Tomorrow, nearly, nearly
Further to earlier mutterings about steampunk art here in the Dali House and about the future that never happened over in Dorseyland, this page from a 1939 issue of Amazing Stories magazine adds vivid illustration to how vision went askew.
The breathless text isn’t far off on its predictions: Vast cities, check; gigantic buildings that are cities in themselves, check; people commuting to distant residential towns or country homes, check. There are elevated highways and tunnels for the traffic, and helicopters using helipads atop the skyscrapers, though they haven’t come close to replacing terrestrial taxis.
But the unnamed engineers sourced here were overly confident that city pollution would be eliminated and noise “conquered”. Ah well, in 1939 factories in America were just gearing up for the war then starting in Europe. There was much to be built, and much noise to be made. And perhaps the engineers’ future is still the future.
I’ve lifted the illustration unashamedly from Ottensteam, a terrific Netherlands-based website about steampunk, dieselpunk, atomicpunk and cyberpunk, where there are many thrilling images from more recent sources and excerpts from some great literature too. The site is a little heavy on the Third Reich, but I suppose young people might be forgiven for ogling the visually bizarre side of Hitler’s dream at the price of their elders’ grimaces.
Websmaster Nick Ottens is also the creator of Forgotten Trek, which became very popular by offering “lost” behind-the-scenes information about “Star Trek” and some of the conceptual art used in the TV and film episodes.
