Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Steampunk As Rust Belt Chic

Paul Krugman's mention of "steampunk" was the first time I encountered the term. Today, one of my Facebook contacts referenced a Pittsburgh online community dedicated to steampunk. What is steampunk?

SteamPunk Magazine might provide an answer. Wikipedia has an entry. My read of the subculture is that it is a form of Rust Belt Chic. The era celebrated is the pinnacle of prowess for many Rust Belt cities.

However, I have no idea if shrinking cities such as Pittsburgh serve as centers of steampunk. Reading Krugman, I think it may be case. Is there a steampunk community in Cohoes?

2 comments:

John Russell said...

Oops - that should have been <a href="http://www.boingboing.net>BoingBoing</a>

John Russell said...

You should follow BoingBoing to make sure that you don't miss out on these major cultural trends.