I'm letting my geek flag fly again, though some of this has to do only peripherally with books. Rag and Bone Blog has once again come up with one of the coolest things evah. This time it's a steampunk book clasp that I would duplicate in a heartbeat if I knew how to solder. Check out the video. What I like about this is is that it's not only so majorly geeky but it keeps your pen handy too.
I have kind of a weakness for steampunk gadgets, though I adore high tech, too. I love the look of early Industrial Revolution gadgets, something that probably goes back to my earliest awareness of design in objects: my grandfather's Machine Age stapler, which looked like this. You can buy these a number of places now that retro is in, but for years they were unloved, despite their inherent sleekness. I love the button on top, especially.
One of my all-time favorite pieces of steampunk comes courtesy of Author and Futurist William Gibson, from his blog. It's a steampunk laptop that I covet in my heart. It's a Japanese construct, and you can find it here (with description in Japanese too, sadly; any translators out there?). And then there's this lovely keyboard mod, too, over on Steampunk Workshop:
There's something of an aesthetic (and philosophical) backlash against the too-slick and the often downright ugly in high tech (especially computers, which I've ranted about before). There's also, as evidenced by the burgeoning DIY movement, an interest in the homemade, which steampunk speaks to as well. But steampunk, at its best, is often elegant, using materials like brass and bakelite and marble, rather than our ubiquitous plastic. When I started making real money, I took a vow of plastic abstinence. There would be no more plastic in my house, e.g., no more plastic milk crates, storage containers, furniture. Wood or glass or metal or nothing. Despite its relative indestructability, it doesn't age well, unless it's something like bakelite, and it's hard as hell to clean, after a while, and it's not biodegradable. Plastic is bad. Leather, however, is also good, especially when its wrapped around something that looks like a book but actually isn't, like this steampunk optical scanner.
Whatever the appeal is, it's showing up everywhere. It's one of the things I love about the Foglios' Girl Genius comic: it's a totally steampunk aesthetic. Just look at the clanks. That's really what steampunk is all about: handmade science; the Victorian Age without the doilies. Steampunk is kinda factory life before OSHA, too. Letterpress printing on a Vandercook can be pretty steampunk. It's not for sissies.
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