think also just about any piece of clothing can be steampunked. The 'normal look' starts off with Victorian style clothes. For women its the long skirts, corsets or dresses. For men it's breeches, shirts and jackets. Other varies are Victorian adventuring/safari clothes, military uniform or engineer clothing. Some people might go for a more futuristic cyber look.

After that the steampunk elements get added. Normally this would be a pair of goggles on a hat or on a head. Then belts and gun holders. Leather pouches, arm or wrist guards and long leather boots or ankle boots. Other accessories are also added like; long necklaces or chokers, gloves, watches, other jewelry and other things that finish off the costume.  

Other elements included embellishing items like hats, boots and corsets with metal/wooden cogs, gears, watches and shapes like compasses, owls, wings, octopuses and butterflies.

If you want some inspiration just check out the links below or Google it.

Steampunk in Fiction

Like I said before, Steampunk started in fiction writing and novels and short stories set with the Steampunk genre have been rapidly growing. Most are influenced by 19th century writers like; H .G. Wells, Arthur Conan Doyle, Bram Stoker, H .P. Lovecraft and Charles Dickens. 

There is only a handful of the first official Steampunk novels dating from 1967-1995. The most know are the books which make up A Nomad of the Time Streams trilogy and the Anno Dracula series. It seems to be a small group of writers who've only had success with one or two Steampunk genre novels. 

However, in the 21st century there seems to be a boom of interested in Steampunk fiction. There are lots of new writers who seem to be writing series or a lot of one off novels. The most well known are The Parasol Protectorate series, The Clockwork Century series and The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series.  (I'll review them all eventually!) 

There is also a few anthologies, which collected the short stories of Steampunk together. The best are;  

The Mammoth Book of Steampunk, Steampunk, Steampunk! Reading one these is a great introduction to the genre. 

Lastly, there is the non-fiction books. These are really interesting because they contain a lot about the genre as a whole. These are works like the Steampunk Bible, Steampunk Style Jewelry and Steampunk: The Art of Victorian Futurism.

A list of stearmpunk books and movies can be found in the links below.

Steampunk in Movies and Games 

Most people will have come into connect with Steampunk through movies and games and not even realized it! There are lot of current and past movies and computer/console games that are either completely Steampunk or else have a lot of elements in them. Probably, the movie that is most well known  is Wild Wild West, though some people won't realize that it is in the Steampunk genre.

Other most well known films are; Treasure Planet, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Three Musketeers (2011). All these films are well known for the Steampunk elements which appear in them, though some of them are set in non-Victorian or wild west times. However, they either have a Steampunk fantasy or alternate world setting, which does still make it. 

There are a few other films out there, but let's move on to the games. I'm not really a big player of them in general, so when I saw the list I didn't really know what to pick. So, I'm going to list the two that I've sit through being played by someone else and they are Dishonored and Bioshock Infinite. I can understand why Steampunk works well in games because they are some what closer to novels then movies are.  

I think that's it for now, until I come back to review a Steampunk book! 

Images from:

http://www.iplayawriter.com/?tag=steampunk
Author's Own (2014)
http://www.addicted2heroines.com/2011/10/review-phoenix-rising-ministry-of.html
http://500px.com/photo/36402244/she's-leaving-by-michel-reichmann
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/steampunk-corset
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120891/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/12/12/bioshock-infinite-will-come-with-a-reversible-cover-community-to-vote-on-the-contents/

Additional Information and Other links:

http://www.visitlancashire.com/whats-on/steampunk-at-the-mill-weekend-p716320
https://www.facebook.com/marketatthemill
http://thetoychronicle.com/reviews/doktor-a-steampunk-market-at-the-mill/
http://www.thesteampunkempire.com/
http://www.leedssteampunkmarket.co.uk/
http://www.ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com/what-is-steampunk/
http://www.steampunk.com/what-is-steampunk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steampunk_works
http://www.steampunkemporium.com/steam.php

Coming Soon Posts!

Thought I'd just create a list of posts that I want to write up in the next few months or so. I think the idea is to keep me on track and give me more stuff to do instead of me wondering around being bored. Hopefully, though you'll find this interested and if you've got ideas about other stuff I could review then post below and I'll look into it. (Note: these are in random order.)


1. The Secret Garden - book and movie review.
2. Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - book review.
3. The Looking Glass Wars Trilogy - book review. 
4. Bioshock Infinite - games review
5. New Dungeons and Dragons encounter game. (I'm in the middle of one which I've not been writing up, but I want to do the next one.)
6. Has eduction made us hate Literature? - my opinion on this topic.
7. Adventure in the Lakes - my Easter week spent on holiday in the Lake District.
8. The Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge - book review.
9. Poetry of World War 1 - book review.
10. The publication of my collection of short short stories - announcement.
11. World Book Night 2013 - announcement and review. - I missed it...oops.....
12. The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde - book review.
13. Is there a better way to edit? - My opinion/research on this topic.
14. Bioshock 1 and 2 - games review.
15. Rapture by John Shirley - book review.
16. Cats -musical review.
17. Wicked - musical review.
18. Lover At Last (BDB 11th) by J R Ward- book review.
19. The Wizard Of Oz - book review.
20. The Tribe - TV show review.
21. The Darkest Secret by Gena Showalter -book review.
22. One Day by David Nicholls - book review.
23. Memoirs Of A Gesha by Arthur Golden - book review

*Update- the ones highlighted have now been done!

The Hunger Games Review - May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour.

 

 

I've never really written reviews before. Yeah, maybe I did a brief one or two before about a book I was reading for uni or one which I really loved. To me there always seems to be a tone of reviews out there covering the whole range, so why add one more to the list? Because for some reason whilst I was watching this movie I thought 'won't it be interesting to write a review and do it from the point of view of a writer.' I bet this film has been reviewed by film and book critics a like and that there are hundreds out there, many of which are properly really good. I've never been one for reading reviews of anything before. I think that at first I didn't have time to read or watch reviews and then it became because I didn't want to know; I wanted to watch or read in my own time and make my own judgement influenced by anyone else.

Lately, and maybe it's because of my boyfriend and the fact I suddenly have a lot of time on my hands now, I've started to become interested in book, film and comic book reviews. I've been watching a few on blip recently and maybe that has part inspired me. However, I wanted take a different point of view from the normal film and literature critic styles, not saying I've not got the intelligence to take one of those views- I've a degree in English lit and know how to de-construct a book to death- but this being a blog about becoming a writer and with myself trying to become a published author, I fancy that this view point would be more valuable.

So, here's my writer's review on The Hungry Games.

I already know this is a bit of an out dated review with The Hungry Games (HG) books and movie rush already over, but I only just got around to watching the film today. I was aware of the books before I heard about the releasing of the film, however hearing the whispers that HG was the next Twilight and the next big thing in teenage fiction put me straight off. For me, I've never actually got into teenage fiction, all of my writing is adult fiction and I've never been drawn to reading much teenage stuff. Though I was a massive fan of R. L. Stein and the Point Horror novels when younger.

With HG I refused to jump on the bandwagon like everyone else. It didn't interest me especially when I found out that the plot was similar to Japan's Battle Royal films and manga. I love both films and find them fascinated. I've read some of the manga too and actually found it a lot more in depth and graphic then the films. So, I was even more sceptic about the HG book. I couldn't see how someone could take the idea of teenagers being forced to fight to the death much better then the Japanese. (If you've not actually seen this film then do.) Now the author of HG Suzanne Collins said that she wasn't aware BR existed and her book had no ties to it. For me as a writer, I find that a bit hard to believe. Yeah, I know there's no original ideas left and that writers recycle stuff all the time, but for her not to be aware of it until it got pointed out seemed a bit off. However, there are very few similarities between HG and BR.

 

 

 

I received the first HG book as an overdue Christmas present from a friend who thought it would be the perfect thing for me. I then also learned that the movie was due to come out. Interested to see what all the fussy was about- the same thing I did with Twilight-I thought I'd give reading the book a go. I was prepared as a reader and writer for it to be terrible, for the characters to be like cardboard cut outs and all samey, for the plot to only have one focus and frankly for it to be an American rip-off of Battle Royal.

I got proven wrong. The book is written wellish and has a clear story arc. The language used is as one expects for a teenage audience, simple with a touch of adult vocabulary The pace is also fast and you can become gripped by the unfolding events. The characters appear realistic and you get time to learn the main characters backgrounds and grew sympathy for them. Truthfully, I wasn't that taken with the book, I'd properly just finished reading some complex book for uni at the time or was reading a supernatural romance novel. I don't want to say because I'm not into teenage fiction or in touch with my child self. I did however prefer it over Twilight because it was better written and the characters more engaging. I've not read the other two books though I do have them.

So, the film. For the first twenty minutes or so I sit there thinking if you've not read the books or any reviews, then you won't have a clue what's going on. The exposition at the beginning is really bad and can be a bit confusing to what has happened and what is going on. How the dystopia happens and why their society ends up as it does isn't examined fully and though the book goes a bit further into this, I still had many questions as to why we were being made to believe the stereotypical warring man has driven humanity to this. Battle Royal has a better explanation for why society has choice to go down the path of killing the next generation. In my mind and realistically thinking I can't see humanity ever choosing to go down this root. I know that reality TV is getting worse all the time and people are becoming desensitised to things, but still.

After that shaky start you get what feels like a lot of time to learn and sympathise towards the main characters Katniss and Peeta. I know that this is important to draw the audience in and get them on the characters side, but I felt that too much time was spent doing this. You also get flashbacks through the film and though these are well placed it can be difficult to understand what's happening. Rather strangely, whilst I'm writing this and I'm discussing HG with my boyfriend and we just came up with a good explain of the problems with these flashbacks. He wanted to know why the bread that Peeta gives Katniss is so important because that isn't explained at all in the movie. Having read the book it was clear in my mind! Katniss and her sister are staving and by Peeta giving her the bread she was able to survive. This allows a strong link to form between them and fits in with the whole survival theme.

 

 

I have to admit that the romance between Katniss and Peeta though it was a faked romace just for entertiment was a lot better then the romance in Twilight. However faked or not, the romanace didn't go anywhere and then once it started become the soul focus and the fighting was placed in the background. None of the other characters became romaticly involved and they were only interested in killing each other. Another difference to Battle Royal as lots of characters in that were romanticly involved and some even used it to an adventage. Also the focus is always on Katniss and you only see the other characters when she engages in them. Battle Royal shows you lots of characters and their backgrounds. As I writer I'd be keen to have explored the other tributes' backgrounds and actual give readers the choice about who to support.

For me the script did come across as an okay adaption of the book, though there clearly were some confusing parts that could have easily been explained or explained differently like the bread thing, it only took me two minutes to explain that. Also one small thing that did bug me was how Katniss got that Mockingjay pin. In the film she finds it on a stall and the old woman gives it to her, in the book it's the Mayor's daughter who gives her the pin. The pin is meant to symbol hope and be a good luck token. It also symbolises Katniss district and rebellion against the games. but this isn't really dealt with and actually slight confusing note, I'm not sure if the pin mockingjay pin does represent district 13 as no mockingjays live there and Katniss doesn't know what one is until she's told....So, I'm not sure about that point, maybe that's my mistake though....

The acting was good, but I do have to agree with a few other reviewers that Jennifer Lawrence didn't properly represent the image of Katniss that appears in the book. Yeah, I know with a fictional character finding someone to match the image of that character in the writer's head is hard! The other two books, Catching Fire and Mockingjay (which is being divided into 2 parts) are being made into movies and have predicted release dates of November 2013 and November 2014/2015. If I actually read the books and go to see them is up for some debate right now....

So, what else can be said about HG? Well, technically it is the next Twilight, only I don't think it's going to set off a whole sub-genre of teenagers fighting each other books. Similar, to Twilight though the ideas and themes behind it are good, but the way it's written effects how these ideas and themes are transferred to the reader. Thinking in terms of teenage fiction though and actually getting kids back into reading is a hard thing to do. Technology is a very hard medium to battle against and so any book that gets mass of kids and even adults to read it can only be classed as good. That's not to say it's written well though....but still any author who can achieve that has gained my respect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Images from:

http://www.elenaandreou.com/2012/03/01/the-hunger-games/

 

http://540-edalb.deviantart.com/art/Battle-Royale-Demotivational-147565910

 

http://22vels.deviantart.com/art/The-Hunger-Games-Movie-251671127

 

http://www.movie-poster-artwork-finder.com/tag/the-hunger-games-poster-artwork/

 

 

And just to remind you of the link to my boyfriend's web show.

http://blip.tv/tyas