Are there good - or any - examples of Solarfiction? It strikes me that Solarpunk is somewhat defined by the lack of material suffering - infinite, clean energy; abundance of food, benign socialist government forms that organize human activity so efficiently that work as we know it barely exists. Because the pillar of fiction is conflict, a universe in which conflict exists is antithetical to the ethos of Solarpunk, and "Utopia as Disguised Welfare-Fascism" is a genre well explored within various -punk genres and of course by L Frank Baum and George Orwell already. It might be a self-defeating genre that can only exist when humans actual lives are defined by lack of conflict. 19th Century British idyll's might be our closest comparison, which is certainly a valid literary genre but.. ultimately this all has to be recognizable by modernes, does it not?
What's the "big technology" that would let bio/solarpunk kick off? As you said, steampunk and cyberpunk kicked off because there was a big general-purpose technology (motor power, computer networks) that could be extrapolated to lots of cool story-generating ideas.
For bio/solarpunk, I guess it's ecology - "What if you can control an ecosystem with the same level of precision as a machine?" We can see the first stirrings of this - experiments in polyculture farming, algae and bacteria being engineered to do useful things, etc. And of course, there's animals that are adapting to take advantage of the urban "biome."
So the biosolarpunk future is one where the human city is an essential lynchpin of the ecosystem. A good thing - cities are full of pretty animals and plants and they do something useful instead of knocking over your garbage bins - but also a bad thing, because humans have trouble managing cities even *without* needing to manage an entire ecosystem as well. And it lets you play around with themes of how modern life is increasingly complicated and interconnected.
Interesting! I think northern Europe will turn into the Biosolarpunk/Eco-fascist future. Promoters will see the electrification, clean air, advanced life science, beautiful merger of old buildings and vegetation of Biosolarpunk. Detractors will see the "soft" social control, anti-GMO attitudes, rigid processes and general exclusion of non-members of Eco-Fascism.
I agree that Solarpunk has not been represented much in literature, and I've myself have been planning on building a literary universe because it seems like a new approach to science fiction in direct contrast to the pessimism we have today.
I don't know anything about any of the "punk" streams of writing, but I wanted to note that H. G. Wells wasn't that prescient about the future. Read "When the Sleeper Awakes" (published in 1899) and you'll see that his technological predictions were, oh, about a month ahead of his time.
Are there good - or any - examples of Solarfiction? It strikes me that Solarpunk is somewhat defined by the lack of material suffering - infinite, clean energy; abundance of food, benign socialist government forms that organize human activity so efficiently that work as we know it barely exists. Because the pillar of fiction is conflict, a universe in which conflict exists is antithetical to the ethos of Solarpunk, and "Utopia as Disguised Welfare-Fascism" is a genre well explored within various -punk genres and of course by L Frank Baum and George Orwell already. It might be a self-defeating genre that can only exist when humans actual lives are defined by lack of conflict. 19th Century British idyll's might be our closest comparison, which is certainly a valid literary genre but.. ultimately this all has to be recognizable by modernes, does it not?
What's the "big technology" that would let bio/solarpunk kick off? As you said, steampunk and cyberpunk kicked off because there was a big general-purpose technology (motor power, computer networks) that could be extrapolated to lots of cool story-generating ideas.
For bio/solarpunk, I guess it's ecology - "What if you can control an ecosystem with the same level of precision as a machine?" We can see the first stirrings of this - experiments in polyculture farming, algae and bacteria being engineered to do useful things, etc. And of course, there's animals that are adapting to take advantage of the urban "biome."
So the biosolarpunk future is one where the human city is an essential lynchpin of the ecosystem. A good thing - cities are full of pretty animals and plants and they do something useful instead of knocking over your garbage bins - but also a bad thing, because humans have trouble managing cities even *without* needing to manage an entire ecosystem as well. And it lets you play around with themes of how modern life is increasingly complicated and interconnected.
Interesting! I think northern Europe will turn into the Biosolarpunk/Eco-fascist future. Promoters will see the electrification, clean air, advanced life science, beautiful merger of old buildings and vegetation of Biosolarpunk. Detractors will see the "soft" social control, anti-GMO attitudes, rigid processes and general exclusion of non-members of Eco-Fascism.
So we get all of the futures indeed!
The Wind Up Girl is exceptional. Your piece makes me wonder, is The Water Knife HydroPunk?
I agree that Solarpunk has not been represented much in literature, and I've myself have been planning on building a literary universe because it seems like a new approach to science fiction in direct contrast to the pessimism we have today.
Would Pacific Edge, by Kim Stanley Robinson, fit into your proposed genre?
where's my Hong Kong in America? I was promised Hong Kong in America
Really interesting article. The "solarpunk" has been developed out by the main creative mind behind the Cyberpunk game, Mike Pondsmith. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybergeneration
I'm pretty blah about solarpunk as an aesthetic sensibility. I can only look at so much brutalist architecture with plants growing on the outside before burning out on it. But it's also a technological ethos -- e.g. this amazing piece by engineer Eric Hunting: https://medium.com/@erichunting/solarpunk-post-industrial-design-and-aesthetics-1ecb350c28b6
You'd probably enjoy this... https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/mcsweeney-s-issue-58-2040-ad-climate-fiction?taxon_id=5
Personally disappointed legal marijuana and boomers thinking CBD is a miracle medicine hasn't brought back weedpunk.
This is great.
I played a video game call Enslaved: Odyssey to the West solely because it had this art style.
The PC Rimworld has blocky, minimalist graphics, but places huge emphasis on renewable energy, and generates wonderful sci-fi narratives.
I don't know anything about any of the "punk" streams of writing, but I wanted to note that H. G. Wells wasn't that prescient about the future. Read "When the Sleeper Awakes" (published in 1899) and you'll see that his technological predictions were, oh, about a month ahead of his time.