Does Dieselpunk Demand Darkness?

“I wonder if that's how darkness wins, by convincing us to trap it inside ourselves, instead of emptying it out. I don't want it to win.” ― Jasmine Warga, My Heart and Other Black Holes

Dieselpunk has reputation for being a dark genre-punk. The seeds of this reputation were planted in its origin when one of its founders, Lewis Pollak, back in 2001 described it as being darker and dirtier than Steampunk. That phrase stuck and ever since Dieselpunk has been labeled as a dark genre.

I have to admit that I kind of like that reputation. Being a “Dirty Thirties” kind of Dieselpunk myself dark appeals to me. Even my interest in the other Diesel Era decades tends to be dark (mobsters of the Roaring Twenties and World War 2 of the 1940s).

With all of this being said, there is nothing in the definition of Dieselpunk that requires it to be this way.

The web site Dieselpunks.org has the definition written by Dieselpunk Founding Father Tome Wilson, which has become the standard for the genre:

Dieselpunk is a style of art that combines the spirit of the Jazz Age (1920s-1945) with a contemporary twist. We welcome all people from all nations and all walks of life.

Notice the absence of being dirty and dark from this definition. My own spin of the definition doesn’t require darkness either:

Dieselpunk is a mashup of modern ideas with the style and spirit of the 1920s through the early 1950s. The goal is to combine the zeitgeist of the past with today's ideas in order to build a better tomorrow.

In addition, there’s a positive flavor of Dieselpunk. Known as Hopeful Ottensian and named after the Dieselpunk Founding Father Nick Ottens this style of Dieselpunk gives a positive spin to the genre. I wrote about Hopeful Ottensian Dieselpunk here on my blog back on November 7, 2010.

An example of positive Dieselpunk

Dieselpunks reputation for being dark is well deserved for much of it is. However, this darkness is not the full picture.

Dieselpunk Lexicon Part 10: Decopunk

"No matter how thin you slice it, it's still baloney." -  Al Smith, American statesman, Governor of New York, Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928

Dieselpunk has always had a dark reputation. One of its creators, Lewis Pollak, described it as being dirtier and grittier than Steampunk. But not all Dieselpunk is dark.

Decopunk is a brighter, more positive member of the Dieselpunk family. In an recent article at the Barnes & Noble web site titled Why "Decopunk" Deserves to Be Bigger than Steampunk, Sam Reader wrote,

"Drawing from the sleek, streamlined, futuristic aesthetic of the art deco movement, decopunk takes the glitz and glamor of the Roaring ’20s in science-fictional directions, frequently sprinkling in glittering elements of the weird and pulp fiction of the era."

Decopunk Movie "The Great Gatsby" (2013) Directed by Baz Luhrmann

Recently there have been rumblings on the internet describing decopunk as being a full-fledged genre-punk (Reader’s article is one example). However, those who would make such claims are mistaken because it’s not a genre-punk of its own. Decopunk source material is the 1920s, which as I mentioned in a prior blog post is one of the decades that provides source material for Dieselpunk. Wikipedia is correct when it defines decopunk as a subset of dieselpunk.

You can slice sashimi until it resembles fugu but it's still raw fish. ‘Decopunk’ is but simply a thin slice of Dieselpunk.

Decopunk Fiction, Radiance: The Novel by Catherynne M Valente