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On writing dieselpunk
Dec. 17th, 2011 11:42 amTime just seems to be zipping by! I'm taking time off from writing to read. I got a bunch of WWII history books and am cramming them down. Alternate history is so damned hard to figure out, especially when you're throwing in random fantasy crap like I'm doing. For instance, I've started reading the sensationally-titled "Hitler's Master of the Dark Arts: Himmler's Black Knights and the Occult Origins of the SS." and at the same time, I'm reading the more straightforward, "History of the SS". They both paint similar pictures of Himmler, but from different angles. The former, of course, is focused on the mystical woowoo stuff he was fascinated by. After skimming the table of contents, I turned immediately to the chapter, "The Witches of the Schutzstaffel," which basically started out with, "popular culture likes to show off a bunch of leather-clad witch-ladies with whips, but FOOLED YOU! There totally weren't." and then goes on to talk about the boring things women actually did*. And therein lies my dilemma. Since I'm writing fantasy, I can totally go the sensationalizing route, and have as many leather-clad she-wolves of the SS that I want. But 1) that's so cliche, and 2) I'm also writing history, and sort of want to be serious. I have to figure out the balance I want to strike.
Today is a lazy day. I do plan on cleaning my apartment, which is littered with wrapping paper, but there will also be a lot of laughing at Nazis, (or at least laughing at the people who write about them. I could make a fine drinking game out of every time they write "These guys were EVIL!!!" more or less explicitly in their text. GEE, I COULDN'T TELL!!!**) and figuring out how to exploit them for my own nefarious purposes.
*With notable exceptions. There's always Ilsa Koch, whose preferred decorating material was human skin.
**Nazis were bad people, just so you know.
Today is a lazy day. I do plan on cleaning my apartment, which is littered with wrapping paper, but there will also be a lot of laughing at Nazis, (or at least laughing at the people who write about them. I could make a fine drinking game out of every time they write "These guys were EVIL!!!" more or less explicitly in their text. GEE, I COULDN'T TELL!!!**) and figuring out how to exploit them for my own nefarious purposes.
*With notable exceptions. There's always Ilsa Koch, whose preferred decorating material was human skin.
**Nazis were bad people, just so you know.
