Fashion Design: Steampunk

[Kaienne]

But then again, Suu makes an excellent point. *unf*

[faust]

http://www.fanfiction.net/book/Dune/

ATRIEDIES HAS THESE FANS

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

ITT: I say this person is actually Hugh.

[Kaienne]

Who's Hugh?

[Shibboleet The Annihilator]

 

[Kaienne]

I'm concerned, anxious, and slightly aroused.

[Fredfredly ⊂(◉‿◉)つ]

ITT: I say this person is actually Hugh.

[B_M_W]

ITT: I say this person is actually Hugh.

not hugh.

Might be B_M_W though. Wouldn't that be a funny.

[Triple Zero]

Atreides, kthx.

i still say that looks like Snape when he was young.

Who's Hugh?

"hugh" is yet another spelling variation on what used to be a perfectly normal pronoun.

hugh of all people, should know that!

[Payne]

 

[Richter]

Dune as Steampunk?

Possibly.  The original book, holding a more geopolitical statement about underdeveloped areas and vital resources does invoke the Middle East.  For a novel classed as science fiction, the technology is almost surprisingly unobtrusive to the overall plot and storyline.  Space folding, nuclear weapons, and personal force fields do play a role, but are more employed as dues ex machina in such a way that they DE – emphasize the prevalence of high technology.  Arrakis, the desert world itself, is stated to be one of the more backwater worlds, limiting the technology that can be brought there, effectively making it a third world nation in the interstellar scene.  Finally, the desert, the ever present equalizer and complication, presents a harsh environ that limits and focuses Herbert's ideas for the book.  Several factors which give the work a certain aged, bygone feel, almost reminiscent of steampunk.

It's the future, where are all the effing lazors? Herbert doesn't let things go the light slinging Buck Rogers route in his book.  Nukes are (conveniently) banned in use as direct anti personnel weapons, and force fields are finicky and vulnerable to the desert environs.   Laser weapons exist, and are noted as quite the device, but are made excessively dangerous due to their explosive interactions with the shields that everyone seems to have.  Hereby, Herbert's take on personal armament and escalation effectively limit everyone to hand to hand weapons.  Projectile weapons are present, but a rarity, and considered archaic in several instances.  The emphasis comes down largely to guerilla tactics, advanced martial arts, and skill with a knife.  Almost promoting these things as values, not just necessities, one could easily mistake this for reading Heinlein!

The setting of the planet Arrakis as the isolated, harsh source of vital resources has been a worthwhile mirror and exploration of our own modern resource dependency.  Still, this out of the way area further gives the book a less – than – futuristic, and decidedly less – than – modern feel.  Sure, space travel is a normal part of life, but this setting is limited to the last stop on the line, as it were.  For its remoteness, and other plot factors, any visitor may as well have gotten off of a bus, as space capability does not further affect the plot directly. 

In "Lawrence of Arabia", the titular character is once referred to as on of the "desert – loving English".  Frank Herbert, from his writing seems to fit the same mold, in that his depiction of the desert planet Arrakis stretches into a characterization.  The endless sands, brutal storms, and all – devouring sand worms make it an implacable force.  Fremen, the only people with the will to survive amongst its rigors, do so through unfailing frugality, shrewd risk taking, and extreme adaptation.  They see, as a reader is also lead to see, the desert and it's avatars (in form of the worms), as a purifying force, allowing only those who will work with its ways to survive, eliminating any weakness, and keeping only those who are careful in valuing only that which helps them.  While not obviously a steampunk trait, this harkening back to old time values, to a simpler, more accessible and carefully crafted way of life is in itself a central idea behind steampunk as a whole.

Overall, Herbert goes out of his way to paint "Dune" as a science fiction with the trappings and values of what many call an "older, simpler" time.  Deus ex machina giveth and taketh away, as technology is effectively negated from overriding the messages, and simplicity that become the books focus.  The environment promotes this further, making the stripping away of complicating factors complete and allowing conditions where even the book's equivalent of a world superpower is useless before those who adapt to their environment, and live focused entirely on their goals.  Though not directly imitating the steampunk genre in this, the ideas of the genre and of this work run parallel, both evoking conditions and places very different from our more generic, mass produced, and opulent modern life.  No scientist's clockwork monstrosities of hybrid locomotives run the land, but in it's ideas and messages, Dune does still well illustrates a certain romantic spirit cunningly worked in similar fashion, and evocative of the same emotions.  The good guys wear goggles too.         
   

[Suu]

....You haven't had your coffee yet, have you?

[Richter]

What gave me away? 

[Suu]

You posted an MLA-style expository essay on how Steampunk fashion is related to Dune at 9:22am, that's why.

[Rev. St. Syn, KSC (Ret.)]

Arrakis, the dessert world!

Now I want Arrakeen Tiramisu!