Jay! James! Tell me you've seen this already!

[elfs]

WWI Russian Flying Superfortress.

This is incredibly silly. The howitzer-laden flying fortress against the Nazi flying saucer pictures are just precious. What would we call the era between Steampunk and Atompunk, anyway? (And does it have to end in "punk"?)

Comments

[areitu.livejournal.com]

This looks like something out of Sky Captain. After reading a movie review that referenced "9" as "stitchpunk," I've wondered what else you could suffix punk to. I suppose you could call it Sovietpunk, commiepunk, Redbaronpunk, Daftpunk, etc.

Englishrussia is also one of my favorite blogs to read! There's defnitely interesting things happening on 1/6th of the worlds surface.

[kengr]

Nazi flying saucers are fun. I'm trying to work them into a story in the Whateley Academy universe.

[herewiss13.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly certain that the 'punk' is obligatory.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

It's called Dieselpunk.

The punk part is about the attitude. It is our argument with the SF of earlier generations.

If I write flashy Victorian spaceships and a pretty fallen lady whose virtue is restored by a junior officer, that's not steampunk. That's gaslight romance. I'm making no commentary on the sexual mores of either the Victorian era or our own.

OTOH, if I write about a workers' revolt over a new mechanical worker, who needs no wages, no food and no sleep, that would be steampunk. Because instead of the robot being "oooh, shiny," it's a direct threat to the livelihoods of the workers.

Actually ...

[autopope.livejournal.com]

The last two (blurry, black and white) photographs are genuine; it's the Kalinin K-7. Yes, the Soviets really did experiment with honking great bombers in the early 1930s! (It's all the earlier crisp CGI stuff that's made-up.)

And there's always the Tupolev Tu-4.

[nbarnes.livejournal.com]

Just checking; this means that Lang's Metropolis was punk. Confirm/deny?

[sianmink.livejournal.com]

And does it have to end in "punk"?

Yes. Yes it does.

[valarltd.livejournal.com]

Since Metropolis is of the period, it would be considered a dystopia. The conflict of workers and owners was a common one in the SF of the time.

If someone made Metropolis now, and set it in the 1920s, it would be dieselpunk.

[srmalloy.livejournal.com]

The Russians weren't the only ones with outrageous plane designs; for example, there was Norman Bel Geddes' Airliner Number 4, influenced by the Dornier Do-X, with a 36-foot-high main lounge, 9 decks, three kitchens, 13 pantries, a library, writing rooms, two public dining rooms (the main dining room converts into a dance floor for 100 couples, with an orchestra platform), three private dining rooms capable of feeding 40 people each, four tennis courts, six shuffle board courts, six quoits pitches, a gym with dressing rooms and showers, a men's solarium w/16 couches and a masseur, a women's solarium w/16 couches and a masseuse, a children's playroom, a doctors office with waiting room, a barber shop, hairdresser's salon, two bars, a store, a huge promenade deck, a veranda cafe that seats 90, 18 single state rooms, 81 double staterooms, 24 suites w/ baths, and 179 sleeping rooms, for a total sleeping capacity of 606 passengers, plus 155 crew and staff.