Liminal Librarian

*extremely debatable depending on which punk you ask.

**objectively debatable depending on the game and system

Way back in November 2013 I made a post about the aestheticization of the subculture that STILL stands:

Steampunk: VICTORIAN LONDON VICTORIAN LONDON TOP HATS CORSETS ARISTOCRACY GLORIOUS BRITISH EMPIRE AIRSHIP PIRATES RAY GUNS APOCALYPSE APOCALYPSE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE!

Me: …Industrialization, colonialism, imperialism, exploitation of the working class and oppression of POC culminating in violent socialist revolution because fuck yeah the working class and don’t you dare forget it?

Steampunk: ::crickets::

[Steampunk]:  THE GREAT GAME COGS GEARS VAMPIRES BUSTLES EXOSKELETON GOGGLES ANGLOPHILIA SUPER CREEPY OBSESSION WITH ORIENTALISM INCLUDING CLOCKWORK GEISHAS MANOR HOUSES TEA!

Me: ::sigh::

^ you are doing exactly this.

The punk ethos is primarily made up of beliefs such as non-conformity, anti-authoritarianism, anti-corporatism, a do-it-yourself ethic, anti-consumerist, anti-corporate greed, direct action, and not "selling out". That is what 'punk' means, in terms of subculture.

When steampunk arose as a subculture, out of Goth mind you, it was entirely a DIY and small business scene.

What steampunk music, fiction, craft groups, or meetups have you been to? Steampunk is, like cyberpunk, about the stories it told/is telling. Often stories of revolution (often violent), the overthrowing of governments and toppling of monarchies, civil rights movements (emancipation from chattel slavery! Indian wars! Rising against colonial powers!), the dawn of first wave feminism and women's suffrage, the original source of communist and socialist thought, workers' rights movements, the fucking enlightenment...

What is more punk than The Communist Manifesto(1848)

What is more punk than The Battle of Greasy Grass(1876)

Who's a more OG Punk than John Brown?

Steampunk literally music and fiction set in and about the Age of Revolution.

Judging Steampunk as a subculture by the part that was heavily commercialized is like judging all of Goth and a subculture by Hot Topic (which is not punk rock).

Go read China Mieville's Bas Lag cycle.

Go read Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Go read Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Go read Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld (crossover with dieselpunk and biopunk!)

Go read Steeplejack by AJ Hartley

Go listen to some The Cog is Dead and some Abney Park and some Rasputina and some Steam Powered Giraffe and, hey, let me link Painless Parker one more time. You will note that that recording is from Occupy Wallstreet.

Also keep in mind that labor/union songs are wildly popular steampunk standards; you will hear Solidarity Forever and other songs from The Little Red Songbook at steampunk song circles. You will hear marching band and orchestral covers of The Sex Pistols' God Save The Queen and The Clash's London Calling. You'll hear songs from Chumbawumba's album English Rebel Songs 1381-1984.

I'm gonna linkspam a bunch of my older writings on this:

Other steampunks of my followers, please reblog with more recommendations about Steampunk stuff that's actually PUNK.

They send someone to stop the experiment but Grace refuses cause they’re so far in already and well that would just ruin the data.

(^ @caligeno tags)

Grace:

i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3

unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it

i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map

i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs

this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.

crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.

Ownership meant a physical copy. Now you own nothing and can't find what you want across multiple streaming platforms.

They tried to kill us, but they did not succeed. And we owe so much thanks to the other oppressed peoples, in particular the Choctaw Nation and the Masai, who sent money and grain to us.

Let me repeat that. The Choctaw Nation who had just gone through the Trail of Tears sent us money to try save Irish lives. It’s led to an understanding between Irish people and Native American tribes, most recently when we donated to the Navajo and Hopi fundraisers for COVID-19 relief, because while it may be a different tribe, Irish people will never forget those who helped us and we’ll help back.

The entire population of the island is less than seven million people. We’re still a million less on this island than pre famine. And it’s not that long ago. My grandmother’s grandparents lived through it. We’ve told the stories, it literally changed the DNA of the country. We have a national fear of renting, because so many people were evicted. People joke about Irish people always offering loads of food, but it’s because there’s that cultural memory of not being able to.

Option one: The murder victim was innocent while the killer was an abusive bastard, see Speckled Band. Conclusion, arrest and have the killer charged (Or in the case of Speckled Band, indirectly murder him yourself then shrug and go home)

they were POPULAR

the Victorians LIKED reading about women who won out over shitty men in their lives, even when that plotline reaffirmed a woman’s power and agency or put an active sexist in his place (ie Irene Adler besting Holmes)

Pride wasn't meant to be family friendly. It started when trans woman of color was 100% done and decided to throw a brick. It started with police violence in a queer space and a riot that shut down the village. It started loud, boisterously not safe for anyone, by people who a lot of us honey nut queerios today would call "problematic". Not because they were "bad" people but because the language and needs of the communities has changed dramatically.

Pride has, like many not-cis/straight spaces, traditionally been a rejection of sexually and expressively repressed society. So, frankly, I disagree with the idea that it should be a child friendly space. That is like insisting that Rocky Horror shows should all be bauldlerized to a G rating and live shows all cancelled. (RHPS has Other Problems, but that is a different post I have already made)

Should there be a big celebratory kid safe space for pride? Hell yes. Make it a thing, run it, bring it to life!

But the Pride Parade isn't that space, any more than Mardis Gras. There are public events that are not meant for kids. So don't take them.

The event is very much kid and family focused. There are a lot of organizations that provide support, programming, etc. for queer kids (especially trans kids with how things have been lately). There are resources for parents to learn about supporting their kids as they explore their identity and how they fit into the world around them. There is food and music and face painting and a ton of incredible vendors selling everything rainbow. They do a dance competition divided by ages, including playing a round of freeze dance for those 5 and under!

This is a family friendly pride event. There’s lots of kids of queer parents, kids and teens who are queer themselves, and families who want to spend the day out in the sun with a picnic blanket, listening to music and seeing friends.