Beyond Victoriana Special Edition Odds & Ends #4

I’m preparing for some big events in May (like co-hosting two panels at the Steampunk World’s Fair. Will you be coming? It’s bound to be INTELLECTUALLY STIMULATING and IMMENSELY ENTERTAINING.) Thus, the next post will be delayed. But never fear, I have some nifty reads that have been building up in my inbox for you to check out after the cut.

The Reads

Bruno Accioly, one of the co-founders of Steampunk Conselho in Brazil (who I interviewed before) gave me an update about the Brazilian steampunk crew, which was also posted by Bruce Sterling on Wired.com. Even More Brazilian Steampunk.

Leaving London, Arriving in Albion – Steampunk Scholar Mike Perschon’s article about the future of steampunk literature and media as it progresses outside of Victorian London. He touches, in particular, upon the growth of American steampunk and steampunk in Japanese anime.

Steampunk Nusantara is an intellectually-inclined and creative community on Dreamwidth focused on imagining fictional artifacts that would exist in a steampunk Southeast Asian world. All entries are license under the Creative Commons License, and are available for other artists, writers, and creators to use with permission in their works. Both ASEAN-identified people and allies are encouraged to apply and contribute.

And speaking of Southeast Asian steam, here is a sweet little story set in steampunk Malaysia from Crossed Genres:  The Last Rickshaw by Stephanie Lai.

In an interesting look about transnational and transcultural identities, Jason Henninger of Tor.com wrote about Lafcadio Hearn, a Greek-Italian journalist who lived in Meiji-era Japan, became a Japanese citizen in 1895 and took on his wife’s last name to rename himself Koizumi Yakumo. He later became famous for writing a series of ghost stories called Kwaidan. Henninger takes a brief look at the history of the collection and the later film adaptation. Kwaidan on Tor.com

Cabinet of Wonders focuses on Al Jaziri and his automatons. The article is old, but it asks an intriguing question that needs to be taken up: when can we see jihadpunk?

Speaking of the power of technology in the Muslim world, Sultan Sooud Al-Qassemi wrote on The Huffington Post about how spreading more awareness about the history of invention in the Muslim world can fight attitudes of Islamic extremism today: “1001 Inventions”: How Islamic Scientific History Can Combat Today’s Extremists

And a tip from Jaymee: Women’s Contribution to Classical Islamic Civilisation: Science, Medicine and Politics

Edwardian Promenade is also featuring Imperial Maps in its latest post. The maps are fascinating, because each one is based on the perspective of the mapmaker’s national origin, where you see various imperial empires portraying each other as ruthless, threatening entities. Serio-Comic Maps of International Tensions

D.I.Y. Culture. From the New York Times. An article about the evolution of culture and how new media (the power of the aetherwebs!) and globalization create a bricolage out of one’s individual identity. This gives me food for thought in how steampunk subculture itself has been built up because of modern technology, and how people create and establish steampunk identities, especially in terms of multicultural steam.

The Pics:

Like That One is a vintage & rehabbed store in Singapore that Jaymee brought my attention to. They refurbish and design very unique and quirky pieces that can be seen as perfect for The Steampunk Home (now only if you can pay the shipping!). See their Flickr here; a sampling of their lovely products are below.