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We're still relative noobs to the genre but steampunk has been very popular in our house this past year. Together we've devoured Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy as well as Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan and Behemoth books and then separately the boys received and are working through Steampunk Gear, Gadgets, and Gizmos: A Maker's Guide to Creating Modern Artifacts and Steampunk! An Anthology of Fantastically Rich and Strange Stories. The next logical step in our subcultural journey seemed to be a live event--which was how my older son and I found ourselves two weeks ago in Piscataway, New Jersey at the "greatest steampunk festival in the world," The Steampunk World's Fair.
Jeff Mach, the Fair's organizer, explains on his website that "Steampunk is the friendliest subculture" and that "all are invited to participate and exercise their imaginations" at his Fair. And so it was. It might seem an odd thing to remark upon but as the day progressed, I became increasingly thankful for this friendly ethos. With over 4,000 people ultimately attending at least one of the Fair's three days, it would not have been surprising to encounter the occasional abrupt or displeased participant--but everywhere I went, people held open doors, waited patiently, and joked good-naturedly. As relative outsiders, my son and I soon felt comfortable striking up conversations with strangers--no small thing when you hail from New York!
As soon as we arrived at the Fair we were ensconced in a crowd of bustled, corseted women and vested men in short coats and top hats. As we made our way through the shared parking lots of the Radisson and Embassy Suites Hotels, different costuming themes immediately emerged: Some fair-goers paid homage to burlesque with bustiers and garters, some favored classical Dickensian clothing, and still others sported explorer/aviator apparel, air tanks, and goggles. (Mom moment: While some of the costuming had one lace-up boot firmly planted in the risque, none of the costumes I saw were any more revealing than what I see any day at the beach, so while I imagine the day proved *thought-provoking *for my teenager, I would still call this event youth-friendly.)
As it turns out, however, Steampunk isn't just about costuming and appearances--there is a very strong "maker" ethos infused in the subculture, too. As my son and I walked through the hallways of the hotels, we realized that most of the ground floor bedrooms also doubled as daytime shopfronts, with the result that as one strolled through the buildings, one was constantly being invited into intriguing-looking bedrooms to speak with friendly craftspeople and admire their offerings. One of my favorite "shops" belonged to Drea Davenport, a metalsmith and jewelry-maker who creates cuff-links, brooches, and necklaces from found keys and gears, as well as "three-stitch rings" rendered in the shape of a loosely-strung corset and fitted with semi-precious stones. My 16-year-old son, on the other hand, was fascinated with a captain's telescope and sextant in one shop, and then with a fully-functioning manual typewriter in another...
After we'd had our fill of shopping, we decided to take advantage of the wonderfully-diverse panels and speakers that were also part of the Fair. My first panel was an informal gathering in a tiny room early in the afternoon--perhaps a dozen costumed participants sitting informally, chatting about the history of anarchy, pirates, and the Occupy Wall Street movement. Later, I met some of the speakers again at the Combustion Books table and realized for the first time that there is a political, deeply-idealistic search for utopia embedded into steampunk, as well.
My favorite Fair panel, however, was given by Michelle Roberts--who gave an excellent talk on "Steampunk in Comics" that ultimately sent me online in search of some of her suggestions, including:
- The New Deadwardians - In this murder-mystery a devastating virus emerges. Many of the well-to-do opt for an expensive vaccine--however, one of the side-effects of the antidote is that it turns recipients into lust-less vampires. Meanwhile, the poor and infected become zombies and the diminished, haggard middle-class between them struggles to hang on. Add to this the fact that now one of the unkillable undead has been murdered...
- Joe Golem and the Drowning City - Here, Manhattan and Brooklyn are flooded and the resilient must survive above the waterline. Our protagonist--a young woman--seeks her kidnapped guardian and ultimately partners with a supernatural pair--one "more machine than man," the other "literally made from stone and earth" to find him.
- Runaways - Blah blah blah JOSS WHEDON blah blah blah.
- From Hell - See comment above. Insert Alan Moore. Additionally, Ms. Roberts claimed that she hides these comics from her children because they are too scary--innnnntereeesstinggg...
- Five Fists of Science - In this graphic novel, Nikolas Tesla, Bertha Von Suttner, and Mark Twain team up to bring about world peace. From what I gathered, this apparently results in lots of stuff exploding.
- Moriarty: The Dark Chamber - This last was a Kickstarter-funded graphic novel that fleshes out Sherlock Holmes' infamous antagonist and apparently provides him with moments of empathy and nuance. Since there is nothing more intriguing than a flawed anti-hero, I had to add this to my must-find-and-read list...
Toward the end of the afternoon I also had the pleasure of chatting with Jean-Christophe Valtat, the French author of the steampunk novel Aurorarama and creator of one of the most thoroughly-conceived alternative universes I've ever encountered. Set in an arctic, Weimar-esque New Venice on the brink of revolution and filled with almost too-many intriguing characters (including a charismatic, debauched literature professor; a pop-singer turned militant feminist; a mangled ordinance specialist; a troupe of undead, arctic pirates; a team of dirigible-riding anarchists; and a pair of conjoined, fraternal royal twins [with what seem to be healthy sexual appetites]), the novel progresses in a dream-hazed arc toward the successful revolutionary war that is the book's climax.
Valtat (a literature professor himself), explained to me that the origins of this novel--the first in a projected trilogy--actually emerged over 20 years ago from letters and conversations with a friend, and that he intentionally wrote the novel in English because he believed it to be "the language of imagination." (Intrigued? The first 34 pages of the book are available for download here.)
After this, my son and I decided it was time to head home. We plan on heading back to next year's Steampunk World's Fair, however--and maybe this time we'll spring for the hotel and stay overnight so that we can take advantage of a list of offerings that seemed to extend late into the evening...
