sine lucro friget ludus

WRITING CHALLENGE: A hard-boiled detective story set in a solarpunk society, circa 2100. Proposed tagline: "It's hard to be noir when it's so fucking sunny."

PARAMETERS:

Science fiction rather than fantasy. Nothing unambiguously supernatural.

The society must be central to the plot: its mores, its modes of production, its culture.

The society must come across as markedly preferable to the one in which we currently live, but it should have its own problems

The society must be an extrapolation from our own. No alternate histories.

PRIZE:

The off chance of actually helping to jumpstart a genre/movement that has been revving its electric motor in place for the last 15 years.

Takes place in a near-future sustainable eco-city built on bioengineering and closed-loop circular recycling

The functioning of the city and the way it shapes society and the characters is the primary subject of the plot

The society is preferable to our own in many ways and Definitely Has Problems, which are also core to the plot

It's a hardboiled sci-fi noir with a raccoon detective. The protagonist being a raccoon is relevant to the story's plot and themes, and does not diminish the hardboiled-ness.

bell hooks wrote Feminism Is for Everybody specifically as a short, accessible primer to explain feminist theory without complicated academic language, & you can read it here or watch someone read it aloud here! and you should! at minimum i think everyone should read/listen to this book. if you want to go deeper with hooks, also check out Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center.

i also recommend (although these are varying degrees of accessible & skew US-centric; also, every text can and should be read critically! its good for everyone! critical engagement is an act of mutual respect and encouragement!):

Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation by Sophie Lewis

Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins

"Radical Feminism and Feminist Radicalism" by Ellen Willis

Women, Race and Class by Angela Y. Davis

Capitalist Patriarchy and the Case for Socialist Feminism by Zillah R. Eisenstein

The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan

Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions (4th ed.) by Josephine Donovan*

"Wages Against Housework" by Silvia Federici

The first cat comes in ready for a fight. Low down, trying not to be seen, stalking/wary posture.

Second cat jumps in the air and then does the exaggerated arch. That's an absolutely terrified cat. No cool, no chill. A cat willing to fight would not have gone full arch because it's moving them out of a position where they could launch themselves at the other cat. However, a scared cat can move from this to a preemptive attack if they think the other cat is going to attack them and just moving slowly.

Realizing the second cat doesn't want a fight, the first cat comes out of the low, threatening slink quickly to roll around to say hey, whoops, they weren't here to attack, they don't want to fight either.

With similar speed and exaggeration as the arch, the second cat does the same wiggle that yes, I too have no desire to fight, look at me doing the same thing and conspicuously not attacking when you're vulnerable.

Sure he’s a great politician and can talk circles around most people, but that’s only bc he prepares constantly on what to say and how to say it in response to any possible answer. He’s a shy actor, he can play off a script with ease but he fumbles at his own words.

Ofc being a prince doesn’t allow you to naturally form normal friendships, Basen is there but he’s not there to be his friend and only his guard in the eyes of the court. And uh Basen struggles socially in his own way. Then he’s in the rear palace all of his teen years playing a character who was 5 years older than him while also being harassed and catcalled at constantly. Like this dude’s social development was so fucked it’s no surprise now that he locks himself up in his office and really just talks to his inner circle which mostly consists of the ppl who raised him and Maomao.

And despite being a good politician, he’s been backing away from the social interactions that are integral to politics, and it’s getting worse with each book. He’s at the point where his reclusive tendencies are actively having major effects on the story rn.

So I honestly think it’s weird that ppl think he’s like this silly social butterfly at times when he's absolutely not. However, I get it bc as the audience we can see how he acts with those he’s closest to and also only the earlier books have just been visually adapted.