Saturday, September 12, 2009

Aesthetic

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.

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