Dieselpunk: A retro-futuristic subgenre of science fiction that merges the aesthetics and technology of the first half of the 1900s with post-modern sensibilities. A departure from the optimism and wonder of Victorian-styled steampunk, Dieselpunk is the point where technology is no longer human and honorable, but industrial and horrible.
A machine is one idea. A gun is another. When you marry them together, you get something else entirely. Delve into various quick bites of the Dieselpunk aesthetic, told through the lenses of familiar characters.
Written for the 1000 Words Contest II
Chapters (1)
Intriguing! Dieselpunk is so underappreciated.
Wow, that was awesome. 200 words is so little, and yet in each sub-chapter you've put an entire story fit to its subject. Well done!
(I say steampunk or any other genre can be written as 'less optimistic,' but maybe that's mostly me.)
That said, this is a good micro-anthology and I recommend it (especially the last four of the five)!
👍
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Steampunk can be, but the broader trend of that subgenre is the romanticization of antique technology and new discoveries. The Victorian England aesthetic is also prominent in many steampunk worlds, distinct from the influence of art deco and brutalist architecture that emerged in the 1900s to 1950s.
Lovely little collection of interrelated stories for five of the six.
I imagine that Pinkie is the cause of the war, playing both sides.
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For the sake of my sanity, I did not, in fact, try to write 6 short stories in 1000 words. That said, swapping Twilight out with Pinkie was one of my ideas. The gist of the story would have been Pinkie leaving her family's quarry, which supplies raw material for the Yukovan military, to serve meals at a volunteer shelter for those displaced from the war. She misses home and questions the value of her work, but feels rewarded for every full belly she cooks for.
So, yeah, the idea existed for a brief moment.
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I thought so; it would've been too much for some, so makes sense.
Maybe the sequel is Pinkie exclusive and she is the mastermind behind their issues.
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The thing about steampunk is that everyone forgets how dirty Victorian London was: Asthma was common, wide swathes of the city regularly acquired a layer of soot, and if you left your laundry hanging to dry too long, it would become impregnated with smoke and would never be clean again. By the end of the Victorian era in 1901, the UK was burning just shy of 160,000,000 tonnes of coal per year. More than half a million people worked in coal mines, never mind the millions more who worked their fingers off (sometimes literally) in the factories that made certain the sun never set on the British Empire. When the "steampunk aesthetic" is showcased, it's always the aesthetic of the gentry or even the nobility.
I think you've hit the nail on the head, though; it's very easy to romanticize steampunk because of the examples we regularly see of Victorian and Edwardian architecture and styles. The same thing happens with atompunk, particularly with the predominant architype of how it looks being Levittown; clean and orderly, with electricity being so cheap and available that it's a wonder why there would ever be problems at all (of course, it's also easy to overlook the backdrop of the Cold War, internal strife over civil rights, and the societal rot brought on by a sudden abundance of free time and nowhere to direct it towards). Dieselpunk, by contrast, is bookended by mass industrialization at the front and the Second World War at the back. Technology advances faster than people can keep up, but it's the brutal, dehumanizing technology of efficiency and war; the Tin Mare is the perfect example. All it needs is a little fuel and some lubrication, and it'll haul artillery pieces up and down the field without complaint, day or night, never slowing, never stopping. But at some point, the driver needs to stop, and the Tin Mare won't wait for them; how long before someone realizes the best partner for the Tin Mare is the Tin Man?
I think I stumbled into a pattern; steampunk highlights the wonders of technology and breeds hope for the future, until the industrialization of the soul falls down into the cynical mania of dieselpunk; cynical mania that drifts skyward with the splitting of the atom and ushers in the bright hope of atompunk; bright hope that becomes digitized and dims to the nihilistic paranoia of cyberpunk.
11641011
Have you heard of solarpunk?
DieselPunk
isn't that what Mad Max is ?
edit: also
all different tip of Punk
11641011
do you mind sharing this here !
all different tip of Punk
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Mad Max has elements, but is generally not considered dieselpunk.
11641011
Atom punk as a genre deals with Cold War Era issues and the threat of nuclear annihilation. I think the appearance of cleanliness and order, and the advent of funky machines, is often used to highlight hubris, and not as the thematic centerpiece.
While dieslepunk is linked to the troubles of wartime, atompunk grapples with post-war peace, nuclear and national paranoia (ie, Red Scares) and issues of government and society rather than military and victory. But not always, these are only generalizations.
11641011
Then there's post-cyberpunk
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Agreed
any setting where an artillerymare can repair her piece with pieces from her corset is a great one to me
that is a good doctorate to have!
yes Rainbow Dash is very cool
Rainbow Dash W, and a high note to end it on. thank you for writing!
The fact that someone getting heavy ordinance to the front is wearing a corset says volumes about this society. (I also missed that this is a humanized AU at first, which led to some very strange mental images.)
This certainly does give a good overview of the genre. My issue is that it has at best a thin veneer of pony. Switch out five names and you could publish it elsewhere without Hasbro raising an eyebrow, especially when Eileen, Micah, and all the place names are already good to go in that respect. You did a good job with the fiction. It’s the “fan” where it’s a bit wanting.
Pinkie is there too, in all stories. She is the impermanent chaos of life personified
Love the darker undertones here