Catching Up

Sorry about the radio silence lately - life got unexpectedly complicated after SteamCon last year, and I have not had a lot of time or energy to write lately. If you know me in so-called "real life", you've already heard the story, and if not, this isn't a place where I choose to share large chunks of it - look me up at AnomalyCon, SteamCon, or on the Steampunk Cruise and I'll tell you more...

Anyway, there are things that I had wanted to talk about on here, but of course it's now just a few weeks until the Steampunk Cruise and I'm once again madly rushing around, finishing costuming projects and postponing the really cool ones. I've got a little time, however, to put down some of my thoughts about the events I've recently attended, and I've got a few more pictures of the projects I've actually finished that I can share.

So - back in October, I made it to MileHi Con, which is the local science fiction con. There's a sizable local Steampunk contingent (thus AnomalyCon, our local Steampunk event), and a fair bit of programming aimed at the Steampunks. Cherie Priest was one of the guest authors this past year, and I really enjoyed her presentations. I also made it to an author reading by Carrie Vaughn, as well as a panel discussion that she moderated. There was also a hands-on workshop on resin casting that gave me a lot of ideas for costume elements...

Cherie Priest talked about several things - her house, her characters, Steampunk in general - but the ones that stuck out to me were the ones that dovetailed with some of my own interests within Steampunk, specifically the cultural critique that Steampunk lends itself to in talking about issues of colonization, colonialism, race relations, etc. At that point, Ms. Priest's novel "Ganymede" was the most recent one out, and I really enjoyed the cast of characters. Evidently, some people complain that certain of her characters are "too unrealistic", and that this interferes with their suspension of disbelief. Zombified corpses are okay, and turning the substance that causes zombification into a street drug is fine, but they have a problem with, for example, a strong female character that functions as a highly effective spy. Insert eye roll here.

As Ms. Priest pointed out in her presentation, that particular character (not from "Ganymede", actually - this character is one of the primaries from "Clementine") is in fact based loosely on Belle Boyd, and was toned down for the novel. It certainly says something about the way some people think that a Steampunk fantasy novel in which the Civil War drags on for an extra decade or two as steam-powered war machines slug it out is somehow made less "realistic" by a Belle Boyd character - and it's probably worth noting that, in looking up Ms. Boyd's name, I immediately ran across references to articles regarding the "embellishment" of her record. Evidently, people have the same problem with a strong female character in real life as well...

And that's pretty damn sad. Plenty of male memoirs are "embellished" - and in a lot of cases, it's still the embellishments that people remember (George Washington and the cherry tree, Paul Revere's ride, Robert E. Lee's tactical brilliance).

Cultural Appreciation, Cultural Appropriation, and Steampunk

Recommended reading (via the Silver Goggles "Read These BeforeEngaging" list):

• "Thoughts about Orientalism, Imperialism & Steampunking Asia" - Ay-Leen the Peacemaker
• "What is cultural appropriation" - Ardhra
• "An Introduction to Edward Said, Orientalism, and Postcolonial LiteraryStudies" - Amardeep                                           Singh, linked in Ardhra's article above.

"The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much." - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

This blog of mine was originally intended as a space within which I could explore the various facets of this thing called Steampunk, as I encountered and explored them. So far, I've written mostly short bits on the superficial aesthetic stuff - the clothes, the accessories, the events I've attended. The deeper stuff, however, I find more difficult to write about in the confines of a blog post, in part because of time constraints and in part because I'm used to having 20 - 40 pages (typed, double-spaced, plus bibliography and notes) to explore topics in depth.

One of my concerns when first delving into Steampunk was the perception that this was yet another racial project by mostly white people, reifying an era of the past that wasn't nearly as jolly as the people looking backwards seem to think it was. Fortunately, while there is certainly a large amount of uncritical Victoriana to be found, there is also a good bit of critical analysis going on as well. I found Jaymee Goh's Silver Goggles blog fairly early on, along with Ay-leen the Peacemaker's Beyond Victoriana. Now that I've spent some time reading and digesting, I'm feeling a little more confident in my own ability to critically examine my own hangups, blind spots, and problematic opinions.

As a white male, it would be all too easy just to go along with the whole neo-Victorian aesthetic, dress in khaki and pretend to be at least comfortably upper-class without really thinking about what I already know from my sophomore-level history survey classes - the entire Victorian system was built on the notions of colonialism and empire, and has deep roots in a systematic treatment of colonies (and the colonized people) as raw material for the industrialization that is almost fetishised within Steampunk. Problem is, I'm one of those who has trouble just turning off the frontal lobes and enjoying things mindlessly (unless I'm whacked out on cold medication). I resent the anti-intellectualism that got me labeled a "nerd" back when the term was still one of approbation rather than celebration. I believe, along with Socrates, that “The Unexamined Life is Not Worth Living.”

And so, with all this in mind, I'm trying to be very careful about my upcoming trip to SteamCon in Seattle. See, they have an event known as the Wayfarer's Brunch which is promoted as an opportunity for people to break out of a purely Western perspective on Steampunk, and celebrate "wonderfully colorful and diverse cultures" by donning "non-British steampunk ensembles" while having Sunday brunch. “How is this problematic?”, you may be asking yourself. After all, isn't this exactly the sort of thing I should be happy about, that there is recognition of a world beyond the borders of Great Britain, and even Europe as a whole within the alt-historical if not outright fantastical world of Steampunk?

More on that in a bit...