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Solarpunk
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Pat
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Jan 31, 2018 05:39AM
I just recently found out about solarpunk as a genre. I read Wings of Renewal: A Solarpunk Dragon Anthology but wasn't really happy with the overall writing. I like this optimistic scifi future. When asking for recommendation, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is often mentioned. This was a little bit to soap opera for me. Any other recommendations?
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Solarpunk isn’t about the sun? Well, that’s a terrible name for a genre. That’s like calling your sandwich shop “Poison Beverage.”Basically it’s optimistic recent sci-fi? Okay.
How about The Martian?
Or Shine: An Anthology of Optimistic Science Fiction?
Or most of Scalzi’s stuff, particularly his remake of Little Fuzzy, Fuzzy Nation?
See also: Larry Niven and John Varley.
In my TBR pile is We Are Legion (We Are Bob), which sounds like it fits. Same for Year Zero.
This is not what Solarpunk usually refers to, I think? When I heard the phrase a couple years ago it referred to optimistic environmentally-conscious sci-fi, mostly centered around Brazilian writers.https://medium.com/solarpunks/solarpu...
See? Terrible name.Maybe “solar” has a different cultural connotation in Brazilian Portuguese.
Kind of like “sobremesa” in Spanish, which technically means “dessert” but it really means that spot of time after a meal with convivial conversation. If we English speakers heard “Dessertpunk” we wouldn’t know what to make of it.
Mod
Damn hippies ;-)
Thanks for the suggestions.Brendan wrote: "optimistic environmentally-conscious sci-fi"
That's what I am looking for. No dark dystopian story.
"optimistic environmentally-conscious sci-fi"Need to get catchier wording. I agree it should not be solar.
Should be SunnyPunk!
I’m less concerned about the use of solar, then I am by use of punk. Punk isn’t supposed to be another word for sub genre. The reason it worked for cyberpunk is that genre was about a dystopian future, where the protagonists were bairly antiheros. Those lead characters were “punk” in the truest 70’s form of that word. While I’m ranting, I also think the designation “steampunk” gets it wrong most of the time. I could see where a story set in the pre to early industrial era could be dystopian for the lower class, but that doesn’t seem to be what most consider the genre to be about. Most seem to think a clockwork and tall hat esthetic is all that is required to call any story steampunk.
A better title for what your looking for might be something incorporating utopia, like enviro-topia.
All that being said, I know you didn’t coin the term, and I’m glad you were able to get some suggestions for books you might enjoy. That is the important thing.
John (Nevets) wrote: "I’m less concerned about the use of solar, then I am by use of punk. Punk isn’t supposed to be another word for sub genre. The reason it worked for cyberpunk is that genre was about a dystopian fut..."Amen
Not really enviro-topia (I like that term much better), but definitely on the upbeat futurism side of the spectrum: The Punch Escrow. If you want something a little more crass and surreal, check out Space Tripping.
^Steampunk started as Gibson's take on the Victorian era, so the "punk" part fit. Since then, yes, it's become Victoriana with top hats and gears. Just enjoy it, doesn't have to make sense.
I find Dieselpunk is more punk than Steampunk. The examples I’ve encountered of the former feel more Mad Max than the latter’s Sense & Sensibility + robots. Just gritty and grimy and dirty and polluted. Most Steampunk feels like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to me.
Looking back a month later, I did pull a pedantic grumpy old man on a couple of ships that have already sailed. I do apologize if I discouraged anyone from participating in this original posts question of "What are some fun light, fun, funny, and possibly environmentally friendly sci-fi books, no matter what they are called?" Honestly this is a group that I usually enjoy greatly, so I look forward to hearing more about some of the new ones. I think my go to's have already been mentioned. Douglas Adams Has the light, fun, and funny down, but I almost always assume everyone has read him. Maybe some of the books mentioned on this list would fit what Pat is looking for https://theportalist.com/13-science-f...
No worries!That's a great list. Thanks for sharing.
Got a giggle from a Charlie Stross tweet today introducing "stupidpunk" https://twitter.com/cstross/status/97...
John (john) wrote: "Got a giggle from a Charlie Stross tweet today introducing "stupidpunk" https://twitter.com/cstross/status/97..."Heh.
Trike wrote: "Most Steampunk feels like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to me. ..."Where's my grimdark Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reboot??
Keith wrote: "Trike wrote: "Most Steampunk feels like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to me. ..."Where's my grimdark Chitty Chitty Bang Bang reboot??"
Ask and the Internet delivers:
https://youtu.be/GBq53v0yJK8
To appease the Roberator (is that now a conjunction of Rob and dictator instead Rb and of moderator? Hmmmmmm :-) I kid, Rob.), Announcing a Pair of Solarpunk Novellas from Becky ChambersI agree that "solarpunk" is a terrible word for optimistic, near-future sci-fi. Solarpunk makes me think of a dystopian, solar system-based future sci-fi. Think The Expanse meets cyberpunk.
Cli-fi is an equally terrible name because it makes me think of... well... something Vaginal Fantasy might read (not disparaging them, just more in line with their genres).
As Trike said in Quick Burns, "Because when I think “punk”, the first thing that comes to mind is sunshine and lollipops." Adding "punk" to something infers a certain aesthetic. Optimistic doesn't really work.
We might be overfocusing on the punk part of the name, as it's obviously a take on cyberpunk and steampunk and biopunk. For example, what is punky about steampunk? So in that light, solarpunk is a subgenre with a focus on solar power & related ecological issues. (Steampunk isn't inherent dystopian either for example, it's just an aesthetic.)
Yeah, I feel like this battle was lost as soon as the second Steampunk novel was published.
David wrote: "We might be overfocusing on the punk part of the name, as it's obviously a take on cyberpunk and steampunk and biopunk. For example, what is punky about steampunk? So in that light, solarpunk is a ..."All of which are varying degrees of gritty and downtrodden. If the people who came up with this didn't want the punk part to be important, they should have used something else. As is, they either seem ignorant of the history of the term or disingenuous.
Be that as it may, I'm happy to see SF trying to shake off the post-apoc/dystopian/It's all shit 'aesthetic'. I can watch the news for that.
I said my peace 6 months ago. And while my feelings on the subject haven’t really changed, I’m willing to concede the battle. Marketers are just bound and determined to make “punk” a shortener for sub genre. I do think it is a bit of a shame that they couldn’t of mined the rich history of the genre to use terms that had already been established like utopia, but apparently punk sounds cooler. I also did really enjoy Becky Chambers The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet so I’ll be interested to see what she does in this space.
So.....the way I understand it is....Cyberpunk created by William Gibson who is still its best known author. He writes a book set in the Victorian era which is called Steampunk as it has a similar feel, plus the author connection. Steampunk then takes a sharp turn into Victoriana which is what it is best known for today. The "punk" suffix has indeed come to mean specific subgenres. Whaddya gonna do?
John (Taloni) wrote: "Whaddya gonna do?"Fight it. Fight it all day and all through the night! Fight it until our last breath! Go, fight, win!
Brendan wrote: "Trike is the Hiroo Onoda of S&L."Whoa, deep cut. History high five!
John (Nevets) wrote: "I’m less concerned about the use of solar, then I am by use of punk. Punk isn’t supposed to be another word for sub genre. The reason it worked for cyberpunk is that genre was about a dystopian future, where the protagonists were bairly antiheros. Those lead characters were “punk” in the truest 70’s form of that word. While I’m ranting, I also think the designation “steampunk” gets it wrong most of the time."
"Steampunk" started as a joke by K.W. Jeter in the early 80s. Cyberpunk was the new science fiction hotness at the time, while he noticed he and his colleagues Tim Powers and James Blaylock were all writing 19th century retro pastiches so he joked they'd invented "steampunk". But while cyberpunk ostensibly starts with a political agenda (even if it's as basic as "down with The Man, down with The System"), most steampunk doesn't. Gibson and Sterling extend some of their cyberpunk ethos into The Difference Engine and Michael Moorcock's unapologetically anarchist A Nomad of the Time Streams books are retroactively labelled steampunk, but so much steampunk is just an aesthetic of Victorian fashion, goggles, steam engines, and gears.
I feel, much like actual punk rock, the "-punk" suffix in genre fiction originally meant a genuine counter-culture stance, but now just means an aesthetic. "Punk" now means torn denim and dyed mohawks and nose piercings and only knowing three chords, "cyberpunk" means black trenchcoats and mirrorshades and neon in decaying urban centres, "steampunk" is top hats and bustles and goggles and gears and airships, "dungeonpunk" is Dungeons & Dragons with tattoos and piercings and mismatched armour, "solarpunk" is optimistic futures with green cities powered by renewable energy.
So it’s all one big sell-out, now. That’s dark. I’m gonna call that “Punkpunk”.
Dara wrote: "TI agree that "solarpunk" is a terrible word for optimistic, near-future sci-fi. Solarpunk makes me think of a dystopian, solar system-based future sci-fi. Think The Expanse meets cyberpunk."I particularly think of the Expanse because I just saw that one episode in season 2 (I'm behind) where the sun is really important.
Other immediate thoughts for solarpunk:
-Punks who hang out at the beach (I'll never forget the day I saw a NJ punk with black jeans and blacks shoes at the NC shore!)
-Punks who have figured out a way to live ON THE SUN
-Characters who function the opposite of vampires, in that they can't do anything in the night
-Charlie Jane Anders' upcoming YA novel (I saw her read from it on Tuesday) where a moon or planet has one very hot side and one very cold side and everyone lives in this one swipe of shadow - the solarpunks would be the people going out and doing salvage and risking their lives
The first thing that came to mind when I heard the term 'Solarpunk' was the horrible movie 'Solarbabies' https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091981/That's enough to put me off anything with the name on the cover.
Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Punks who hang out at the beach (I'll never forget the day I saw a NJ punk with black jeans and blacks shoes at the NC shore!)"Heh. I remember when I was in Hawaii in ‘99 seeing a bunch of goth kids hanging out on the beach. Surreal moment for sure.
Trike wrote: "Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Punks who hang out at the beach (I'll never forget the day I saw a NJ punk with black jeans and blacks shoes at the NC shore!)"Heh. I remember when I was in Hawaii in..."
You just reminded me of the existence of this website, which I havent thought about in forever http://gothsinhotweather.blogspot.com/
The Sword and Laser
Books mentioned in this topic
The Difference Engine (other topics)The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (other topics)
The Punch Escrow (other topics)
Space Tripping (other topics)
The Martian (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Becky Chambers (other topics)Douglas Adams (other topics)
