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branchandroot) wrote2010-05-31 05:31 pm
branchandroot) wrote2010-05-31 05:31 pm
Thoughtful steampunk with just cloth
This would be easier if it was narrative.
In narrative, it would be the simplest thing in the world to convey that the Meiji setting of the story features the intersection of domestic and imported technologies, both well out of step with "our" history, and that Japan had been developing land-defense weapons for pretty much all of Edo because the Tokugawa, starting with Ieyasu, were trying to turn technological development away from easy-to-hide personal arms by emphasizing outside threats (bonus social stability with that tactic), and that Edo social engineering had established swords as the prestigious weapon but baited loose samurai into the tech class anyway with the under-the-table understanding that the tech class got access to the most effective weapons, and now there's a competition of pride between the samurai class and samurai-descended tech class individuals which expressed really complexly during the civil war, and that Perry was a reasonably astute economical mind who had come to knock on the door with a trade agreement for the bulk materials a 'closed' country might be running low on (instead of a cannon), and that my character is present as a foreign tech employee who likes her co-workers here and maybe agreed to renew her contract for another couple years.
In narrative, nothing would be easier. It would still have all the difficulties of writing about a culture one learned about from the outside, and of writing as the cultural descendant of an aggressor in that time and place, and of writing as a privileged party in current and historical relation to the nation and ethnicity the story is set within. Historical AUs have a lot of potential to address those issues, though, and while the genre is no guarantee of success at least there's a nice bit of elbow room to try.
In cloth alone... well there's less room. As guidelines, however, "do your homework" and "know the symbolism" seem equally useful for both the writer and the costumer.
To start with, I suppose I can triangulate based on the problematic forms that orientalist costuming has taken. So, don't do it like that. This would seem to suggest wearing a kimono proper, rather than an adaptation, and modifying it. It should be a kimono that is appropriate in most fashions to the theoretical background, age, and class of the persona, something that indicates more thought and research than "pretty!". Historically appropriate but remixed, as it were, to match the theoretical world modifications.
Modern values of mobility and comfort are both strong threads in steampunk style (something I find wonderfully ironic at times), so dissonance or unfamiliarity is often achieved by using fabric that would not, historically, go together or go with the style of the garment, or by shortening or loosening the garment, or by reducing layers. All these are easy enough to do, and the latter two have some useful resonance both with working class styles of the period and with some modern fashion reinterpretations.
I posit that there would be less exact imitation, in the modernization drive of steampunk Meiji, because there would be less anxiety. Not none, to be very sure, but less; in a history where Japan has already been developing domestic technology during the closed period, Perry's visit would be an occasion for internal upset, renegotiation, for the tensions of the Edo system to snap and rebalance, yes, but not for the shock and panic engendered by the Black Ships in our timeline. (Unless you want to posit serious, all-out war, with advanced weapons on both sides which is more dystopian than I generally do in my fanwork.) I hope to reflect this both by the essential fact that the foreign consultant is wearing a kimono and by the addition of a buckled obi and boots, mixing some more Western fashions with the kimono and wide pants she picked up from her co-workers, neither side imitating the other wholesale.
That's my best hope for making my worldbuilding legible, I think: in this time period it really says something that the foreigner, who will eventually be going home again, is wearing local styles instead of resting on the modern = Western equation that fashion in our timeline showed. And, within the modern lens through which steampunk is viewed, the fact that the kimono is quiet and simple and has none of the aristocratically descended patterns and layers and bling and more layers that an unfortunate lot of modern Japanophiles go for should, I hope, differentiate this project from both the "wanna dress up like a geisha girl!" cluelessness and the "I shall follow all the rules of kimono and thereby be Correct and Japanese" that have bedeviled the modern Western relation to kimono fashions.
Of course, wearing a short single layer is also very much a men's fashion. As far as I'm concerned, this is a wonderful bonus, because that kind of mixing of gendered fashion is one of the things that most appeals to me about steampunk costuming. This, too, is something that resonates with the more rebellious modern fashion re-interpretations of kimono.
Of course, most of this is going to be completely invisible to anyone who has not also done a fair amount of digging around after fashion and clothing styles in relation to class and gender and this time period. Perhaps I'll print up a small broadside (or, more handily, a chapbook) to hand out to anyone who asks. And, of course, I expect to give any passing Kimono Police the screaming fits, which I consider a nice little bonus.
In narrative, it would be the simplest thing in the world to convey that the Meiji setting of the story features the intersection of domestic and imported technologies, both well out of step with "our" history, and that Japan had been developing land-defense weapons for pretty much all of Edo because the Tokugawa, starting with Ieyasu, were trying to turn technological development away from easy-to-hide personal arms by emphasizing outside threats (bonus social stability with that tactic), and that Edo social engineering had established swords as the prestigious weapon but baited loose samurai into the tech class anyway with the under-the-table understanding that the tech class got access to the most effective weapons, and now there's a competition of pride between the samurai class and samurai-descended tech class individuals which expressed really complexly during the civil war, and that Perry was a reasonably astute economical mind who had come to knock on the door with a trade agreement for the bulk materials a 'closed' country might be running low on (instead of a cannon), and that my character is present as a foreign tech employee who likes her co-workers here and maybe agreed to renew her contract for another couple years.
In narrative, nothing would be easier. It would still have all the difficulties of writing about a culture one learned about from the outside, and of writing as the cultural descendant of an aggressor in that time and place, and of writing as a privileged party in current and historical relation to the nation and ethnicity the story is set within. Historical AUs have a lot of potential to address those issues, though, and while the genre is no guarantee of success at least there's a nice bit of elbow room to try.
In cloth alone... well there's less room. As guidelines, however, "do your homework" and "know the symbolism" seem equally useful for both the writer and the costumer.
To start with, I suppose I can triangulate based on the problematic forms that orientalist costuming has taken. So, don't do it like that. This would seem to suggest wearing a kimono proper, rather than an adaptation, and modifying it. It should be a kimono that is appropriate in most fashions to the theoretical background, age, and class of the persona, something that indicates more thought and research than "pretty!". Historically appropriate but remixed, as it were, to match the theoretical world modifications.
Modern values of mobility and comfort are both strong threads in steampunk style (something I find wonderfully ironic at times), so dissonance or unfamiliarity is often achieved by using fabric that would not, historically, go together or go with the style of the garment, or by shortening or loosening the garment, or by reducing layers. All these are easy enough to do, and the latter two have some useful resonance both with working class styles of the period and with some modern fashion reinterpretations.
I posit that there would be less exact imitation, in the modernization drive of steampunk Meiji, because there would be less anxiety. Not none, to be very sure, but less; in a history where Japan has already been developing domestic technology during the closed period, Perry's visit would be an occasion for internal upset, renegotiation, for the tensions of the Edo system to snap and rebalance, yes, but not for the shock and panic engendered by the Black Ships in our timeline. (Unless you want to posit serious, all-out war, with advanced weapons on both sides which is more dystopian than I generally do in my fanwork.) I hope to reflect this both by the essential fact that the foreign consultant is wearing a kimono and by the addition of a buckled obi and boots, mixing some more Western fashions with the kimono and wide pants she picked up from her co-workers, neither side imitating the other wholesale.
That's my best hope for making my worldbuilding legible, I think: in this time period it really says something that the foreigner, who will eventually be going home again, is wearing local styles instead of resting on the modern = Western equation that fashion in our timeline showed. And, within the modern lens through which steampunk is viewed, the fact that the kimono is quiet and simple and has none of the aristocratically descended patterns and layers and bling and more layers that an unfortunate lot of modern Japanophiles go for should, I hope, differentiate this project from both the "wanna dress up like a geisha girl!" cluelessness and the "I shall follow all the rules of kimono and thereby be Correct and Japanese" that have bedeviled the modern Western relation to kimono fashions.
Of course, wearing a short single layer is also very much a men's fashion. As far as I'm concerned, this is a wonderful bonus, because that kind of mixing of gendered fashion is one of the things that most appeals to me about steampunk costuming. This, too, is something that resonates with the more rebellious modern fashion re-interpretations of kimono.
Of course, most of this is going to be completely invisible to anyone who has not also done a fair amount of digging around after fashion and clothing styles in relation to class and gender and this time period. Perhaps I'll print up a small broadside (or, more handily, a chapbook) to hand out to anyone who asks. And, of course, I expect to give any passing Kimono Police the screaming fits, which I consider a nice little bonus.
Re: Someone to brainstorm at! Yay!
"Glossing it over" is exactly what I'm trying to avoid. I'm talking about re-writing history *eyes her growing pile of notes* in some pretty significant ways to modify or ameliorate the things that made China, India, Mesoamerica, vulnerable to imperialist ventures. If anything, this is going to wind up highlighting the processes involved in imperialism and colonialism by forcing them into different channels.
Returning to the Dutch, there was something of an opening up beginning to happen in Dutch-Japanese relations, with greater exchanges of information. That's why if the Japanese weren't at such a disadvantage in offensive technology, I can see the country continuing to gradually open up that way.
Well, there's one good reason to minimize Dutch contact early on right there, because thanks to some other worldbuilding with China I now have the Shun dynasty instead of the Qing, and Tokugawa is deeply suspicious of the Shun but needs trade with them anyway. I want that tension.
There's an increasing chance, at this point, that Perry is actually going to be Navajo. Because of the Maya, you see. Though Korea is also a very useful possibility now you mention it...
if you're looking to steampunk the Taisho era...why not steampunk the Taisho era?
*frowns* Because that would, without historical alteration, mean the 'cheerful' progressiveness of Taisho is built on exactly the kind of imperialism that I don't want to gloss over. What attracts me most to steampunk is that it isn't always just a fistful of gears pasted on--it can also be a re-imagining. It makes things strange and highlights interior processes in science, history, subjectivity. It lets us think about what's usually tucked away on the inside. I like a lot of the Taisho aesthetics, but I don't want to simply duplicate Taisho with extra gears.
I don't really remember seeing anyone have to revise historical events so much to do Victorian steampunk?
*blinks* AU is kind of a foundational part of the genre's literature. While I doubt many primarily costume fans articulate their background to this extent, I'm willing to lay money that most of them have absorbed the AU assumption, and to support the kind of costumes women, especially, wear it would have to be a pretty resounding alteration.
This started with a costume thought: what might it look like. But I'm a writer, and so that immediately becomes "where did that come from". And at this point, having been digging into the history of technology in different quarters of the world, the project has become something bigger. I want to open up possibilities for steamy approaches to the cultures and nations that people don't usually think of, when they think of steampunk. Asian, Native American, African. Most of those are not aesthetics I'm personally going to try, but I want to see what might be plausible, in worldbuilding, and to raise the possibility for others. And, because I want to take note of imperialist and colonialist issues without building a dystopia (and without just pasting gears on imperialist periods), I'm looking at what historical changes might have produced local technology and less vulnerable governmental systems than the Qing or the Aztec. In most cases, it's astonishingly easy. The potential is there all over the place. The changes are mostly not terribly radical. They're actually pretty small, individually.
And I want it to have some whimsy, too. I don't know all of how, yet, but by 19th C I am going to put stone and ceramic automata in Mesoamerica. There will most certainly be steam mecha. And vast air-shows at Chinese parades and festivals.
Short answer: I'm worldbuilding so widely because this is what I do. The costume is going to be a nice cherry on top, but it isn't the main point for me, just the starting point.
Re: Someone to brainstorm at! Yay!
But IDK, rewriting British/American history is a lot less problematic than rewriting Asian/Native American/African histories because the English-speaking world is actually educated to a certain level for the former, and barely touch on the latter. And as you said somewhere up-thread, it's a lot easier to challenge gender norms through clothing than racial ones. My hackles fighting the temptation to rise probably stem largely from previous problematic experiences with steampunk anyway, and that there aren't enough AU narratives about non-Victorian steampunk to provide that cushion of communal imagination/unsaid unassumptions that costumers can draw from...
It'll be interesting to see if you can get distinctive looks for each culture's steampunk tech even in text (stone and ceramic automata YES); the illustrator in me is rubbing its hands in glee ^^;.
Re: Someone to brainstorm at! Yay!
*nodnod* Yes, there really hasn't been enough dialogue to thresh out issues that may come up. Though at least one of my dwircle does Native American law and gov. and she's been a wonderful help on that end! I really wish I knew whether there's been much SE Asian literature about re-imagining history. I mean... surely someone must have written about what would have happened if the Shun dynasty had gotten to Wu in time to keep the Manchu out and there'd never been a Qing. That kind of literature would really help inform this. But if so it hasn't been translated, so I have no clue.
Gotta start somewhere, though!