Lego 1889 skycraft

Here is a chap who constructs Space 1889 airships in Lego (link to his albums >>>)

Steampunkdag på Tekniska museet i Stockholm

Det 29 september blir det Tema Steampunk på Tekniska museet i Stockholm. SF-fanen Anna Davour är öppningstalare kl 1300 och berättar då vad genren handlar om. Sedan följer två timmar om med olika aktiviteter. På kvällen blir det något slags musikshow. Läs alla detaljer här >>>

Women in the Civil War

Women as soldiers and spies in the American Civil War 1861-65 (link >>>). Some interesting characters appear in the article, particular those involved in intelligence work.

Real-life dungeoneering

A photo gallery of explorers under London and New York (link >>>). A lot of steampunk and dieselretro mood in those abandoned places.

Westbourne tunnel

Kipling’s Dedication to the City of Bombay

The Cities are full of pride,
Challenging each to each –
This from her mountain-side,
That from her burdened beach.

They count their ships full tale –
Their corn and oil and wine,
Derrick and loom and bale,
And ramparts’ gun-flecked line;
City by City they hail:
”Hast aught to match with mine?”

And the men that breed from them
They traffic up and down,
But cling to their cities’ hem
As a child to the mother’s gown;

When they talk with the stranger bands,
Dazed and newly alone;
When they walk in the stranger lands,
By roaring streets unknown;
Blessing her where she stands
For strength above their own.

(On high to hold her fame
That stands all fame beyond,
By oath to back the same,
Most faithful-foolish-fond;
Making her mere-breathed name
Their bond upon their bond.)

So thank I God my birth
Fell not in isles aside –
Waste headlands of the earth,
Or warring tribes untried –
But that she lent me worth
And gave me right to pride.

Surely in toil or fray
Under an alien sky,
Comfort it is to say:
”Of no mean city am I!”

(Neither by service nor fee
Come I to mine estate –
Mother of Cities to me,
But I was born in her gate,
Between the palms and the sea,
Where the world-end steamers wait.)

Now for this debt I owe,
And for her far-borne cheer
Must I make haste and go
With tribute to her pier.

And she shall touch and remit
After the use of kings
(Orderly, ancient, fit)
My deep-sea plunderings,

And purchase in all lands.
And this we do for a sign
Her power is over mine,
And mine I hold at her hands!

The many incarnations of Star Wars

This Sillof site (link >>>) shows how the Star Wars saga can be recreated in many ways: dieselretro, steampunk, western, samurai fantasy, medieval fantasy, and so on. It is well worth a visit.

An odd feat

Languages are one of my hobbies and ten years ago I learned Interlingua, a minor constructed language that mostly resembles a mix of simplified Latin and Italian. I did it for the fun of it and never expected the knowledge to be really useful. I also enjoy Arthur Conan Doyle’s science fiction short-stories and ended up translating ”The Horror of the Heights” into Interlingua just to test my skill. Since Doyle’s original is public domain and the translation was of no commercial significance, I donated my text to Project Gutenberg. Here is the link >>>

Victorian-era divers

Steampunk Batman

Skyscapes and cloudcraft

My first experience with the Japanese anime tradition was in 1980 or 1981 when Space Firebird, was shown for a few weeks on a second-rate cinema in my hometown of Gothenburg*. For me at that time, animated movies had more or less equaled Disney so this was a gateway into a different aesthetics. I loved it, but I had no idea how to get hold of more. (Those that remember my space-faring fantasy RPG articles in the Sinkadus magazine around 1990, may be amused to know that the liralên space creatures were inspired by the eponymous firebird.)

In the 1990s, the web made its appearance and I started to learn about the vastness of anime. My brother-in-law served as a guide and soon I had found my way to the Studio Ghibli cosmos. Its films later appeared in the shelves of Swedish VHS and DVD stores — somehow the producers realized there was a lucrative market in the west. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds and Laputa: Castle in the Sky were breathtaking in their beauty: the cloudscapes, the huge flying craft and the never-never-lands with diesel-retro technology. Eminent science fantasy.

The fairy-tale stories of Hayao Miyazaki are lovely. I would not be able to write one, however. My stories belong to a different tradition. But the visual aesthetics are irresistible. The ice juggernauts and the cloudships of the Iskriget alternate history certainly have their roots in Ghibli’s films. I wrote the following paragraph in the (not yet finished) sequel to Iskriget as if it was a scene in such a movie:

This time, the big hatch opened and I entered a cluttered room as wide as the cloudship. My first impression was vast banks of instruments around broad windows and beyond these: blue sky and clusters of white clouds above the Lowland’s endless checkerboard of farms and fields, blond and green with crops. In the center of the room, captain Singh lounged in a comfortable pilot’s chair surrounded by levers and complex metal devices. Three cloudmen manned similar stations around him. Parkas, knitted caps and gloves protected their bodies from the numbing high-altitude chill.

*A brief explanation for younger people: In the days before the VHS and DVD technology, Swedish cinemas had a broader repertoire than today. In the major cities there were often one or two run-down cinemas that showed a mixed fare of B-movies and old classics, each movie running for a week or two. I have no idea how the managers made their selections, but occasionally an unexpected gem would appear in their programs, like Space Firebird.