The Gothamist describes a generation of “New Victorians” who are bringing long-lost habits of diligence, fidelity, and propriety to bear on their youths. I wonder if they are also rediscovering Victorian sexual repression and colonialism.
Regardless, I think this is fantastic news. I’ve long predicted that America is on a bring of a neo-Victorian cultural revolution. We share many attitudes and circumstances with the twilight of the British Empire, from our political overextension to our fixation on technology.
The fiction that imagines this revisitation most vividly is Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, wherein it is accompanied by other, stranger futurisms; but the genre of steampunk has already gained traction in our imaginations, and this aesthetic is sure to penetrate further into our collective psyche before the trend recedes.
Wunderkammer (curiosity cabinets) also seem to be enjoying a resurgence. In Japan, where gothic lolitas have long been reinterpreting Victorian fashion, you can even find anatomical toys reminiscent of early medical models!
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Adam and I enjoyed a fabulous exhibit on Curiosity Cabinets while at the British Museum last year. He was especially thrilled, having studied these in college. We also both observed that the latest surge of “Bio Diversity” exhibits at several museums seems to have a similar feel to them- although without the miss-labeled cultural artifacts.
Having read the article, it didn’t jump out- to me at least- as ringing quite right. Marrying young, children, presenting an idealistic home life, champion of social causes, chasing a career? I see no difference between that and the generation that raised me. Such activities were common within my parents and people their age in the neighborhood. I don’t know how true it is, but the person commenting who claims to have been interviewed and is displeased with the representation is also a dampener for the story.
I think the Diamond Age comparison stands better when you put these people in contrast not with the aging generation but their contemporaries. To actively stand apart from wilder peers and to carve out a smaller niche that is perhaps not the height of trendiness struck me as a key element.
Also, the ‘New Victorian’ and ‘Steampunk’ trends, while dwelling on the same period of time, seem to be drawing from different aspects for radically different results. One is family and social while the other is more of an aesthetic and work ethos with a strong DIY slant. The only thing either of them seem to have in common is some architecture, perhaps the wallpaper, and a strong sense of dignity.
But that’s just my take on it… thanks for pointing out the article…
Regarding the Wunderkammer, there is a marvelous exhibit gallery at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, MD called the Chamber of Wonders, a recreation of what might have been a very literate medieval nobleman’s idea of such a room — well worth an eye-opening visit.
The Steampunk genre (insofar as it’s not still subject to vast, throbbing definition-debate) actually does have to do with Victorian social culture as well as (a punk reinvention of) Victorian aesthetics and technology.
I agree, though, that the “New Victorians” article likely overstates the Victorian affinity of these New Yorkers, but I find it interesting that there may be a guerrilla backswing towards more conservative mores in the young, urban crowd - a trend that hasn’t been seen in decades.