SYMBOLS AND PROPS OF THE STEAM-VERSE
As with any custom experience, you must wear the outfit and not let the outfit wear you - in other words one is mere dress-up and the other apparel. Anything can become caricature and meaningless unless you establish its significance for the character.
Goggles (usually brass but sometimes from other metals. More aviator style than swimming or sports, the goggle reflects the daring open-cockpit, bi-plane, balloon, and airship dare devils.
A parasol serves the purpose of reflecting a more genteel time but also a real usefulness as a skin protection device. So too an appropriate walking stick. The epitome of classic Victorian and Edwardian adventure was the Pith Helmet. Gears, clockwork, timepieces can symbolize steam age technologies.
Steam Adventuring Inspirations - Bibliography:
Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure by Jim Teal
Amazing Traveler, Isabella Bird: The Biography of a Victorian Adventurer by Evelyn Kaye.
The Desert and the Sown: The Syrian Adventures of the Female Lawrence of Arabia by Gertrude Bell.
Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi (graphic novel)
The Clockwork Three by Matthew Kirby
The Death Collector by Justin Richards
Doctor Illuminatus by Martin Booth
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Haunting of Alaizabel Cray by C. Wooding
His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade
“The Hungry City Chronicles” by Philip Reeve
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
The List of 7 by Mark Frost
Nick of Time by Ted Bell
Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Teen Readers and Adults –
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
The Difference Engine by William Gibson & Bruce Sterling
Infernal Devices by K.W. Jeter
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore
The Return of the Dapper Men by Jim McCann, Paul Morrissey,& Janet Lee
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
No comments:
Post a Comment