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I have to confess, Steampunk for me was more of an arranged marriage than anything else. Sort of like being married to a guy who annoyed me frequently, but gave me a big beautiful house to throw parties in. In fact, being *really* real here, despite being the first evah neovictorian/steampunk con we never would have known about it if it wasn't for the baby my assistant, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
epiclevelregina. We were like, yeah yeah, we'll get you a steampony for Friday night, it's not like we're doing anything with it anyway. We'll have a meetup or whatever.
And it exploded.
It was crazy, I was getting interviewed by MTV and the New York Times and I only barely had a working knowledge of what the hell was going on. Something about gears. Everything was happening so fast I couldn't form a personal opinion about it really, I just spat out whatever it was I was figured I was supposed to say. I'm ever grateful to the people who helped us get that level of exposure (Evelyn, GD, George) and it was super exciting being there like that at ground zero.
But steampunk wasn't my baby. And like any arranged marriage, I started to hate my steamhusband who I didn't want to marry to begin with. God! All he ever talks about is steamships and gears! Why are all his friends so young? And all they do is squabble about what's really steampunk and what's not! Blahblahblah is it mainstream! WHO CARES! I grew resentful of having to sit in the parlor with them with a smile on my face, pouring them more tea.
My actual marriage exploded, SalonCon was not going to be able to happen. I found myself feeling relieved that my steamhusband and I were then living in seperate estates and I could go about my life. But like any romance novel, my steamhusband would not give up so easily. He started courting me in all the ways I liked. Babybabybaby you're considered one of the go-to people in this subculture, you can still be interviewed for things you know. Babybabybaby, think about all the feminist/race/class/disability scholarly borkery you love that almost no one ever talks about in steampunk that *you* could talk about! Babybabybaby, I'ma have the head of Arisia ask you *personally* to design the Steampunk track for Arisia doing whatever *you* want to do! Babybabybaby, I'm going to haveyuki_onna write you a loveletter ((not really, it's her fab short story found here)) about a chick starting a motherfucking working class UPRISING! This is the shit you live for! You can start Jane's Army at Arisia! You can start a revolution! Viva la resistance!
And like any proper romance herione, against my will I started falling in love. If I'm a forerunner, I can care about whatever I care about w/r/t steampunk. I can set the fashion I want to wear, damnit. So, I started outfit planning. Once my outfits no longer cost $100+ a pop, I got way more into it. My working girl outfit is going to be crazy cool. I'm still contemplating how to do my cook's outfit. Once I started really getting into the theory behind steampunk and not the expensive outfits and the pew! pew! pew! I started really digging it.
So, my forced steambridegroom, I didn't think it ever would happen, but it has. I love you! Let's make a million babies that you can carry in your womb-backpack bedazzled in a thousand glimmering gears!
epiclevelregina. We were like, yeah yeah, we'll get you a steampony for Friday night, it's not like we're doing anything with it anyway. We'll have a meetup or whatever.And it exploded.
It was crazy, I was getting interviewed by MTV and the New York Times and I only barely had a working knowledge of what the hell was going on. Something about gears. Everything was happening so fast I couldn't form a personal opinion about it really, I just spat out whatever it was I was figured I was supposed to say. I'm ever grateful to the people who helped us get that level of exposure (Evelyn, GD, George) and it was super exciting being there like that at ground zero.
But steampunk wasn't my baby. And like any arranged marriage, I started to hate my steamhusband who I didn't want to marry to begin with. God! All he ever talks about is steamships and gears! Why are all his friends so young? And all they do is squabble about what's really steampunk and what's not! Blahblahblah is it mainstream! WHO CARES! I grew resentful of having to sit in the parlor with them with a smile on my face, pouring them more tea.
My actual marriage exploded, SalonCon was not going to be able to happen. I found myself feeling relieved that my steamhusband and I were then living in seperate estates and I could go about my life. But like any romance novel, my steamhusband would not give up so easily. He started courting me in all the ways I liked. Babybabybaby you're considered one of the go-to people in this subculture, you can still be interviewed for things you know. Babybabybaby, think about all the feminist/race/class/disability scholarly borkery you love that almost no one ever talks about in steampunk that *you* could talk about! Babybabybaby, I'ma have the head of Arisia ask you *personally* to design the Steampunk track for Arisia doing whatever *you* want to do! Babybabybaby, I'm going to have
yuki_onna write you a loveletter ((not really, it's her fab short story found here)) about a chick starting a motherfucking working class UPRISING! This is the shit you live for! You can start Jane's Army at Arisia! You can start a revolution! Viva la resistance!And like any proper romance herione, against my will I started falling in love. If I'm a forerunner, I can care about whatever I care about w/r/t steampunk. I can set the fashion I want to wear, damnit. So, I started outfit planning. Once my outfits no longer cost $100+ a pop, I got way more into it. My working girl outfit is going to be crazy cool. I'm still contemplating how to do my cook's outfit. Once I started really getting into the theory behind steampunk and not the expensive outfits and the pew! pew! pew! I started really digging it.
So, my forced steambridegroom, I didn't think it ever would happen, but it has. I love you! Let's make a million babies that you can carry in your womb-backpack bedazzled in a thousand glimmering gears!
