Penscapes - New Steampunk Pens

[lsmith42]

subbes should come to our Pen Posse on Tuesday, January 24. Alas, Tallahassee is a mite far. SoCal isn't so far *coughjoncough*; I mean, Rita's making it....*

 

Scrawler, your message has been transmitted. Best regards returned!

 

 

 

*LA Pen Show Pen Posse, though... just a month away. (I'm still waffling. I'm shocked that no one has said "fried chicken and waffling." Or Roscoing. What kind of bad American Cockneys are we, anyway?)

Still waffling about the trip, or about the trip via personal propulsion ("makes me tired just THINKING about it!")?

[AltecGreen]

 

*LA Pen Show Pen Posse, though... just a month away. (I'm still waffling. I'm shocked that no one has said "fried chicken and waffling." Or Roscoing. What kind of bad American Cockneys are we, anyway?)

 

 

I think honey toast has replaced chicken and waffles as my favorite current heart attack on a plate although that red velvet pancake concoction is pretty close too.

[subbes]

We don't need no Pen Posse. We've got a North Fla militia.

 

 

(ALL RIGHT, SO I HAVE TO DRIVE 3 HOURS TO ATTEND. AND WE AIN'T NEVER STAGED A TRAIN ROBBERY, NEITHER.)

[JeanManuel]

How can you people get so dirty ideas about something so small?

Cigars aren't that big and many pens are patterned after cigars ... and some dirty ideas have been in print about cigars, so there must be some precedent.

I just checked my last Cohiba, and I only have one pen that is larger. Now that you have put the idea in my head, and seeing as I am snowed in for the day, what shall I do, smoke a cigar or write letters, which I have no idea when I shall be able to post.

 

Which model? I really loved the siglo VI and their esplendidos. But I did not like their robusto at all.

I had a period of cigars & pipe discovery a couple years back. After which I stopped smoking for good (I neither smoked cigarets nor on a regular basis). Although gustatively very interesting, they are unhealthy. So if to be consumed, they should be only on a very occasional basis.

For your snowy days, I would advise you to gear up, take a walk while there is sunlight, and then write

 

But let's get back to what you were saying, Tenney: about the precedent of cigar symbolism inherited by fountain pens. It's aligned with what my father (art painter & art teacher) was explaining to me about arts & artistic emotion. Although conditioned in aesthetics and taste by culture, in the end, the artistic emotion roots down deep into our primal nature. Fundamentally, what the artist is trying to do is to induce the same level of emotion as when a man sees a beautiful woman's bottom

The level of fascination and fantasy that people put in fountain pens is most likely fueled by this phallic symbolism.

But what fascinates me even more, is that primitive behaviors show so obviously in (presumably) well civilized people, i.e. it springs sometimes so clearly through all those layers of culture, of philosophical and religious attempts to abstract ourselves from our being animals.

That is some anthropological wonder to me.

 

So that steampunk pen, is perhaps a striking example of how much work and thought we are prepared to dedicate/sacrifice to honor/adore the phallus.

 

(for US readers - disclaimer: I have no affiliation with Freud. the author of this post will bear no responsibility if any misuse of fountain pens were to follow the reading of this article.)

Edited January 14, 2012 by JeanManuel

[Scrawler]

 

Which model? I really loved the siglo VI and their esplendidos. But I did not like their robusto at all.

I had a period of cigars & pipe discovery a couple years back. After which I stopped smoking for good (I neither smoked cigarets nor on a regular basis). Although gustatively very interesting, they are unhealthy. So if to be consumed, they should be only on a very occasional basis.

For your snowy days, I would advise you to gear up, take a walk while there is sunlight, and then write

 

I like the Siglo IV and have one left. I also like Romeo e Julieta No. 1 and I have just discovered 3 that I had forgotten about and which I must have had for years. I used to smoke a pipe and have an amber and meerschaum one that dates form a time that would place it right in the middle of Steampunk. I hate the smell of machine made cigarettes and will not touch them or have them in the house. I generally only smoke once or twice every couple of years these days. Last time I had a cigar was on my birthday the year before last. It would not have been possible to walk in the sunshine yesterday because there was none and the snow was coming down too heavily. I cannot get out the door just yet.

 

I really like the fanciful Steampunk designs that modern artists use to re-imagine common objects. I like things of polished brass and tiny precise screws and red wood. I can never buy these pens, and doubt I could even write with them, but I admire them in the same way I do steam trains and early motor cycles.

 

The point about the masculine response to curved shapes is important. Designers need to know this and understand the psychology and physiology underlying it. Montblanc have made pens that reflect the form of certain famous actresses and I believe are intended to be bought by men for women. The selling point being the visceral masculine response to the shape.

[JeanManuel]

I like the Siglo IV and have one left. I also like Romeo e Julieta No. 1 and I have just discovered 3 that I had forgotten about and which I must have had for years.

 

Thanks for your reply !

Rome&Juliette's made me think of dried fowers. They are not my favorite, but they are excellent.

The cigars I met were aging rather well ! Enjoy !

 

I used to smoke a pipe and have an amber and meerschaum one that dates form a time that would place it right in the middle of Steampunk.

I also have my great grandfather's amber and meerschaum pipe from late 19th century. But I never dared to use it. He served 12 years throughout Africa under the colors of the 2nd French Colonial Empire. He became a bit of a family legend. So the item is a relic.

The health impact of pipe is a bit controversial. There is the toxicity of tobacco, but also a relaxing effect. If only we could smoke the pipe without actual smoke

 

I really like the fanciful Steampunk designs that modern artists use to re-imagine common objects. I like things of polished brass and tiny precise screws and red wood. I can never buy these pens, and doubt I could even write with them, but I admire them in the same way I do steam trains and early motor cycles.

It does indeed sometimes motivate good craftsmanship

There is also a "Dieselpunk" movement going on.

Edited January 14, 2012 by JeanManuel

[raging.dragon]

There is also a "Dieselpunk" movement going on.

 

And also "Decopunk". Though I think they're more sub-genres than separate movements, as there is a fair bit of overlap amonst the artifacts, fans and makers.

[JeanManuel]

There is also a "Dieselpunk" movement going on.

 

And also "Decopunk". Though I think they're more sub-genres than separate movements, as there is a fair bit of overlap amonst the artifacts, fans and makers.

 

Indeed!

(Art-) Decopunk usually means "sleek and tidy dieselpunk".

Dieselpunk is often attracted by patines, worn textures, oil stains, heavy duty and industrial gear.

http://www.instructables.com/files/deriv/FCK/CSNF/G5FQZTNB/FCKCSNFG5FQZTNB.MEDIUM.jpg

(Art-) Deco-punk is more into luxurious, civilian materials. It gives rise to very nice creations.

http://www.genomicon.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/deco1.jpg

 

Steampunk, dieselpunk are subgenres of retro-futurism.

Though that again is subject to interpretation: future from us, or from the style's time? (i.e. 19th cent. for steampunk, and 1st half of 20th cent. for dieselpunk).

 

Then mainstream steampunk became "Victorian" - maybe the most available but not the best taste

http://cn1.kaboodle.com/img/b/0/0/12e/3/AAAAC6c3KIcAAAAAAS4zAg/victorian-steampunk-ravens-w-golden-egg-giclee-art-print-8x10.jpg?v=1298146823000

Another branch, which I think is French-inspired, went towards boheme(=idealized cabarets and whorehouses)/circus steampunk, which again is definitely not of the best taste.

 

 

And we observe nowadays that the mainstreams are getting rigid, intolerant even. Probably because some communities are trying to create coherent enactment/role-playing fictional universes.

I find that recent steampunk is coughing because of that solidification on a strict position of bad taste.

The best steampunk I have seen was the novels-inspired "firefly/serenity" movies, telling the adventures of a small smuggling crew int their second-hand obsolete spaceship. There is no steampower, but the late 19th century styling works like a charm, mixed with later designs.

http://www.thinkhero.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/17474-desktop-wallpapers-firefly.jpg

It's been classified as "space cowboys"/"space western" class, to differentiate it from the mainstream steampunk position.

 

I'm happy that dieselpunk seems more free for the time being.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Dieselpunk_by_hayenmill2_8470.jpg

And that, in general some people are not impeded by growing dogmas and stay creative (this pen is a good example).

 

 

P.S: my better half just came by and told me: "But that good/bad taste issue is a french preoccupation.".

[Scrawler]

I enjoyed Firefly. I had to seriously stomp on my disbelief to do so, particularly when they robbed the train. I like that lamp.

[raging.dragon]

Old west themed steampunk (like the firefly aesthetic, if not technology) is somewhat common in Canada and, I believe, moreso in the US. I generally see it lumped into steampunk instead of getting it's own sub-genre. Probably because the US Civil War, subsequent Old West, and the famous American and Canadian gold rushes were during the Victorian era.