Gang Roundup – Dicember 2016

How is it that is already December????

I don’t know about you, but this year flew away for me. Was it a good year for you? It was a mixed bag for me, with a lof of mess at work, a demanding family life and of course (at least this!) the joy of publishing my fisr story as an indie author.
I won’t hide to you that I hope 2017 will be a calmer year. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if it were even a bit boring…

As for this blog and my stories, I have a few plans… but there will be a post for that.

Se this is the last RoundUp of the year. As always, a mix of 1920s news, dieselpunk posts, and some odds and ends about the diesel era in general. I hope you enjoy it. And if you come across anything that might be of interested, please leave a link in the comment section.

Dieselpunk Lexicon

There were two more installments on Larry Amyett’s blog about the elements of Dieselpunk. I’m really enjoyinging this series.

4: Retrofuturism

Retrofuturism is probably one of the most important elements of Dieselpunk. Certainly a large section of dieselpunk stories fall into this subgenre. Basically all dieselpunk films belong to this incarnation of the genre and so it’s understandable that most people think Dieselpunk only means Retrofuturism. Personally, I think Dieselpunk is broather than this, but I do acknkowledge the importance of this subgenre.

Dieselpunk Lexicon Part 5: Lovecraftian

There are a few things that make Dieselpunk very different from Steampunk, although many readers tend to think these two genres are one and the same. One of these distictive elements, in my opinion, is mood. Dieselpunk stories tend to be darker, and in the vain of noir, they also tend to have an ominous feeling to them. This feeling leads to a Lovecraftian imagination on the darker dieselpunks tories, the sense of a superior evel that cannot be defeated… though it’s often worth fighting.

Dieselpunk Lexicon Part 6: Decodence

Decodence (from Deco and decadence) is maybe the most defining part of what a dieselpunk story is, because it is all about vibe, whether it is a setting or just hints at the essence of the diesel era. It is very important in creating that mood that is authontically dieselpunk.
Larry suggests to read this article about decodence too. Very intersting.

What is Dieselpunk?

Fellow dieselpunk Tiyana Marie White has started a series of videos addressing the matters of Dieselpunk and diesel era setting. Dieselpunk is such a new genre that even dieselpunks don’t fully agree of what exactly it is, so it’s always intersting to hear the opinion of other people writing in the genre.

The ‘madness’ of revolting women…

Taking what we have for granted is one of the main mental habit a historical writers has to fight against. Some things are so ingrained in us, we are so sure that we have this right to exercise and that’s natural that we do, tha we often forget or don’t take into the right account, that that very right wasn’t at all granted in the past.

This article addresses the fight for the right to vote wemen fought in Great Britain. This fight was never this harsh here in Italy, so I really wasn’t aware what British women went through to affirm that right.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) A Silent Film Review

I’ll admit that I’m developing a particular interest in German Espressionist films. The main characteristics of these films are what originally drew me to film noir: the black and white mode; the stark shadows in contrast with light; the strong emotional reaction this contrast arises in the viewer. And also the interpretation of reality, because expressionist films, just like noir film, almost always talk about something totally different from what you wantch on the screen.

The Cabinet of Doctor Caligaris is probably one of the most famous silent films… and with a good reason!

The Groundbreaking Work of Alphonse Bertillon – The Man Who Invented The Mug Shot

This is one fo those things that we tend to take for granted. To us, mug shot is how the work of the police is done, we never consider that there was a time where this didn’t existed and there was actually someone who came up with the idea.
I don’t know why, I’ve always found the idea of the mug shot kind of fascinating, and especially looking at these ancient photos – I don’t know, it’s like a window on another reality, which is oddly still very similar to ours.

‘Heavy casualties. Wounded, wounded, wounded’: stories of the battle of the Somme

The Guardian online published this article last July, on the centenary of the Battle of the Somme, probably one of the most horrible battle in an overall horrible war. I only came across this now, thanks to a tweet by author Tony Schumacher.
I’m reading about World War I these days. My new project is set in the Weimar Republic, but I realised I cannot undertand that time without a good understanding of WWI. And I’m quite shocked. Not just for the war itself, which was more brutal and disctructive than we normally think, but because I see that Europe how it is today, the Europe I’m living in, what born then, in the blood of those trenches. You know I’ve always said that the 1920s remind me our time in a weaked way. Reading about those time and how thy relate to the place I live in today, how they still mirror my time, is kind of upsetting and enlightening at the same time.

The British Lion by Tony Schumaker

And while you’re at it, check out Tony Schoumaker’s series set in an alternative 1940s world where Germany won the war and Great Britain is occupied.

There are two books out at the moment, The Darkest Hour and The British Lion. They are both on my TBR list.

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