fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3371 ]

[ SECRET POST #3371 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3371 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 059 secrets from Secret Submission Post #482.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

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06. http://i65.tinypic.com/28s7cxu.jpg

In theory, I love steampunk, in part because I grew up with the Sherlock Holmes stories so the whole Victorian setting has a lot of nostalgia value for me and seeing it combined with fantasy/sci-fi in steampunk should be right up my street. In practice, though ... not so much. Sometimes, a couple of gems, but mostly what people do with the genre doesn't seem to go anywhere. Clumsy-classism-plus-robots just doesn't draw me much anymore, and while I still love the aesthetic I wish steampunk art didn't mostly consist of half naked people in goggles and corsets. I mean, a bit of variety, please.

But, why? I mean, if you do not have to be in contact with it at all.?

You are not alone. I hate steampunk. I detest steampunk so completely and utterly. Cannot put into words why.

Because it's fandom herpies. "Ohhh, just throw some gears on your green corset. Now you're steampunk Poison Ivy!"

Re: Not OP

(Anonymous) - 2016-03-27 21:13 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Not OP

(Anonymous) - 2016-03-27 23:01 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Not OP

feotakahari - 2016-03-27 22:43 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Not OP

(Anonymous) - 2016-03-28 00:06 (UTC) - Expand

I don't hate it but I'm not a fan of the setting, I do like the clothes though.

It's overdone and repetitive. And while the aesthetic can be cool, I'm tired of England being the only culture to get the steampunk treatment.

If you're interested, there was recently published a book called "The SEA is Ours: Tales of Steampunk in Southeast Asia", all written by Southeast Asian writers. So that's a different culture steampunked.

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iceyred - 2016-03-27 21:18 (UTC) - Expand

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ketita - 2016-03-27 21:45 (UTC) - Expand

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diet_poison - 2016-03-27 23:22 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2016-03-28 00:11 (UTC) - Expand

Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear is a Steampunk novel set in the American West.

And Steam-Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories edited by JoSelle Vanderhooft includes stories set in India, Egypt, the United States, etc.

(no subject)

iceyred - 2016-03-27 22:56 (UTC) - Expand

Try Devon Monk's weird westerns. They're awesome. The first one is "Dead Iron."

Steampunk could be so great, but it often fails badly because it's a combination of sci-fi, period fiction, and fantasy. Not many authors do all three well, and you have to do all three well for the story to feel authentic and well thought-out instead of a bunch of things tossed together because the author thought they were cool. When one of the three is noticeably worse than the others or all three are only passable, the story starts to flag.

Lots of mash-up genres like steampunk suffer from the same problem. For example, historic or period fiction which is also romance tends to drop one side to focus on the other. Sci-fi action/adventure tends to drop the sci and just have monster alien guts everywhere.

Nope, not alone . . . we have a dinky little con around here and about half the shit being presented was steampunk, it pissed me off so much. There are other far more interesting scifi genres out there.

I like the idea of it, but it often falls short in reality. Also, it tends to be the same thing over & over. I got kinda bored kinda quickly.

I do love the crafts, clothes, inventions that people make though - like making a laptop look like it's from the 1850s or something. That's cool.

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(Anonymous) - 2016-03-27 22:03 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2016-03-27 23:11 (UTC) - Expand

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(Anonymous) - 2016-03-28 00:13 (UTC) - Expand

I love the idea of steampunk (and dieselpunk), but I have to admit, I've been more disappointed than not at the execution. The author is too into the worldbuilding to worry about engaging characters, or plots that make sense, or they don't think things through (read a novel once where a guy touched something charged with electricity with a piece of metal...and didn't get shocked? I realize there are non conductive metals out there, but it seems the kind of thing that needs at least a half sentence). To do steampunk right, you really need to be a student of the history of science, I think. And most authors are of the 'garters, goggles, and kick ass heroines with derringers' vein.

I too hate steampunk

Same. I really really dislike steampunk. It depresses me. I want shiny modern/futuristic tech.

But then I generally dislike things that looks primitive/take place in the past in some way. It makes me think of all the things that could kill you back then, how people were horribly chauvinistic, racist, etc.

I never understood nostalgia either :(

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2016-03-28 01:06 (UTC) - Expand

I want to love steampunk and I love many of the elements that go into it, but when it comes to actually reading it... meh every time. I just can't warm to it for some reason. :(

Is it all steampunk or just the boring Victorian bullshit everyone pretends at while never having read The Difference Engine?

'Cuz I'm all about the medieval fantasy steampunk. Makes both concepts more interesting.

Like if it was the theme of one sci-fi story I'd like it. But the fact that it became a genre of it's own to me is weird. So much of it is a copycat. And a lot of it seems like all flash no substance.

I hate it too. I'm not even sure why.

Charles Stross loathes it too.

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/10/the-hard-edge-of-empire.html

I don't hate it, but I always find it extremely boring.

I'm not opposed to it but I find it overdone.

Why do people act like it has to be in the Victorian era, anyway? Steam power was invented around 100 BCE. Where are my Roman legions roaring into battle in steam powered tanks?

I don't have a problem with it. It's kind of neat. The community seems sort of try-hard though

I'm with you. Steampunk? No thanks, automatically noping out like that octopus gif. The only series where I found it somewhat tolerable is the Dracula one, which has apparently been cancelled because the lead actor cannot stop drinking.

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