Beyond Victoriana Special Edition #10

Here be some links and news of note that caught my eye. And, if you have any to share, don’t hesitate to share them on Beyond Victoriana’s Facebook page, or email me.

First of all, a glimpse at the early cover for the upcoming academic anthology Steaming into the Victorian Future, edited by Julie Anne Taddeo, Cynthia Miller, and Ken Dvorak and published by Scarecrow Press.  I’ve contributed a piece to this volume, and you’ll also find writings from other well-known steam academics, including Dru Pagliassotti, Mike Perschon, Catherine Siemann, and an introduction by Jeff Vandermeer, all commenting about steampunk as a subgenre and as a subculture.

And I finally gave in and got a tumblr for Beyond Victoriana (Jaymee, you’re welcome). Follow me, drop a message in my Ask Box, or watch me re-blog to my heart’s content. There isn’t much on there yet as I figure out themes and suchlike, but that will soon change.

Oh, and if you are planning to go to San Deigo Comic Con next week, I won’t be there, but my fellow compatriots at Tor.com will be! Plus, they will be giving away newspaper editions of Tor.com that feature a variety of articles, including my essay about Vietnamese identity and steampunk “The Ao Dai and I.”

Enough with the self-promotion — more links after the jump!

Silver Goggles has been coming out with some awesome things as usual. Recently,  sci-fi writers and activists Alliette De Bodard, requireshate, Ekaterina Sedia and Rochita Leonen-Ruiz hatched a Cultural Imperialism Bingo card. For those unfamiliar with the concept of a “bingo card” for social justice issues, they are used as satirical tools to point out how systematic oppression works by showing how biases, logical fallacies, stereotypes, and misconceptions about X Y Z are prevalent in the dominant culture. My favorite line in this card: “Racism everywhere is the same as in the US, you’re just not seeing it!”

And also check out her monthly Steampunk PoC Interview series, proving that we *do* exist in the community, we think deep thoughts about what it means to be steampunk, and not all of us have the same opinion (gasp!) A full index of the interviews so far:

Monique Poirier
Stephanie Lai
Phil Powell
Tony Ballard (aka Capt. Anthony LaGrange)
Pablo Vasquez (aka Mr. Saturday)
Nivi Hicks
Connie Chen

Speaking of steampunk PoC doing big things, are  you following Balogun Ojetade’s blog? You really should. The Chronicles of Harriet contains more African & African diaspora steampunk lovin’ than you can shake  a stick at. Balogun’s an up-and-coming advocate of the Steamfunk Movement, shoots off tales like there’s no tomorrow, assembled a League of Extraordinary Black People, and just wrote about Steampunk, Superheros, and Soft Sci-Fi.

Signal-boosting another awesome blog to express our fandom loves is Geekquality. Started after the first Geek Girl Con in 2011, Geekquality’s mission is, according to their About Page:

Geekquality.com, the occasional podcast, and the companion Tumblr stand at the intersection of fandom and media criticism, with the goal of celebrating and encouraging diversity within the geek zeitgeist. The project was started in October 2011, at the inaugural GeekGirlCon where four of the six founding editors met for the first time. Geekquality is based on the belief that just because we adore our geek culture, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t analyze it and point out its flaws. Through the lenses of feminism, race, gender, sexuality, ability, and other unique perspectives, we look at our favorite media – film, television, books, video games, comics, and beyond – and discuss how it could be more inclusive and accessible.

I’ll be following them on my Google Reader. 🙂

On the literary front, The Steampowered Globe, a steampunk anthology from Singapore, is reviewed by Jess Nevins.

Dylan Fox gives us a story excerpt from “Restless” now available in Alt Hist magazine.

Mike Perschon talks about how Harper Goff’s Nautilus is the genesis of steampunk and he looks at control cabin Nemo.

Edwardian Promenade found some Edwardian-era books that talked about other places. Read some of these with a grain of salt (mmmmmm, orientalism), but they are a fascinating source of study: When I was a child in other lands.

Steampunk Emma Goldman writes about the kickass Spanish anarchist women who fought during their civil war.

Steampunk Bioshock bio suit — had to share

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library covers Steampunk in YA Fiction, and  includes a great selection of books, sorted by age group, including several that hadn’t shown up on my radar (Lawrence Yep-?! Sign me up! Though it looks like they feature his alt hist 1940’s dieselpunk books, but I should also mention the Golden Mountain Chronicles, which focuses on Chinese frontiersman in America).

Finally, I want to highlight a new performance troupe that I’ll be participating in. The Copper Claw is a new project founded by Lucretia Dearfour. You can visit their website and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.