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Okay, let me tell you about #solarpunk.
Solarpunk is one of the many, many Punk-Genre, that followed in the footsteps of Cyberpunk. Like those other punks it is as much of an aesthetic, as it is a genre.
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Solarpunk is basically the polar opposite of cyberpunk. While cyberpunk is a hypercapitalist endtime dystopia, solarpunk an utopia often featuring anarchistic or communist elements.
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The origin of the term solarpunk is probably found in the blog "Republic of Bees" which published an essay named "From Cyberpunk to Solarpunk". In 2009 Matt Staggs published the "GreenPunk Manifesto".
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In 2012 an anthology was published in Brazil by the name of "Solarpunk: Histórias ecológicas e fantásticas em um mundo sustentável", which established some core tropes and themes of the genre. From 2014 on, the solarpunk aesthetic grew increasingly popular on tumblr.
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Around the same time, there was a growing movement to formulate a Solarpunk Manifesto. Yet the manifest we are working with today was only written in 2019. It again originates from Latin America.
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The Solarpunk Manifesto states:
1) We are solarpunks because optimism has been taken away from us and we are trying to take it back.
2) We are solarpunks because the only other options are denial or despair.
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3) At its core, Solarpunk is a vision of a future that embodies the best of what humanity can achieve: a post-scarcity, post-hierarchy, post-capitalistic world where humanity sees itself as part of nature and clean energy replaces fossil fuels.
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4) The “punk” in Solarpunk is about rebellion, counterculture, post-capitalism, decolonialism and enthusiasm. It is about going in a different direction than the mainstream, which is increasingly going in a scary direction.
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The whole manifesto is 22 bulletpoints long, which you can read up here:
re-des.org/a-solarpunk-ma…
tl;dr: anti-capitalism, decolonizing, living as part of nature, pro-diversity
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As a literary genre Solarpunk takes place in a post-capitalist and decolonized world in which people of all stripes live in synch with nature. The society is fueled by renewable energy.
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Often the question is asked: "If those worlds are so perfect, what are the stories about?" Well, the sad truth is, that even in a perfect world, there will be conflict between humans. Even in an utopia there will be people hungering for power.
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Black Panther for example features - as do many afrofuturist works - solarpunk influences. Wakanda as a country looks and feels very solarpunk. Still there is conflict within the movie.
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A general observation: Solarpunk is a very non-White, non-cishetero genre. It imagines a world in which there are equal rights for everybody.
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Aside of Black Panther you can find at least the solarpunk aesthetic in the Disney movies Zootopia and Big Hero 6. Still in both movies it is mostly the aesthetic of solarpunk and not the ideology.
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The same goes for Studio Ghibli movies which feature the aesthetic of Solarpunk as much as ideas of the genre. In fact the works of Hayao Miyazaki has been named as a major influence on the Genre.
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As the genre is still very young, there are not many solarpunk books out so far. So far it is mostly a bunch of anthologies and a handful of novels.
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This is the reason why I wish for more solarpunk. We NEED Solarpunk, as Solarpunk helps us to imagine a positive future - which we desperately need to do!
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We NEED a solarpunk future.
It is the only way we have to save our planet and in fact our species.
Write Solarpunk. Fight for Solarpunk. We need it.
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If you need some recommendations in the genre: I did a thread. The thread is in German, but the books and movies are mostly English or Japanese.
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