Dieselpunk is a retrofuturistic subgenre of science fiction similar to steampunk or cyberpunk that combines the aesthetics of the diesel-based technology of the interwar period through to the 1950s with retro-futuristic technology [1] [2] and postmodern sensibilities. [3] Coined in 2001 by game designer Lewis Pollak to describe his tabletop role-playing game Children of the Sun , [2] the term has since been applied to a variety of visual art, music, motion pictures, fiction, and engineering. [4]
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]
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]
Science fiction editor and critic Gary K. Wolfe defines steampunk as primarily set in the Victorian era and dieselpunk as set in the interwar period. [11]
Iolanda Ramos, an assistant professor of English and Translation studies at NOVA University Lisbon, argues,
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 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 ]
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]
Alternative history and World War II feature prominently in dieselpunk literature. Len Deighton's SS-GB , Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle , Alan Glenn's Amerikan Eagle, Robert Harris's Fatherland , Philip Roth's The Plot Against America , Guy Saville's The Afrika Reich , Harry Turtledove's The War That Came Early series and The Man with the Iron Heart , and Jo Walton's Farthing are considered dieselpunk by some. [16]
Other examples of dieselpunk novels are Hugh Ashton's Red Wheels Turning, [17] David Bishop's Fiends of the Eastern Front , Anders Blixt's The Ice War, [18] Kevin Cooney's Tales of the First Occult War, Larry Correia's Hard Magic: Book 1 of the Grimnoir Chronicles, Richard Kadrey's The Grand Dark [19] and J.W. Szczepaniak's Beyond Aukfontein. [20]
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 utopian philosophies 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]
Dieselpunk features prominently in the gaming industry, in both tabletop role-playing games and computer and console video games.[ citation needed ] World War II is a popular theme in dieselpunk games. One of the more prominent of these was Activision's Return to Castle Wolfenstein , [28] as well as the sequel to the 2009 game Wolfenstein , Wolfenstein: The New Order , which takes place in an alternate 1960s Europe where the Nazis have won World War II. Other dieselpunk games include Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996), [28] Crimson Skies (1998 board game, 2000 video game), Iron Storm (2002), [29] You Are Empty (2006), [30] Scythe (2016), Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (2008), [16] Sine Mora (2012), [31] Iron Harvest (2020), [32] HighFleet (2021), Bioshock (2007), Bioshock 2 (2010), Frostpunk 2 (2024), and Deadlock (TBA).
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 fantasy animated sitcom, Disenchantment , created by Matt Groening for Netflix, was "dieselpunk inspired". [35]
Some commonly referenced examples of dieselpunk cinema and television include:
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]
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]
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 ]
Dieselpunk music, [1] which has roots in the neo-swing revival, [76] combines elements of blues, jazz, ragtime, cabaret, swing, and bluegrass commonly found during the diesel era with contemporary instrumentation, production, and composition. [77] Some commonly referenced examples of dieselpunk bands are: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, [78] Cherry Poppin' Daddies (who released a song and music video entitled "Diesel PunX" in 2019), [79] Royal Crown Revue, [80] [81] Squirrel Nut Zippers, [82] The Brian Setzer Orchestra, Indigo Swing, Wolfgang Parker, [76] The End Times Spasm Band, RPM Orchestra, Big Rude Jake, and Lee Press-on and the Nails. [83]
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.
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!"
A similar, related pop surrealist art movement, which overlaps with dieselpunk somewhat, is atompunk (sometimes called atomicpunk). Atompunk art relates to the pre-digital period of 1945–1965, including mid-century Modernism, the Atomic Age, Jet Age and Space Age, Communism and paranoia in the United States, along with Soviet styling, underground cinema, Googie architecture, the Sputnik, Mercury and other early space programs, early Cold War espionage, superhero fiction and the rise of the US military/industrial powers. [85] [86]
Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberware, juxtaposed with societal collapse, dystopia or decay. Much of cyberpunk is rooted in the New Wave science fiction movement of the 1960s and 1970s, when writers like Philip K. Dick, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, John Brunner, J. G. Ballard, Philip José Farmer and Harlan Ellison examined the impact of technology, drug culture, and the sexual revolution while avoiding the utopian tendencies of earlier science fiction.
Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that incorporates retrofuturistic technology and aesthetics inspired by, but not limited to, 19th-century industrial steam-powered machinery. Steampunk works are often set in an alternative history of the Victorian era or the American frontier, where steam power remains in mainstream use, or in a fantasy world that similarly employs steam power.
Retrofuturism is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipating what will come, retrofuturism is the remembering of that anticipation. Characterized by a blend of old-fashioned "retro styles" with futuristic technology, retrofuturism explores the themes of tension between past and future, and between the alienating and empowering effects of technology. Primarily reflected in artistic creations and modified technologies that realize the imagined artifacts of its parallel reality, retrofuturism can be seen as "an animating perspective on the world".
Biopunk is a subgenre of science fiction that focuses on biotechnology. It is derived from cyberpunk, but focuses on the implications of biotechnology rather than mechanical cyberware and information technology. Biopunk is concerned with synthetic biology. It is derived from cyberpunk and involve bio-hackers, biotech megacorporations, and oppressive government agencies that manipulate human DNA. Most often keeping with the dark atmosphere of cyberpunk, biopunk generally examines the dark side of genetic engineering and depicts the potential perils of biotechnology.
Since the advent of the cyberpunk genre, a number of cyberpunk derivatives have become recognized in their own right as distinct subgenres in speculative fiction, especially in science fiction. Rather than necessarily sharing the digitally and mechanically focused setting of cyberpunk, these derivatives can display other futuristic, or even retrofuturistic, qualities that are drawn from or analogous to cyberpunk: a world built on one particular technology that is extrapolated to a highly sophisticated level, a gritty transreal urban style, or a particular approach to social themes.
A science fiction Western is a subgenre or cross-genre that uses traditional Western plots and settings, while incorporating science fiction elements such as futuristic technology or aliens. The post-apocalyptic Western and steampunk Western fall within this subgenre.
Science fiction is an important genre of modern Japanese literature that has strongly influenced aspects of contemporary Japanese pop culture, including anime, manga, video games, tokusatsu, and cinema.
Raygun Gothic is a catchall term for a visual and architectural style that, when applied to retrofuturistic science fiction environments, incorporates various aspects of the Googie, Streamline Moderne, and Art Deco architectural styles. Academic Lance Olsen has characterised Raygun Gothic as "a tomorrow that never was". It is inspired by Space Age, raypunk, and atompunk subcultures.
"The Gernsback Continuum" is a 1981 science fiction short story by American-Canadian author William Gibson, originally published in the anthology Universe 11 edited by Terry Carr. It was later reprinted in Gibson's collection Burning Chrome, and in Mirrorshades, edited by Bruce Sterling. With some similarity to Gibson's later appraisal of Singapore for Wired magazine in Disneyland with the Death Penalty, as much essay as fiction, it depicts the encounters of an American photographer with the period futuristic architecture of the American Atomic Age and Art Deco when he is assigned to document it for British publishers Barris-Watford, and the gradual incursion of its retro-futuristic hallucinations into his world. "Gernsback" in the title alludes to Hugo Gernsback, the pioneer of early 20th century American pulp magazine science fiction.
The Machine Age is an era that includes the early-to-mid 20th century, sometimes also including the late 19th century. An approximate dating would be about 1880 to 1945. Considered to be at its peak in the time between the first and second world wars, the Machine Age overlaps with the late part of the Second Industrial Revolution and continues beyond it until 1945 at the end of World War II. The 1940s saw the beginning of the Atomic Age, where modern physics saw new applications such as the atomic bomb, the first computers, and the transistor. The Digital Revolution ended the intellectual model of the machine age founded in the mechanical and heralding a new more complex model of high technology. The digital era has been called the Second Machine Age, with its increased focus on machines that do mental tasks.
Tech noir is a hybrid genre of fiction, particularly film, combining film noir and science fiction, epitomized by Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982) and James Cameron's The Terminator (1984). The tech-noir presents "technology as a destructive and dystopian force that threatens every aspect of our reality".
Steampunk fashion is a subgenre of the steampunk movement in science fiction. It is a mixture of the Victorian era's romantic view of science in literature and elements from the Industrial Revolution in Europe during the 1800s. Steampunk fashion consists of clothing, hairstyling, jewellery, body modification and make-up. More modern ideals of steampunk can include t-shirts with a variety of designs or the humble jeans being accessorised with belts and gun holsters.
Japanese cyberpunk refers to cyberpunk fiction produced in Japan. There are two distinct subgenres of Japanese cyberpunk: live-action Japanese cyberpunk films, and cyberpunk manga and anime works.
Fantasy cartography, fictional map-making, or geofiction is a type of map design that visually presents an imaginary world or concept, or represents a real-world geography in a fantastic style. Fantasy cartography usually manifests from worldbuilding and often corresponds to narratives within the fantasy and science fiction genres. Stefan Ekman says, "a [regular] map re-presents what is already there; a fictional map is often primary – to create the map means, largely, to create the world of the map."
Brazilian science fiction has been a part of Brazilian literature since the mid 19th century. The first works of Brazilian Science Fiction emerged in the decades following Brazil's independence. Brazilian science fiction has its roots in authors such as Augusto Emílio Zaluar in the novel O Doutor Benignus and Machado de Assis in the short story O Imortal (1882). The genre grew in popularity over the 20th century, reaching its first “golden age” in the late 1950s, bolstered by the work of publisher Gumercindo Rocha Dorea. Following the end of the military dictatorship in 1985, the genre has witnessed a renaissance, with an influx of new writers and diverse influences reshaping the genre.
Jakub Różalski, also known as Mr. Werewolf, is a Polish artist. He is best known as the illustrator of the board game Scythe and related paintings, commonly featuring mythical, fantastical beasts, robots and similar concepts. His style combines the classic art style of late 18th and early 19th century paintings with modern fantasy and science fiction concepts.
Solarpunk is a literary and artistic movement, close to the hopepunk movement, that envisions and works toward actualizing a sustainable future interconnected with nature and community. The "solar" represents solar energy as a renewable energy source and an optimistic vision of the future that rejects climate doomerism, while the "punk" refers to do it yourself and the countercultural, post-capitalist, and sometimes decolonial aspects of creating such a future.
It's already pretty clear that Lucas was drawing from the dieselpunk styling of WWII ...
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.
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.'