Hey guys! We're back from a bit of a hiatus. We're announcing a new schedule: we'll try to send out a new post to you all every Thursday (or at least once a week), even to just check in. Hope to see you all a bit more!
Can I talk about science fiction for a bit? Not the Victorian original science fiction mixed with fantasy that is steampunk. Not the robots and distant universes that is classic sci-fi. Not the artificial intelligences and spaceships that is space opera. Not the dictatorships and near futures that is dystopia. But the science fiction that is solar panels and art and rebellion in a beautiful way and in a gritty way that is solarpunk, also known as one of the leading subgenres of optimistic fiction and science fiction.
I've written a little about solarpunk before. But what exactly is it?
It's a subgenre of sci-fi that's mostly still in ideological stages—unlike other genres who can clearly point to a founding author, the nature of solarpunk is that its inspiration comes from lots of varied authors: Nnedi Okorafor's afrofuturism, Ernest Callenbach's environmental utopia, Alaya Dawn Johnson's Brazilian monarchy, Neal Stephenson's optimistic principle-based sci-fi. A few founding anthologies such as Wings of Renewal and Hieroglyph have been produced, but not much more than that.
Personally, I see solarpunk as an optimistic, aesthetic sci-fi—not built on flat white male characters like Jules Verne's classics, not as dark or pessimistic as The Hunger Games or Divergent, and more technologically advanced and responsible than the classic '50s sci-fi of, say, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or the I, Robot works of Isaac Asimov.
The idea is that it's a futuristic world that we can begin building now: embracing the valuable, diverse current cultures and the complexities of current issues and incorporating that kind of responsibility into mainstream society in a way that's still a reachable standard today.
What I find most interesting about solarpunk's emergence is that its two founding documents, so to speak, are 1) a series of images of solarpunk fashion and architecture, created by an artist and 2) a political philosophy drafted by a member of Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination. In other words, this genre is built on ideas by people from what others might call the opposite ends of the academic spectrum.
Members of the solarpunk community now write anthologies; cosplay solarpunk fashion; make art; write fantasy and sci-fi taking place within a solarpunk world; ponder how society today would change in a more ideal solarpunk world; share experimental science that could have futuristic applications; and figure out how we can work today to make our world a little bit more optimistic and a little bit, dare I say, prettier.
The political side of solarpunk: social justice for everyone. The world today isn't the ideal, and there are things that we can change to make it closer to one. How would whole systems change to ensure the rights of girls, the poor, the disadvantaged, the disenfranchised? How would income work in a world where robots could do the manual labor and where the sun and the wind and possibly some photosynthetic algae could give us endless energy? What about the educational system, charity work, democracy? How could the system be changed to "make scientists heroes again"?
It might seem like fluff or utopia, but solarpunk is the punk-rock response to today's world and today's fiction. In a world where the mainstream is discouraging radical diversity and love, acknowledging problems—and more importantly, their solutions—and living hopefully is the rebellion.
Solarpunk is something that I love because I can stretch it, and because there's more than just writing advice in the community. I want to read a story about a way to build a city without coal or carbon dioxide—then be directed to a link about how people are building it now. I want to read colorful stories about dragons with solar-panel wings and helicopters running on biofuel—in the same universe. I want to see characters who look like me and with backstories like my parents', written by an author who looks like me and my parents. I want to be part of a community where the #solarpunk tag has art and cosplay and photos and exposés and research and writing, whether it's fantasy or sci-fi or could take place in my neighbor's backyard right now without me having a clue. I love solarpunk because it's being built right now, and I'm having a tiny part in that.
Happy reading,
~Citali
Can I talk about science fiction for a bit? Not the Victorian original science fiction mixed with fantasy that is steampunk. Not the robots and distant universes that is classic sci-fi. Not the artificial intelligences and spaceships that is space opera. Not the dictatorships and near futures that is dystopia. But the science fiction that is solar panels and art and rebellion in a beautiful way and in a gritty way that is solarpunk, also known as one of the leading subgenres of optimistic fiction and science fiction.
I've written a little about solarpunk before. But what exactly is it?
It's a subgenre of sci-fi that's mostly still in ideological stages—unlike other genres who can clearly point to a founding author, the nature of solarpunk is that its inspiration comes from lots of varied authors: Nnedi Okorafor's afrofuturism, Ernest Callenbach's environmental utopia, Alaya Dawn Johnson's Brazilian monarchy, Neal Stephenson's optimistic principle-based sci-fi. A few founding anthologies such as Wings of Renewal and Hieroglyph have been produced, but not much more than that.
Personally, I see solarpunk as an optimistic, aesthetic sci-fi—not built on flat white male characters like Jules Verne's classics, not as dark or pessimistic as The Hunger Games or Divergent, and more technologically advanced and responsible than the classic '50s sci-fi of, say, Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or the I, Robot works of Isaac Asimov.
The idea is that it's a futuristic world that we can begin building now: embracing the valuable, diverse current cultures and the complexities of current issues and incorporating that kind of responsibility into mainstream society in a way that's still a reachable standard today.
What I find most interesting about solarpunk's emergence is that its two founding documents, so to speak, are 1) a series of images of solarpunk fashion and architecture, created by an artist and 2) a political philosophy drafted by a member of Arizona State University's Center for Science and the Imagination. In other words, this genre is built on ideas by people from what others might call the opposite ends of the academic spectrum.
Members of the solarpunk community now write anthologies; cosplay solarpunk fashion; make art; write fantasy and sci-fi taking place within a solarpunk world; ponder how society today would change in a more ideal solarpunk world; share experimental science that could have futuristic applications; and figure out how we can work today to make our world a little bit more optimistic and a little bit, dare I say, prettier.
The political side of solarpunk: social justice for everyone. The world today isn't the ideal, and there are things that we can change to make it closer to one. How would whole systems change to ensure the rights of girls, the poor, the disadvantaged, the disenfranchised? How would income work in a world where robots could do the manual labor and where the sun and the wind and possibly some photosynthetic algae could give us endless energy? What about the educational system, charity work, democracy? How could the system be changed to "make scientists heroes again"?
It might seem like fluff or utopia, but solarpunk is the punk-rock response to today's world and today's fiction. In a world where the mainstream is discouraging radical diversity and love, acknowledging problems—and more importantly, their solutions—and living hopefully is the rebellion.
Solarpunk is something that I love because I can stretch it, and because there's more than just writing advice in the community. I want to read a story about a way to build a city without coal or carbon dioxide—then be directed to a link about how people are building it now. I want to read colorful stories about dragons with solar-panel wings and helicopters running on biofuel—in the same universe. I want to see characters who look like me and with backstories like my parents', written by an author who looks like me and my parents. I want to be part of a community where the #solarpunk tag has art and cosplay and photos and exposés and research and writing, whether it's fantasy or sci-fi or could take place in my neighbor's backyard right now without me having a clue. I love solarpunk because it's being built right now, and I'm having a tiny part in that.
Happy reading,
~Citali
Yessssssssssshhhh
ReplyDelete(I'm kinda sad I didn't see this earlier. Camp Nanowrimo has sucked up and devoured all my time.
Speaking of Camp, I'm thinking of doing a kind of solarpunk thing. Since, I mean, my current project is... not a steampunk thing, but like, a clockwork-and-magic thing. So hey, solarpunk next, maybe.)
Oooh, yeah! I've read your solarpunk so far, and it's great! (Especially fantasy elements because we always need more magic.)
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