Steam Punk

As a huge fan of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy, the Wave-inatrix was quite partial to THE GOLDEN COMPASS. And to the art direction of the movie. When I read the books I did not as much envision the steampunkatmosphere, but the movie brought that to the fore beautifully. Who can forget the zeppelin that Lyra and Mrs. Coulter (Kidman) took to the North?

It got me to thinking about steampunk - a look, feel, style and narrative choice that has always enthralled me, from Jules Verne to Mark Twain to Terry Gilliam. I even bothered to do a little research. Steampunk is a sort of "retrofuturism" - the way the future was imagined a hundred years ago, when steam power was the main source of power and cogs, wheels, watches and springs were the primary mechanisms in a world that was rapidly industrializing. A sort of grimy, Victorian, soot-covered but very mechanical futuristic look, the influence of steampunk can be seen in movies like BRAZIL and BLADE RUNNER. As with any sub-subculture, steampunk has afficionados, addicts and anime. And so naturally, the Wave-inatrix wondered - are there any steampunk fans who read the Rouge Wave?