The name "dieselpunk" is a derivative of the science fiction subgenre cyberpunk,[5] and represents the time period from World War I until the 1950s, when diesel-based locomotion was the main technological focus of Western culture.[6] The "-punk" suffix attached to the name is representative of the counterculture nature of the genre with regard to its opposition to contemporary aesthetics.[3] The term also refers to the tongue-in-cheek[7] name given to a similar cyberpunk derivative, "steampunk", which focuses on science-fiction-based on industrial steam power and which is often set within the Victorian era.[8]
Differences from steampunk
Author Scott Westerfeld addresses the question of where to draw the line between steampunk and dieselpunk, arguing that his novel Leviathan (2009) qualifies as steampunk despite the fact that the technology it depicts includes diesel engines:
I like the word "dieselpunk" if you are doing something like 'Weird World War II'. I think that makes perfect sense. But to me, World War I is the dividing point where modernity goes from being optimistic to being pessimistic. Because when you put the words "machine" and "gun" together, they both change. At that point, war is no longer about a sense of adventure and chivalry and a way of testing your nation's level of manhood; it's become industrial, and horrible. So playing around with that border between optimistic steampunk and a much more pessimistic dieselpunk, which is more about Nazis, was kind of interesting to me because early in the war we were definitely kind of on the steampunk side of that.[9]
Jennifer McStotts, another author, considers the two genres to be close cousins. She defines steampunk as concerned with the Victorian era, and the shift in technology and energy generation that came with industrialization, and dieselpunk as combining the aesthetic and genre influences of the period of both world wars.[10]
Dieselpunk draws not on the hiss of steam nor on the Victorian and Edwardian aesthetics and cosplay but on the grease of fuel-powered machinery and the Art Deco movement, marrying rectilinear lines to aerodynamic shapes and questioning the impact of technology on the human psyche.
In addition, Ramos gives "noir ambience" as an element of dieselpunk.[12]
Dieselpunk inspiration
Dieselpunk draws its inspiration from the diesel era and a characteristic referred to by dieselpunks as "decodence".[1] According to the online magazine Never Was, decodence (a portmanteau of "[Art] Deco" and "decadence"), "embraces the styles and technologies of the era; it rejoices in a prolonged Jazz Age ambience characterized by great enthusiasm and hopes about the future."[13]
The term "diesel era" is a period of time that begins with the start of the interwar period, which covers the time between the end of World War I and the start of World War II. The interwar era is central to one school of dieselpunk often labeled "Ottensian". In addition to the interwar period, World War II also plays a major role in dieselpunk, especially in the school of the genre referred to as "Piecraftian". (See § Common themes below.) The exact ending of the diesel era is in some dispute in the dieselpunk community. Depending on the source it ends either at the conclusion of World War II or continues until the early part of the 1950s with the advent of such cultural icons as the Golden Age of Television and the replacement of Big Band and Swing music with Rock and Roll in popularity.[citation needed]
As an art movement
Although the term "dieselpunk" was not coined until 2001, a large body of art significant to the development of the genre was produced before that. Artwork (including visual arts, music, literature, and architecture) created in the dieselpunk style are heavily influenced by elements of the art movements most prevalent in Western culture during the diesel era such as:
According to Tome Wilson, creator of the now-defunct website Dieselpunks, the term was retroactively applied to an already existing trend in literature. An alternative term was "low-brow pop surrealism". Writers of this trend blended traditional tropes and genres, such as Pulp Adventure, Film noir, and Weird Horror, with a contemporary aesthetic.[14] In his words: "They were creating a future fueled by the spirit of the Jazz Age." In their works, the reader could see Sam Spade in the era of smartphones and John Dillinger use a hovercar as his getaway vehicle. They were writing cyberpunk stories about the era of The Great Gatsby (1925).[14]
In discussing punk genres, Ted Stoltz defines dieselpunk as the quasifuture from the Art Deco era. He argues that cyberpunk, steampunk, clockpunk, atompunk, and biopunk are all defined by their connection to their respective technological element. He found this does not apply to other related genres such as elfpunk, mythpunk, and splatterpunk where technology plays a minor role.[15]
A feature that was first identified by the online magazine The Flying Fortress is that dieselpunk can be divided into two primary themes or styles: Ottensian and Piecraftian.[21] The dividing line between the two themes is commonly acknowledged as the start of World War II.[22]
One theme, named "Piecraftian" after its proponent author "Piecraft", focuses on the aesthetics of the world wars and speculates on how human culture could theoretically cease to evolve due to constant, widespread warfare.[2][21] According to Ottens and Piecraft, this theme continues the aesthetics of the diesel era into later periods of history by describing a world where survival (largely based on a reliance on diesel power) is placed above aesthetical evolution (as seen in such dystopian movies as Mad Max[23]).
A second theme, named "Ottensian" after its proponent author Nick Ottens,[13] focuses on a setting where the decadent aesthetics and utopianphilosophies of the American Roaring Twenties continued to evolve unhindered by war or economic collapse. Ottensian dieselpunk fiction is primarily concerned with a positive vision of technology, where the utopian ideals predicted by the World's Fairs of the times came to light.[24][25] As a result Ottensian dieselpunk incorporates "an enthusiasm for the predictions about the future",[26] and often shares elements with retro-futurism.[27]
With regard to moving pictures, dieselpunk combines the tropes, character archetypes, and settings of diesel-era fiction genres such as Serial Adventure, Noir,[33] Pulp, and War with postmodern storytelling techniques and cinematography. Inspirations for dieselpunk cinema include Metropolis (1927)[25] and Things To Come (1936), thanks to their period visions of utopian culture and technology.[1] Even the popular film Star Wars (1977) has been noted as having strong dieselpunk influences, as it drew heavily on pulp and World War II iconography but mixed them with futuristic settings.[34] Some even argued that the steampunk country named Steamland, led by an odd industrialist named Alva Gunderson voiced by Richard Ayoade, in the American fantasyanimated sitcom, Disenchantment, created by Matt Groening for Netflix, was "dieselpunk inspired".[35]
Some commonly referenced examples of dieselpunk cinema and television include:
9 (2009) has been described by director Shane Acker as a subgenre of dieselpunk which he calls "stitchpunk"[46][47][48]
Sucker Punch (2011), directed by Zack Snyder, includes dieselpunk-inspired adventures[49][50][51] with the protagonist Babydoll and her team infiltrating a bunker protected by clockwork World War I German soldiers, etc., mixing many retro, fantastic and sci-fi elements.
According to an article titled "Dieselpunk: Love Affair with a Machine", published in the online magazine Dark Roasted Blend, dieselpunk art "takes an interest in various bizarre machines, full of esoteric levers, cracked-glass meters – all visually intense and pretty sinister-looking, when photographed."[56] The article references Japanese artist Shunya Yamashita's having created one of the definitive examples of dieselpunk art with his work I Can't Explain.[57] The article also references Kow Yokoyama as a dieselpunk artist with his figurine series titled Maschinen Krieger.[58]
Other prominent artists in the dieselpunk movement include: Alexey Lipatov,[59] Stefan Prohaczka,[60] ixlrlxi,[61][62] Keith Thompson,[63] Rob Schwager,[64] and Sam Van Olffen.[65][66][67]
As a subculture
A person defined as a dieselpunk draws inspiration and entertainment from the aesthetics of the diesel era to achieve independence from contemporary aesthetics by blending the literature, artwork, fashion, grooming styles, modes of personal transportation, music, and technology of the diesel era with contemporary sensibilities.[68] The "punk" in "dieselpunk" can be interpreted as a rejection of contemporary society[69] and contemporary styles.[citation needed]
Part of dieselpunk's postmodern nature can be seen in the important role that the Internet as a tool of international communication plays in its development. In addition to two prominent dieselpunk online communities, Dieselpunks and Never Was Lounge, there are a number of online magazines dedicated to the genre, including Dieselpunk Encyclopedia, Dizelpanki, The Flying Fortress, Never Was and Vintage Future, and several blogs which are simply titled "Dieselpunk".[70][71]
While there are many websites dedicated to the history of the diesel era, a growing number of sites are dedicated to topics that tie directly into dieselpunk. One such website of note is RetroTimes Production,[72] which is an independent film production company dedicated to creating documentaries about "retro living, retro design, and retro style". A few sites are springing up that have a retro pulp feel as well, including Captain Spectre and The Lightning Legion,[73] which is an online comic written and drawn in the classic serial pulp fiction style of the diesel era, and Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual,[74] an interactive Choose Your Own Adventure-style pulp serial.
In 2012, World Brews, a craft beer manufacturer in Novato, California, began producing "Dieselpunk Brew", a beer line (IPA, Porter and Stout) inspired and influenced by the subculture of dieselpunk, and displaying art deco-inspired dieselpunk designs on the labels.[75]
Fashion
Dieselpunk fashion blends the styles commonly found during the diesel era with contemporary styles to create a fusion of both. The "punk" nature of the subculture comes from expressing a more complete presence in public akin to the fashion styles popular during the diesel era such as waistcoats, covered arms, hosiery, styles of shoes, and headwear. Dieselpunk emphasizes the inclusion of such accoutrements to render one's look "complete", in defiance of modern custom.[citation needed]
There has been growth of a Dieselpunk music referred to as electro swing, which combines the styles of Swing music with Electronica. Prominent bands within the Electro-Swing include Caravan Palace, Good Co, and Tape Five.
Variants
Decopunk or coalpunk
Decopunk, also known as coalpunk, is a recent subset of Dieselpunk, inspired by the Art Deco and Streamline Moderne art styles of the period between the 1920s and 1950s. In an interview[84] at CoyoteCon, steampunk author Sara M. Harvey made the distinctions "...shinier than DieselPunk, more like DecoPunk", and "DieselPunk is a gritty version of Steampunk set in the 1920s–1950s. The big war eras, specifically. DecoPunk is the sleek, shiny very Art Deco version; same time period, but everything is chrome!"
^Norrington, Stephen (2003-07-11), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Action, Adventure, Fantasy), Angry Films, International Production Company, JD Productions, retrieved 2021-10-26
^"Trivia for Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2010-05-28. While set in a "real" New York City, the history is obviously changed. The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Wuthering Heights (1939) references put the year at 1939. Despite being 1939, there is no sign of Germany preparing for war. There is also no sign that America is in the grips of an economic depression. All-in-all, not only is the technology "fantasized", but the entire history is idealized as well.
^"Squirrel Nut Zippers". Mammoth Records. Archived from the original on 2010-09-10. Retrieved 2010-05-31. Hot was an unexpected hit that placed the Zippers at the head of a retro-swing revival that they didn't understand, much less belong to. For one thing, they didn't really play Swing Music, per se. They played 'Hot Music,' a perpetually evolving, hybrid-stew of Southern roots traditions that one critic aptly tagged, '30s punk.'