Powerpoints For Lx2009 Paper

Mutation and Innovation: excess in Steampunk fiction and the presence of the Gothic

Venetta Uye Manchester Metropolitan University

‘By retrofitting contemporary technologies or imagining new ones built with 19th century components, Steampunk fiction and practice refuses a purely passive acceptance of new technologies and mechanisation’

The Mysterious Geographic Adventures of Jasper Morello (2005). Dir.

‘Alongside the machinery of Steampunk is usually expected the depiction of a particular historical and geographical location. More often than not this is England – or more specifically London – in the 19th Century’

Steamboy (2004). Dir. Katsuhiro Otomo

torical/geographical locale is central to or implicit in numerous Steampu

A Gentleman’s Duel (2006). Dirs. McNally & Velasco

‘Examples of texts that trouble the waters of an easy, trope orientated, definition of Steampunk’

‘Casshern is a Japanese live action anime shot entirely on a digital backlot’

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

‘With the introduction of the mysterious saviour figure Casshern…

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

…we might easily find nothing notable in terms of Steampunk at all, disregarding it as a SF/superhero flick’

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

‘However, the visual look and feel of the film’s mechanical technologies point resolutely backwards, retaining a flavour of Victoriana if not quite a fidelity to the actual historical period’

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

‘Casshern’s represented technology is not merely functional, it is ornate and overt…

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

nd the visually presented retro technologies – be they airships and dirigi

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

… or clock work automata are tied into the narrative’s portrayal of entropy and pre-apocalyptic despair’

Casshern (2004). Dir. Kazuaki Kiriya

‘Similarly, in Bioshock, it is the temporal location of the game’s narrative that seems to be the sticking point for an unqualified Steampunk status, coupled with an advanced genetic or biotechnology’

Bioshock (2007). 2k Games

‘The player character discovers a world ravaged by civil war and haunted by the gore-hungry Splicers, victims and addicts of Rapture’s discovery of genetic and body modification’

Bioshock (2007). 2k Games

‘In order to hack machines in Bioshock, you are not required to reprogramme it or access its electronics…

Bioshock (2007). 2k Games

‘Instead you must redirect the flow of liquid running through glass and brass tubing. The entire infrastructure of Rapture is a network of machines that run on something very akin to if not identical to steampower’

Bioshock (2007). 2k Games

‘Perhaps the most audacious example of excess in Steampunk is apparent in Joe R Lansdale’s “The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down: A Dime Novel”’

Image from: www.bigredhair.com/steamman/index.html

‘…the SF history of Steampunk has an Other. It has a presence that is at times more overt and at others more clandestine but which I would argue is always present. This is the haunting presence of the Gothic’

The City of Lost Children (1995). Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro

‘Tinkerers, makers and costumers working within Steampunk subculture can be visually suggestive of not only of the real world and fictional Teslas and Edisons…

…but also of the Victor Frankenstein’s and Dr Jekylls of classic and derivative Gothic texts’

‘Within narrative Steampunk, the somewhat sinister motif of the morally transgressive scientist or inventor figure is also rampant’

The City of Lost Children (1995). Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro

‘Within narrative Steampunk, the somewhat sinister motif of the morally transgressive scientist or inventor figure is also rampant’

Steamboy (2004). Dir. Katsuhiro Otoma

‘It is in figures like the ‘Manimatron’ that horror can be seen to function in Steampunk and that Steampunk might be considered a continuation of Gothic concerns’

Steampunk: Manimatron (2001). Joe Kelly and Chris Bachalo