Is Steampunk Dead?

Victorian costumes, airships, steam engines, bizarre old yet modern weapons, fueled by a little magic or Æther... The awesome Steampunk subculture has been a part of my life since I played my first Myst game on PC and I watched The City of Lost Children wide eyed.

Steampunk movies like Sleepy Hollow, City of Lost Children, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Army of Darkness (although more Dieselpunk) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen have always been some of my favorite movies. I am a member of steampunk groups on SecondLife, I read steampunk books, watch steampunk anime (Steamboy), play steampunk games (Myst / Riven, Thief, Final Fantasy) and now recently I have started making my own weapons, jewelry and costumes (for Halloween this year), (yes, I am a nerd).

The Rumors

Something has been worrying me. I hear rumors that Steampunk is dead. Internet forums, blogs like Gizmodo and other naysayers are announcing the death of steampunk. Their reasons... you can only make so many modified weapons, tea kettles, and "steampunkified" normal everyday gadgets for one lifetime.

But, gadgets are only a small part of the sub-culture. Alternate history, costumes, games, fiction books and writing, and Internet steampunk culture (like groups on SecondLife, blogs, and forums) continue to thrive and inspire new creative works. The most recent being a new book by George Mann called The Affinity Bridge (thanks to my friend Sara for the heads up) which was just released last month (July 9th, 2009).



The Evidence

There are also a few new steampunk style movies that have been released recently. Most notable are the 2007 adaptation of Neil Gaiman's book Stardust, The Golden Compass, the adaptation of Jeanne DuPrau's teen books City of Ember and most recently Focus Feature's "9" in which a group of sapient rag dolls, living a post-apocalyptic existence find one of their own, 9 (Elijah Wood), who displays leadership qualities that may help them to survive.

The uberpopular handmade craft selling site Etsy is also full of steampunk art, jewelry and creations that are very popular and sell on a regular basis. I also see steampunk art seeping into mixed media conventional art pieces, photography and mainstream jewelry.

So to all of you naysayers (I just like that word), I say Nay! Don your goggles, fire up the airship! Steampunk is not dead!

Disagree? Leave me a comment...

New Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol is found!

The Horse has been following rumors of the new Dan Brown book since The Da Vinci Code came out in 2003. Back then, Dan Brown said that he had started working on a new book about Masonic Symbology and Washington DC. So, the official word is finally out, and the word(s) is The Lost Symbol. The date is September 15th and you can preorder from Amazon here at about a 50% discount!:

What is the book going to be about?
According to early rumors from Brown's website, the new book (now The Lost Symbol) will be about Freemasonry and the way it influenced the founding fathers, the Revolutionary War and the founding and layout of Washington DC.

There was also an alleged plot leak that has been confirmed by Doubleday Publishing. The plot leak concerns George Washington and the secret reason for the American reverses (?) early in the Revolutionary War. Also a scholar discovers a secret in Washington's tomb and is murdered by the CIA.

"Brown's promotional website states that puzzles hidden in the book jacket of The Da Vinci Code, including two references to the Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia, give hints about the novel's story. This repeats a theme from some of Brown's earlier work. For example, a puzzle at the end of the book Deception Point decrypts to the message, "The Da Vinci Code will surface."
(from Wikipedia)

One other evidence is some of the books that were published a few years ago that hinted at possible plot lines that Brown might use for The Lost Symbol. One of the better books that I read during this time that I definatly recommend, was David A. Shugarts' Secrets of the Widow's Son. This book goes into the complex layout and symbology of Washington DC and details the early American Freemason practices from founding father's like George Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

Leave me a comment here if you hear any more plot leaks or rumors about The Lost Symbol and give us a quick review of your thoughts on the book after you read it. (If you can read it quicker than I will be reading it!)

Best Book to Movie Adaptations

Valerie Thomas: I guess we thought that maybe Susan Orlean and Leroche could fall in love, and...

Charlie Kaufman: Okay. But, I'm saying, it's like, I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases, you know... or characters, you know, learning profound life lessons or growing or coming to like each other or overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end, you know.
I mean... The book isn't like that, and life isn't like that. You know, it just isn't. And... I feel very strongly about this.
~ (from the 2002 film Adaptation staring Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep)

I love this quote from Adaptation because it embodies the struggle that screenwriters go through in adapting a book to a film. I've attempted an adaptation before and it was alot harder than I thought it would be. You can't just pull chapters verbatim from the book and set them in scenes. So much more goes into an adaptation, like:

• the emotion that the character will convey
• establishing the background for a character
  
• conversion into a classic three act type structure
• making the screenplay dummy proof (suitable for the common man) with appropriate exposition and establishing scenes without spelling everything out and ruining the mystery or storyline.
• worrying about writing "Spec" (technically correct and easily sellable to Hollywood) so you won't be made fun of or rejected outright.
  
• worrying about how close you should stick to the classic three act story structure and Campbellian Monomyth

There are definitely more issues that screenwriters have to deal with but those would be beyond the scope of this blog. (Hopefully I haven't lost most of you by now ;-).

To move on, I've been reading adaptations for a long time and they are some of my favorite types of books. I just love comparing the differences in the film and the book and then finding the hidden story lines and subplots that didn't make it into the film adaptation. So, as promised, here are some of my favorite adaptations:

• Jurassic Park- by Michael Crichton
• The Da Vinci Code - by Dan Brown
• The Lord of the Rings - by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Forrest Gump - by Winston Groom
• Dreamcatcher - by Steven King
• Fight Club - by Chuck Palahniuk
• The Shawshank Redemption- by Steven King
• The Club Dumas (The Ninth Gate) - by Arutro Perez-Reverte
• Harry Potter series - by J.K. Rawling
• The Chronicles of Narnia; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - by C.S. Lewis
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?(Blade Runner) - by Philip K. Dick
• Johnny Mnemonic (a short story from the book Burning Chrome) - by William Gibson

Next time you go watch a new movie, check and see if its an adaptation then pick up the book. Result=increased enjoyment!

(photo by Andrei Z from Flickr)

Josh Self is the writer and editor for The Horse, The Wedding PhotogBlog, Storycrafter, and a writer for The Terminal, Birmingham's most popular hyper-local blog. He always watches the movie first and then reads the book...

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