Gearing Up

I recently saw the new Get Smart movie. On its own, it was amusing, but more than that it made me a bit nostalgic for the original TV show. Watching Max answer his shoe phone, I began thinking about how the ridiculous technology of the spy genre seems like a natural progression from the dieselpunk era.

I mentioned this to my friend Xandra and she suggested we call it spypunk.

So how would I define this theoretical spypunk genre? It shares the penchant for gadgetry that the other punks show, in this case focusing on small gadgets that mimic harmless items. Rather than dieselpunk’s usual Nazi enemies, the Cold War is all the rage, and thus there is some obvious overlap with what has been named atomicpunk.

The key difference, in my mind, is that spypunk focuses on the efforts of individuals, almost like a throwback to the Victorian era’s detectives and gentlemen adventurers. Both era’s heroes work on their own, but often in concert with a greater organization and have a patriotism that is often lacking in dieselpunk outside of the narrow WWII window.

As examples of the genre, I would cite the aforementioned Get Smart, the ubiquitous James Bond in virtually all of his iterations, and the classic Avengers series out of Britain. Austin Powers might also fit snugly in this genre. What do you think?

How long have you been making jewelry, and how did you start?

I began making basic jewelry as a teenager- dabbling in stringing and hemp weaving through high school. Through most of college, my focus moved away from jewelry making in my spare time. As a senior in college, I began making jewelry again, this time, multi-strand necklaces. I planned out the materials and created pieces inspired by various tales, from Hans Christian Andersen and The Brother’s Grimm. I posted them for sale on a forum I am a part of, and from there I discovered Etsy.com
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Since I really enjoyed doing my last interview, I asked my friend to recommend more talented crafters. I was impressed by TotusMel’s unique offerings on Etsy and approached her for an interview.

Tatting lace is not a craft I’ve seen much lately. How did you become interested in it?

I’ve been an avid knitter and crocheter since childhood, but I eventually bored of making scarves and blankets and I didn’t have time to do more elaborate projects with a toddler running about. I thought I would look for something new to try and discovered tatting. I first attempted shuttle tatting and after many a failed attempt I ran to the internet for help. I found needle tatting, taught myself in an evening and I was hooked.
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In the early part of the 20th century, many people in both Europe and America became quite fascinated with the Mysterious East. While treatment of those actually from the mysterious east was rather wretched, the both easterners and westerners were happy to borrow superficial details from each other’s culture, and this is well-reflected in late Victorian and Edwardian fashion. Whether you’re actually Asian and want to dress the part or you want to play a proto-otaku, there’s plenty of historical precedent for mixing up western and eastern dress.

The West’s fascination with Asian style is usually traced to the 1909 debut of the Ballets Russes in Paris. From this inspiration, many of the major French designers began incorporating Asian elements into their designs.
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I recently wrote to steampunk artisan and good friend Alexandra Sforza of Heterodyne Designs and the White Peacock Trading Company, asking if she would indulge me in a brief interview for my site. She was happy to oblige.

What got you interested in steampunk as a whole?

I grew up around Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and loved movies like Journey to the Center of the Earth, Indiana Jones and Allan Quartermain. I was reading Jules Verne in third grade, and taking apart stuff around the house a year later, so it’s really been a life-long thing. I’ve been collecting skeleton keys since I can remember, and it’s one of those things that just, BAM, hit me one day- I think likely my first issue of Girl Genius is what pushed me over the edge, and here I am, years later, enjoying the madness!
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Some people have complained that the motorcycle styling in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull was incorrect, though it was built for the film. Personally, I think it’s just evidence that Indiana Jones takes place in an alternate universe with advanced motorcycle technology.

The original three Indiana Jones films are some of the finest pieces of dieselpunk out there, even if they were made well before the term was coined. They are absolute love letters to the pulp adventures of the 30s, well-made and exciting, with a great mix of real archaeology, myth, and technology.

Varying critical opinions on the new Indy film notwithstanding, (hey, I loved it) it does raise an interesting question. Considerable time has passed since the first three films, and not just for those of us watching the movies — Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is set in 1957, a pretty late date for dieselpunk.

It is an unfortunate fact of time that it passes, and since we’re dealing with genres that are rooted in specific times (even if they don’t necessarily take place in those times) we must take into account the passage of time. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen eventually ran into this problem in The Black Dossier: given a long enough story, you will run out of Victorian era to adventure in. But does this make The Black Dossier dieselpunk?

How much does any -punk genre depend strictly on the calendar, and how much on the feel of the piece? Crystal Skull still has all the pulp feel of the first three Indy movies, despite the overhanging threat of atomic war, and the Communists as villains still feel very much like the Nazis in the first three films. I would say that all four Indiana Jones films fit firmly in the dieselpunk genre because of their feel. Indy’s can-do spirit and the sense that an adventure is always a good idea still pervade the film, and I think that says more about a genre than a date does.

The Book of Imaginary Beasts, a bimonthly literary magazine on LiveJournal, recently published its steampunk issue. I recommend fans of steampunk fiction go check it out.