Author Topic: That really cool thing you love fetishizing is mainstream now, and sucks. (Read 16870 times)

Heradel · **on:** May 08, 2008, 01:05:06 AM

It's depressing when steampunk makes the front page of the NYT's website.

birdless · **Reply #1 on:** May 08, 2008, 01:58:45 AM

punk evolved into goth evolved into steampunk?

Heradel · **Reply #2 on:** May 08, 2008, 02:02:51 AM

I know. I mean, I guess I can see punk in steampunk (oh visual puns), but it's never struck me as at all gothic.

Windup · **Reply #3 on:** May 08, 2008, 02:32:55 AM

Quote from: Heradel on May 08, 2008, 01:05:06 AM

It's depressing when steampunk makes the front page of the NYT's website.

I hate to be stupid about this, but why?

Fundamentally, "going mainstream" is an indicator that more people are enjoying the same thing you're enjoying. That's a bad thing?

Is it that you think the "new people" won't do it "right?" That seems odd, since steampunk seems to be pretty flexible. Or is it that you'll have to go someplace else to get the same feeling of "clubiness" or "insiderness" or whatever? J

ust a couple of guesses on my part -- what's the real reason?

Just curious...

Heradel · **Reply #4 on:** May 08, 2008, 04:17:27 AM

It's probably a bit of an I-like-small-playgrounds reaction, and a worry over the fact that if it gets bit it'll be consumed by the mass market and lose the soul it has.

I don't begrudge things getting big, but I do worry that getting big will kill them/make them bland.

Windup · **Reply #5 on:** May 08, 2008, 04:25:54 AM

Quote from: Heradel on May 08, 2008, 04:17:27 AM

It's probably a bit of an I-like-small-playgrounds reaction, and a worry over the fact that if it gets bit it'll be consumed by the mass market and lose the soul it has.

I don't begrudge things getting big, but I do worry that getting big will kill them/make them bland.

I can see that. Fortunately (or not) steampunk seems like so much work as an aesthetic that I think it will have some self-limiting aspects. There's a reason people quit fiddling with elaborate gowns and lovingly-detailed brasswork the first time around -- to be produced in any quantity, labor has to be cheap enough to burn.

wintermute · **Reply #6 on:** May 08, 2008, 10:54:26 AM

Quote from: Heradel on May 08, 2008, 01:05:06 AM

It's depressing when steampunk makes the front page of the NYT's website.

No, it's great when everyone else realises that that thing you like really is great, and now it's far more easily available. How could it possibly be otherwise?

wintermute · **Reply #7 on:** May 08, 2008, 11:02:02 AM

OK, I forgot Wild, Wild West. That was clearly not great.

birdless · **Reply #8 on:** May 08, 2008, 02:41:43 PM

This link from the NYT article has some very cool mods for computers, as well as some other interesting articles (one guy actually modded his PC so that his CPU is liquid cooled rather than fan cooled!).

wintermute · **Reply #9 on:** May 08, 2008, 03:15:36 PM

Quote from: birdless on May 08, 2008, 02:41:43 PM

one guy actually modded his PC so that his CPU is liquid cooled rather than fan cooled!

More than one guy. There are plenty of performance-hungry gamers who run the highest-spec processors they can find, and then overclock them to the point that water-cooling is essential. There's quite an industry in water-cooling computers out there. Of course, if you really want to impress your friends, you need to use an active heat pump, such as a Peltier.

birdless · **Reply #10 on:** May 08, 2008, 09:24:41 PM

Quote from: wintermute on May 08, 2008, 03:15:36 PM

Quote from: birdless on May 08, 2008, 02:41:43 PM
one guy actually modded his PC so that his CPU is liquid cooled rather than fan cooled!

More than one guy. There are plenty of performance-hungry gamers who run the highest-spec processors they can find, and then overclock them to the point that water-cooling is essential. There's quite an industry in water-cooling computers out there. Of course, if you really want to impress your friends, you need to use an active heat pump, such as a Peltier.

Wow. If only I had the money and time to commit to that! It's probably best that I don't.

Tango Alpha Delta · **Reply #11 on:** May 09, 2008, 01:59:22 AM

Quote from: wintermute on May 08, 2008, 11:02:02 AM

OK, I forgot Wild, Wild West. That was clearly not great.

...and that was *before* it became "big"...

Two things happen when your favorite thing becomes popular: the crap-to-quality ratio skews toward crap, and everyone who finds out you like that "thing" assumes you like that crap. Take jazz; who were the best jazz musicians? The guys who got together and played all the time for fun and beer. Who were the best *selling* jazz musicians? Guys like Kenny G.

It's like spaghetti sauce, fruit juice, and every other good product that Proctor-Coca-Kraft-General-Agri-Frickin-Corporate-Death, Inc. buys and screws up. When you mass produce something, instead of using whatever labor-of-love process used to go into it, it starts to suck.

wintermute · **Reply #12 on:** May 09, 2008, 02:05:36 AM

Quote from: Tango Alpha Delta on May 09, 2008, 01:59:22 AM

Two things happen when your favorite thing becomes popular: the crap-to-quality ratio skews toward crap, and everyone who finds out you like that "thing" assumes you like that crap. Take jazz; who were the best jazz musicians? The guys who got together and played all the time for fun and beer. Who were the best *selling* jazz musicians? Guys like Kenny G.

But the total quantity of the good stuff also increases dramatically. That is something that often get overlooked by people who point out that the quantity of crap increases even faster.

Heradel · **Reply #13 on:** May 09, 2008, 02:40:45 AM

Yes, but I'm a fan of the BBC system of a 6-13 episode season that's really good rather than a 30 episode season that's uneven good to poor. Yes, there will be more. Yes, it'll be easier to get some steampunk swag, but it'll also become less of a statement of individuality. Steampunk in the real world is cool because for the most part it's DIY — look at the stuff at the Maker Faire. Losing that DIY aspect means that you've lost part of the soul of the movement.

DKT · **Reply #14 on:** May 09, 2008, 08:21:56 PM

Cool that Abney Park was in there, too. Curious, has anyone heard the James Gang's music?

Actually, my reaction to this is kind of pleasantly surprised. If I tell someone at work I wrote a steampunk-type story now, maybe I won't get so many blank stares.

And it would be cool if I could find some goggles and a steampunk costume for not too much money..

OTOH, it sucks that they're calling out League of Extraordinary Gentleman -- the movie -- as steampunk, instead of the comic.

Heradel · **Reply #15 on:** May 09, 2008, 08:55:43 PM

They sell the Harry Potter googles for pretty cheap, and those look somewhat steampunky.

Edit: Link EPized

stePH · **Reply #16 on:** May 09, 2008, 09:13:31 PM

Quote from: DKT on May 09, 2008, 08:21:56 PM

Cool that Abney Park was in there, too. Curious, has anyone heard the James Gang's music?

There was a rock band in the 1970s called The James Gang.

oddpod · **Reply #17 on:** May 13, 2008, 07:38:34 AM

steampunk is on somthing of a upsurge at the moment. i think is a bitr of a reacton to the bland 21st century astetic, espeshaly in relaton to teknolajy and the like.
i for one own far too many naff plasic boxes whith butons on. steampunk alows you to keeap the cool gadgets but dumps the boring over conseptualised design ethink ethrithing seams to have at the moment

Tango Alpha Delta · **Reply #18 on:** May 15, 2008, 11:54:08 AM

Quote from: oddpod on May 13, 2008, 07:38:34 AM

steampunk is on somthing of a upsurge at the moment. i think is a bitr of a reacton to the bland 21st century astetic, espeshaly in relaton to teknolajy and the like.
i for one own far too many naff plasic boxes whith butons on. steampunk alows you to keeap the cool gadgets but dumps the boring over conseptualised design ethink ethrithing seams to have at the moment

You may be onto something there... there's a certain baroque quality and craftsmanship in the Victorian style iron- and wood-work, and there's no pressure to keep your stuff "clean and shiny" - it ages well. And there's something elegant about stuff made from "natural" materials... like a wooden laptop?