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Toaster Mantis 
Forum Senior Member 
Joined: April 12 2008 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 5898 |
 Posted: January 22 2014 at 05:54 |
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Time to resurrect an old thread, as I've been reading up on the precursor of the post-WW2 UFO phenomenon: The mystery airships seen in North America during the late 19th century before the historical record documents any actual dirigibles being operated there. (though a few had been built in Europe at the time) Some were attributed to Martians, others to foreign powers or mystery inventors straight out of a Jules Verne novel. Curious how those UFOs taking the form of physical nuts-and-bolts vehicles always are just one step ahead of "real life" cutting edge technology... cross-ref. the "ghost rockets" seen in Sweden between the end of WW2 and the first flying saucer sightings in 1947.
It's likely most of the airship stories were hoaxes or "tall tales", one attempt has been made at explaining how a Jules Verne-style mystery inventor could have been active at the time... but frankly I think if such an airship had existed at the time, the evidence would have been uncovered since the materials and equipment required to construct and operate it were so expensive that journalists investigating the airship sightings would have been able to track down the suspiciously specific orders of the necessary parts from mysterious customers. As is often the case Magonia has an interesting article on the cultural history and sociology-related aspects of the entire affair as well as the similar mystery airships seen the following decade in Britain and Denmark. Edited by Toaster Mantis - January 23 2014 at 07:06 |
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Dean
Special Collaborator 
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: January 22 2014 at 05:57 |
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In more recent news:
Ball Lightning Caught On Camera By Scientists For The First Time |
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Toaster Mantis
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 12 2008 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 5898 |
Posted: January 23 2014 at 05:40 |
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In-te-res-ting. Reminds me that I've just written a review for GoodReads of a book from the 1960s, which analyzes UFO sightings from which poorly understood or hitherto unknown natural phenomena might account for them. It's Mysterious Fires and Lights by Vincent Gaddis if you're curious.
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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dr wu23
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20491 |
Posted: January 23 2014 at 18:22 |
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Early steampunk time travelers...?
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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Galactic Melt
Forum Groupie 
Joined: November 17 2012 Location: Texas Status: Offline Points: 41 |
Posted: January 23 2014 at 19:05 |
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After all this time I finally started reading "Communion" by Whitley Strieber. Chilling to say the least....
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: January 23 2014 at 19:35 |
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"Cunning that these gentlemen temporal adventurers wouldst sojourn in the reverse chronological fourth dimension to construct contraptions that are lighter than the very air we breath by the use of the extant technology of the day. Contraptions we might add that not only defy the laws of gravity but can be propelled in a forward commotion using the power of ones very own legs to turn rotating oars fixed in the form of a crucifix that we must apparently call a 'propellage' for its similarity in design with that of an Ironclad warship (as was witnessed upon Mississippi waterways some six and forty years earlier by reporters from the most reputable news journals). We can only conclude from this that they were indeed in the thrall of hobgoblins. In investigating this further we employed a detective from the Pinkerton agency, from his report he said that Mr Thomas Edison speculates that such a flying machine could be possibly constructed by the use of impermeable sacks containing some elementary gas for buoyancy, when the detective espied daguerreotype facsimile drawings of a flying ship invented by a Professor Jacques Charles of France from a full century previous Mr Edision did become agitated and crimson of face, curtly he bid the detective good day and summarily ejected him from the workshop. Later we contacted Detective W. Murdoch of the Toronto constabulary who had recently interviewed a Serbian immigrate Mr Nikola Tesla. In his telegraphic communication Mr Murdoch suspects that the balloon and air-screw (which we understand is 'propellage' in the Canadian vernacular) is an impractical solution given the propulsive power that can be obtained using a bicycle for an engine, however his suggestion that it is a manipulation of electricity and magnetics leads us to conjecture he has spent too much time in the company of Mr Tesla. Recalling the 'Crash at Crush' incident we suspected that if not publicised as such for public entertainment then some nefariously sanctioned conspiratorial skulduggery was being enacted. Being reminded of the circumstances regarding the assassination of President Garfield that rocked the nation five and ten years yonder we believe that certain details that have been withheld by the State Department could be related to other inexplicable phenomena in a chain of consequence of unbelievable magnitude to defy any reasoned conjecture of coincidence and chance. Mindful of the need to avoid bring the watchful gaze of the Department of Surreptitious Activities upon ourselves we endeavoured to contact an operative whose code name was alleged to be 'Profound Oesophagus' who claimed to have aural evidence recorded on several of Mr Edison's cylindrical waxes of conversations between [in his words] 'a personage in high office' and persons unknown. Armed with the knowledge that such information was purported to exist, forthwith we sent a clandestine enquiry to Mr. M. Holmes of the British civil service via one of our sympathetic associates, he in turn passed the matter over to his younger brother Sherlock, an amateur investigator of some considerable reputation, who (by way of a mutual acquaintance) contacted the renowned gentleman scientist Mr C. Babbage. Using the mathematical skills of Lord Byron's daughter Ada of Lovelace, Mr Babbage set his analytical engine to solving the problem. We await his results."
Edited by Dean - January 24 2014 at 04:17 |
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Offline Points: 64551 |
Posted: January 23 2014 at 19:44 |
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You steampunk, you.
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: January 24 2014 at 02:42 |
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I am of course indebted to Sydney Padua's wonderful Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage (They Fight Crime):    |
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Offline Points: 64551 |
Posted: January 24 2014 at 02:57 |
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Toaster Mantis
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 12 2008 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 5898 |
Posted: January 24 2014 at 06:18 |
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Ah yes, steampunk! Never really my cup of tea, though, I quite like
Verne himself but what little modern-day "steampunk" I'm familiar with
does not excite me very much. Just tries way too hard, and its
association with a goofy-as-hell subculture does not help.
In other ufoological news, this week marks the 40th anniversary of the Berwyn Mountain UFO crash, one of several British equivalents of Roswell. Had no idea it was anywhere as strange an event, or had connections to as much weird stuff, as the linked Nick Redfern article brings up though. That guy quite has the talent for being a lightning rod for the WTF-iest stories in modern ufoology. |
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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dr wu23
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20491 |
Posted: January 24 2014 at 08:32 |
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: January 24 2014 at 10:06 |
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"...still no word from Babbage, the confounded interminable cunctations of transatlantic messaging are the bane of modern investigations. Perhaps we can hasten to dream that the aetheric waves discovered by Herr Hertz in the previous decade will one day herald a new era of instantaneous dialogue between peoples on differing continents, on this issue there is a faint whisper in the grapevine that an Italian engineer is conducting taciturn meetings with the General Post Office of Great Britian, that M. Holmes esquire is being extraordinarily closed-lipped on this matter is more than curious, but I digress. In the interim we have dispatched the Pinkerton agent to gather intelligence from the eye-witnesses, though I suspect this is an easier task on paper than in the cold light of reality."
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dr wu23
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20491 |
Posted: January 24 2014 at 23:17 |
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Our favorite Steampunker Dean..........
 Edited by dr wu23 - January 24 2014 at 23:19 |
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: January 25 2014 at 05:14 |
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That looks more like a right tosspot loser if you ask me, I've never understood the need for grown men to play dress-me-up or any other forms of pretend escapism such as D&D or World of Warcrap. I was quietly amusing myself posting a harmless parody of a steampunk style of narrative that mixed historical fact with some fictional characterisations in the hope that others may find it entertaining. If this personal piss-taking is the only kind of response I can provoke then I'll return to my normal combative style of posting as soon as someone posts something worthy of comment.
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dr wu23
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 20491 |
Posted: January 25 2014 at 11:34 |
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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Toaster Mantis
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 12 2008 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 5898 |
Posted: January 26 2014 at 04:19 |
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Dean's last handful of posts make it clear that it's impossible for me to tell parodies of steampunk from honest entries in the genre.
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Dean
Special Collaborator
Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: January 26 2014 at 06:19 |
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The fault there is mine. As in writing practically any post on here, I simply wing it - in this case blindly substituting my approximations of Regency and/or Victorian style language for everyday phrases and terminologies - remove those and the text remains a fictionalised commentary that attempts to create a humorous version of the similarities you made between the events of the late nineteenth century with those of the mid-twentieth century. It could also be argued that Steampunk as a literary genre is already a parody of the Gothic novels from those 19th century literary eras. A parody of a parody is still a parody, the only question remaining is "is it funny or amusing?", and if my humour does not show here then the failing is in my writing and so making fun of me is appropriate even though it sucks the joy out of writing them. ¹The art of parody is tricky and I am neither an expert in parody nor in the Steampunk genre. Done badly a parody is a cruel ridicule and it has never been my intention to ridicule anything or anyone in this thread (aside from those who playdress-me-up). So when trying hard to avoid ridiculing the "genre" the result is often indistinguishable from the genuine article. Done well the distinction is easily made within the context it is used, however, regardless of the quality of the parody, it still relies on the reader to interpret the satire unaided. Do you underestimate the reader or patronise them? For example, some do not get that Jane Austin's Northanger Abbey was written as a parody of Regency Gothic novels that were popular at the time, or that Swift was parodying 18th century 'traveller's tales' novels and satirising the politics and society of the day in Gulliver's Travels, though in both those examples it is widely accepted that they are satirical parodies by anyone who has actually read them (rather than just watched adaptations on HBO). ¹This is the internet where even the use of a "winkie" emoticon can be ironic... you can never tell when my umbrage is genuine or a piss-take. |
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Toaster Mantis
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 12 2008 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 5898 |
Posted: January 26 2014 at 06:51 |
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I'll also take that post back if Miyazaki's Castle in the Sky counts as steampunk.
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Svetonio
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 20 2010 Location: Serbia Status: Offline Points: 10213 |
Posted: January 27 2014 at 18:43 |
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An interesting article - former Canadian Minister of Defence in 60s, Mr Paul Hellyer says for RT that the UFOs is "a serious business: http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/%D1%81anada-minister-defense-ufo-959/
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Equality 7-2521
Forum Senior Member
Joined: August 11 2005 Location: Philly Status: Offline Points: 15783 |
Posted: January 28 2014 at 08:29 |
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The only thing interesting about that article is that someone would put that man in charge of the defense of an entire nation.
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"One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. "
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The UFO Phenomenon
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Toaster Mantis wrote: