starlady: (compass)
Electra ([personal profile] starlady) wrote in [personal profile] rodo 2010-03-16 03:20 am (UTC)

*hats off to you for the translation* I hate that point where it stops making sense, because it usually comes after I've gotten into a groove and I irrationally feel that if I keep going I can still produce something worthwhile, which just isn't the case.

*reads the "Japanese history" quotation* The ignorance, it burns. I don't even know what else to say to something like that--it's clear the writer hasn't the slightest fucking clue that they haven't a clue. There's just not even anything to engage with.

Anyway, you should totally write that story. The research for my own steampunk story/stories is going to kill me, but better that than thoughtlessly reanimating and reinscribing all the oppression of the actual era. For me personally, I think the attraction of steampunk is its glorification of changing the past (and indeed, the glee with which it frequently does so); I don't see the point to the exercise at all if it doesn't change the past, to paraphrase Tom LaMarre in a slightly different context. But if steampunk doesn't imagine alternatives and revisions--not (necessarily) utopian, mind--to the (usually systemic) oppressions of the period, I can't tell how it isn't just dressing up those oppressions in a new coat with goggles and brass trimmings.

Post a comment in response:

If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

If you are unable to use this captcha for any reason, please contact us by email at support@dreamwidth.org