Literature! Aether Salon (Edited)

(The slides can be viewed here.)

Good afternoon, gentle beings.

Today I am inviting you join me in  a conversation about our favorite steampunk books. (In other words, I expect you to be your usually witty selves and speak up when you have something to add.) In the past decade the genre has exploded into numerous sub genres, and I suspect we all have our favorite novels and stories. I'll give you a little history into the genre and then offer up several suggestions for your to-be-read lists.

But before I get to the book lists, let's talk about what steampunk literature is. How do you define steampunk literature?

From artist John Coulthart, we get this explanation:

STEAMPUNK = Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man/baroque stylings) x (pseudo) Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot

Looks pretty impressive doesn't it (and I'm glad I didn't have to deliver that one in voice). Kind of like steampunk itself. Lots of parts and pieces but not necessarily as clear as it could be.

Over at steampunk.com they have this explanation of steampunk literature:

Steampunk has always been first and foremost a literary genre, or [at] least a sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy that includes social or technological aspects of the 19th century (the steam) usually with some deconstruction of, reimagining of, rebellion against part of it (the punk).

Okay so here we getting a little bit into the name. We have some "steam," and we have some "punk."
Here is perhaps one of my favorites from author Beth Bernobich:

Steampunk is...a mood (fog-laden streets lined with cobblestones); a theme (a world standing on the edge between one age and the next), a tech level (horses and automobiles, clockwork creations, goggles and steam engines, and aircraft rising toward the stars), and more than a bit of madness.

I think I like this version because it aligns best the steampunk that I like to read. It combines in the aesthetic and the escapism and the whimsy.

Here are a couple more the humorous explanations of steampunk.

Steampunk is...the love child of Hot Topic and a BBC costume drama.
~Gail Carriger, author of The Parasol Protectorate series

Steampunk is what happens when goths discover brown.
~ Jess Nevins, author of Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana

In case you haven't figured it out yet, there isn't a clear explanation of this genre. And that's all right. Why should a genre that is still growing -- still expanding -- be bound by a definition?

That said, I think Jeff VanderMeer and SJ Chambers has given us perhaps the most workable framework for steampunk literature today. And if you are trying to decide of a work falls into this category, this definition may help.

First, it’s simultaneously retro and forward-looking in nature. Second, it evokes a sense of adventure and discovery. Third, it embraces divergent and extinct technologies as a way of talking about the future.

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Now that we know what steampunk literature is (ha ha), we can talk about its origin.

Steampunk literature wedges its foot in the door in the 19th century. Jules Verne, HG Wells and Mary Shelly were among authors exploring the role of technology and man's relationship with it. The rapid changes ignited by the Industrial Revolution lead authors to look at technology with a critical eye.

Shelly, for example, asks how technology affects morality in Frankenstein - what are our responsibilities for what we create?

Verne was a hard science man, caring more about the scientific veracity than the fantastical possibilities of the genre. As the power of science and technology became more evident to the public, so they realized the role of mad scientist was a real possibility.

Although Wells used science in his literature he was much more concerned with its political implications. As a socialist, he was more concerned with the misuse of science than its accurate depiction.

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While we most often associate Steampunk literature with Victorian England, American dime novels were also influential. Edisonade novels, targeted at boys and young men, grew out of a fascination with science combined with American expansionism. The Edisonade novels had a formula: "a young American male invents a form of transportation and uses it to travel to uncivilized parts of the American frontier or the world, enrich himself, and punish the enemies of the United States."  Unlike the works mentioned earlier, technology is embraced. It will improve the character's life with no repercussions. Edward Ellis introduces readers to The Huge Hunter, or The Steam Man of the Prairies, a work that inspires additional series and hundreds of novels. The Edisonade genre was successful for twenty years before the closing of the frontier and changing tastes killed the genre.

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So having seen how people of the time approached Victorian and Edwardian science, let’s look at how more contemporary generations adopted, and adapted, it. Steampunk literature becomes a full-fledged genre in the late 1970s/early 1980s. There were a couple of 20th-century precursors that helped set the stage. Ronald Clark’s Queen Victoria’s Bomb is an alternative history that speculates on what would have happened if England had a nuclear bomb during the Crimean War.

Michael Moorcock’s Oswald Bastable series, starting with The Warlord of the Air, is probably the best recognized steampunk precursor. Another alternative history, this one set in India in a world in which World War I never occured. Airships and the Victorian/Edwardian style of writing set the stage for future steampunk novels. According to Moorcock, these novels were "intended as an intervention, if you like, into certain Edwardian views of Empire. They were intended to show that there was no such thing as a benign Empire, and that even if it seemed benign, it wasn't. The stories were as much addressed to an emergent American Empire as to a declining British."

Novels such as these harken back to our proto-steampunk novels that warned against the misuse of technology and implications for the control of society.

---------------------------------

The first generation steampunk novels were actually alternate histories based on Victorian times. Three authors - Tim Powers, KW Jeter, and James P Blaylock - would met regularly at a bar and critique each others work. From this group came the original steampunk novels, and from KW Jeter, the term "steampunk" to define the genre.

“I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term...like ‘Steampunk,’ perhaps.”
~ KW Jeter, Locus Magazine, 1987

So what were these original novels about?

The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers, is a time travel fantasy taking place in Egypt and features kidnapping, Romantic poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and werewolves. (Does this remind anyone else of Gail Carriger's latest?)

KW Jeter's Infernal Devices gives us clockwork creatures, a mystery and a mad chase, but be warned, this novel has a reputation for being difficult to get into.

James Blaylock takes us into a world of volcanos throwing the earth into the path of a comet, and scientists determine to reverse the earth’s magnetic poles to deflect the comet. Oh, and there is a mystery to be solved.

During this same era, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling published The Difference Engine. Another alternate history, this novel speculates on a world in which Charles Babbage successfully creates the first computer. Like many of their predecessors, Gibson and Sterling explore the corrupting influence of technology. It contains mystery, poets (Lord Byron is the leader of a radical group and Keats gives up poetry to program computers), and a gritty realism.

While steampunk may have been off to a great start, it quickly disappeared. As Jeff VanderMeer explains in The Steampunk Bible, “From 1991-2007, anything that might have been classified as Steampunk was described as science fiction, science fantasy, or alternative history. There were a few books and short stories that implemented steampunk elements. 1995 gave us Paul Di Filippo's Steampunk Trilogy, Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, and Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass.“

The Renaissance for steampunk literature occurred in the late 2000’s. Steampunk itself was redefined for this resurgence. It became more an aesthetic and foundation than a term to describe a movement. Now, steampunk literature is hot, HOT, HOT!!! Readers love it, publishers love it, and there are lots of opportunities for steampunk authors.

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Now we can get to the reading list! You may be familiar with some of these titles, and some may be new. Please feel free to share some of your favorites in the chat as well because my list will not be exhaustive. (My apologies to the transcriptionists.)

Please be aware that I have not read all of these works. Many are new additions to my “to be read” list. Many of the books I am about to mention can fall into multiple categories.

First up is steampunk with a supernatural element.
Gail Carriger, The Parasol Protectorate
Cherie Priest, Boneshaker
Kim Newman, Anno Dracula
Clay Griffith. The Greyfriar

I love to see the way authors apply steampunk gadgets and deductive reasoning in mysteries with a steampunk flavor.
Lilith Saintcrow, The Iron Wyrm Affair
China Mieville. Perdido Street Station
Mark Hodder. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
PC Martin. Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus
T. Aaron Payton. The Constantine Affair

With the steampunk westerns, you might expect to see a return to the Edisonade novels, but that is far from the case.
Cherie Priest, Dreadnought
Devon Monk, Dead Iron
MK Hobson, The Native Star

Airships, pirates - swash and buckle.
Chris Wooding, Retribution Falls
Michel R Vaillancourt, By Any Other Name
George Mann. The Affinity Bridge
Scott Westerfeld. The Manual of Aeronautics

As these novels show, it isn’t always easy to be a clockwork girl. Or boy. Or other.
Ekaterina Sedia, The Alchemy of Stone
Jay Lake, Mainspring
Cory Doctorow, Clockwork Fagin (YA)
Kady Cross, The Girl in the Steel Corset

Colonial - this is an area I haven’t done any reading in...yet, but considering the alternate history element of many of steampunk novels, I bet we will see more works appearing within this category.
SM Stirling. The Peshawar Lancers

The best way to sample steampunk (and the place I started) … Anthologies
Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, eds. Steampunk
Nick Geves, ed. Extraordinary Engines
Mike Ashley. Steampunk Prime: A Vintage Steampunk Reader

One of the areas with the largest fan base, graphic novels (and web comics)
 Phil and Kaja Folio, Girl Genius
Sydney Padua, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage
Brian Selznick, The Adventures of Hugo Cabret
Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, Scarlet Traces
Alan Moore, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Here are a couple of reference books I would recommend to any steampunk aficionado.
Jeff VanderMeer with SJ Chambers. The Steampunk Bible
Jess Nevins and Michael Moorcock. The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana

And finally, the references I used when researching today’s talk.
“The Future of Steampunk,” Paul Jessup. The Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review.
http://booktionary.blogspot.com/2010/10/future-of-steampunk-by-paul-jessup.html
“Steampunk Is,” The Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review.
http://booktionary.blogspot.com/2010/10/steampunk-is.html
“What is Steampunk?” John Leavitt.
http://www.steampunk.com/what-is-steampunk/
Steampunk. Ann VanderMeer and Jeff Vandermeer, eds.
“Introduction: The 19th-Century Roots of Steampunk.” Jeff Nevins. In Steampunk.
Steampunk Scholar.

Thank you for your time, attention, and willingness to share.
Kghia Gherardi: Any other works you would recommend?
Garnet Psaltery: I recommend new reading glasses
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Heh.
Bookworm Hienrichs chuckles.
Kghia Gherardi: I doubled my to-be-read list doing working on this project
Darlingmonster Ember: :D
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): My thanks and sympathies, Ritterin.
Kghia Gherardi: and I need to go back and re-read
Simeon Beresford: YA is strong in this area.
Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Did you mention The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi?
Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Which is more of environmentalist-punk. *grin*
Kghia Gherardi: Oh, I forgot Windup Girl.
Stew Macpherson: a wonderful job of pulling it all together Kghia.
Stereo Nacht: I must admit that, beside the Golden compass, my first Steampunk novel was Dalhquist's "The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters"; slow to start, but wonderfully complex.
Darlingmonster Ember: I would recommend, for those with interest in bloody-minded adventure and social comment, The Court of the Air , by Stephen Hunt
Kghia Gherardi: Caledon exposed me to Steampunk, and I haven't been the same. :)
Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): I do believe New Babbage should toot it's own literary horn too.
Stew Macpherson: Definately Stephen Hunt...
Polly Ellsmere: I think Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series verges on Steampunk
Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia) wonders if early fantastic horror as Pier Alderson Bierce fits the bill,..
JJ Drinkwater see's Dame Kghia's to-read list becmming tot ally unmanageable
Garnet Psaltery: Entries for Tales of New Babbage vol 2 need to be in by 25th!
Kghia Gherardi: I didn't even get into steampunk horror or steampunk romance.
Bookworm Hienrichs: Yes, indeed--Tales from New Babbage, Volume 1 is now available as an e-book.
Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Ah, good idea, that.
Kghia Gherardi: An excellent inclusion!
Bookworm Hienrichs: I also discovered a rather intersting Steampunk web series currently being written, called 'Railroad.'
Bookworm Hienrichs: It's at http://steampunktrain.blogspot.com/
Garnet Psaltery claps the mention of trains
Simeon Beresford: Or Steampunk Lesbian Or steampunk BSDM.
Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): or the distopian novels of Dino Buzatti, those may be more Dieselpunk,.
Linus Lacombe: hmmm..."Quest for the Golden Prim?"
Bookworm Hienrichs looks at Mr. Lacombe. "If it would get started again..."
Linus Lacombe smiles knowlingly to ms Hienrichs
Bookworm Hienrichs: Does anyone have any other questions for our speaker?
Kghia Gherardi: I will share slides and reading lists, so check the Aether Salon website for any you may have missed
Bookworm Hienrichs: If there are no questions, then I thank you for coming, and invite you to come next month, December 16th, at 2:00 SLT. Our guest speaker will be Victor Mornington, who will tell us about the Dr. Who community in SL.
Bookworm Hienrichs: Thank you all again, and safe travels!

Literature! Aether Salon (Unedited)

[13:53]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Does anyone perchance have a tip jar I could borrow?
[13:53]  Garnet Psaltery: Hello MIss Solace
[13:53]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Good day, Sir JJ, Miss Fairlady.
[13:53]  Garnet Psaltery: I'll look
[13:53]  JJ Drinkwater: Hello all...going AFK for a few, now that I'm here
[13:53]  Solace Fairlady: Hello M Psaltery, Miss Book, Sir JJ, M lacombe, Dame Kghia, M beresford
[13:54]  Kghia Gherardi waves to all
[13:54]  Garnet Psaltery: I have one - can you amend it to pay the right person?
[13:54]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): i do have a tipjar script,.
[13:54]  Solace Fairlady: and m Hysshia
[13:54]  Linus Lacombe: Hello M Fairlady
[13:54]  Garnet Psaltery: Sent jar and script
[13:55]  Solace Fairlady: Thank you for the timely notice Miss Book, with Steamlander down I had no idea Salon was this week!
[13:58]  Solace Fairlady: You are more right than you are wrong Miss Book, I have noticed:)
[13:58]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Not when it comes to building, or anything touching that topic.
[13:58]  Bookworm Hienrichs chuckles.
[13:59]  Rhianon Jameson: A good afternoon to all!
[13:59]  Solace Fairlady: then you and I have that in common:)
[13:59]  Solace Fairlady: Hello Miss jameson, M Neverwas
[13:59]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Hello!
[13:59]  Garnet Psaltery: ack wrong message
[13:59]  Garnet Psaltery: sorry
[13:59]  Bookworm Hienrichs: No, that was me, I think.
[13:59]  Bookworm Hienrichs chuckles.
[14:00]  Robin Ishmene: hi n_n
[14:00]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Slip of the hand.
[14:00]  Garnet Psaltery: No it still has the Where Eyre message
[14:00]  Simeon Beresford: ah greating newcombers
[14:00]  Simeon Beresford: hello Sir JJ
[14:00]  Solace Fairlady: Hello Miss Ishmene, Satu!
[14:00]  Garnet Psaltery: Greetings everyone I missed!
[14:00]  Robin Ishmene: n_n
[14:00]  Satu Moreau: ^_^ Hallo
[14:00]  Bookworm Hienrichs: I just changed the script, I think, Ms. Psaltery. Should be fine now.
[14:00]  Linus Lacombe: Good afternoon, everyone!
[14:00]  Robin Ishmene: hi all
[14:00]  Garnet Psaltery: I'll test again
[14:01]  Garnet Psaltery: Yay!
[14:01]  Garnet Psaltery: :o)
[14:01]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Yay! One step better than last month!
[14:01]  Bookworm Hienrichs grins.
[14:01]  Kghia Gherardi discreetly wipes her palms
[14:02]  Bookworm Hienrichs will *so* have her act together for next month. Which will mean that the Baron attend then.
[14:02]  Bookworm Hienrichs smiles wryly.
[14:02]  JJ Drinkwater: Where does one get a chair?
[14:02]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Unfortunately, that's the step I *don't* have. No transferrable chair.
[14:02]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): i fond one in the library of common objects.
[14:02]  Solace Fairlady: have you lost the one you were given last month already Sir JJ? ㋡
[14:02]  Garnet Psaltery: These are wearables - let me see if the Marketplace has a freebie
[14:02]  Simeon Beresford: Alas Sir JJ unless you have one in your Inventory...
[14:02]  JJ Drinkwater: Ah...I don't believe I got one last month...
[14:03]  Solace Fairlady: I can give you one with a femal sit in?
[14:03]  Linus Lacombe: You might look under "aether salon (wear me!)"
[14:03]  JJ Drinkwater: What are they called?
[14:03]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Check in your inventory for "Aether Salon (wear me)" - you might have one from a previous Salon.
[14:03]  Solace Fairlady: unless one opf the gentlemen here have a transferrable?
[14:03]  Solace Fairlady: Hello Captain Stereo!
[14:03]  Simeon Beresford: I wish Ma'am I wish
[14:03]  Bookworm Hienrichs will wait a few more minutes for people to gather.
[14:03]  Stereo Nacht: Good evening Ms. Solace!
[14:03]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): i would love one of those female sit salon chairs,
[14:04]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Am afraid I have very little in the way of furniture!
[14:04]  Linus Lacombe: I think these came from Ms Capalini (spelling)
[14:04]  Garnet Psaltery: Who needs a chair?
[14:04]  Garnet Psaltery: I'll send you one
[14:04]  Bookworm Hienrichs nods at Mr. Lacombe.
[14:05]  Garnet Psaltery: IM me if you need a chair
[14:05]  Stereo Nacht: Ang good evening Mr. Moreau, Ms. Ishmene, Mr. Drinkwater, Ms. Hysshio, Ms. Psaltery, Ms. Jameson, mr. Lacombe, Mr. Beresford, Ms. Neverwas, Ms. Hienrichs and everyone!
[14:05]  Linus Lacombe: Good afternoon, Ms Stereo!
[14:05]  Garnet Psaltery: Hello Miss Nacht :o)
[14:05]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Good evening! Impressive roll call.
[14:05]  Garnet Psaltery: and all in one breath
[14:05]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Good lungs on her.
[14:05]  Rhianon Jameson grins
[14:05]  Rhianon Jameson: Indeed
[14:06]  Satu Moreau: ^_^ Hello, Ms. Nacht
[14:06]  violet Solano: good afternoon all
[14:06]  Linus Lacombe: Good afernoon, M Solano
[14:06]  Bookworm Hienrichs: We'll wait another 5 minutes for stragglers.
[14:06]  Robin Ishmene: n_n
[14:07]  Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): hello everyones :)
[14:07]  Garnet Psaltery: Greetings
[14:07]  Linus Lacombe: Hello M Eldemar
[14:07]  Polly Ellsmere: afternoon Miss Eldemar
[14:07]  Garnet Psaltery: Last call for wearable chairs - IM me if you need one
[14:07]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Greetings to all who have come in while I've been distracted.
[14:08]  Solace Fairlady waves to the Admiral:)
[14:08]  Linus Lacombe: Hello Admiral
[14:08]  Solace Fairlady: Hello Miss Elsemere, Miss cashew
[14:09]  Wildstar Beaumont: good evening !
[14:09]  Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): hello :)
[14:09]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Good evening, Admiral!
[14:09]  Emerson Lighthouse nods
[14:09]  Kelso Uxlay: Hello
[14:09]  Sidonie Ancelin (ancelin): Hello there, everyone
[14:09]  Solace Fairlady: M Lighthouse, m Uxlay, Miss Sid!
[14:09]  Tephi Zepp: hello :))
[14:09]  Linus Lacombe: Hello, M Ancelin
[14:09]  Emerson Lighthouse: Miss Fairlady
[14:09]  Emerson Lighthouse smiles
[14:09]  Solace Fairlady: and M Zepp
[14:10]  Solace Fairlady: and Miss magz!
[14:10]  Linus Lacombe: Hello M Haiku
[14:10]  Garnet Psaltery: Hello Miss Polly and everyone I missed
[14:10]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev) blinks.
[14:10]  Bookworm Hienrichs chuckels to herself. Waiting was a good thing.
[14:11]  Bookworm Hienrichs chastises the typist for the typo.
[14:11]  Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer) smiles
[14:11]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Well, I think we'll get started.
[14:11]  Simeon Beresford: Hello Miss ElseMere Miss Cashew Indeed Greetings to All newcomers
[14:11]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas) is admiring what looks to be an impressive visual machine.
[14:11]  Garnet Psaltery: Chuckels n. A species of mouse
[14:11]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev) waves to all.
[14:12]  Bookworm Hienrichs: I'm afraid our usual host, Baron Wulfenbach, is AWOL again. At least this time, I've been able to bring some stuffing for fitting my feet into his shoes.
[14:12]  Satu Moreau chuckles
[14:12]  Bookworm Hienrichs: (Translation, I remembered to cage a tip jar from someone. Thank you, Ms Psaltery!)
[14:12]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas) scopes out shoes.
[14:12]  Garnet Psaltery: (My pleasure)
[14:12]  Bookworm Hienrichs smiles wryly.
[14:13]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Thank you, everyone, for coming to this Aether Salon. If you've not yet joined the group, please click on one of the large group join signs.
[14:13]  Bookworm Hienrichs: You can also support the group through tips to one of the small signs in the back of the Salon building.
[14:13]  Bookworm Hienrichs: For the sake of us all, please remove any lag-inducing HUDs and other objects.
[14:13]  Bookworm Hienrichs grins.
[14:14]  Bookworm Hienrichs: And now, I'd like to introduce this month's speaker.
[14:14]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Kghia Gherardi is a familiar presence in the Caledon Library, where she has co-hosted book discussions for a number of years. Today she is speaking about the origins of Steampunk Literature, and she hopes you come away with new entries for your to-be-read list.
[14:14]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Take it away, Dame Gherardi!
[14:14]  Linus Lacombe:  `*.¸.*´ APPLAUSE `*.¸.*´APPLAUSE `*.¸.*´
[14:14]  Bookworm Hienrichs applauds.
[14:14]  Kghia Gherardi takes a deep breath
[14:14]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas) smiles attentively.
[14:14]  Tephi Zepp: Applause :)))
[14:14]  Simeon Beresford: Hurrah
[14:14]  Kghia Gherardi: Good afternoon, gentle beings.
[14:14]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia) applauds respectfully.
[14:15]  Kghia Gherardi: Today I am inviting you join me in a conversation about our favorite steampunk books. (In other words, I expect you to be your usually witty selves and speak up when you have something to add.) In the past decade the genre has exploded into numerous sub genres, and I suspect we all have our favorite novels and stories. I'll give you a little history into the genre and then offer up several suggestions for your to-be-read lists.
[14:15]  Kghia Gherardi: But before I get to the book lists, let's talk about what steampunk literature is. How do you define steampunk literature?
[14:16]  JJ Drinkwater: Results of 21st c technology by 19th c means
[14:16]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev) watches Kghia start a war with that question.
[14:16]  Bhelanna Blaze (bhelanna) smiles
[14:16]  Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): :)
[14:16]  Wildstar Beaumont: :)
[14:16]  Solace Fairlady: Anything set in an alternative 19th c? or thereabouts?
[14:17]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): books with clockwork computers run on Leiden jars and such,
[14:17]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): I suppose saying "The review called it Steampunk" isn't to be admitted, right?
[14:17]  Solace Fairlady: usually is defined by the tech used?
[14:17]  Kghia Gherardi chuckles
[14:17]  Wildstar Beaumont: a fork in time ?
[14:17]  Simeon Beresford: airships
[14:17]  Kghia Gherardi: Let me share some possible definitions with you.
[14:17]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): no WW 1
[14:18]  Stereo Nacht: Litterature about a parallel universe where steam power... well, never lost steam! ;-)
[14:18]  Kghia Gherardi: From artist John Coulthart, we get this explanation:
[14:18]  Kghia Gherardi: STEAMPUNK = Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man/baroque stylings) x (pseudo) Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot
[14:18]  Garnet Psaltery: A story that could have been imagined in the Victorian era, extrapolating from the science of the time
[14:18]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Seriously, I'd say containing enough of the known steampunk esthetics so as to feel comfortable.
[14:18]  Kghia Gherardi: Looks pretty impressive doesn't it (and I'm glad I didn't have to deliver that one in voice). Kind of like steampunk itself. Lots of parts and pieces but not necessarily as clear as it could be.
[14:19]  Kghia Gherardi: Over at steampunk.com they have this explanation of steampunk literature:
[14:19]  Kghia Gherardi: Steampunk has always been first and foremost a literary genre, or [at] least a sub-genre of science fiction and fantasy that includes social or technological aspects of the 19th century (the steam) usually with some deconstruction of, reimagining of, rebellion against part of it (the punk).
[14:19]  Kghia Gherardi: Okay so here we getting a little bit into the name. We have some "steam," and we have some "punk."
[14:19]  Kghia Gherardi: Here is perhaps one of my favorites from author Beth Bernobich:
[14:20]  Kghia Gherardi: Steampunk is...a mood (fog-laden streets lined with cobblestones); a theme (a world standing on the edge between one age and the next), a tech level (horses and automobiles, clockwork creations, goggles and steam engines, and aircraft rising toward the stars), and more than a bit of madness.
[14:20]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia) looks at her own hair and grins,
[14:20]  Kghia Gherardi: I think I like this version because it aligns best the steampunk that I like to read. It combines in the aesthetic and the escapism and the whimsy.
[14:20]  Garnet Psaltery: Madness *nods and approves*
[14:20]  Kghia Gherardi: Here are a couple more the humorous explanations of steampunk.
[14:21]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): I like that definition. Quite well spoken and imagined.
[14:21]  JJ Drinkwater applauds whimsy on principle
[14:21]  Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): that is a delightful description
[14:21]  Kghia Gherardi: Steampunk is...the love child of Hot Topic and a BBC costume drama.
~Gail Carriger, author of The Parasol Protectorate series
Steampunk is what happens when goths discover brown.
~ Jess Nevins, author of Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana
[14:21]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev) snorts.
[14:21]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas) laughs too loudly.
[14:21]  Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): lol
[14:21]  Kghia Gherardi: For those of you not in the US, Hot Topic is a clothing store aimed at young adults
[14:21]  Garnet Psaltery: Pfft fashionistas
[14:21]  Solace Fairlady: ah thank you Dame Kghia!
[14:22]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): love that remark, goths wearing brown, hilarious (giggles)
[14:22]  Rhianon Jameson: I'm in the US and never heard of it. :)
[14:22]  Stereo Nacht: (Good evening Herr Baron!)
[14:22]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): A clothing store known for selling "Goth lite" and "punk lite" type clothing and accessories to those young adults.
[14:22]  Solace Fairlady: and here is our own favourite brown-cald Goth!
[14:22]  Solace Fairlady: Guten abend Herr Baron!
[14:22]  Solace Fairlady: *clad
[14:22]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Might anyone need a chair, bitte?
[14:22]  Rhianon Jameson: Thank you, ma'am. Now I feel very old.
[14:23]  Garnet Psaltery: Guten Abend, Herr Baron
[14:23]  Kghia Gherardi: In case you haven't figured it out yet, there isn't a clear explanation of this genre. And that's all right. Why should a genre that is still growing -- still expanding -- be bound by a definition?
[14:23]  Linus Lacombe: Hallo, Herr Baron
[14:23]  Sidonie Ancelin (ancelin): Good day, Herr Baron.
[14:23]  Kghia Gherardi: Good afternoon, Herr Baron.
[14:23]  Stereo Nacht: Besides... Something as mad as steampunk could not be contained in a single definition! ;-)
[14:23]  Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): hello Herr Baron
[14:23]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): *nods respectfully at the Baron,.
[14:23]  Simeon Beresford: Indeed
[14:23]  Kghia Gherardi: I didn't do that!
[14:23]  Kghia Gherardi: honestly!
[14:23]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Is it drafty in here or is it me?
[14:24]  Bookworm Hienrichs nods at the Baron.
[14:24]  Garnet Psaltery: It's to let in the soot
[14:24]  Kghia Gherardi: That said, I think Jeff VanderMeer and SJ Chambers has given us perhaps the most workable framework for steampunk literature today. And if you are trying to decide of a work falls into this category, this definition may help
[14:24]  Simeon Beresford: pulls his coat closer
[14:24]  Kghia Gherardi: First, it’s simultaneously retro and forward-looking in nature. Second, it evokes a sense of adventure and discovery. Third, it embraces divergent and extinct technologies as a way of talking about the future.
[14:24]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev) raises her hand for a query (if you're taking questions right now).
[14:24]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia) is glad its not so hot in here, else she'd dry out to fast,..
[14:24]  Kghia Gherardi: ask away
[14:25]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): How do those recent and humourous definitions comport with what's the considered the progenitors of the subgenre of steampunk lit: the works of Blaylock, Jeter and Powers, as well as Gibson's and Stirling's The Difference Engine?
[14:26]  Kghia Gherardi: I will talk a little about that, but I think it comes down to the genre changing to fit the needs of the authors and audience
[14:27]  Kghia Gherardi: it becomes more an aesthetic and style, and less a movement
[14:27]  Kghia Gherardi: at least in the realm of literature.
[14:28]  Garnet Psaltery: Welcome back
[14:28]  JJ Drinkwater: More the mood and setting, less the structure?
[14:28]  Kghia Gherardi: I think the current flavor of steampunk is best described by this last definition.
[14:29]  Kghia Gherardi: it isn't rebellion against something, as we normally think of punk doing.
[14:29]  Kghia Gherardi: It is embracing technology, studying it, criticizing it.
[14:29]  Kghia Gherardi nods at Mr Drinkwater
[14:30]  Kghia Gherardi: Now that we know what steampunk literature is (ha ha), we can talk about its origin.
[14:30]  Kghia Gherardi: Steampunk literature wedges its foot in the door in the 19th century. Jules Verne, HG Wells and Mary Shelly were among authors exploring the role of technology and man's relationship with it. The rapid changes ignited by the Industrial Revolution lead authors to look at technology with a critical eye.
[14:30]  Simeon Beresford: there is undoubted ly a strong rebelious elment in some steampunk still.
[14:30]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): Erm, punk started out as a fashiom movement, the rebellion aspect of it was added later, so estetics are also a base in punk.
[14:31]  Solace Fairlady smiles "hello my love:)"
[14:31]  Kghia Gherardi: good point. I tend to think of punk music first. :)
[14:31]  Kghia Gherardi: Shelly, for example, asks how technology affects morality in Frankenstein - what are our responsibilities for what we create?
[14:31]  Kghia Gherardi: This is a theme we return in contemporary steampunk
[14:32]  Darlingmonster Ember: thank you she whispers
[14:32]  Kghia Gherardi: Verne was a hard science man, caring more about the scientific veracity than the fantastical possibilities of the genre. As the power of science and technology became more evident to the public, so they realized the role of mad scientist was a real possibility.
[14:32]  Kghia Gherardi: Although Wells used science in his literature he was much more concerned with its political implications. As a socialist, he was more concerned with the misuse of science than its accurate depiction.
[14:33]  Kghia Gherardi: While we most often associate Steampunk literature with Victorian England, American dime novels were also influential. Edisonade novels, targeted at boys and young men, grew out of a fascination with science combined with American expansionism.
[14:33]  Deea (andra.carolina): Heii.
[14:33]  Kghia Gherardi: The Edisonade novels had a formula: "a young American male invents a form of transportation and uses it to travel to uncivilized parts of the American frontier or the world, enrich himself, and punish the enemies of the United States."
[14:33]  Kghia Gherardi: Unlike the works mentioned earlier, technology is embraced. It will improve the character's life with no repercussions.
[14:34]  Kghia Gherardi: Edward Ellis introduces readers to The Huge Hunter, or The Steam Man of the Prairies, a work that inspires additional series and hundreds of novels. The Edisonade genre was successful for twenty years before the closing of the frontier and changing tastes killed the genre.
[14:34]  Kghia Gherardi: So having seen how people of the time approached Victorian and Edwardian science, let’s look at how more contemporary generations adopted, and adapted, it.
[14:35]  Kghia Gherardi: Steampunk literature becomes a full-fledged genre in the late 1970s/early 1980s. There were a couple of 20th-century precursors that helped set the stage.
[14:35]  Kghia Gherardi: Ronald Clark’s Queen Victoria’s Bomb is an alternative history that speculates on what would have happened if England had a nuclear bomb during the Crimean War.
[14:35]  Kghia Gherardi: Michael Moorcock’s Oswald Bastable series, starting with The Warlord of the Air, is probably the best recognized steampunk precursor.
[14:35]  JJ Drinkwater turns pale
[14:36]  Solace Fairlady: yay
[14:36]  Solace Fairlady: at last someone else recognises that work!
[14:36]  Kghia Gherardi: Another alternative history, this one set in India in a world in which World War I never occured.
[14:36]  Kghia Gherardi: Airships and the Victorian/Edwardian style of writing set the stage for future steampunk novels.
[14:36]  Kghia Gherardi: According to Moorcock, these novels were "intended as an intervention, if you like, into certain Edwardian views of Empire. They were intended to show that there was no such thing as a benign Empire, and that even if it seemed benign, it wasn't. The stories were as much addressed to an emergent American Empire as to a declining British."
[14:36]  Kghia Gherardi: Novels such as these harken back to our proto-steampunk novels that warned against the misuse of technology and implications for the control of society.
[14:37]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) doubletakes at Sir JJ
[14:37]  Simeon Beresford: nods the rebellion theme
[14:38]  Simeon Beresford: The bastable novels were the first in which the eternal champion sided with chaos.
[14:38]  Solace Fairlady: what about the Elric series?
[14:38]  Kghia Gherardi: The first generation steampunk novels were actually alternate histories based on Victorian times.
[14:38]  Simeon Beresford: He used chaos but fought against it,
[14:39]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia) notiches she still has much reading to do,..
[14:39]  Simeon Beresford: He was conflicted :^)
[14:39]  Darlingmonster Ember: snerks
[14:39]  Stereo Nacht: I as well, Ms!
[14:39]  Solace Fairlady: is debatle whether bastable sides with Chaos in those books too, at least the Choas pantheon of Moorcock, but thats a whole other discussion:)
[14:40]  Kghia Gherardi: Three authors - Tim Powers, KW Jeter, and James P Blaylock - would met regularly at a bar and critique each others work
[14:40]  Kghia Gherardi: From this group came the original steampunk novels, and from KW Jeter, the term "steampunk" to define the genre.
[14:40]  Stew Macpherson: ...interesting ,that.
[14:40]  Kghia Gherardi: “I think Victorian fantasies are going to be the next big thing, as long as we can come up with a fitting collective term...like ‘Steampunk,’ perhaps.”
~ KW Jeter, Locus Magazine, 1987
[14:40]  Simeon Beresford: Powers and blaycock were in school together.
[14:40]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Heh. I understand his motivation.
[14:40]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Really? *is intrigued by that group's meetings*
[14:41]  Kghia Gherardi: the group meetings sound interesting, don't they?
[14:41]  Kghia Gherardi: If you read interviews with the group members, they still talk about what each brought to the table
[14:41]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): I would like to travel in time and talk them out of branding it with 'punk', but otherwise.... wonderful.
[14:41]  Stew Macpherson: Creative sausage grinder ^ ^
[14:41]  Simeon Beresford: Their characters show up in each others books
[14:41]  Kghia Gherardi agrees with Simeon
[14:42]  Kghia Gherardi: one of the authors, I forget which now, introduced the group to Matthew Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor‎:
[14:42]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev) has heard/read that Jeter's quote was a mocking take on the 'cyberpunk' trend rather than a serious attempt at nomenclature.
[14:42]  Kghia Gherardi: It was very influential with this group.
[14:43]  JJ Drinkwater: So THAT'S where early steampunk's grit came from!
[14:43]  Kghia Gherardi: I think it started as a bit of a joke.
[14:43]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia) sees Steam- and Cyberpunk asd timetorn apart twins.
[14:43]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Remember kids, don't joke!
[14:43]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): Ooh! Terry Pratchett just cited that book in a recent interview.
[14:44]  Garnet Psaltery has ancestors in that book
[14:44]  Kghia Gherardi: So what were these original novels about?
[14:44]  Kghia Gherardi: The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers, is a time travel fantasy taking place in Egypt and features kidnapping, Romantic poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and werewolves. (Does this remind anyone else of Gail Carriger's latest?)
[14:44]  Stew Macpherson: LOL
[14:44]  Kghia Gherardi: KW Jeter's Infernal Devices gives us clockwork creatures, a mystery and a mad chase, but be warned, this novel has a reputation for being difficult to get into.
[14:45]  Kghia Gherardi: James Blaylock takes us into a world of volcanos throwing the earth into the path of a comet, and scientists determine to reverse the earth’s magnetic poles to deflect the comet. Oh, and there is a mystery to be solved.
[14:45]  Simeon Beresford: Anubis gates is amazing
[14:45]  Kghia Gherardi: During this same era, William Gibson and Bruce Sterling published The Difference Engine.
[14:45]  Stew Macpherson: ....a misfit hero caught up in matters beyond his reckoning in Infernal Devices.
[14:45]  Solace Fairlady: an amazing read that one
[14:46]  Kghia Gherardi: Another alternate history, this novel speculates on a world in which Charles Babbage successfully creates the first computer.
[14:46]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): I honestly can;t remember if i read it, (facefins herself)
[14:46]  Kghia Gherardi: Like many of their predecessors, Gibson and Sterling explore the corrupting influence of technology
[14:46]  Kghia Gherardi: It contains mystery, poets (Lord Byron is the leader of a radical group and Keats gives up poetry to program computers), and a gritty realism.
[14:46]  Solace Fairlady: and no denouement either
[14:46]  Linus Lacombe: No mystery?
[14:46]  Kghia Gherardi: I'm a Keats fan-girl, so I'm mixed about his change in profession.
[14:47]  Stew Macpherson smiles
[14:47]  Stereo Nacht: Perhaps he wrote poetic code? ;-)
[14:47]  Kghia Gherardi: While steampunk may have been off to a great start, it quickly disappeared.
[14:47]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): some software is so elegantly written it superseeds some poetry in itself,.
[14:47]  Stew Macpherson: Keats as a programer is bad alt history....a great loss.
[14:47]  Kghia Gherardi: As Jeff VanderMeer explains in The Steampunk Bible,
[14:48]  Kghia Gherardi: “From 1991-2007, anything that might have been classified as Steampunk was described as science fiction, science fantasy, or alternative history. There were a few books and short stories that implemented steampunk elements. 1995 gave us Paul Di Filippo's Steampunk Trilogy, Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, and Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass.“
[14:48]  Kghia Gherardi: The Renaissance for steampunk literature occurred in the late 2000’s.
[14:48]  Kghia Gherardi: Steampunk itself was redefined for this resurgence. It became more an aesthetic and foundation than a term to describe a movement.
[14:49]  Kghia Gherardi: Now, steampunk literature is hot, HOT, HOT!!!
[14:49]  Kghia Gherardi: Readers love it, publishers love it, and there are lots of opportunities for steampunk authors.
[14:49]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): steaming hot?
[14:49]  Solace Fairlady: why are those books you mentioned not cons=idered Steampunk?
[14:49]  Stereo Nacht: (I would not have put the Golden Compass with steampunk, but I can see the relation.)
[14:49]  Kghia Gherardi: in some anthologies, you bet :)
[14:49]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): as is its clothing on fancyfairs, i do see it more and more,..
[14:49]  Simeon Beresford: Zombie hot?
[14:50]  Kghia Gherardi: I think they would be considered steampunk if they were published later.
[14:50]  Solace Fairlady: wb my love
[14:50]  Darlingmonster Ember: thank you
[14:50]  Kghia Gherardi: the labeling is as much marketing as true adherence to genre
[14:50]  Simeon Beresford: Now they are but they were not marketed as Steampunk at the time.
[14:50]  JJ Drinkwater hums "Just glue some gears on it....."
[14:50]  Solace Fairlady: they have the elements mentioned in the previous section?
[14:51]  Solace Fairlady: as does Light Age?
[14:51]  Stew Macpherson: .Recent publication of the Steampunk Gazette even has S/L and New Babbage specifically listed as an outlet for Steamers! ^ ^
[14:51]  Darlingmonster Ember: ah, nice!
[14:51]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Really!
[14:51]  Kghia Gherardi: sometimes I think people have to have the term to find the right fit. Steampunk wasn't popular enough to apply as the correct label.
[14:52]  Stew Macpherson: ..we,re on the last few pages LOL but what the heck.
[14:52]  Kghia Gherardi: Now we can get to the reading list!
[14:52]  Solace Fairlady: I guess Pavanne is "outside the box of Steampunk" too
[14:52]  Kghia Gherardi: You may be familiar with some of these titles, and some may be new
[14:52]  Kghia Gherardi: Please feel free to share some of your favorites in the chat as well because my list will not be exhaustive. (My apologies to the transcriptionists.)
[14:52]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) chuckles
[14:52]  Kghia Gherardi: Please be aware that I have not read all of these works. Many are new additions to my “to be read” list.
[14:53]  Kghia Gherardi: (the pleasures of research )
[14:53]  Solace Fairlady: Put some goggles on a model and call it Steampunk
[14:53]  Kghia Gherardi: Many of the books I am about to mention can fall into multiple categories.
[14:53]  Kghia Gherardi: For the sake of time, I'm listing titles without descriptions
[14:53]  Kghia Gherardi: First up is steampunk with a supernatural element.
[14:53]  Kghia Gherardi: Gail Carriger, The Parasol Protectorate
Cherie Priest, Boneshaker
Kim Newman, Anno Dracula
Clay Griffith. The Greyfriar
[14:53]  Stew Macpherson: ...and humour.
[14:54]  Kghia Gherardi: This is, I admit, my favorite version of steampunk.
[14:54]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Boneshaker really worked well.
[14:54]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Carriger's stuff is great fun, even if I feel the urge to wrap it in a science book cover for show.
[14:54]  Kghia Gherardi: zombies, werewolves, vampires, oh my
[14:55]  Stew Macpherson: lol
[14:55]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): And mummies!
[14:55]  Darlingmonster Ember: :D
[14:55]  JJ Drinkwater: Fashionista Vampires, no less
[14:55]  Kghia Gherardi: lol
[14:55]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): or mers ^^.
[14:55]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): And women with strange tastes in hats!
[14:55]  Darlingmonster Ember: snerks
[14:55]  Kghia Gherardi: I love to see the way authors apply steampunk gadgets and deductive reasoning in mysteries with a steampunk flavor.
[14:55]  Linus Lacombe: You mean they eat their hats?
[14:55]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): Which no one in this room would know nothing about, no no no ...
[14:55]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): See? You all found her universe very memorable
[14:55]  Kghia Gherardi: Lilith Saintcrow, The Iron Wyrm Affair
China Mieville. Perdido Street Station
Mark Hodder. The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack
PC Martin. Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus
T. Aaron Payton. The Constantine Affair
[14:56]  Simeon Beresford: groans
[14:56]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Hm?
[14:56]  Simeon Beresford: I eat no hats
[14:56]  Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev) has to run off for Holmesian madness in RL. "Thank you so much!"
[14:56]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas) adds new titles to his list
[14:56]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Gute Nacht, Frau Magdalena.
[14:56]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): the book of China Mieville i got, read it ages ago, ^^, i really should re-read it,.
[14:56]  Stereo Nacht: Well, there is that sandwich... ;-)
[14:57]  Stereo Nacht: Good night Ms. Haiku!
[14:57]  Kghia Gherardi: With the steampunk westerns, you might expect to see a return to the Edisonade novels, but that is far from the case.
[14:57]  JJ Drinkwater: "Steampunk Holmes"? Now that's really shameless
[14:57]  Kghia Gherardi: Cherie Priest, Dreadnought
Devon Monk, Dead Iron
MK Hobson, The Native Star
[14:57]  Wildstar Beaumont: today's salon is going to cost me a fortune in ebooks :)
[14:57]  Kghia Gherardi grins
[14:57]  Kghia Gherardi: I love the world Devon Monk is creating in her steampunk westerns
[14:58]  Kghia Gherardi: werewolf cowboys, a hint of old world mythology, and steam-powered machines!
[14:58]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Oh, that's western themed? Going higher up the list
[14:58]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): hm, the only mix of western and Steampunk i know of is the movie Shanhai Noon,
[14:58]  Simeon Beresford: which of her series is westertn themed?
[14:59]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Wild Wild West went there, and I feel Firefly qualifies.
[14:59]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): But those are not books
[14:59]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): * Shanghai Noon
[14:59]  Kghia Gherardi: Dead Iron, Simeon
[14:59]  Kghia Gherardi: and she just released the follow-up, Tin Swift
[15:00]  Simeon Beresford: Territory by Emma bull is western but straight fantay for the most part .
[15:00]  Kghia Gherardi: Airships, pirates - swash and buckle.
[15:00]  Kghia Gherardi: Chris Wooding, Retribution Falls
Michel R Vaillancourt, By Any Other Name
George Mann. The Affinity Bridge
Scott Westerfeld. The Manual of Aeronautics
[15:00]  Stereo Nacht: Oh? Another steampunk book by Mr. Westerfeld?
[15:01]  Kghia Gherardi: just a couple more
[15:01]  Kghia Gherardi: As these novels show, it isn’t always easy to be a clockwork girl. Or boy. Or other.
[15:01]  Kghia Gherardi: Ekaterina Sedia, The Alchemy of Stone
Jay Lake, Mainspring
Cory Doctorow, Clockwork Fagin (YA)
Kady Cross, The Girl in the Steel Corset
[15:01]  JJ Drinkwater: Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Artist of the Beautiful" is a Clockpunk precursor
[15:01]  Kghia Gherardi: Colonial - this is an area I haven’t done any reading in...yet, but considering the alternate history element of many of steampunk novels, I bet we will see more works appearing within this category
[15:01]  Kghia Gherardi: Just one entry: SM Stirling. The Peshawar Lancers
[15:02]  Stew Macpherson: ...there may be a sub genre developing in the way of Carni-Punk, Circus and freak/side show stories...
[15:02]  Tephi Zepp: I missed the last slide cause it is rezzing slowly
[15:02]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): i also have difficulties regarding the slides,.
[15:02]  Kghia Gherardi: all give a copy of the slides and the reading list to Bookworm
[15:02]  Tephi Zepp: thanks ! :))
[15:02]  Kghia Gherardi: she can link to them if she likes, from the blog
[15:02]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): They are working well for me. Come look over my shoulder
[15:03]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) nods
[15:03]  Tephi Zepp: grins
[15:03]  Kghia Gherardi: The best way to sample steampunk (and the place I started) … Anthologies
[15:03]  Kghia Gherardi: Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, eds. Steampunk
Nick Geves, ed. Extraordinary Engines
Mike Ashley. Steampunk Prime: A Vintage Steampunk Reader
[15:03]  Kghia Gherardi: One of the areas with the largest fan base, graphic novels (and web comics)
[15:03]  Kghia Gherardi: Phil and Kaja Folio, Girl Genius
Sydney Padua, The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage
Brian Selznick, The Adventures of Hugo Cabret
Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, Scarlet Traces
Alan Moore, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
[15:04]  Garnet Psaltery smiles
[15:04]  Kghia Gherardi: Here are a couple of reference books I would recommend to any steampunk aficionado.
[15:04]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander) nods in appreciation
[15:04]  Kghia Gherardi: Jeff VanderMeer with SJ Chambers. The Steampunk Bible
Jess Nevins and Michael Moorcock. The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana
[15:04]  Bookworm Hienrichs cheers for Jess Nevins.
[15:04]  Harriett Jenipe: hopefully some are on Kindle :)
[15:04]  Kghia Gherardi: And finally, the references I used when researching today’s talk.
“The Future of Steampunk,” Paul Jessup. The Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review.
http://booktionary.blogspot.com/2010/10/future-of-steampunk-by-paul-jessup.html
“Steampunk Is,” The Mad Hatter’s Bookshelf and Book Review.
http://booktionary.blogspot.com/2010/10/steampunk-is.html
“What is Steampunk?” John Leavitt.
http://www.steampunk.com/what-is-steampunk/
Steampunk. Ann VanderMeer and Jeff Vandermeer, eds.
“Introduction: The 19th-Century Roots of Steampunk.” Jeff Nevins. In Steampunk.
Steampunk Scholar.
[15:05]  Kghia Gherardi: Any other works you would recommend?
[15:05]  Garnet Psaltery: I recommend new reading glasses
[15:05]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Heh.
[15:05]  Bookworm Hienrichs chuckles.
[15:05]  Kghia Gherardi: I doubled my to-be-read list doing working on this project
[15:06]  Darlingmonster Ember: :D
[15:06]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): My thanks and sympathies, Ritterin.
[15:06]  Kghia Gherardi: and I need to go back and re-read
[15:06]  Simeon Beresford: YA is strong in this area.
[15:06]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Did you mention The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi?
[15:06]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): Which is more of environmentalist-punk. *grin*
[15:06]  Kghia Gherardi: Oh, I forgot Windup Girl.
[15:06]  Stew Macpherson: a wonderful job of pulling it all together Kghia.
[15:06]  Stereo Nacht: I must admit that, beside the Golden compass, my first Steampunk novel was Dalhquist's "The Glass Book of the Dream Eaters"; slow to start, but wonderfully complex.
[15:07]  Darlingmonster Ember: I would recommend, for those with interest in bloody-minded adventure and social comment, The Court of the Air , by Stephen Hunt
[15:07]  Kghia Gherardi: Caledon exposed me to Steampunk, and I haven't been the same. :)
[15:07]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): I do believe New Babbage should toot it's own literary horn too.
[15:07]  Stew Macpherson: Definately Stephen Hunt...
[15:07]  Polly Ellsmere: I think Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom series verges on Steampunk
[15:07]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia) wonders if early fantastic horror as Pier Alderson Bierce fits the bill,..
[15:07]  JJ Drinkwater see's Dame Kghia's to-read list becmming tot ally unmanageable
[15:08]  Garnet Psaltery: Entries for Tales of New Babbage vol 2 need to be in by 25th!
[15:08]  Kghia Gherardi: I didn't even get into steampunk horror or steampunk romance.
[15:08]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Yes, indeed--Tales from New Babbage, Volume 1 is now available as an e-book.
[15:08]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Ah, good idea, that.
[15:08]  Kghia Gherardi: An excellent inclusion!
[15:09]  Bookworm Hienrichs: I also discovered a rather intersting Steampunk web series currently being written, called 'Railroad.'
[15:09]  Bookworm Hienrichs: It's at http://steampunktrain.blogspot.com/
[15:09]  Garnet Psaltery claps the mention of trains
[15:09]  Simeon Beresford: Or Steampunk Lesbian Or steampunk BSDM.
[15:09]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): or the distopian novels of Dino Buzatti, those may be more Dieselpunk,.
[15:09]  Wildstar Beaumont: must go to bed ... good night all !
[15:10]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Good night, Admiral!
[15:10]  Linus Lacombe: hmmm..."Quest for the Golden Prim?
[15:10]  Kghia Gherardi: night, Wildstar
[15:10]  Solace Fairlady: fair winds Admiral!
[15:10]  Garnet Psaltery: Goodnight, Commodore
[15:10]  Kghia Gherardi: Thank you for your time, attention, and willingness to share.
[15:10]  Stew Macpherson: Good night!
[15:10]  Sidonie Ancelin (ancelin): Good night, Admiral.
[15:10]  Garnet Psaltery: Admiral, etc :D
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Bookworm Hienrichs: /me looks at Mr. Lacombe. "If it would get started again..."
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Stereo Nacht: Good night those leaving!
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Bookworm Hienrichs: /me sniffles.
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Darlingmonster Ember: /me applauds
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Darlingmonster Ember: bravo
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): thank you very much Miss Gherardi :)
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): /me applauds
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Stereo Nacht:  `*.¸.*´ APPLAUSE `*.¸.*´APPLAUSE `*.¸.*´
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Stew Macpherson: Well done Kghia!
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Polly Ellsmere: ♩♪♫♬  APPAWS! ♩♪♫♬
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Tephi Zepp: Thanks for an excellent presentation :))
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Linus Lacombe: /me smiles knowlingly to ms Hienrichs
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Does anyone have any other questions for our speaker?
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Cassie Eldemar (cashew.writer): merry paths
[2012/11/18 15:10]  Garnet Psaltery: Oh yes, bring back the Golden Prim I say!
[2012/11/18 15:10]  JJ Drinkwater: /me applauds wildly!
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Solace Fairlady: /me applauds enthusiastically
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Stereo Nacht: Wonderful talk, Ms. Gherardi! Thank you!
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Garnet Psaltery: ***** APPLAUSE *****
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Kghia Gherardi: I will share slides and reading lists, so check the Aether Salon website for any you may have missed
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): Yes, could i have the slides so i could read them slowlier myself?
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Bitte, do not forget to show your appreciation to our speaker, and support the Aether Salon itself if you might spare a few more lindens.
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Simeon Beresford: excelent lecture!
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Garnet Psaltery: Miss Bookworm, I'll have a transcript to you shortly
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Ah, ja - the Quest for the Golden Prim, I do remember that. Clever work.
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Ms. an Isala, a full transcript of this will be posted at aethersalon.blogspot.com in the next couple of days.
[2012/11/18 15:11]  Bookworm Hienrichs: /me smiles.
[2012/11/18 15:12]  Garnet Psaltery: They left me in an opium den!
[2012/11/18 15:12]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Shocking!
[2012/11/18 15:12]  Garnet Psaltery: Indeed
[2012/11/18 15:12]  Baron Klaus Wulfenbach (klauswulfenbach.outlander): Somebody must do something about that.
[2012/11/18 15:12]  Linus Lacombe: Oh dear...that's right!
[2012/11/18 15:12]  Bookworm Hienrichs: In fact, everyone--a transcript of this will be posted at aethersalon.blogspot.com in the next couple of days.
[2012/11/18 15:12]  Bookworm Hienrichs: /me chuckles.
[2012/11/18 15:12]  Hysshia ap Suolla an Isala (hysshia): Thank you for the link ms Bookworm,
[2012/11/18 15:13]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): This was wonderful. Truly wonderful. Thank you.
[2012/11/18 15:13]  Solace Fairlady: Thank you so much Dame Kghia and Miss Book for a fabulous Salon, one of the best!
[2012/11/18 15:13]  Garnet Psaltery: Miss Gherardi, my eyes will not thank me for your talk but my brain certainly will
[2012/11/18 15:13]  Bookworm Hienrichs: If there are no questions, then I thank you for coming, and invite you to come next month, December 16th, at 2:00 SLT. Our guest speaker will be Victor Mornington, who will tell us about the Dr. Who community in SL.
[2012/11/18 15:13]  Linus Lacombe: TIme for me to go in and consider on what the typist shall sup. Good evening, all!
[2012/11/18 15:13]  Kghia Gherardi: thanks. I hope there was some nugget in there you didn't have before
[2012/11/18 15:13]  Garnet Psaltery: Goodnight Mr L
[2012/11/18 15:13]  Bookworm Hienrichs: And he'll have special guests!
[2012/11/18 15:13]  Solace Fairlady: safe travels M lacombe
[2012/11/18 15:14]  Linus Lacombe: /me waves and vanishes
[2012/11/18 15:14]  Garnet Psaltery: Oh dear, Daleks?
[2012/11/18 15:14]  Sebastian Neverwas (sebastianneverwas): You have enlightened me MUCH more than I expected .I am humbled and excited to read more.
[2012/11/18 15:14]  Stereo Nacht: All right. I'd better go and take care of some more RL stuff... Good night Herr Baron, Ms. Hienrichs, Ms. Hysshia, Mr. Beresford, Ms. Gherardi, Ms. Ellsmere, Mr. Moreau, Ms. Solano, and eveyrone!
[2012/11/18 15:14]  Bookworm Hienrichs: Thank you all again, and safe travels!

Vampires! Salon (Edited)

Angelia Rees: Good afternoon! Welcome to the AEther Salon's presentation of "Vampires!", a discussion of the legend, history, and modern impact of the vampire. I am Angelia Rees - in RL a practising vampire of the sanguinarian type (more on that as we progress!) and well-studied in the myths and legends surrounding vampires and vampirism.

My discussion today will begin with vampires in the ancient world, the impact of vampires and their legends on the modern era, and a brief look into the vampire sub-culture of which I am a part. At the end of my presentation, I will take questions from the audience (if you have any). And with that said, I think we can begin the presentation!

Ancient Vampires

The earliest legends  of the vampire date back at least 4,000 years, to the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamians feared Lamashtu, a demonic goddess (the daughter of sky god Anu) who preyed on humans.

It was said that Lamashtu would creep into a house at night and steal or kill babies, either in their cribs or in the womb. Mesopotamians attributed sudden infant death syndrome and miscarriage to this figure.

Lamashtu, which translates to "she who erases," would also prey on adults, sucking blood from young men and bringing disease, sterility and nightmares. She is often depicted with wings and birdlike talons, and sometimes with the head of a lion. To protect themselves from Lamashtu, pregnant women would wear amulets depicting Pazuzu, another demonic god who once defeated the goddess.

Lamashtu is closely associated with Lilith (from the Akkadian root, lilu, meaning "spirit"), a prominent figure in Jewish texts who bears many similar traits and visual images. Accounts of Lilith vary considerably, but in the most notable versions of the story, she was the original woman.

God created Adam and Lilith from the Earth, but there was soon trouble between them. Lilith refused to take a subservient position to Adam, since she came from the same place he did.

In one ancient version of the legend, Lilith left Eden and began birthing her own children. God sent three angels to bring her back, and when she refused, they promised they would kill 100 of her children every day until she returned. Lilith in turn vowed to destroy human children.

While she is often depicted as a terrifying creature, Lilith also had seductive qualities. The ancient Jews believed she would come to men at night as a succubus and drain them of both blood and semen.
Accounts of Lilith as a child-killer seem to be taken directly from the Lamashtu legend. She is often described as a winged demoness with sharp talons, who came in the night, primarily to steal away infants and foetuses.

Most likely, the Jews assimilated the figure of Lamashtu into their tradition, but it's also possible that both myths were inspired by a class of Akkadian demons known as lili (male) and lilitu (female), which were disease-bearing wind spirits.

The ancient Greeks feared similar creatures, notably Lamia, (Aristophanes claimed her name derived from the Greek word for gullet: laimos), a demoness with the head and torso of a woman and the lower body of a snake.

In one version of the legend, Lamia was one of Zeus' mortal lovers. Filled with anger and jealousy, Zeus' wife, the goddess Hera, made Lamia insane so she would eat all her children. Once Lamia realized what she had done, she became so vengeful that she began sucking the blood from young children out of jealousy for their mothers.

Myths variously describe Lamia's monstrous serpentine appearance as a result of either Hera's wrath, the pain of grief, the madness that drove her to murder, or - in some rare versions - a natural result of being Hecate's daughter (as one of the Empusai).

The Empusai were the malicious daughters of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. They could change form, and at night, came up from Hades (the underworld) as beautiful women. They would seduce shepherds in the field, and then devour them.

Vampire-like figures also have a long history in the mythology of Asia. Indian folklore describes a number of nightmarish characters, including rakshasa, shape-shifters who preyed on children, and vetala, demons who would take possession of recently dead bodies to wreak havoc on the living.

In Chinese folklore, corpses could sometimes rise from the grave and walk again. These beings were created when a person's p'o (lower spirit) did not pass onto the afterlife at death, usually because of bad deeds during life.

The p'o, angered by its horrible fate, would reanimate the body and attack the living at night. One particularly vicious sort of creature, known as the Kuang-shi, could fly and take different forms. The Kuang-shi was covered in white fur, had glowing red eyes and bit into its prey with sharp fangs to drain them of blood.

Nomadic tribes and travelling traders spread different vampire legends throughout Asia, Europe and the Middle East. As these stories travelled, their various elements combined to form new vampire myths. In the past 500 years, vampire legends have been especially pervaded with Eastern European contributions.
As I continue, we'll look at these creatures, the direct predecessors of the modern vampire.

Vampires In The Modern Era

The Dracula legend, and the modern vampire legend that came out of it, was directly inspired by the folklore of Eastern Europe. History records dozens of mythical vampire figures in this region, going back hundreds of years.

These vampires all have their particular habits and characteristics, but most fall into one of two general categories: 1. Demons (or agents of the devil) that reanimated corpses so they could walk among the living, and 2. Spirits of dead people that would not leave their own body.

The most notable demon vampires were the Russian upir and the Greek vrykolakas. In these traditions, sinners, unbaptised babies and other people outside the Christian faith were more likely to be reanimated after death.

Those who practised witchcraft were particularly susceptible because they had already given their soul to the devil in life. Once the undead corpses rose from the grave, they would terrorize the community, feeding on the living.

By many accounts, these undead corpses were required to return to their grave regularly to rest. When townspeople believed that someone had become a vampire, they would exhume the corpse and try to get rid of the evil spirit. They might try an exorcism ritual, but more often they would destroy the body.

This might entail cremation, decapitation or driving a stake or spikes through various parts of the body. Bodies might also be buried face down, so the undead corpses would dig deeper into the earth, rather than up into shallower ground. Some families secured stakes above the corpse so it would impale itself if it tried to escape.

The vampires in Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania (now Romania) were commonly called strigoi. Strigoi were almost exclusively human spirits who had returned from the dead. Unlike the upir or vrykolakas, the strigoi would pass through different stages after rising from the grave.

Initially, a strigo might be an invisible poltergeist, tormenting its living family members by moving furniture and stealing food. After some time, it would become visible, looking just as the person did in life. Again, the strigo would return to its family, stealing cattle, begging for food and bringing disease.

Strigoi would feed on humans, first their family members and then anyone else they happened to come across. In some accounts, the strigoi would suck their victims' blood directly from the heart.

Initially, a strigo needed to return to the grave regularly, just like an upir. If townspeople suspected someone had become a strigo, they would exhume the body and burn it, decapitate it, or run spikes through it.

But after seven years, if a strigo was still around, it could live wherever it pleased. It was said that strigoi would travel to distant towns to begin new lives as ordinary people, and that these secret vampires would meet with each other in weekly gatherings.

In addition to undead strigoi, referred to as strigoi mort, people also feared living vampires, or strigoi viu. Strigoi viu were cursed living people who were doomed to become strigoi mort when they died. Babies born with abnormalities, such as a vestigial tail or born with a bit of foetal membrane tissue covering the head (called a caul), were usually considered strigoi viu.

If a strigoi mort living among humans had any children, the offspring were cursed to become undead strigoi in the afterlife. When a known strigoi viu died, the family would destroy its body to ensure that it would not rise from the grave.

In other parts of Eastern Europe, strigoi-type creatures were known as vampir, most likely a variation on the Russian upir. Western European countries eventually picked up on this name, and "vampyr" (later "vampire") entered the English language.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, vampire hysteria spread through Eastern Europe. People reported seeing their dead relatives walking around, attacking the living. Authorities dug up scores of graves, burning and staking the corpses.

Word of the vampire scare spread to Western Europe, leading to a slew of academic speculations on the creatures, as well as vampire poems and paintings. These works in turn inspired an Irishman named Bram Stoker to write his vampire novel, "Dracula."

The original Dracula was a real person, Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, who ruled in the mid 1400s. His father, Vlad II, was known as Vlad Dracul (translated as either "Vlad the dragon" or "Vlad the devil"), in recognition of his induction into a society called The Order of the Dragon.

Vlad III was sometimes referred to as Vlad Draculea, meaning "son of Dracul," but more often he was called "Vlad Tepes," meaning "Vlad the Impaler." This was in reference to Vlad's predilection for impaling his enemies on long wooden stakes.

The real Dracula had a reputation for unfathomable brutality (a reputation his actions against his enemies did nothing to amend), but there is not much evidence showing that people believed he was a vampire.

Stoker's fictional villain is not closely modelled after the real Dracula, though they are sometimes linked in films based on the book. Mainly, Stoker borrowed the name of the prince, as well as his social standing. Unlike the wandering, homeless strigoi, Stoker's vampire was a wealthy aristocratic type, hiding out on a grandiose estate.

It is from this novel, and the popular vampire genre that followed it, that we get most of our ideas about what vampires are today. They have become the "anti-hero", a figure of both danger and romance.

Let's consider the modern vampire myth and what it offers: 1. Vampires are sexually attractive and charismatic. 2. They have superhuman intelligence and powers, such as the ability to fly and immense strength. They can use mind control and telepathy to get what they want. Vampires can also use their powers to enslave other creatures, such as wild animals to do their dirty work for them.

3. They inspire fear and no one crosses them without suffering dire consequences. 4. Vampires have conquered death and achieved immortality.

The vampire myth is an interesting symbol which has evolved dramatically through literature and film. A great escape into a world that is thrilling, romantic, and mysterious, where real danger and evil is not always so apparent or frightening.

The modern era has pulled the vampire's fangs, in a sense: the real fear and terror vampires once inspired has passed away into superstition, and been resurrected into an impotent but compelling media genre in little more than 100 years time.

Modern Vampire Subculture

It's due to this new attractiveness that surrounds the vampire that inspired a new culture within modern society: the vampire subculture. What is a subculture? A subculture is simply an alternative lifestyle that exists within mainstream culture.

The vampire subculture is very "tribally" based, with many members congregated into small clans, usually called covens or houses. Each coven/house has it's own traditions and rules of vampiric behaviour (which may or may not include laws regarding the drinking of blood). There are also solitary vampires that belong to no group officially, but are still part of the subculture.

Vampires within this subculture are normal people. They don't believe they are an immortal monster of any kind, but the metaphor and realities of the vampire speaks to them, expressing an emotional or physical truth about their lives and natures. They are not "vampire roleplayers", but actual human beings engaged in a lifestyle that includes vampiric activities.

This is the only qualifier that separates vampires from Average Joe. It is not a "let's play pretend" society, but a community of people who share a common lifestyle. All vampires believe that the type of vampirism they engage in is both a necessary and important part of their lives.

(This should not be confused with "vampire lifestylers", who dress up and emulate the Hollywood version of vampires, and who generally do not practice any form of actual vampirism.)

Real vampirism and vampires also have nothing to do with clinical vampirism. Those that suffer from clinical vampirism, in most cases, are not real vampires. Clinical vampirism is a pathological and delusional disease, fetishistic and compulsive in nature, where a person experiences a psychological need for blood (sometimes with a strong sexual component).

Generally, those that suffer from the syndrome often go through a progression of stages beginning with auto-vampirism (drinking one's own blood) and progressing to vampirism (drinking the blood of others). The compulsion of the vampirism stage may lead a person to committing criminal acts to obtain human blood, such as stealing blood from hospitals and blood banks or going to the extreme of killing someone.

So what is a "real" vampire, then? The key factor in determining if one is a vampire is if one has a genuine need for life-force energies from outside sources. There are physical "symptoms" associated with being a vampire as well. Some of the physical traits are what might be expected: pale skin, sensitivity to sunlight physically (i.e., sunburn easily) and/or visually sensitive to any light source, better night vision than day vision, heightened senses, able to heal quicker than others.

And some not so expected: feeling hungry and/or thirsty despite an adequate diet, frequent headaches for no apparent reason, not requiring very much sleep, getting sick with "flu-like" symptoms with no medical explanation when forced to go without feeding for a period of time. Real vampires are identifiable partly because they have a majority of these symptoms, not just one or two.

But more significantly, real vampires are distinguished by a certain quality to their energy. While anyone reading a description of the symptoms might find a few that apply to people he knows, or even to himself, real vampires have a way of standing out vividly to everyone who interacts with them.

Within the vampire subculture, active vampirism includes both sanguinarian vampirism, which involves blood consumption, and psychic vampirism, whose practitioners "feed" by drawing nourishment from auric/pranic, emotional, or sexual energy.

Psychic vampires are also often energy mediums. An energy medium is a human being with an inborn ability to influence, channel, manipulate, and transform all types of energy, but in particular biological and aetheric energy, for either good or ill.

Sanguinarian vampires are generally not mediums, but can possess a limited ability to manipulate the energy of those around them. The distinguishing characteristic of the sang vampire is the consumption of blood. And while the medium of exchange is blood, the purpose is the same - to replenish and enhance the vampire's energy levels.

While some sanguinarians can also feed using a psychic method, many cannot, and those who can will often choose blood regardless, finding it a more satisfying "meal".

The idea of transferring energy back and forth from person to person is not a new one. Many religions and belief systems hold true that every member of society shares their energy with others as they interact. Indeed, many people feel energized by being around others and by interacting with them. We relieve our stress and enhance our contentment in life by sharing our lives with those around us.

The difference with vampires is that they generate less of that energy than others do and need more of that energy from others. If you have a person in your life whom you like, whom you enjoy being around, but despite that, being with them makes you feel drained, then that person may very well be a vampire.
It should be noted that many sanguinarians define their condition as an objective, if unrecognised, medical syndrome, entirely biological in nature. They are hostile toward "spiritual" explanations for their blood craving, and many reject the idea that it has anything to do with energy. But whatever the reason, the need to consume blood is a very real physical need for sang vampires, with real physical consequences if that need is denied.

That being said, sanguinarians seldom drink as much blood as often as they should for optimal health. The reasons for this include lack of sources, self-denial, and unawareness of their true nature and needs. The amount of blood consumed, and the frequency of consumption, varies, but few consume more than tiny amounts at a time, usually obtained through slight cuts or punctures made by sterile lancets or blades on willing human donors.

Most sanguinarians insist that donors undergo testing for blood-borne diseases, including HIV and hepatitis. Some sanguinarians consume animal blood, but most consider it an inferior (or unacceptable) substitute for human blood.

Whether sanguinarian or psychic, vampires come from all walks of life. Virtually every age, race, religion and profession is represented in the subculture. They are normal, regular people in normal regular jobs: teachers, lawyers, accountants, even soccer moms.

They have normal lives but there is this issue of needing to take energy and/or blood from time to time and in certain ways. And while many teenagers are drawn to the subculture, they are often kept humanely on the fringes, and sometimes actively discouraged.

This is both for the protection of the community (who cannot afford misunderstandings involving minors) and for the best interest of the teens: many teenagers who self-identify as part of the vampire subculture eventually grow out of it.

Mature vampires understand this as a normal part of being a teen and struggling to find who you are. As such, young people generally are not fully embraced into the community until they reach maturity.

Conclusion

While this lecture has only barely scratched the surface of the myths, legends, and realities of the vampire (and there is so much more to learn that a short discussion can never do it justice), I hope it has inspired you to inquire further on your own. The myth of the vampire has influenced human culture, belief, and behaviour since the beginning of our civilisation.

It has served as an explanation for the unexplainable, a cautionary tale, and even a desirable exemplar. The vampire haunts our darkest fears, inspires our wildest dreams, and forces us to probe our own psyches about what it means to be human.

In a way, we all have a bit of the vampire inside us, showing us our reflection through a mirror darkly - both what we hope and fear to become. And whether we embrace the darkness inside us, reject it utterly, or make a truce, it is always with us. Immortal, eternal, and endless.

Thank you for inviting me to speak today, and I hope you enjoyed my presentation. If you have any questions, I'd be pleased to address them now. :)

Ceejay Writer: Do you know of any sources for study of Vampires in the states?
Angelia Rees: Darlingmonster - your question?
Darlingmonster Ember: Miss Writer first
Angelia Rees: CeeJay - how so? To study about vampires, or places for vampires to study being vampires?
Angelia Rees: Because there are both ;)
Vernden Jervil: there is a vampire test? aww man
Ceejay Writer: Actually, would like to know of any older history, any suspected vampires, activities in the past for my country.
Angelia Rees: There are actually programs in a number of universities that cover vampires as a source of mythology and legend
Ceejay Writer: Oooh! My typist works at university. Our search will commence!
Angelia Rees: They are also studied briefly in an historical context re: 17th and 18th century hysterias
Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): There is a book called American Vampires, but it's more about how American culture has embraced vampire lore. http://www.amazon.com/American-Vampires-Fans-Victims-Practitioners/dp/0393026787
Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): And it's over 20 years old.

Angelia Rees: Now Miss Darlingmonster's question? (Then JJ)
Ceejay Writer: I appreciate the starting leads. I will enjoy learning more. That book intrigues, too.
Solace Fairlady: Dimmie will ask when she gets back from crashing;)
Angelia Rees: lol
Angelia Rees: JJ then
JJ Drinkwater: I'm curious to know your thoughts on the extensive vampire community (communities?) in SL, Miss Rees.
Angelia Rees: lol Oh no you don't! But I'll answer anyway ;)
JJ Drinkwater: I beg your pardon?
Angelia Rees: I feel a majority of SL's vampire communities tend to focus on the cinematic vampire, and often in some of the most negative aspects thereof. That said, the individual vampires I've met in SL have been mostly pleasant people.
Angelia Rees: Not a popular opinion, but the only one I have ;)
Ceejay Writer: (Agreed, Angelia)

Angelia Rees: Darlingmonster? You had a question?
Darlingmonster Ember: I wanted to ask... how you protect the community... given that anyone anywhere can claim to be a member...
Darlingmonster Ember: especially those PortraitBook folks
Darlingmonster Ember checks her detector for crashpire
Angelia Rees: There are a number of things I didn't cover in my lecture, by which we do so. We have recognition signs we use among ourselves, for instance. We also have a set of rules the community agrees to follow, called the Black Veil. Most outsiders and reporter types don't know about these, nor much about the history of our community. Real vampires do. ;)
Darlingmonster Ember: aha, excellent work

Angelia Rees: Nathan?
Nathan Adored: So, what percantage of the SL vampires are of the older cinematic type, and how many are of the.... kind that sparkle? oO
Angelia Rees: lol I'd say the Twilight vampires are gaining a bit of ground, but horror type vamps aren't yet overcome. And the True Blood communities have gained a bit over the Twllighters ;)
Arnold (gager): Which cinema, Nosferatu or Dracula.
Angelia Rees: Cyan?
Ceejay Writer: I beleive theres also a formidable population of unaffiliated vampires, quietly going about their nights.
Nathan Adored: Well, Nosfuratu (the silent movie) was basically a copycat of Dracula.
Angelia Rees: That's very true Ceejay, and my clan in SL is one of those

Cyan Rayna: I was curious since you said you were a real vampire what it's like for you. How you found out, what things you have to do etc?
Ceejay Writer: As was mine, Angelia.
Angelia Rees: Let's start at the top for that question, Cyan: How did I find out?
Arnold (gager): It is, but Nosferatu did come out first.
Arnold (gager): Movie wise.
Angelia Rees: I was fairly young when I began drinking blod. About 12. I noticed I felt much better when I had blood, even a little, than when I did not. (I was a sickly child) But until I came to the US as an adult, I didn't know about the subculture or that what I did was normal to anyone but me.
Angelia Rees: What do I have to do?
Angelia Rees: I drink about a pint of blood total each week. That keeps me feeling fit and fine. I drink both animal and human blood, for the record.

Angelia Rees: Marion?
Marion Questi: Your recitation of ancient legends about vampires suggests a connection to a Jungian archetype. Have you explored the psychoanalytic aspects of vampirism?
Angelia Rees: I have, but that is another lecture in and of itself. ;) Perhaps you'll ask me back and I can expound upon it a bit more ㋡

Angelia Rees: Nathan?
Nathan Adored: Anyway, my understanding is that the movie Nosfuratu (the original silent movie), they basically took the story of the Dracula novel, without creditting the author, and then changed the way the vampire at the conclusion met its end, from having a wooden stake driven into its heart to being caught by the rising sun and going POOF from that. IN fact, I gather that's where the "vampires can't stand sunlight" thing originally came from.
Nathan Adored: CHanged the ending so no one would notice they'd..... borrowed the plot
Nathan Adored: Well, some TV documentary on the history of vampire lore said that, anyway.
Angelia Rees: You're exactly right Nathan. In fact, Florence Stoker, Bram's widow, attempted to sue over it.
Nathan Adored: I find it rather amusing that the vampires-can't-stand-sunlight thing came from a movie trying to avoid being caught out as a ripoff.
Angelia Rees: But the company changed just enough to get the picture made without suits bringing them to ruin ;)
Nathan Adored: It IS considered a classic, anyway.
Angelia Rees: It is, and for all it's flaws, I quite like it. Count Orlock is the creepiest vampire I've ever seen ;)
Nathan Adored: Course, thern someone way more recently did a dark comedy about the MAKING of that movie.... where it turned ou the vampire star of the movie actually WAS a vampire, and the director was covering up for that. LOL
Arnold (gager): A lot of things were stolen and gotten away with in that era sadly.
Arnold (gager): Like that guy with the trip to the moon film.
Martien Pontecorvo: Yes, George Meliere
Angelia Rees: I have time for one more question I think, and then I must depart ㋡

Bookworm Hienrichs: If not, I thank you for coming, and would encourage you to join the AEther Salon group if you haven't already. Just click on one of the larger posters. You can also supply any tips to help support the Salon by paying one of the smaller posters.
Next month's Salon will be November 18th at 2:00 PM SLT. Kghia Gherardi will discuss Steampunk literature.  Thank you again, Madame Rees!

Vampires! Salon (Unedited)

Bookworm Hienrichs: Well, I think we shall try waiting for several more minutes, for laggards and those SL is inconveniencing.
Bookworm Hienrichs smiles wryly.
JJ Drinkwater: Dame Kghia and I were just debating *which* 19th c vampire novel to read in our upcoming series on Victorian fantasy Literature
Rhianon Jameson: It never hurts to read more than one, sir.
Rhianon Jameson: Hmm, perhaps with vampires it does hurt.
Darlingmonster Ember: briefly...
Darlingmonster Ember: then there is a daze
Rhianon Jameson laughs
Serra (serra.anansi): The WInterfell Library will be discussing The Vampyre by John Polidori on the 28th
JJ Drinkwater: A masterpiece of purple prose
Nathan Adored: so, is there a doohickie that rezzes chairs?
Bookworm Hienrichs: Aaaaaand...poof goes the speaker.
Nathan Adored contemplates sittin gon the floor
Bookworm Hienrichs: No, no doohickies.
Rhianon Jameson: Strange goings-on indeed.
Bookworm Hienrichs: I have a wearable chair, but it's the women's, rather than the men's, version.
Bookworm Hienrichs: Still, if you want it...
Bookworm Hienrichs grins.
Nathan Adored: nah, I'll just sit on the floor.
Rhianon Jameson chuckles
Darlingmonster Ember: welcome back Marquessa
Bookworm Hienrichs: Welcome back, madame Speaker.
Angelia Rees: My pardon all. I crashede terribly ㋡
Serra (serra.anansi): Welcome back
Rhianon Jameson: There are no good crashes.
Linus Lacombe: Welcome back
Solace Fairlady waves to Admiral Vernden
Bookworm Hienrichs sees a few more dots heading toward them...
Vernden Jervil waves back
JJ Drinkwater: Care to have a seat, Miss Serra?
Nathan Adored: will there be a chat transcript of this dumped to notecard or posted to the BAR?
Bookworm Hienrichs: It will be posted on the Aether Salon website.
Darlingmonster Ember: it shall be posted to the aetherweb
Angelia Rees: If you'll give me a moment folks, I'll rez my materials and we can get started ㋡
Bookworm Hienrichs: aethersalon.blogspot.com
Bookworm Hienrichs: Well, while Madame Rees does that, I'll just take a moment to welcome you all to this month's October Aether Salon.
Ceejay Writer: Good to see Emerson here, I'd have thought maybe he'd be up to his elbows in making hamburgers.
Arnold (gager): Hello.
Solace Fairlady: Hello Admiral beaumont!
Wildstar Beaumont: greetings !
Cyan Rayna: Hey Arnold :3
Emerson Lighthouse makes a note to send some burger to Ceejay
Bookworm Hienrichs: I'm afraid I don't know where our usual host, Baron Wulfenbach, is, so I shall do my best to fill his formidable shoes.
Bookworm Hienrichs smiles ruefully.
Rhianon Jameson: Those are big feet, Miss Hienrichs!
Solace Fairlady: Would be fun to see him fill yours Miss Book
Linus Lacombe: Hello Admiral
Bookworm Hienrichs: Please be sure you're standing or sitting on the maze design, to ensure you can hear our speaker.
Angelia Rees: Ah well. It seems I shall have to proceed without.
Solace Fairlady: but I understand he only wears heels on the second thursday of each month
Wildstar Beaumont: greetings, Linus :)
Bookworm Hienrichs: Please also turn off all lag-inducing items, scripts, HUDs, etc. SL's being enough of a hrr-hmph today as is.
Bookworm Hienrichs grins.
Angelia Rees: So pardon the lack of visuals, and try to imagine what I'm discussing. Your imaginations might be more horric anyway ;)
Rhianon Jameson grins
Darlingmonster Ember resets her imagination to 5.5
Bookworm Hienrichs: The transcript of these proceedings will be posted on aethersalon.blogspot.com within a few days. Hopefully.
Bookworm Hienrichs grins.
Angelia Rees: Good afternoon! Welcome to the AEther Salon's presentation of "Vampires!", a discussion of the legend, history, and modern impact of the vampire. I am Angelia Rees - in RL a practising vampire of the sanguinarian type (more on that as we progress!) and well-studied in the myths and legends surrounding vampires and vampirism.
Solace Fairlady waves to Miss Random
Teapot Mk 2: Have some tea.
Angelia Rees: My discussion today will begin with vampires in the ancient world, the impact of vampires and their legends on the modern era, and a brief look into the vampire sub-culture of which I am a part. At the end of my presentation, I will take questions from the audience (if you have any). And with that said, I think we can begin the presentation!
Solace Fairlady waves to MIss Renee
Angelia Rees: The earliest legends of the vampire date back at least 4,000 years, to the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamians feared Lamashtu, a demonic goddess (the daughter of sky god Anu) who preyed on humans.
Renee Caxton waves to Miss Fairlady
Angelia Rees: It was said that Lamashtu would creep into a house at night and steal or kill babies, either in their cribs or in the womb. Mesopotamians attributed sudden infant death syndrome and miscarriage to this figure.
Angelia Rees: Lamashtu, which translates to "she who erases," would also prey on adults, sucking blood from young men and bringing disease, sterility and nightmares. She is often depicted with wings and birdlike talons, and sometimes with the head of a lion. To protect themselves from Lamashtu, pregnant women would wear amulets depicting Pazuzu, another demonic god who once defeated the goddess.
Angelia Rees: Lamashtu is closely associated with Lilith (from the Akkadian root, lilu, meaning "spirit"), a prominent figure in Jewish texts who bears many similar traits and visual images. Accounts of Lilith vary considerably, but in the most notable versions of the story, she was the original woman.
Linus Lacombe thinks Pazuzu sounds familiar
Solace Fairlady: the Exorcist
Darlingmonster Ember: nods
Linus Lacombe nods affirmatively
Angelia Rees: God created Adam and Lilith from the Earth, but there was soon trouble between them. Lilith refused to take a subservient position to Adam, since she came from the same place he did.
Darlingmonster Ember smiles
JJ Drinkwater: Hard on ol' Rib-Boy
Solace Fairlady: good for her!
Angelia Rees: In one ancient version of the legend, Lilith left Eden and began birthing her own children. God sent three angels to bring her back, and when she refused, they promised they would kill 100 of her children every day until she returned. Lilith in turn vowed to destroy human children.
Angelia Rees: While she is often depicted as a terrifying creature, Lilith also had seductive qualities. The ancient Jews believed she would come to men at night as a succubus and drain them of both blood and semen.
Nathan Adored: OO
Ceejay Writer would blush if she could.
Angelia Rees: Accounts of Lilith as a child-killer seem to be taken directly from the Lamashtu legend. She is often described as a winged demoness with sharp talons, who came in the night, primarily to steal away infants and foetuses.
JJ Drinkwater: "our precious bodily fluids...."
Rhianon Jameson grins
Angelia Rees: Most likely, the Jews assimilated the figure of Lamashtu into their tradition, but it's also possible that both myths were inspired by a class of Akkadian demons known as lili (male) and lilitu (female), which were disease-bearing wind spirits.
Solace Fairlady: well if you are there to take one, why not use the time better?
Madame Anneli (anneli.schnyder) smiles
Angelia Rees: The ancient Greeks feared similar creatures, notably Lamia, (Aristophanes claimed her name derived from the Greek word for gullet: laimos), a demoness with the head and torso of a woman and the lower body of a snake.
Vernden Jervil: solace is wise
JJ Drinkwater bows to Miss Fairlady
Angelia Rees: In one version of the legend, Lamia was one of Zeus' mortal lovers. Filled with anger and jealousy, Zeus' wife, the goddess Hera, made Lamia insane so she would eat all her children. Once Lamia realized what she had done, she became so vengeful that she began sucking the blood from young children out of jealousy for their mothers.
Dhughan Froobert tips the fez to the company
Angelia Rees: Myths variously describe Lamia's monstrous serpentine appearance as a result of either Hera's wrath, the pain of grief, the madness that drove her to murder, or - in some rare versions - a natural result of being Hecate's daughter (as one of the Empusai).
Angelia Rees: The Empusai were the malicious daughters of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. They could change form, and at night, came up from Hades (the underworld) as beautiful women. They would seduce shepherds in the field, and then devour them.
Aether Salon control panel: Please have a SalonMaster operate these controls.
Angelia Rees: Vampire-like figures also have a long history in the mythology of Asia. Indian folklore describes a number of nightmarish characters, including rakshasa, shape-shifters who preyed on children, and vetala, demons who would take possession of recently dead bodies to wreak havoc on the living.
Angelia Rees: In Chinese folklore, corpses could sometimes rise from the grave and walk again. These beings were created when a person's p'o (lower spirit) did not pass onto the afterlife at death, usually because of bad deeds during life.
Angelia Rees: The p'o, angered by its horrible fate, would reanimate the body and attack the living at night. One particularly vicious sort of creature, known as the Kuang-shi, could fly and take different forms. The Kuang-shi was covered in white fur, had glowing red eyes and bit into its prey with sharp fangs to drain them of blood.
Ceejay Writer: sounds like vampire-zombie-werewolf all in one!
Angelia Rees: Nomadic tribes and travelling traders spread different vampire legends throughout Asia, Europe and the Middle East. As these stories travelled, their various elements combined to form new vampire myths. In the past 500 years, vampire legends have been especially pervaded with Eastern European contributions.
Solace Fairlady: Blade 4 even
Linus Lacombe: werezompire
Angelia Rees: As I continue, we'll look at these creatures, the direct predecessors of the modern vampire.
Angelia Rees: Vampires In The Modern Era
 The Dracula legend, and the modern vampire legend that came out of it, was directly inspired by the folklore of Eastern Europe. History records dozens of mythical vampire figures in this region, going back hundreds of years.
Angelia Rees: These vampires all have their particular habits and characteristics, but most fall into one of two general categories: 1. Demons (or agents of the devil) that reanimated corpses so they could walk among the living, and 2. Spirits of dead people that would not leave their own body.
Darlingmonster Ember: oops
Nathan Adored: crashed? oO
Darlingmonster Ember: yes
Darlingmonster Ember: and back
Bookworm Hienrichs: Welcome back, Madame Speaker.
Linus Lacombe: Crashpire got her?
Solace Fairlady: wb Matquessa
Solace Fairlady: *Marquessa
Ceejay Writer: It happens.... we stand on the border betwixt two places, and I believe spirits rise up from the crack.
Rhianon Jameson: Indeed it seems that way.
Angelia Rees: (Pardon my crash - I'll pick up where I left off)
JJ Drinkwater: A vampire sucked the life-force out of her connection
Ceejay Writer: (I am logging chat. If anyone else can, a backup is always lovely)
Nathan Adored: so it would appear. Oo
Angelia Rees: The most notable demon vampires were the Russian upir and the Greek vrykolakas. In these traditions, sinners, unbaptised babies and other people outside the Christian faith were more likely to be reanimated after death.
Nathan Adored: (Well, I have localchat logging turned on as a matter of course....)
Angelia Rees: Those who practised witchcraft were particularly susceptible because they had already given their soul to the devil in life. Once the undead corpses rose from the grave, they would terrorize the community, feeding on the living.
Angelia Rees: By many accounts, these undead corpses were required to return to their grave regularly to rest. When townspeople believed that someone had become a vampire, they would exhume the corpse and try to get rid of the evil spirit. They might try an exorcism ritual, but more often they would destroy the body.
Angelia Rees: This might entail cremation, decapitation or driving a stake or spikes through various parts of the body. Bodies might also be buried face down, so the undead corpses would dig deeper into the earth, rather than up into shallower ground. Some families secured stakes above the corpse so it would impale itself if it tried to escape.
Angelia Rees: The vampires in Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania (now Romania) were commonly called strigoi. Strigoi were almost exclusively human spirits who had returned from the dead. Unlike the upir or vrykolakas, the strigoi would pass through different stages after rising from the grave.
Angelia Rees: Initially, a strigo might be an invisible poltergeist, tormenting its living family members by moving furniture and stealing food. After some time, it would become visible, looking just as the person did in life. Again, the strigo would return to its family, stealing cattle, begging for food and bringing disease.
Angelia Rees: Strigoi would feed on humans, first their family members and then anyone else they happened to come across. In some accounts, the strigoi would suck their victims' blood directly from the heart.
Solace Fairlady waves to MIss Magz
Angelia Rees: Initially, a strigo needed to return to the grave regularly, just like an upir. If townspeople suspected someone had become a strigo, they would exhume the body and burn it, decapitate it, or run spikes through it.
Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev) smiles and waves to Ms. Solace.
Angelia Rees: But after seven years, if a strigo was still around, it could live wherever it pleased. It was said that strigoi would travel to distant towns to begin new lives as ordinary people, and that these secret vampires would meet with each other in weekly gatherings.
Kghia Gherardi notices a theme
Angelia Rees: In addition to undead strigoi, referred to as strigoi mort, people also feared living vampires, or strigoi viu. Strigoi viu were cursed living people who were doomed to become strigoi mort when they died. Babies born with abnormalities, such as a vestigial tail or born with a bit of foetal membrane tissue covering the head (called a caul), were usually considered strigoi viu.
Angelia Rees: If a strigoi mort living among humans had any children, the offspring were cursed to become undead strigoi in the afterlife. When a known strigoi viu died, the family would destroy its body to ensure that it would not rise from the grave.
Ceejay Writer: *shudders*
Angelia Rees: In other parts of Eastern Europe, strigoi-type creatures were known as vampir, most likely a variation on the Russian upir. Western European countries eventually picked up on this name, and "vampyr" (later "vampire") entered the English language.
Angelia Rees: In the 17th and 18th centuries, vampire hysteria spread through Eastern Europe. People reported seeing their dead relatives walking around, attacking the living. Authorities dug up scores of graves, burning and staking the corpses.
Linus Lacombe: The morticians and sextons certainly had their work cut out for them.
Angelia Rees: Word of the vampire scare spread to Western Europe, leading to a slew of academic speculations on the creatures, as well as vampire poems and paintings. These works in turn inspired an Irishman named Bram Stoker to write his vampire novel, "Dracula."
Angelia Rees: The original Dracula was a real person, Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, who ruled in the mid 1400s. His father, Vlad II, was known as Vlad Dracul (translated as either "Vlad the dragon" or "Vlad the devil"), in recognition of his induction into a society called The Order of the Dragon.
Angelia Rees: Vlad III was sometimes referred to as Vlad Draculea, meaning "son of Dracul," but more often he was called "Vlad Tepes," meaning "Vlad the Impaler." This was in reference to Vlad's predilection for impaling his enemies on long wooden stakes.
Rhianon Jameson: Nice!
JJ Drinkwater: Messy...
Angelia Rees: The real Dracula had a reputation for unfathomable brutality (a reputation his actions against his enemies did nothing to amend), but there is not much evidence showing that people believed he was a vampire.
Kghia Gherardi: you put an enemy on a pike, you know where to find him later
Angelia Rees: Stoker's fictional villain is not closely modelled after the real Dracula, though they are sometimes linked in films based on the book. Mainly, Stoker borrowed the name of the prince, as well as his social standing. Unlike the wandering, homeless strigoi, Stoker's vampire was a wealthy aristocratic type, hiding out on a grandiose estate.
Rhianon Jameson: Unless someone reanimates him, of course
Nathan Adored: Well, his real story was much more.... horrific than the vampire story, anyway. OO
Angelia Rees: It is from this novel, and the popular vampire genre that followed it, that we get most of our ideas about what vampires are today. They have become the "anti-hero", a figure of both danger and romance.
JJ Drinkwater: And ever since Dracula Vampires have been all hoity-toity
Angelia Rees: Let's consider the modern vampire myth and what it offers: 1. Vampires are sexually attractive and charismatic. 2. They have superhuman intelligence and powers, such as the ability to fly and immense strength. They can use mind control and telepathy to get what they want. Vampires can also use their powers to enslave other creatures, such as wild animals to do their dirty work for them.
Kghia Gherardi: after he is reanimated, he always seems to have a stick. .. never mind
Angelia Rees: 3. They inspire fear and no one crosses them without suffering dire consequences. 4. Vampires have conquered death and achieved immortality.
Linus Lacombe: and can become bats
Angelia Rees: The vampire myth is an interesting symbol which has evolved dramatically through literature and film. A great escape into a world that is thrilling, romantic, and mysterious, where real danger and evil is not always so apparent or frightening.
Angelia Rees: The modern era has pulled the vampire's fangs, in a sense: the real fear and terror vampires once inspired has passed away into superstition, and been resurrected into an impotent but compelling media genre in little more than 100 years time.
Rhianon Jameson: Sparkly!
Rhianon Jameson grins
Angelia Rees: Modern Vampire Subculture:
It's due to this new attractiveness that surrounds the vampire that inspired a new culture within modern society: the vampire subculture. What is a subculture? A subculture is simply an alternative lifestyle that exists within mainstream culture.
Linus Lacombe: They may even show up on kids' TV teaching them how to count
Angelia Rees: The vampire subculture is very "tribally" based, with many members congregated into small clans, usually called covens or houses. Each coven/house has it's own traditions and rules of vampiric behaviour (which may or may not include laws regarding the drinking of blood). There are also solitary vampires that belong to no group officially, but are still part of the subculture.
Angelia Rees: Vampires within this subculture are normal people. They don't believe they are an immortal monster of any kind, but the metaphor and realities of the vampire speaks to them, expressing an emotional or physical truth about their lives and natures. They are not "vampire roleplayers", but actual human beings engaged in a lifestyle that includes vampiric activities.
Angelia Rees: This is the only qualifier that separates vampires from Average Joe. It is not a "let's play pretend" society, but a community of people who share a common lifestyle. All vampires believe that the type of vampirism they engage in is both a necessary and important part of their lives.
Angelia Rees: (This should not be confused with "vampire lifestylers", who dress up and emulate the Hollywood version of vampires, and who generally do not practice any form of actual vampirism.)
Angelia Rees: Real vampirism and vampires also have nothing to do with clinical vampirism. Those that suffer from clinical vampirism, in most cases, are not real vampires. Clinical vampirism is a pathological and delusional disease, fetishistic and compulsive in nature, where a person experiences a psychological need for blood (sometimes with a strong sexual component).
Darlingmonster Ember: wow
Angelia Rees: Generally, those that suffer from the syndrome often go through a progression of stages beginning with auto-vampirism (drinking one's own blood) and progressing to vampirism (drinking the blood of others). The compulsion of the vampirism stage may lead a person to committing criminal acts to obtain human blood, such as stealing blood from hospitals and blood banks or going to the extreme of killing someone.
Angelia Rees: So what is a "real" vampire, then? The key factor in determining if one is a vampire is if one has a genuine need for life-force energies from outside sources. There are physical "symptoms" associated with being a vampire as well. Some of the physical traits are what might be expected: pale skin, sensitivity to sunlight physically (i.e., sunburn easily) and/or visually sensitive to any light source, better night vision than day vision, heightened senses, able to heal quicker than others.
Madame Anneli (anneli.schnyder) shudders
Angelia Rees: And some not so expected: feeling hungry and/or thirsty despite an adequate diet, frequent headaches for no apparent reason, not requiring very much sleep, getting sick with "flu-like" symptoms with no medical explanation when forced to go without feeding for a period of time. Real vampires are identifiable partly because they have a majority of these symptoms, not just one or two.
Angelia Rees: But more significantly, real vampires are distinguished by a certain quality to their energy. While anyone reading a description of the symptoms might find a few that apply to people he knows, or even to himself, real vampires have a way of standing out vividly to everyone who interacts with them.
Angelia Rees: Within the vampire subculture, active vampirism includes both sanguinarian vampirism, which involves blood consumption, and psychic vampirism, whose practitioners "feed" by drawing nourishment from auric/pranic, emotional, or sexual energy.
Angelia Rees: Psychic vampires are also often energy mediums. An energy medium is a human being with an inborn ability to influence, channel, manipulate, and transform all types of energy, but in particular biological and aetheric energy, for either good or ill.
Angelia Rees: Sanguinarian vampires are generally not mediums, but can possess a limited ability to manipulate the energy of those around them. The distinguishing characteristic of the sang vampire is the consumption of blood. And while the medium of exchange is blood, the purpose is the same - to replenish and enhance the vampire's energy levels.
Angelia Rees: While some sanguinarians can also feed using a psychic method, many cannot, and those who can will often choose blood regardless, finding it a more satisfying "meal".
Angelia Rees: The idea of transferring energy back and forth from person to person is not a new one. Many religions and belief systems hold true that every member of society shares their energy with others as they interact. Indeed, many people feel energized by being around others and by interacting with them. We relieve our stress and enhance our contentment in life by sharing our lives with those around us.
Angelia Rees: The difference with vampires is that they generate less of that energy than others do and need more of that energy from others. If you have a person in your life whom you like, whom you enjoy being around, but despite that, being with them makes you feel drained, then that person may very well be a vampire.
Angelia Rees: It should be noted that many sanguinarians define their condition as an objective, if unrecognised, medical syndrome, entirely biological in nature. They are hostile toward "spiritual" explanations for their blood craving, and many reject the idea that it has anything to do with energy. But whatever the reason, the need to consume blood is a very real physical need for sang vampires, with real physical consequences if that need is denied.
JJ Drinkwater can think of a few....
Angelia Rees: That being said, sanguinarians seldom drink as much blood as often as they should for optimal health. The reasons for this include lack of sources, self-denial, and unawareness of their true nature and needs. The amount of blood consumed, and the frequency of consumption, varies, but few consume more than tiny amounts at a time, usually obtained through slight cuts or punctures made by sterile lancets or blades on willing human donors.
Angelia Rees: Most sanguinarians insist that donors undergo testing for blood-borne diseases, including HIV and hepatitis. Some sanguinarians consume animal blood, but most consider it an inferior (or unacceptable) substitute for human blood.
Angelia Rees: Whether sanguinarian or psychic, vampires come from all walks of life. Virtually every age, race, religion and profession is represented in the subculture. They are normal, regular people in normal regular jobs: teachers, lawyers, accountants, even soccer moms.
Angelia Rees: They have normal lives but there is this issue of needing to take energy and/or blood from time to time and in certain ways. And while many teenagers are drawn to the subculture, they are often kept humanely on the fringes, and sometimes actively discouraged.
Angelia Rees: This is both for the protection of the community (who cannot afford misunderstandings involving minors) and for the best interest of the teens: many teenagers who self-identify as part of the vampire subculture eventually grow out of it.
Angelia Rees: Mature vampires understand this as a normal part of being a teen and struggling to find who you are. As such, young people generally are not fully embraced into the community until they reach maturity.
Angelia Rees: Conclusion:
While this lecture has only barely scratched the surface of the myths, legends, and realities of the vampire (and there is so much more to learn that a short discussion can never do it justice), I hope it has inspired you to inquire further on your own. The myth of the vampire has influenced human culture, belief, and behaviour since the beginning of our civilisation.
Angelia Rees: It has served as an explanation for the unexplainable, a cautionary tale, and even a desirable exemplar. The vampire haunts our darkest fears, inspires our wildest dreams, and forces us to probe our own psyches about what it means to be human.
Angelia Rees: In a way, we all have a bit of the vampire inside us, showing us our reflection through a mirror darkly - both what we hope and fear to become. And whether we embrace the darkness inside us, reject it utterly, or make a truce, it is always with us. Immortal, eternal, and endless.
Angelia Rees: Thank you for inviting me to speak today, and I hope you enjoyed my presentation. If you have any questions, I'd be pleased to address them now. ㋡
Linus Lacombe:  `*.¸.*´ APPLAUSE `*.¸.*´APPLAUSE `*.¸.*´
Rhianon Jameson applauds
Serra Anansi: Applause Applause!!!
Ceejay Writer applauds!
Darlingmonster Ember applauds
Nathan Adored claps claps claps.
Serra Anansi: .-'`'-. APPLAUSE .-'`'-.
Darlingmonster Ember: wowser
Dhughan Froobert:                        *•.¸'*•.¸ ♥ ¸.•*´¸.•*
Dhughan Froobert:                   .•*♥¨`•  APPLAUSE !!!  •¨`♥*•.
Dhughan Froobert:                     ¸.•*`¸.•*´  ♥  `*•.¸`*•.¸
Darlingmonster Ember applauds
Random Wezzog applauds
Marion Questi applauds
Wildstar Beaumont: ♪♫♥ Applauds!!! ♥♫♪
Vernden Jervil claps
Ceejay Writer: I feel I have SO much to soak up. Or... blot up?
Cyan Rayna applauds
Madame Anneli (anneli.schnyder) applauds
Darlingmonster Ember: ha
Rhianon Jameson: Thank you, Miss Rees - a very informative talk!
Dhughan Froobert: Oh my, that was louder than I thought, apologies
Angelia Rees: ㋡ You're very welcome. :)
Ceejay Writer: I shall be studying this transcript carefully.
Nathan Adored: I look forward to the chat trascript, which I can reread again at my leisure.
Angelia Rees: Does anyone have any questions?
Serra (serra.anansi): Wonderful presentation, so informative!
Solace Fairlady applauds
Sera (serafina.puchkina) applauds
Darlingmonster Ember: Yes, a question
Ceejay Writer: Do you know of any sources for study of Vampires in the states?
JJ Drinkwater: Very well presents, Miss Rees
Emerson Lighthouse nods and applauds
Angelia Rees: Darlingmonster - your question?
Darlingmonster Ember: Miss Writer first
Solace Fairlady: very informative I never knew people do it for real
Angelia Rees: CeeJay - how so? To study about vampires, or places for vampires to study being vampires?
Angelia Rees: Because there are both ;)
Vernden Jervil: there is a vampire test? aww man
Ceejay Writer: Actually, would like to know of any older history, any suspected vampires, activities in the past for my country.
Angelia Rees: There are actually programs in a number of universities that cover vampires as a source of mythology and legend
Ceejay Writer: Oooh! My typist works at university. Our search will commence!
Solace Fairlady: ach foo
Angelia Rees: They are also studied briefly in an historical context re: 17th and 18th century hysterias
JJ Drinkwater politely raises his hand
Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): There is a book called American Vampires, but it's more about how American culture has embraced vampire lore. http://www.amazon.com/American-Vampires-Fans-Victims-Practitioners/dp/0393026787
Magda Haiku (magdalena.kamenev): And it's over 20 years old.
Angelia Rees: Now Miss Darlingmonster's question? (Then JJ)
Ceejay Writer: I appreciate the starting leads. I will enjoy learning more. That book intrigues, too.
Solace Fairlady: Dimmie will ask when she gets back from crashing;)
Angelia Rees: lol
Angelia Rees: JJ then
Bookworm Hienrichs chuckles.
JJ Drinkwater: I'm curious to know your thoughts on the extensive vampire community (communities?) in SL, Miss Rees.
Angelia Rees: lol Oh no you don't! But I'll answer anyway ;)
Solace Fairlady: wb my love!
JJ Drinkwater: I beg your pardon?
Darlingmonster Ember: phew
Angelia Rees: I feel a majority of SL's vampire communities tend to focus on the cinematic vampire, and often in some of the most negative aspects thereof. That said, the individual vampires I've met in SL have been mostly pleasant people.
Nathan Adored raises his hand.
Angelia Rees: Not a popular opinion, but the only one I have ;)
Ceejay Writer: (Agreed, Angelia)
Angelia Rees: Darlingmonster? You had a question?
Darlingmonster Ember: I wanted to ask... how you protect the community... given that anyone anywhere can claim to be a member...
Darlingmonster Ember: especially those PortraitBook folks
Satu Moreau: shouts: Here it is
Marion Questi raises his hand.
Darlingmonster Ember checks her detector for crashpire
Angelia Rees: There are a number of things I didn't cover in my lecture, by which we do so. We have recognition signs we use among ourselves, for instance. We also have a set of rules the community agrees to follow, called the Black Veil. Most outsiders and reporter types don't know about these, nor much about the history of our community. Real vampires do. ;)
Darlingmonster Ember: aha, excellent work
Nathan Adored raises his hand.
Darlingmonster Ember scribbles notes
Angelia Rees: Nathan?
Nathan Adored: So, what percantage of the SL vampires are of the older cinematic type, and how many are of the.... kind that sparkle? oO
Cyan Rayna laughs
Cyan Rayna raises hand for a question
Angelia Rees: lol I'd say the Twilight vampires are gaining a bit of ground, but horror type vamps aren't yet overcome. And the True Blood communities have gained a bit over the Twllighters ;)
Arnold (gager): Which cinema, Nosferatu or Dracula.
Angelia Rees: Cyan?
Ceejay Writer: I beleive theres also a formidable population of unaffiliated vampires, quietly going about their nights.
Nathan Adored: Well, Nosfuratu (the silent movie) was basically a copycat of Dracula.
Angelia Rees: That's very true Ceejay, and my clan in SL is one of those
Cyan Rayna: I was curious since you said you were a real vampire what it's like for you. How you found out, what things you have to do etc?
Ceejay Writer: As was mine, Angelia.
Angelia Rees: Let's start at the top for that question, Cyan: How did I find out?
Arnold (gager): It is, but Nosferatu did come out first.
Nathan Adored raises his hand.
Arnold (gager): Movie wise.
Marion Questi still has his hand up.
Cyan Rayna: ((sorry Marion))
Angelia Rees: I was fairly young when I began drinking blod. About 12. I noticed I felt much better when I had blood, even a little, than when I did not. (I was a sickly child) But until I came to the US as an adult, I didn't know about the subculture or that what I did was normal to anyone but me.
Angelia Rees: What do I have to do?
Angelia Rees: I drink about a pint of blood total each week. That keeps me feeling fit and fine. I drink both animal and human blood, for the record.
Angelia Rees: Marion?
Nathan Adored keeps his hand up.
Marion Questi: Your recitation of ancient legends about vampires suggests a connection to a Jungian archetype. Have you explored the psychoanalytic aspects of vampirism?
Angelia Rees: I have, but that is another lecture in and of itself. ;) Perhaps you'll ask me back and I can expound upon it a bit more ㋡
Marion Questi laughs
Angelia Rees: Nathan?
Nathan Adored: Anyway, my understanding is that the movie Nosfuratu (the original silent movie), they basically took the story of the Dracula novel, without creditting the author, and then changed the way the vampire at the conclusion met its end, from having a wooden stake driven into its heart to being caught by the rising sun and going POOF from that. IN fact, I gather that's where the "vampires can't stand sunlight" thing originally came from.
Ceejay Writer: I'd go for that!
Nathan Adored: CHanged the ending so no one would notice they'd..... borrowed the plot
Nathan Adored: Well, some TV documentary on the history of vampire lore said that, anyway.
Angelia Rees: You're exactly right Nathan. In fact, Florence Stoker, Bram's widow, attempted to sue over it.
Nathan Adored giggles
Nathan Adored: I find it rather amusing that the vampires-can't-stand-sunlight thing came from a movie trying to avoid being caught out as a ripoff.
Bookworm Hienrichs: By the way, folks, I don't have any sort of tip jar, so please, if you wish, tip Miss Rees directly.
Bookworm Hienrichs blushes for not thinking about this until now.
Angelia Rees: But the company changed just enough to get the picture made without suits bringing them to ruin ;)
Nathan Adored: It IS considered a classic, anyway.
Bookworm Hienrichs: Any other questions?
Angelia Rees: It is, and for all it's flaws, I quite like it. Count Orlock is the creepiest vampire I've ever seen ;)
Nathan Adored: Course, thern someone way more recently did a dark comedy about the MAKING of that movie.... where it turned ou the vampire star of the movie actually WAS a vampire, and the director was covering up for that. LOL
Arnold (gager): A lot of things were stolen and gotten away with in that era sadly.
Arnold (gager): Like that guy with the trip to the moon film.
Martien Pontecorvo: Yes, George Meliere
Angelia Rees: I have time for one more question I think, and then I must depart ㋡
Ceejay Writer: Nearing sunset in my time zone... I am sure you have much to do. :)
Angelia Rees: lol Yes actually ;)
Bookworm Hienrichs: If not, I thank you for coming, and would encourage you to join the AEther Salon group if you haven't already. Just click on one of the larger posters. You can also supply any tips to help support the Salon by paying one of the smaller posters.
Nathan Adored: well, I'd welcome more lectures on vampire lore.
Solace Fairlady: Thank you very much Marquessa for a very informative and open talk
Ceejay Writer: I very much enjoyed this! One of the 'meatier' salons, pardon my choice of words.
Nathan Adored giggles and chortles
Bookworm Hienrichs: Next month's Salon will be November 18th at 2:00 PM SLT. Kghia Gherardi will discuss Steampunk literature.
Rhianon Jameson echoes Lady Fairlady's thanks.
Angelia Rees: Thank you all for attending, and I hope you enjoyed. ㋡
Bookworm Hienrichs: Thank you again, Madame Rees!
Martien Pontecorvo tips his hat to Mme Rees and departs
Cyan Rayna: Thanks Ms Rees :3
Serra (serra.anansi): Thank you, Lady Rees... great presentation
Solace Fairlady: wb again my love!
Darlingmonster Ember: thank you Lady Rees
Marion Questi: Thank you Miss Rees!
Angelia Rees: Thank you, Lady Twilight ㋡
Sidonie Ancelin (ancelin): Thank you , Ms. Rees
Nathan Adored: yes, ty Miss Rees
Sera (serafina.puchkina): Thank you, Miss Rees. This was most enjoyable
Madame Anneli (anneli.schnyder): Thank you very much Miss Rees
Angelia Rees: And now, farewell to you all! Sleep tight tonight, and don't let the vampires bite! ;)