Dieselpunk Reads discussion

I started this group because there wasn't one; I'm the only one here now, but if anyone stumbles across my little "group" I figured there should be a thread to start things off.

I'm Lindsay, and I write mostly Dieselpunk novels. I just find that tends to be my natural inclination, setting wise. My website is here: http://lindsaykitson.com

Hey, I'm Will! I've always been fascinated by alternate versions of 20's, 30's, and 40's (like the venerable PC game Crimson Skies),with all sots of cool gadgets, machines, and adventures! I only recently found out that all of this falls under the mantel of 'dieselpunk.' Needless to say, I'm really excited to find out that there are others out there that share this interest with me!

Will wrote: "Hey, I'm Will! I've always been fascinated by alternate versions of 20's, 30's, and 40's (like the venerable PC game Crimson Skies),with all sots of cool gadgets, machines, and adventures! I only ..."

Welcome :) There's a couple of the final fantasy games that are very dieselpunk, mainly ffvii and ffviii, but ffvi too, to a large extent. I love ffviii for the plot, though a lot of people disliked it for the deviation from previous combat systems in the series, and ffvii is usually said to be the best of the series, seconded by ffvi.

I'm Kaleb, and I'm an aspiring writer. I live dieselpunk because... I'm not really sure why, other than that trench-coats and fedoras are awesome, and it's an absolutely fascinating time-period, and adding advanced tech makes it even cooler.

Sorry I've been out for so long; can't say I've played much of FF. Loved Crimson Skies, though. ;-) Any worthwhile dieselpunk movies out there?

Welcome, Kaleb! Those are some of the same reasons I really like dieselpunk. Good luck with the writing!

I've got a list of my favourite movies here: http://lindsaykitson.com/2012/05/15/5...

Thanks.

I tried the Crimson Skies demo, but my settings weren't right so all the writing in the game appeared as a colored thing of dots.

Hi - I'm relatively new to Dieselpunk. My sister and niece told me all about Steampunk awhile ago. That sounded good. I discovered Cyberpunk and realized I liked those sci-fi movies. Then I wondered what I could be - we have a 1930's pickup with a modern hot rod engine. (The Waltons on speed?) I wondered what it would be if we gave it some really cool futuristic gadgets. I did some searching and found the term Dieselpunk. Maybe my truck can save us during some apocalyptic, distopian future? So I was curious if there were any books out there considered Dieselpunk besides a few movies.

Looks like this group is a little sleepy... oh well. I'm a reader and author, and dieselpunk is one of my favorite genres because I love history, and one of the time periods I like best is the 1920s-1940s. I also love most fantasy and sci fi, so there you go.

I've written a dieselpunk serial and am starting to publish the parts. I'll do a separate post for that, though.

Here's hoping the group gets more active. :)

That first part describes me too. I'm not a fan of historical fiction, but adding dieselpunk elements makes them all better for me.

Kaleb, same here! For both reading and writing. I think it's because when it comes to actual history, I'm really obsessive about accuracy. And I don't think that's helpful to good fiction, despite how people seem to praise a work if it's historically accurate. Throw the whole accuracy thing out the window, I say, in favor of sci fi and fantasy elements, which then can come back to portrayals of real things, etc. without being bound by accuracy. I hope that made sense!

Yep! That makes perfect sense. I was doing Living History in 4H, and the necessity for perfectly accurate details drove me crazy. I didn't enjoy that. I want to do something new and different.

G'day everyone. My name is Grant and I stumbled into Dieselpunk chasing early movie serials and pulp magazines. I love Dieselpunk because it takes the golden age of adventure and adventure fiction and then allows me to go nuts with it, all while letting me get some alt history, research and music listening in at the same time.

Grant, I feel the same way! I think the only other genre that touches on so much of what I love may be ray gun gothic, but I haven't actually found any books in that genre yet.

Hello I'm John,

I've always been attracted to many things that came from what's now being defined as the Diesel-Era. I like Noir movies, Republic Serials, Pulp Magazines, Cartoons, the early days of Comicbooks, Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon Comicstrips, Old Time Radio, equipment from WW2, Streamline Design, the Advertising and Artwork of the day, Gil Elvgren's Pinups and the Vargas Girls, the Cars, and don't let me forget the Style and Fashion.

Then of course I also enjoyed the modern takes on the era that followed much later like the Rocketeer, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Sky Captain and Captain America.

I didn't even know there was a category of people who shared my retro-amalgam of interests, until someone else interested in Phantom Corsairs pointed me to dieslepunks.org a couple years ago. Now I'm glad they did.

To circle back to Lindsay's original question, why do I love Dieselpunk... I'm not really sure. All I can figure is that its elements were imprinted on me at an early age and now I'm infected. ha ha.

I love Flash Gordon. And I love the 1980 movie most of all! I guess that's a good example of ray gun gothic, from what I understand. I am very impressed with the creativity of the setting. And who can argue with a soundtrack created by Queen?

Sophia wrote: "I love Flash Gordon. And I love the 1980 movie most of all!

Behold! War Rocket Ajax vs the Hawkmen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnTHyp...

IMPETUOUS BOY! Oh well... who wants to live forever???

Hey, hi... OK, I'm a not-very-closet Flash Gordon fan, too. I liked the '80 movie, but I really enjoyed the old b/w serials. Go Flash!

Richard wrote: "I really enjoyed the old b/w serials."

1930s Flash Gordon Serial Movie Trailer Ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgSPL_...

3d model Dr Hans Zarkov's Rocket Ship
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGA3m0...

Hi Richard! ::waves like an idiot::
I didn't know you were a fellow Flash Gordon fan. :D

> didn't know you were a fellow Flash Gordon fan

Oh, yes... I get a kick out of the whole thing. I've watched *all* of the old Buster Crabbe FG series...

I looked into whether the FG universe was public domain, recently, because we *need* some FG fiction. Sadly, it looks to me like it's a no go.

Too bad...! But one can always make up something in a similar vein...

Yes, I've been wanting to do something like FG for a couple of years now. So far, nothing has coalesced. I suspect I may not be wired for it as a writer. As much as I *love* Flash, the bright-colored setting, the cheese, etc., I don't tend to write like that. It's like Stephen King saying that if he could choose what he wrote, he'd write like Amy Tan. You can't choose what you write. The closest I've come is my fantasy novel, but its setting has much more in common with Fritz Lang's Metropolis than FG's universe.

OK, I was really gonna refrain from posting this pointer to, uh... rocket-and-raygun-alien-porn... A sort of modern post-Rocky-Horror homage to stuff like FG... Narrated by the same midwestern guy who narrated all of those old Disney nature films...
(Need I say, it's not for kids. I'm just proud of the new cover.)

It's definitely going on my to-read list, Rick.

Goodreads has 30,000+ groups, so I was astounded to find only one Dieselpunk group with just 13 members (14 now!). So I've just increased the membership by 7%! Nonetheless they do say mighty forests from tiny acorns grow.

I've always loved SF and Fantasy, which kind of got together over the years and had a baby called Steampunk, which grew and took over from both parents to some extent, more from SF than Fantasy. Dieselpunk must be a younger sibling!

I'm nearing the end of writing my own YA Dieselpunk trilogy, which you can read nowhere at the moment, so don't worry about spam! Though I actually like Spam, as a food, appropriately I suppose as American troops spread it all over the world during WW2, which is often included in the Dieselpunk period.

I originally thought of my writing as SF, but then invented my own name 'EF' (Engineering Fantasy) before discovering there was already a fitting category in the form of Dieselpunk.

Among the Dieselpunk books I love are Scott Westerfeld's 'LEVIATHAN' trilogy and Kenneth Oppel's 'AIRBORN' trilogy, though both are also claimed by Steampunk. I also commend John's list above, which includes many of my favorites.

I'll stop now before this introduction becomes an epistle!

J. T. Shea

Richard wrote: "Too bad...! But one can always make up something in a similar vein..."

Someone did exactly that nearly forty years ago when his bid for the Flash Gordon movie rights failed. He called it 'STAR WARS' and the rest was history, as they say.
J. T. Shea

Hi J.T.! Thanks for the 7% boost! I, too, was shocked at the low showing of dieselpunk fans here on GR, but then, there really aren't very many books. I'm glad to hear you're contributing to the collection. Let us know when you've published. And I'll be adding Leviathan and Airborn to my to-read list.

It's partly a problem of definition and overlap, I think, Sophia. Both the 'LEVIATHAN' and 'AIRBORN' trilogies are also claimed for Steampunk, for example. Nonetheless, it's not that long since Steampunk was less well known than Dieselpunk is now.
J. T. Shea

I'm sure you're right. Dieselpunk is popular, if you go by movies and TV shows. We must mount a campaign to have it recognized as a literary genre more widely! :)

Hi, I'm Hákon.

A month and half ago I had never heard about dieselpunk, but it looks like I'm in the middle of writing a novel that might fit into the genre. It is a story I had been trying for a long time to find the right setting and period for and it eventually ended up in an alternative 1930s.

Shortly after finding the right track (at least I think it is the right track) for the novel, I came across something about dieselpunk. Since then I have realized that I already liked many of the things that are connected to it: Indiana Jones, old Flash Gordon serials, film noir, some of the old pulp, and even some of the music. And now I have started to read some dieselpunk.

Hákon wrote: "Hi, I'm Hákon.

A month and half ago I had never heard about dieselpunk, but it looks like I'm in the middle of writing a novel that might fit into the genre. It is a story I had been trying for a..."

Welcome Hakon, and please excuse my computer's inability to put the accent on your name. You are not alone in reading and even writing Dieselpunk before ever hearing of the word.

J. T. Shea

Welcome, Hákon! Be sure to let us know when your story is finished so we can all read it!

Thanks J.T. and Sophia.

I will let you know when my novel is finished, but I'm from Iceland and am writing in icelandic. If the novel turns out good, I might translate it to english, but only after I finish the icelandic version. So it might take a little while for things to reach that stage.

Aaron wrote: "Hi, my name's Aaron. I'm a writer and can be found online as AJ Sikes. Today's a big day for me as I just saw my Prohibition era noir urban fantasy published this morning.

The scoop on who I am: A..."

Welcome Aaron! You have just increased our membership by 5%! Your stories and website look interesting. And Noir adds a good string to Dieselpunk's bow.

JTS

Welcome, Aaron! I'm a teacher and a history nut, too. And I know about budget cuts. :)

Hi, I'm Mark (~punk author). I enjoy the art deco aspect of DP, the artwork is fantastic. It's a little bit creepy, and a whole lot imaginative. I'm more on the noir side of it.

//m

Welcome Mark. I'm also more into the noir side of DP. :-)

I'm thinking we should have our own section. Noirpunk? Dieselnoir? :-) Or does that already exist?

//m

Welcome, Mark! If you haven't already heard of him, may I suggest French artist Stefan's 'Diesel City' website and book, which is a feast of Deco and Noir Dieselpunk?

Pretty cool stuff.

Stefan's work is really good.