OryCon 31 -- General Observations & Steampunk Stuff

Over the Thanksgiving weekend (Friday--Sunday), Leela and I attended OryCon in Portland. The event is billed as "Oregon's premier science fiction convention." I had attended last year, but this was Leela's first year as an official attendee. The convention was held at the large Portland Doubletree Hotel, and featured a variety of programming, generally focused on science fiction, fantasy fiction, and spin-offs thereof. In addition to the fans, many authors, editors, publishers, and producers attended. Total attendance was about 1,400.

General Observations

Before moving to Oregon, I had been a regular attendee of Austin's ArmadilloCon, which I considered Texas's premier science fiction convention. For me ArmadilloCon is special in that its focus is more literary than most other SF conventions, which tend to have a heavy emphasis on movies, TV, comics, gaming, costuming, etc. So I was a bit leery of OryCon at first, but after this year, I've found that OryCon suits me quite nicely. OryCon's programming seems more diverse than ArmadilloCon; so you see a lot of costumes and much programming that (to me) seems extraneous. But all this does not come at the expense of the literary programming; there were more panels on writing, publishing, and related topics than I could possibly attend. In addition, OryCon provides quite a bit of what I call "background" programming that may be of interest to writers -- panels in which scientists, historians, sociologists, etc. discuss issues in their fields as they relate to science fiction and fantasy.

I noticed a lot of young people at OryCon. From grade-schoolers to teenagers, they were more in evidence than I remember at ArmadilloCon. Over the years, I've heard a lot of moaning at ArmadilloCon about the need for new blood in SF, that the old guard is aging, and so on. Well, I didn't get that feeling so much at OryCon. Of course it's the gaming, the costuming, and media SF that draws the young folks, but that's okay with me. The whole scene just seems more vibrant with them around.

And I really enjoy seeing all those costumes. Even if you're not into dressing up, it's fun being around it. And the costuming is what most attracts Leela; she attended several panels on costuming. Who knows -- maybe I'll do a costume next year! Which brings me to…

Steampunk

Steampunk is huge this year! Steampunk is a literary sub-genre of fantasy and SF that typically features a pseudo-Victorian setting and includes elements of SF or fantasy. In these altered Victorian realities, one might find a dirigible fitted with sails; a steam-powered, clockwork robot; or a vampire having tea with the queen. Steampunk also revels in anachronism and often posits alternate futures in which electricity and the internal-combustion engine have not superseded Victorian-era technology. Although steampunk is retro in its costumes, props, and sets, it's always created by contemporary writers and artists, and often informed by edgy modern sensibilities. So stories by Jules Verne and Arthur Conan Doyle are not steampunk, even though they are science fiction and fantasy of the Victorian era (in other words, the real thing is not the real thing). On the other hand, modern stories featuring Sherlock Holmes or Captain Nemo's Nautilus may be steampunk. Remember The Wild Wild West TV series and movie? That was steampunk. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang might be proto-steampunk. Get the idea?

I've been aware of steampunk as a literary movement for a while but was astonished to see how it had suddenly come to dominate the costuming scene. Everywhere I turned at OryCon, I was running into guys and gals decked out in alternate Victoriana. Gears and old-fashioned gauges are prominent motifs, perhaps suggesting that the character is part machine or at least in close touch with a mechanical sidekick. Headgear includes bowler hats, top hats, pith helmets, and aviator helmets. And then there are the goggles -- elaborate brass and leather creations, some festooned with jewels, extra lenses, gears, and mysterious filigree. I saw one pair that was illuminated from inside by dancing arcs of red light. Yes, brass goggles seem to be the steampunk emblem. They're seldom worn over the eyes but rather up on the hat, as if the character has just emerged from the laboratory where he has been concocting unearthly wonders visible only with the aid of special lenses. Even people who don't bother to get fully costumed in tails and lace and petticoats often don a bowler banded with weird goggles. It's just something you put on to show you're part of the party, like a cowboy-grunge hat at South-by-Southwest. Here, I took some pictures:


Begogled steampunkers. [click photo to enlarge]

One woman, whom I called the Steampunk Princess, had brilliant, red, wavy hair flowing down past her shoulders. This was topped by a tall, white, begoggled pith helmet. Stunning! Later I learned the hair was a wig. Alas, I failed to get her photo.

The winner of the group costume category at Saturday's costume ball, was titled something like "Passengers and Crew of Her Majesty's Airship Somethingorother." Some of them are in the photo collage above.

Where do you get these goggles? Well, you can make them yourself simply by painting and adding accessories to swimming goggled or motorcycle goggles, or you can purchase them from someone in the Dealers' Room at OryCon or similar conventions. A seller of steampunk gear told me he had been in the business of making custom horse tack, but when the recession hit, all that business dried up. His daughter, who was into Goth, suggested he try making some accessories for the Goth crowd, since they like leather. So he did, and he started going to conventions to sell the stuff, and since there's some overlap between the Goth and the Steampunk worlds -- well -- one thing led to another, and here he was standing behind a table arrayed with the strangest eyewear to be found anywhere. I guess Steampunk is recession-proof.


More steampunkiana and assorted fantastica. [click photo to enlarge]

But not everyone was doing steampunk. There was still to be found a sprinkling of barbarians, ghouls, medievalites, spacers, and aliens. I think I saw a couple of Klingons lurking behind a door and a Battle Star Galactica officer looking very lonely. But not a single Spock ear in sight!

Then there were the white-haired science-fiction fans like me, who enjoyed the masquerade but mainly as a diversion between panels and other presentations on literature and science. More about that in the next post...