MonthOctober 2011

How to Do Asian Steampunk Right

Zheng Yi Sao, 19th centry female pirate
Zheng Yi Sao, 19th centry female pirate

Jess Nevins wrote an article on “the problem with Asian steampunk.” Nevins points out that most people default to ninjas, samurai and geishas when they try to do Asian steampunk, but there’s a much richer world of possibilities. “Pirates, submarine captains, hard-boiled reporters, female private detectives… these are all part of east Asian history and popular culture in the steampunk era. Steampunk writers and cosplayers, expand your horizons!”

Here are some examples:

  • Zeppelin pirates are a staple of steampunk, but nautical pirates were a reality in the waters of Southeast Asia. Notable among these were the female pirates, from Zheng Yi Sao and Cai Qian in the beginning of the 19th century to Lo Hon Cho and Lai Choi San in the early part of the 20th century. These women were captains and admirals, commanding dozens of ships and leading them into battle from the front, gaining reputations as fierce fighters. According to a contemporary Chinese account Cai Qian Ma even commanded ships with crews of niangzijun, “women warriors.”
  • The hardboiled, crime-solving reporter was a part of Western mystery fiction from the 1880s, but in real life there were large numbers of reporters just like that in China, especially Shanghai, where the competition between newspapers was intense and reporters and editors did anything they could for a hot scoop. These newspapers were modeled on American and English newspapers, and though many of them were aimed at the Europeans in China, some were written by Chinese for Chinese.
  • Roguish treasure-hunters need not automatically be white. Since the 11th century there has been a tradition among Nyingma Buddhists in Bhutan and Tibet of a special class of lamas, the gter-ston or “treasure hunters,” who “discover” gter-ma (scriptural treasures) which have supposedly been hidden away during the Buddha’s lifetime so that they can be found and revealed to the world at a foreordained time. The gter-ston were active through the 19th century, and while some were genuine many were fraudulent.

TOR: The Problem With “Asian Steampunk”

Save the Date: EsoZone Portland 2011: Nov. 18-19 at p:ear

EsoZone Portland 2011 logo

This year’s EsoZone Portland will be on November 18th and 19th at p:ear. We’ll be accepting donations to cover venue rental costs soon.

We’ll be following the unconference format again this year, but stay tuned for announcements of a few pre-scheduled talks, workshops and performances.

What: EsoZone Portland 2011

When:
November 18 7pm – Midnight
November 19 1pm – Midnight

Where:
p:ear
338 NW 6th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97209

(Logo by Danny Chaoflux)

China Miéville’s Rejected Iron Man Pitch

Iron Man 2020
OK, that’s not Scrap Iron Man, it’s Iron Man 2020

An extraordinary figure in bizarre makeshift power armour the colours of rust and hazard-warning yellow has appeared, fighting burglars, thieves, drug-dealers, graffiti-taggers. Flashback: he’s Dan, an ex-worker in one of the high-tech heavy defence plants, horrified at the social breakdown, going through the many scrapheaps of the town and cobbling together his suit from industrial junk, trying to save his home.

Dan smashes up a crack house, but while most of those within run, one stays and jeers at him, calls him a bully. Dan knows her: Louise was the union rep at his factory. He’s ashamed: he always liked her. They get talking. ‘You really want to do right by Flinton?’ Louise says eventually. ‘By all the other Flintons? Then quit messing with symptoms. It’s time to take down the real villain.’

China Miéville: Rejected Pitch

The Flash vs. Gurdjieff by Alejandro Jodorowsky

Gurjief

Flash vs. Gurdjieff

Comics Bulletin has published an English translation of a short article Alejandro Jodorowsky wrote for the Spanish science-fiction magazine Nueva in 1968 about Flash # 163 – which also happens to be Grant Morrison’s favorite comic of all time. I’ve never read it and had no idea the villain of the comic bore a remarkable resemblance to Gurdjieff.

Are Infantino and Broome aware that the strange gentleman is Gurdjieff? The resemblance is striking: the same bald head, the same features and moustache. The content of the parable could very well belong to the philosophy of this enigmatic being.

What does Flash signify? He is a man who possesses superspeed. Upon acquiring it, he can go around the world in less than a second, can walk through walls, can be in two places at once, etc. He is, in synthesis, the king of superficiality, always running from one place to the other, never being “AT THE THING”. Superspeed prevents him from anchoring himself to reality. Objects become inconsistent and human communication impossible. By walking through objects everything becomes superficial. People admire him because of “HIS DEEDS.” He is the perfect example of those who Gurdjieff described like this: “They are so lazy at helping themselves that they want to help others.”

[Note: The actual quote is “They are too lazy to work on themselves, and at the same time it is very pleasant for them to think that they can help others.”]

The teacher, wanting the character to be conscious of his inner emptiness, proves that his existence, by being so “from the skin outwards,” depends on others. If the others stop paying attention to him, he does not exist, the reason being that all his values are based on the opinions of the rest. Flash lives not for himself, but for others. He exists in those who see him.

By no longer being seen and admired, the artificial self behind which he hides evaporates. By becoming naked, depending on his own values, he realizes that he is nothing. Gurdjieff says that man is born without a soul and that through huge and systematic efforts he must create it for himself. Flash never made an effort to create himself. At that moment of crisis, instead of stopping to ponder, reflecting on himself and working on his inner being, he decides to go after the girl he had impressed with the classic miracle of walking on water.

Comics Bulletin: The Flash vs. Gurdjieff by Alejandro Jodorowsky

(Thanks Theoretick)

I don’t have my copy of Supergods handy, but here’s what Morrison wrote about Flash # 163 for the Guardian:

This was from the time of pop art comics in the 1960s when DC Comics had go-go chicks, and almost Bridget Riley-style op-art across the top. It’s a great cover that shows the head and shoulders of The Flash, holding up his hand to the reader. He’s yelling out, “STOP! DON’T PASS UP THIS ISSUE – MY LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!” A supervillain sets up a machine whereby everyone forgets that The Flash ever existed, and his body begins to attenuate into this red mist; there’s a very odd, paranoid feel to the story. In the end he’s only saved because there’s this little girl sitting by the side of the docks who still believes in him.

See also:

Grant Morrison dossier

Alejandro Jodorowsky dossier

Has a New Yorker Reporter Found Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto?

Bitcoin Batman

Bitcoin has its own version of Batman and a New Yorker reporter has gone out hunting for the cryptocurrency’s Bruce Wayne.

It’s been three years since the inception and introduction of Bitcoin to the world and while it started out extremely fringe and invisible to the general public, lately the cryptographic currency has managed to make quite a splash. The system involves a complex mathematical theory that allows users to slowly coin their own money, essentially limiting the volume of currency and making it something of a commodity. Of course, now that Bitcoin has appeal generated from sites such as Slashdot the creator should be basking in the limelight of his or her invention—but here lies the mystery: Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin, happens to be a reclusive enigma.

SiliconAngle: Has a New Yorker Reporter Found Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto?

3 Perspectives on #OccupyWallStreet

Local 40 Iron Worker at #OccupyWallStreet

(Photo via @Newyorkist)

John Robb on #OccupyWallStreet as an open source protest:

*A promise. A simple goal/idea that nearly everyone can get behind. Adbusters did pretty good with “occupy wall street.” Why? Nearly everyone hates the pervasive corruption of banks and Wall Street. It’s an easy target.

*A plausible promise. Prove that the promise can work. They did. They actually occupied Wall Street and set up camp. They then got the message out.

*A big tent and an open invitation. It doesn’t matter what your reason for protesting is as long as you hate/dislike Wall Street. The big tent is already in place (notice the diversity of the signage). Saw something similar from the Tea Party before it was mainstreamed/diminished.

Douglas Rushkoff:

Anyone who says he has no idea what these folks are protesting is not being truthful. Whether we agree with them or not, we all know what they are upset about, and we all know that there are investment bankers working on Wall Street getting richer while things for most of the rest of us are getting tougher. What upsets banking’s defenders and politicians alike is the refusal of this movement to state its terms or set its goals in the traditional language of campaigns.

That’s because, unlike a political campaign designed to get some person in office and then close up shop (as in the election of Obama), this is not a movement with a traditional narrative arc. As the product of the decentralized networked-era culture, it is less about victory than sustainability. It is not about one-pointedness, but inclusion and groping toward consensus. It is not like a book; it is like the Internet.

Justin Boland:

There’s a lot being written right now about what the #Occupy movement must do. What it should be, where it all needs to go. Yet somehow, everything that looked like a mistake at first has unfurled into an advantage. All any single #Occupy cell needs to do is hold their ground for another night, and plan to make tomorrow bigger and better. It’s easy to write a sneering caricature of a Tea Party rally, but it’s interesting to note how many reporters wrote mocking hit pieces on the Wall Street crowd that all wound up being completely different. It’s hard to get a bead on where the consensus is — but the occupation itself is the whole message. Nobody on Wall Street is confused about what it means, at least.

Today in Steampunk: Steam Car for Sale and The Women of the Future

For Sale: A Steam Powered Car

steam powered car

This week RM Auctions will sell what it calls the oldest known automobile. The company expects the car to sell for at least $2,000,000. From the RM Auction site:

When the young Comte de Dion stopped at the Giroux toy shop on Paris’s Boulevard des Italiens in December 1881, he was looking for toys to give as prizes at a ball he was planning. But he was intrigued by the quality of the workmanship of a model steam engine and asked who had built it.

Directed to the workshop out back, he found Georges Bouton and Charles-Armand Trepardoux. They were earning a measly seven francs a day building model boats and steam engines and scientific instruments. De Dion promptly offered them 10 francs a day and asked them to build a full-size engine, such as might power a carriage. So, in much the same way as the aristocratic Charles Rolls engaged engineer Henry Royce some 20 years later, a multi-class partnership was formed between a wealthy entrepreneur and working class craftsmen.

RM Auctions: 1884 De Dion Bouton Et Trepardoux Dos-A-Dos Steam

There are several more photos on the site.

See also: 1899 electric car (yes, that’s right) sells for $550,000

(Thanks Nick!)

The Women of the Future from 1902

femme general

This postcard series from France in 1902 depict visions of women in various occupations in the future.

Les Femmes de l’avenir postcards

(via Coilhouse)

“Artificial Leaf” Converts Sunlight into Energy

artificial leaf

Researchers at MIT have created an “artificial leaf” out of “earth-abundant, inexpensive materials — mostly silicon, cobalt and nickel.” There’s not yet a way to collect and store this energy, but it’s a step:

Researchers led by MIT professor Daniel Nocera have produced something they’re calling an “artificial leaf”: Like living leaves, the device can turn the energy of sunlight directly into a chemical fuel that can be stored and used later as an energy source.

The artificial leaf — a silicon solar cell with different catalytic materials bonded onto its two sides — needs no external wires or control circuits to operate. Simply placed in a container of water and exposed to sunlight, it quickly begins to generate streams of bubbles: oxygen bubbles from one side and hydrogen bubbles from the other. If placed in a container that has a barrier to separate the two sides, the two streams of bubbles can be collected and stored, and used later to deliver power: for example, by feeding them into a fuel cell that combines them once again into water while delivering an electric current.

MIT News: ‘Artificial leaf’ makes fuel from sunlight

The Best of OVO

OVO 20 JUVEN(a/i)LIA

Trevor Blake has just published OVO 20 Juven(a/i)lia. It’s the 20th issue of his long running zine (the first issue was published in 1987), and it serves as a sort of “best of” issue. I’m honored that my article “New Currency War” was one of the 50-some articles out of over 19,000 possible articles selected for inclusion. Other contributors include Hakim Bey, Mike Diana, Thom Metzger, Johnny Brainwash, tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE, PM and of course Trevor himself.

You can browse it for free here, or you can buy it in print here for $10.

© 2024 Technoccult

Theme by Anders NorénUp ↑