The online newspaper The Daily Dot has done a nice feature on dieselpunk. They way they introduce the genre is pretty neat and worth quoting in full.
Imagine a world where the 40s never ended — a world where even as technology advanced, the threat of Fascism continued to loom, film noir and screwball comedies were still all the rage, and swing bands and Arrow collars were still the height of fashion.
You might think that technology would stagnate in such a world, along with the cultural aesthetic, but instead, technology advances further and faster than we could imagine. Think Colt .45s that can also shoot transporter beams; brass fighter pilot goggles, made of leather and equipped with Google Glass; bomber jackets lined with fiberoptic transmitters; supersonic trains racing with zeppelins that can break the sound barrier; robotic bartenders who greet you with a tip of the fedora once you’ve given the secret password to enter the speakeasy, where mellow jazz plays over a lazy techno beat.
And the password to enter this world fused from the past and the future?
Dieselpunk.
The article featured a lot of art from our friend Stefan and a fair history of the genre.
It also devotes some time wondering if dieselpunk doesn’t glorify Nazism. You may be interested in Marcus’ essay on that topic “Dieselpunk and the Shadow of Nazi Aesthetics“.
Click here to read the whole Daily Dot piece.
