So, I’m embarrassed to say that I only recently learned the term steampunk. Naturally, I immediately slapped my forehead and felt like a moron for not realizing that aesthetic I’ve be seeing everywhere actually has a name. Warehouse 13, Sanctuary, League of Extroardinary Gentlemen, Up!, the Thursday Next books by Jasper Fforde, and the dreadful Killing Time by Caleb Carr. I don’t know if these fit what people think of as the steampunk genre, but they all contain elements of the steampunk aesthetic - including the books.
This is something I hadn’t thought about before: the value of establishing a visual aesthetic in written stories. I now realize that most of my favorite stories have such an aesthetic, that it is distinct from atmosphere, and that it matters to me. Harry Potter has a colorful medieval aesthetic. Twilight just has rain.
More on this tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment