What's the difference: Colonial Adventures v VSF v. SteamPunk v Gothic Horror v?

[Red Orc]

Hmm. I was thinking yesterday about people I used to know who'd say "Goth? I'm not Goth - I'm Darkwave". I think it really is the same kind of argument.

I'm a Goth, and I don't care who knows it.

[The_Beast]

Wow that's sad, they can't even use real words.

While I understand, and echo, your sentiments, there's something a bit ironic about decrying not 'real words', given some of the techno-terms we use on the forum. ;->=

@Red Orc - Please understand, I fear BOTH a flood of wildly off-topic posts, and the rants of genre-correct thread nazis. Just trying to find a balance for myself in the interest of decorum.

All things in moderation, including moderation.

Really?  'Darkwave'? Are the italics required? Do they sparkle? 

Doug

[Red Orc]

Dark and sparkly? Possibly. Off topic? Yeah probably (or only tangental to the topic).

...
All things in moderation, including moderation...

Spoken like a true Methodist.

 

[The_Beast]

Okay, for a bit of threadnecromancy:

Firstly, you'll notice a number of previous posters are of the 'why worry' opinion, and I've no argument against, just find the topic of interest. If you don't, move along, nothing to see here. ;->=

Now, I've not seen a brew up in awhile, but the invocation of 'Is this too steampunk?' shows up now and then.

In answer to a comment I made concerning a list of movies, I saw a post on a Yahoo! group that seemed a different, but useful, addition to the conversation:

While Space:1889 is definitely late-Victorian, remember when the Wild
West was happening, and there is at least one movie set in the
Republic of Texas which has the good guys using lever-action
Winchester rifles. But, with the explosion of technology in the game
world, there's a definite resemblance with the Edwardian period, when
Victorian Europe was similarly changed by motor cars and aeroplanes
and Zeppelins.

The big crunch comes with the Great War, and the various revolutions
which took place. This, as I recall, is a part of the Reilly TV series
(and of Young Indiana Jones), and really does change things. It
shatters the Victorian sense of stability. The world of Space:1889 is
about extending the ideas of the Raj, and other colonies, to new
places, not about smashing the system.

This is also why I would be a bit wary of modern action/adventure
films such as Van Helsing. How are they Victorian? It would be pretty
trivial to recast that into the here-and-now, with the hero chasing
Vampires (and being chased), in a Jeep through the mountainous lands
of post-Soviet Eastern Europe. Though perhaps I'm a little too
inclined to forget modern mobile telephone technology, and what it
does to wreck so many movie plots. You can only have so many gaps in
coverage before it becomes a cliche. Brad, Janet, do you need to go to
that creepy house any more?

One thing that occurs to me is "Victorian sense of stability" also points to a British sensibility. Understandable, as it was, at least in naval might, THE world superpower against which all powers measured themselves. Sounds a bit too familiar, no?

I haven't mapped this directly to previous discussions, but I did have a 'that's it!' moment when I read it.

Doug

Edit: By the way, I was raised a Missouri Synod Lutheran, but have been so long off the reservation, it barely counts, save for the almost Jesuit fascination with finer points. 

[Red Orc]

I'd completely agree that WWI and the Russian Revolution completely changed the social outlook in Britain. And as you say, at the end of the 19th century Britain was the world's biggest superpower (not just because of the navy; it controlled about 1/4 of the land-surface of the planet at that point). The loss of confidence in Britain's 'manifest destiny' (to borrow a phrase) was quite a shock.

On the other hand, in the US and Germany, which were the rising powers of the 20th century, there was a much more optimistic sense of possibility I think (even given the chaos in Germany in 1918 and after). At least, until 1929 and the Wall Street Crash/Great Depression there was more of a sense of optimism.