Steampunk-ish Novel Mashup

You've heard about Steampunk, right? No? OK, well, it's a movement that allows authors, artists, and performers to create an alternate world based on the Victorian era and 'rude' mechanicals. It's kind of a funky Goth aesthetic - you've got corsets, hats, cravats and pocketwatches, and you've got all kinds of wacky inventions based on the mechanics of the 1850's (think of airships and dirigibles instead of jet planes). I enjoy the look myself, though I haven't started building a costume or persona or anything (yet). I mention this because it's a fun example of the way dramaturgy can function in a day-to-day format: taking a historical, documented and well-referenced era and slotting elements together with developing sensibilities and concepts. It's a whole lotta 'what if' that can still be researched and given a basis in recognizable rules. It's a dramaturgical gold mine - facts and questions building each other up to a new, exciting world!

It looks Victorian, but it's not. Trust me.

Anyway, it's fun.

With that as a background, I want to talk about a book I read recently: Anno Dracula by Kim Newman. The story takes off from Bram Stoker's Dracula (the book, not the -ugh- movie), and while not overtly 'steampunk' in its portrayal or sensibilities, it definitely plays on the related concept of 'mash-up'. Newman works on the alternate-world premise that Dracula is not killed (oops, spoiler?) but instead defeats Van Helsing and Co. and goes on to marry the widowed Queen Victoria, turn her into a vampire, and rule the British empire. What if your neighbors were not only vampires, but it was a socially acceptable (and advantageous) thing to be? How would society function? What problems would stay the same, but how would the solutions change? Newman goes on to bring in cribbed storylines and characters from almost every other major Victorian-era novel you can think of, and a big part of the fun is picking out which characters originated under some other author's pen. (All of which sounds a little pretentious - it's actually much better written than you might expect if you've tried crossover fanfiction or period mashups before.)

All of which is to ask: Dramaturgs, how do you take what has been done before, mix it all together, and turn out something new? Is it about period? How about writing style? Can the writing and the period contrast rather than mesh, and make something completely different? Try writing out a grid of theatrical, period, and writing styles you're interested in, and see if mixing-and-matching the squares sparks something fun.

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Picture found here -check out the others in the gallery!