I was attempting to find “aberrant nature” in the ROM today and thinking about the evolution of classification, as systems we seek to produce of the natural world and also to define both our social confines and limitlessness.

The Victorians, I would argue, did function in less a rickety machine than one might imagine; it was a period of “high colonization” that refined and sparked the activities of current day imperialism. Their “demonstrativeness” was quite apparent in the hand they stretched out over foreign waters, both assured and vigorous.

If we think of actions as defining or leading to the divination of thought, there is a body of evidence which suggests that they were indeed expressive…at least in one major intention they shared as a populous…the reification of their place (an assumed “natural” social, economic and political order) in the world. A world in which they saw themselves in a position of mastery over all things. Does a master feel inclined to display acts of revelry or anger, or haste?

The emergence of “punk” in any form to me shows a slippage from that position…an uncertainty in the machinery of the world, no matter how beautifully its mechanism works.

It is exciting to see the new avenues you are exploring with your work. My voice, merely an outsider’s passing comments on a thing not truly understood, but with interest just the same.

Warmest Regards,

Shaista

In recent years, steampunk has evolved from subgenre to subculture. It’s been very odd to watch, especially for those of us who were bandying the word around 20 years ago.

Steampunk: A subculture that blends elements of Victorian-era design and technology with elements of science fiction and fantasy; Jules Verne and William Gibson. The movement was born sometime in the late 1980s and named by science fiction author K.W J…

I don’t think I’ve ever left a comment on your blog before, though I love to read it, so just to say thanks for all the hours of pleasure I’ve had from it til now. Always intelligent, interesting, well-written, insightful and thought-provoking, thank you.

Steampunk is a long-running meme on Boing Boing dot Net… which I gather (from all the “I got mentioned on Boing Boing today and I got a billion hits on my website” posts I see around) can create a cultural force in its own right. A year or so ago lolcats were all the rage there, and that one seems to still be in the thicker end of the long tail, so to speak.

Boing Boing tends to take pet subjects (unicorns, steampunk, various writers, musicians, authors) and bang at them hard. The steampunk thread has been exceptionally cool for showcasing the creativity, inventiveness and sheer beautiful craftsmanship of a bunch of people around the world though. Well worth checking out. If you type “steampunk” in the search on the site you’re sure of some quality viewing time.

Example: http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/18/howto-make-a-steampu-2.html

=) Marc

The authors and creators of this very wide-ranging genre has done a great job of creating Deeply Immersive Narrative Universes that have allowed fans to make their own creations and develop the concept beyond the written word or even moving image.

But…no “hippie punks”? Even that very phrase gives 7400 search hits…

On the “punk” note, by amazing coincidence (or not–maybe it’s synchronicity), I recently finished Brad Warner’s Sit Down and Shut Up, which is sort of a handbook on zen for those of us who nod off reading the “real” stuff. Warner was a musician in the hardcore punk scene in Akron back in the day, and a sort-of practitioner of straight-edge, the self-disciplined offshoot of punks (no drinking, drugs, smoking or sex, although he admits that last was not of his own volition.) He found a buddhist teacher and started on the path, ultimately becoming a zen monk.

He talks about the similarities between the (true) punk ethos and buddhism. Aside from the self-discipline involved with both, there’s also a big DIY factor, buddhism being more about the doing than the studying or consuming.