Steampunk, Victoriana, and Spiritualism

[Secret_Square]

I believe the last few posters are onto something here. I suspect that many steampunk aficionados like it for the same reasons my husband and I do. It’s a great outlet for history buffs, particularly 19th century history buffs. It harks back to an era when beauty, elegance, good manners, “high” culture, and a sense of personal dignity and honor were valued much more than they are now. It also recreates an era when popular fiction, including science fiction, was (for lack of a better term) more optimistic, adventurous, and just plain fun. Compare an author like Jules Verne to a modern SF author like Heinlein or Asimov and you might get the idea. In fact, the term “steampunk” itself was coined as a counterpart to cyberpunk – in other words, it’s everything cyberpunk is not, including (I would say) more human and more joyful.

 

[Roger_Buck]

Hi Ed,

Your point regarding Hebrew 3:13 is well taken and you sound unmistakably sincere to me

Thank you for this rich, informed response. I don’t know how much time I can find for this right now, but I salute what you are doing and find this fascinating.

For instance this:

To dress up in elegant period clothing and be ladies with poise, bearing and polite sensibilities appeals to them very much. Men are required to be the same. Masculine, polite and respectful toward ladies, which I did, and which went over splendidly with young ladies who knew what I knew. Giving them an appropriate amount of attention - rejecting the modern world’s version of male-female relationships. Pleasant conversation, really getting to know the other person and even dancing as people once did, with grace and elegance.

I definitely want to learn more when I can. Although you have sounded several, useful warning bells, it really does sound as if something is stirring in the unconscious here that Catholic faith and tradition can speak to.

May God bless your efforts here most abundantly!

 

[edwest2]

Hi Ed,

Your point regarding Hebrew 3:13 is well taken and you sound unmistakably sincere to me

Thank you for this rich, informed response. I don’t know how much time I can find for this right now, but I salute what you are doing and find this fascinating.

For instance this:

I definitely want to learn more when I can. Although you have sounded several, useful warning bells, it really does sound as if something is stirring in the unconscious here that Catholic faith and tradition can speak to.

May God bless your efforts here most abundantly!

Hi Roger,

Thank you for the compliment and encouragement. This isn’t just about the past but like-minded people taking some good from wherever they can. Those totally unfamiliar with Steampunk can see its good, and in a few cases, not so good aspects. But optimism and fun have always appealed to people

God bless,

Ed

 

[Secret_Square]

OK everybody, I wanted to post a quick update here. I’ve been accepted to do a presentation on the history of the Spiritualist movement in the U.S. and the U.K., from roughly the 1840’s through 1920. It will be along the same lines I mentioned earlier – describing how/where it started (with the Fox Sisters in the “burned over district” of Upstate New York in 1848), prominent people who made it popular (Queen Victoria, Mary Todd Lincoln), why it was popular (preoccupation with death, because there was a lot of it going on, especially during the Civil War), its defenders (Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of Sherlock Holmes, believed in it) and its debunkers (e.g. Harry Houdini, who exposed many mediums as frauds). I will also be pointing out the significant number of famous mediums who were exposed as fraudulent in the late 19th century and how this led to its decline.

In the course of preparing for this presentation I have discovered that the Vatican Holy Office in 1898 issued a document that condemned the actual practice of Spiritualism (for obvious reasons) but also, apparently, stated that bona fide scientific study into associated phenomena was morally acceptable – for example, doing research into the possible natural/scientific causes behind apparent ‘hauntings’. Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to find online in its complete form. Any hints on where it could be found would be appreciated…

Here’s a link to the event I’m attending:

genevasteam.com/

Thanks to everyone for their advice and encouragement… I’ll also be selling several of our Victorian/Edwardian book titles there.

 

[PaulfromIowa]

Good luck with your presentation. I don’t claim to understand the Steampunk phenomenon. It seems like a mix of real history and fantasy.

 

[Hoosier_Daddy]

Good luck with your presentation. I don’t claim to understand the Steampunk phenomenon. It seems like a mix of real history and fantasy.

Sounds like you do understand it then.

Civil war reenactors, renaissance fairs,
Westerns…

We all have our interests…

 

[Secret_Square]

OK, here’s an update/conclusion for this thread. I ended up giving a 45-minute talk, from notes, on the rise and fall of the 19th century Spiritualist movement in the U.S., focusing on the Fox Sisters, the most common types of Spiritualist activity (seances, trance lectures, and automatic writing), factors that made Spiritualism popular, and finally, the events that led to its decline (including the Fox Sisters finally revealing that their “spirit rapping” had been a fraud all along).

About a dozen people came to the talk and they all said they enjoyed it. I did get one interesting question. I had said that one of the factors that made Spiritualism popular was the Civil War and the absolutely staggering death toll it produced (620,000 Americans killed in the 1860s would be roughly equivalent to more than 6 million dying today). This person asked why the war in particular would have done this when there had been mass death from epidemics, child mortality, etc. occurring long before that. My answer was that when people died from disease or other natural causes in those days, generally, they died at home and their family or others they knew took part in preparing them for death and burial. They knew exactly how the person died and had a chance to say goodbye to them. Whereas during the Civil War, men were dying on distant battlefields or in POW camps or field hospitals hundreds of miles from home, and they either had to be shipped home for burial or just buried near where they fell. Their families never got to experience the same kind of closure, so the prospect of being able to communicate with them in the afterlife was a lot more tempting than it had been before. He agreed – and he also bought a copy of one of my books! So all in all it went pretty well and I’m happy I did it. Thanks, everyone, for your advice!

 

[edwest2]

Thanks for the update. The Spiritualist Movement also adopted practices dating from before the Civil War. Fake photography also played a role. In one of my books, an Indian maiden appears to materialize from the edge of a small, open tent while the medium inside produces a filmy substance which I’d rather not identify.

Ed