Fantastic Diesel! Pushing Dieselpunk to Implausible Extremes for Fun & Profit...

Recent discussions here have highlighted a perceived "plausibility gap" between Steampunk's fantastical focus and Dieselpunk's lean towards gritty realism. This is only in part true, since DP has more than its share of the fantastical with Gernsbeckian inventions made real or Diesel-themed SciFi (streamlined hovertrains and giant flying wings).

Much of Diesel-Era SciFi and Futurism has since proven as ludicrous as a Phogiston-powered steam mecha, or been wholly disproven by science (sorry, Edgar; no naked space princesses on Mars, just rocks). Much of this has been present in Dieselpunk art and literature, with Nazi Superscience, diesel-powered mecha, hover-Fords, streamline moderne robots, etc. Dean Motter's comics (Mister X, Electropolis, Radiant City) featured the World of Tomorrow as seen in 1936, with robot detectives, hover-sedans, and airhips docking at skyscapers.

Yet here at DP, at least, the focus has been turning ever more towards gritty noir. That's cool and I'm on board, but let's not forget entirely the fantastical possibilities.

Hence this Discussion, created with the express purpose of exploring the fantastical side of Dieselpunk, the implausible flying wing airliners, day trips to the swampy forrests of Venus, vacuum-blimps, raised hover-monorail tramways, and household robots...and of course flying cars and personal jetpacks!

What are your favorite "Fantastical" aspects of Diesel? Are you still bitter over that Flying Car you were promised? Did you want that robot butler? Where's the Pan Am Martian Clipper and its luxurious staterooms, en route to Barsoom? Post, link, and let not the sky be the limit!

Tags: Dieselpunk, Future, fantasy, scifi

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Permalink Reply by Caerulctor on September 18, 2011 at 8:48pm

I get the criticism about reading rather than making, and I take it to heart, but it poses a few problems for me personally. I haven't got and probably couldn't afford either the space or tools for a home workshop, and I don't have the mechanical training to do much by way of building artifacts. I have a little bit of artistic skill, but no training and very few tools. My computer skills are weak at best. I have no musical aptitude at all. I can do a little bit of writing, prose and poetry, enough to describe the kind of vision and style I'm aiming at anyway -- but who's going to read it fragmentary essays in an experimental literature? I guess the problem is that the level of art and craft around here is so professional that there appears to be little room for amateurs.

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Permalink Reply by Ryan and Amanda Quinn on December 17, 2011 at 9:18pm

We agree. It is the freedom of our imaginations that gives us all this, but that gave us everything up to these points. Who says you can't give a tank legs? Why can't we build a clockwork steam powered robot? A hover car is possible. Anything is possible. My wife is a self styled strange artist, and I completely embrace a mad scientist role. Anything is possible, it can be highly improbable, but never impossible.