#markfluffyrock

a dress. made out of coins… Gosh that must be heavy!

I’ve posted about this before, but I’m going to answer it again because it is one of my favorite things to rant about.

First, the basics: You may be getting solarpunk fiction and the solarpunk movement confused. Basically any social movement strives to be utopian by its own standards – what would be the point in striving for a different kind of world if you didn’t imagine it could somehow achieve perfection? So the solarpunk movement is trying to solve ALL the real world problems we have. It won’t, because that’s not how humans work, but that’s beside the point.

Solarpunk fiction isn’t confined to those lofty parameters. There’s no call for a fictional solarpunk world to be intrinsically utopian. (Utopian fiction isn’t utopian either, Thomas Moore’s Utopia is a terrifying slave state, but that’s also beside the point.) Therefore in solarpunk fiction you can have a country that’s an ecologically sound, technologically advanced matriarchy without widespread poverty, where, say, ritual human sacrifice is practiced (as is the case in Alaya Dawn Johnson’s The Summer Prince, which I highly recommend). You can have a world that’s a social anarchist love fest that has found new and fascinating ways to fuck everything up (The Dispossessed isn’t a solarpunk novel, but it does illustrate how to write a functioning anarchy that’s imperfect).

Then there are the old speculative fiction standards: humans vs. ecological disaster, humans encountering aliens, a solarpunk space exploration/spacecraft/colony malfunctioning, an invention gone wrong/being opposed by those who don’t understand it, a solarpunk culture being threatened from the outside, a solarpunk culture being threatened by a reactionary group, and so on.  And of course there’s the conflict I consider to be the most compelling: the rise of solarpunk culture out of our current culture. Because solarpunk isn’t rooted in punk for no reason. A shift to a solarpunk world would require massive cultural conflict, since people who have power generally don’t like giving up that power, and even when they do, nature abhors a vacuum.

And that’s just structural conflict. Assuming a nearly idealized solarpunk world without current structural conflicts, you can still be swimming in conflict. As is the case for all compelling fiction, conflict ultimately comes down to people. And that’s a well that never will run dry. Because, dude, have you met people? They are AWFUL. I say that lovingly. But if you go to an intentionally collaborative planning session for, say, a punk show, or zine fest, or a protest, or, hell, even probably a high school prom, you’ll find that massive conflict arises even between people who supposedly share similar values and a common goal. Misunderstandings, power struggles, cultural and ideological clashes. And that’s for little stuff. Not for running a city or a country. Not for deciding the future.

Oh, thanks! I’m glad you do! <3 I’ve been kinda lacking in the One Piece fanart department lately tho, haha

Mark, you are too precious for this world! Alright five things that make me happy... In no particular order..

music. listening, analyzing, performing (sometimes), arranging (but not composing)

making media. short films, editing, sound, photography, lighting, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, collaborative projects

memes. and now to get away from this ‘M’ theme:

friends. not just those who I blog and night blog with. any and all friends with whom I can be myself around.

Ah sorry, I don’t really know any fics, but I highly recommend that you look more into the AU *v* hmm I wouldn’t say that they’re evil but...cynical? Aha.

I personally like them that way

I doubt we’ll ever truly die out. There will always be someone willing to talk headcanons and stuff.