Yes! I am going to do it! I am going to put forth a manifesto, inspired by a very interesting discussion over Steampunk terminology at Serge’s LJ. In that discussion, I very clearly state that I hate the proliferation of “-punks” in our genre. Steampunk, Clockpunk, Splatterpunk, Creampunk (for fiction about edgy alienated dairymen), Beampunk (for fiction about edgy alienated log cabin builders), Reampunk (stories about edgy alienated papermakers) … OK. You get the picture.
So why am I proposing the formation of another “-punk”? Because … well, I don’t know. I guess just because “Bustlepunk” sounds superawesomely cool. And it seems to fit the kind of stuff that writers like Gail Carriger, Cherie Priest, Mary Robinette Kowal, Sherwood Smith, Susan Krinard and many others (myself included) are coming out with these days. Paranormal romantic historical fantasy tinged with the Victorian. There may still be ratchets and gears and clouds of steam, but they are a colorful background to the social dramas played out through fashion, manners and etiquette. There’s still high adventure, skullduggery and intrigue … but it’s just as likely to occur over a tea-table as on a zeppelin.
I’m proudly proclaiming myself a Bustlepunk. A New Weird West Bustlepunk. Just try and stop me.
Who/what else should be classified as Bustlepunk? Maybe Elizabeth Bear‘s Abby Irene stories? I know I’m missing a ton of writers. Am I barking up the wrong tree, and all of this stuff is really just included under the larger classification of “Steampunk”?
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Good term, well coined.
And how about that dress? Damn, that’s one fine dress. It’s a Worth, you know.
Mary Worth?
The Mary Worth I remember from the fifties and sixties had plenty of bustle, but was scant on the punk.
Answer of the day!
DO NOT JEST ABOUT THE WORTH! THE WORTH IS A VERY SERIOUS DRESS!
Only about the comic. About Charles Worth, nevah a jest! No no, not moi–
speaking of which, do you follow this totally awesome site:
http://community.livejournal.com/lamodeillustree/244450.html
I do now, thanks to you!
Call me dowdy, but of all the dresses on that page, this is the one I want. Pleats! Pleats! Pleats!
How did the song go?
“Pleats, release me, let me goooooooo…”
if you read the definition of the word Punk, you will find some treasures in there…
Well, in the case of Bustlepunk, the “punk” is used in the sense of something hot and smouldering.
I suspect what you are describing is what was called Mannerpunk ten years ago.
I love reading it (and writing it).
Mannerpunk?
That reminds me of the days when Cyberpunk was The Thing. That led Susan Shwartz and other ladies to having a tea party for the Cyberpreppy Movement.
I’m adding you to the list! What will be done with this list? I don’t know. But it will probably be used for nefaaaaaarious purposes!
*snap of the fan*
Bring it on!
Ooh, thank you for reminding me to pack a fan for World Fantasy. I always tell myself to bring a fan to cons because I get so danged hot, and I never remember to do so.
Oo. Fan. Good call. I’ve finally gotten into the habit of bringing a shawl for the ice rooms.
“…Who/what else should be classified as Bustlepunk?…”
My wife says her novels are Bustlepunk, except that they’re published in the romance field, with the restrictions that entails.
She’s ON THE LIST!
Sew she is.
Here is an Armored Bustle.
My daughter and her friends were taking turns punching me in the stomach the other night, when I was wearing my corset. They ended up hurting their wee little hands while I stood there grinning like Houdini (that metaphor excluding, of course, the regrettable last punch he endured …)
(And yes, I’m back to being a corset kinda fella. I’m quite changeable that way. I made it myself, a fact of which I am exceedingly proud! But more on that when I post about my costume …)
Hmmm — the Worth gown puts me in mind of the Irene novels by Carole Nelson Douglas — you know, that Irene, the one Sherlock Holmes could never forget. I think the early ones might well qualify as bustlepunk.
Irene Adler is TOTALLY bustlepunk. What a woman, Watson!
Let’s not forget Rebecca Fogg.
True, she really is crinolinepunk.
Bustlepunk is, of course, a kind of seampunk.
I do have to point out that I write in the Regency… what is that, Empirepunk?
Oh heck, I forgot you were Regency. That would be RakePunk, wouldn’t it?
Yeah, I like Empirepunk better too
Hm… It could also be Hessianpunk or Pelissepunk. I might just have to write some Victoriana so I can be Bustlepunk with the cook kids.
Reampunk – let’s just say, papermaking was _so_ not where my brain went with that. And hot damn will please someone write it.
Oh dear oh dear. And you a nice Victorian girl and all!
Pretty dress! Despite dislike of punk, must write abotu dress!
Isn’t that some dress? I could just stare at it all day.
[...] Carriger: Oh, that wasn’t me, that was M.K. Hobson. I like the term, and I’m all over accepting it, but I do think bustlepunk falls under the [...]
[...] of tea or some other beverage. Over on my friend M.K. Hobson’s site, she coined the term Bustlepunk. I found this to be singularly cool at the time, and I still do. Somewhere in the back of my [...]
Hi, thank you for your post. You’ve helped me a lot.