This is a Rant. I know I should write my own fiction with blackjack and hookers but just let me get it out of my system.
I’ve read some solarpunk at this point (mostly short stories) and the number of times that I’ve read the equivalent of “and we all decided not to be jerks to one another and agreed to a bunch of stuff” it’s basically a meme at this point. Yes, Solarpunk doesn’t need to be hard sci-fi, there can be fantastical elements, but can we get over the “we magically work as one humanity now”?
I think it’s OK to have a world that, without mass media and government control, we would realise that people are friendly and getting things done is easier than it seems, but it’s also OK for this to be done in pockets. It’s OK for there to be raiders and selfish people and people who still endeavour to pollute and it’s OK to have bad guys. It’s OK for the indigenous ways to just be the norm rather than the exception, but there are still a lot of ancap crazies out there.
So, if you’re writing climate fiction / Solarpunk, please consider not doing that. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
It’s good to know there are others who feel this way. I’ve been feeling like I’m just not optimistic enough or don’t have enough solutions to offer to write solarpunk. My attempts at it often look more like rural cyberpunk with environmental rage or postapocalyptia with less rugged individualism than usual. I think I have an tenancy to bring a little too much mil-scifi to what’s supposed to be an upbeat genre. It’s hard to find markets for that.
Visual art is easier, I can show off concepts I want to be included in solarpunk without having to build a plot that fits them and the ethos of the genre.
Have you read The Postman? It’s not solarpunk but it has a surprising number of overlapping themes.
I don’t mind optimism. We can be optimistic, we can have happy endings, we can have decent beginnings, but it doesn’t need to be one beat. I haven’t read The Postman, I’ll put it on the pile.