#fictional permaculture

[solarpunknow]

A weekend in a solarpunk future

Today was quite the busy day- and it was spent almost entirely outdoors.

This morning was the monthly 'get to know the plants around you' meetup. The idea behind this group is that 3 people (This time it was me, A., and C.) who are very familiar with the native plants around here and their uses, as well as the invasive species around here and their uses, lead a group through one of the local parks, and we teach the new comers what we know. We get a lot of people who have just moved to town and aren't yet familiar with the local ecosystems, those who didn't grow up foraging or working with plants, and of course some retirees who are looking to connect with nature in a way that they couldn't during their working lives back in the 2010s and 2020s.

We started by going over plants that get confused by beginners a lot (western bleeding heart vs herb robert, mahonia vs holly, that sort of thing), then moved on to the most common and vigorous native plants, and how each of us uses them in our lives (stinging nettle for tea, pesto, soup, the fiber for cloth, etc). We finish out the meetup by identifying the most... shall we say, vigorous of the invasive plants, and how to safely remove them (I mean, some have sap that can hurt you, so it's good to point those ones out). Some make tasty food, but we discussed how to safely compost the rest of them.

Gotta be honest, turning a problem (invasive species) into a resource (fertilizer) fills me with a sense of satisfaction like no other. C. usually takes the ones that are good for making fertilizer (invasive buttercup, bindweed, Hyacinthoidess, etc); I'll take the English Ivy and Himalayan blackberries home because my pet goats love to eat them. They also love bindweed, but I can share.

Anyway, we show the new folks how to identify and remove them, and then we put their new skills to the test. It's really starting to make a noticeable effect in the areas we visit, and I have to hope that every one we teach keeps practicing on their own.

Of course, removing the invasive species is only one part of the solution, but that's a whole different post.

This afternoon was a work party at the community/foodbank garden, which is always a good time and opportunity to connect with others. Back in the day I would've been confused by what a "community/foodbank" garden was, but honestly, it works. People who can, come and work in the garden and take what they will use for the next week. People who aren't able to donate their physical skills come by the food bank and are able to get the food they'll use in a week. It used to be that people thought there would be too many "takers" and not enough "workers", but it turns out that working in large groups, in close connection with the land, knowing that you're helping not only yourself but others in your community is hugely motivating for a large segment of the population. It's also awesome because the people who run the garden are super passionate about sustainable gardening and figuring out how to make gardening accessible to everyone in the community who wants to, so people feel comfortable coming to learn and then taking the knowledge and skills back to their neighborhood hub/commons gardens. Really, in the past ten years, the number of people who have started incorporating native plants, started mulching, stopped pulling out plants that support native insects, built rainwater and grey water irrigation systems and so on has really blossomed. The city is so much greener (and cooler) than it used to be, both metaphorically and literally.

Speaking of greywater, that's tomorrow's project. This evening is for listening to the chorus frogs and relaxing on the back porch.

[justposting1]

Amazing Permaculture Garden in the City Grows an Abundance of Food!

Urban Permaculture: Revisiting The Plummery Buy from Amazon Five years ago, we explored Kat Lavers’ remarkable inner-city permaculture property, where she transformed her tiny backyard into a thriving food-producing haven. In just 100 square meters, Kat grows up to 450 kilograms of fruit and vegetables annually. We were thrilled to return in 2025 to see how The Plummery has evolved since our…

[helengie]

Chicken The Key to Sustainable Future Farming Farmer Easter Distressed Funny

[elodieunderglass]

Hi! I saw you mention in a post about people being into a thing in a weird way, and you mentioned permaculture. I dont know anything about that, could you elaborate? (serious question, just curious)

(This is in reference to a post that talked about the difficulty of having some interests (like Vikings) that are notorious for being shared with really right-wing people. For example, a tattoo with Norse runes could mean someone is a normal and interesting person who likes history and fantasy fiction, or they could be a vile white supremacist. I added to the post mentioning that permaculture is one of those interests, and that I wasn’t going to talk about it.)

I am not the first or only person to say this about permaculture, but I’ll take a stab at explaining it to an outsider.

What is permaculture? Permaculture is a term coined in 1978 to describe an approach to land management and food production based on how things work in ecosystems, centering the environment, and based on the ethical principles of Earth Care (sustainability, rebuilding of the environment, survival without destruction), People Care (meet people’s needs fairly and simply, build community) and Fair Share (find a balance of consumption, recognise limits around what can be taken from the environment, and share as much as possible.) movements like rewilding, reforestation, self-sufficiency, intentional communities, sustainable food production, regenerative agriculture and so on are all aspects of interest in permaculture.

However, by itself it’s kind of a nebulous term, because it’s applied to everything with a lofty wave of the hand; everything from somebody’s weedy old tomato plants, to a radical commune, can be vaguely described as “permaculture.” It’s possibly most accurate to call it an umbrella term for some loosely related fields, than a political movement or widespread agricultural practice. That’s part of the intention; by coining the term and describing what goes into it, the founders of the philosophy were trying to clarify communications; obviously, forms of permaculture have been practiced historically for all of human history!!! The usefulness of the term and definition is all about clarifying a unified package of philosophies to set against the behemoth of conventional, capitalistic, extractive land-management.

Ok so given that “everyone can do permaculture/ you can do it with your raised beds right now!” there’s a lot of overlap with people interested in individual self-sufficiency, off-grid living, rewilding, etc at home. in terms of online communities those are particularly vulnerable to sharing interests with right-wing people. In particular, isolationists/separatists/sovcits, right-wing preppers, nationalists, and of course, The Fucking Tradwives.

Why? Well, permaculture/self-sufficiency are connected to ideas of alternatives to the current system, and attract people who are interested in that. The most obvious is ecofascism although people are finally more aware of this (sending the ecofash into the coverts of being crypto-ecofash, but whatever, it’s a win that they feel less comfortable.) There may be a distrust of authority/the state which can be quite normal (don’t pledge allegiance to the USA flag!) and can be right-wing (MAGA people storming the capital did so because they claimed to distrust the state.) There may be a distrust of science/medicine, often hand-in-hand with the sort of “back to nature/ the earth is wiser than we are / indigenous practices” rhetoric that sounds quite lofty and righteous, but doesn’t quite explain why you haven’t vaccinated your kids, iykwim? Anything back-to-the-land should be examined carefully, because it CAN be progressive - or white nationalist - and sometimes both. Anything including a withdrawal from society ditto - yes, even if it’s a queer commune of witches growing tomatoes or whatever - because “withdrawing from multicultural/inclusive/tolerant/diverse/public-transport-having cities to a secure place of purity and control” is a necessary pillar of right-wing separatist thought. Anything talking about connection to the land should be considered attentively.

None of those are problematic and most are interests or behaviours that any normal person might have. They have to be considered carefully for context. Often, quite kind people can accidentally repeat unfortunate things, or speak badly.

It also doesn’t mean that all of permaculture is a tar pit - it just happens to overlap at certain points with the right-wing agenda, and often, the left-wing are bad at spotting that. It’s natural to accidentally absorb weird politics without examining them - that’s why propaganda is effective. All of these worries about pipelines/algorithms are based on the fact that that bad politics can form from quite innocuous beliefs. These are just some spaces/words where I’ve noticed it’s worth paying attention.

I’m personally wondering if I’m noticing the use of “indigenous” being slowly pushed into a space that worries me, rather like “traditional, heritage, natural, spiritual” have been? But I have not seen Indigenous people discussing this yet.

Also, other people have written about the tradwives so hopefully you can fold in what you know about that. There are also TERFs in permaculture; my harebrained theory is that radical feminists in general like the idea of having control over the environment, but want it to feel like a wise, sacred feminine thing. I was in some casual Facebook permaculture groups some years ago and the amount of schisms felt entirely like a) eldritch Catholicism or something??? B) fandom drama. There would be incredible stuff happening like the formation of splinter Facebook groups called like “Women In Permaculture 2.3 No TERFs” and “Gender Critical Women in Permaculture 2.3” which were 7 evolutions away from an initial “practicing permaculture” group.

In real life, people are unfortunately weirder and more open about it, but easier to avoid and less insidious. But that’s for another time.

@samwisethewitch has this good post with lots of resources in this space that aren’t pipelines of worrying ideology: https://www.tumblr.com/whovianuncle/773929827585638400 (by looking at the title alone, you can hopefully see some of the reality and scope of the problem enough that it isn’t just Elodie running their mouth!)

[rnope-c1e]

Hello everyone! I'd like to present to you:

Solarpunk daylight setting system!!!

What is this? This is a way of categorizing and defining solarpunk futures by how far in the future they are by using the natural daylight concept!

The Solarpunk daylight system is supposed to help define your setting, but it's not supposed to limit you in any way!!! It's also supposed to make it easier to search for particular settings in stories :D

🌱Morning Solarpunk 🌄

(Today or Seedling Solarpunk)

Morning Solarpunk resembles the world of today, it resembles the sprouts of solarpunk in societies and our current struggle under capitalism, it resembles the beginning of change.

Morning solarpunk can be happening in twenty-first century or prior.

Defining elements:

Everything you can do today to be solarpunk is what morning solarpunk is! Visibly mended clothing and tools, art on the streets in all forms, guerrilla gardening and permaculture gardens, communities uniting and people joining climate action.

Peaceful Anarchist, Violent World by kayas-kosmos

🪴Noon Solarpunk ☀️

(Tomorrow or Flowering Solarpunk)

Noon solarpunk resembles post-capitalist world or world where significant effort in abolishing capitalism is done. Things are already better, but the scars of the old world are still visible.

Noon Solarpunk is supposed to show us better times and answer the question, what happens on the next day after revolution and in the following years.

Defining elements:

Taking lots of stuff from morning solarpunk and making them more pronounced, repurposed old infrastructure, we can see new solarpunk architecture (sustainable and integrated into nature) appearing, all tech is powered by renewable energy and easily repairable, community gardens everywhere.

Art by mimiitambonne

🌻Evening Solarpunk 🌇

(The day after tomorrow or Ripening Solarpunk)

Evening solarpunk resembles late stage solarpunk world, pure science fiction! This is stories of our successors and how they are living in new refined world!

Defining elements:

Defined by being futuristic, practically unrecognizable from modern age, new hi-tech solarpunk technologies (low tech stuff still exists btw), go as CRAZY as you CAN to show marvelous bright future!

Art by thalieshelen

Things are bound to change and get more refined, please submit your ideas on how this system can be improved! :D

[deepdrearn]

Day ten on the Camino, 20km, total distance: 100km

Observations:

I frown much less since I left J.

No one here seems to care about the hair on my leg.

Endless views and fields of grains remind me of late nineties holidays in France. The hot wind brushing my skin. A harvesting machine moves over a plot like a hair clippee, and releases clouds of dust into the sky. Particles of shredded wheat land on my arms and legs, and stick to the sunscreen.

The sun hides behind a cloud, what a relief. I take a wrong turn, the road is ugly and hot. My leg cramps up, more electrolytes. An old man calls to me in French, and refreshes my water.

A introduces me warmly. She practiced Dutch on Duolingo. She must be my age, and I think I love her already. She doesn't shave. She lives here with her husband, three children, horses, donkeys, dog, cat, chickens and vegetable garden, hosting pilgrims, her husband bakes the bread. She asks about the hellish employment and I give her the full story. She tells of a friend who had the exact same experience, as a lawyer. She tried to make it work for four years, burnt out, and needed two years to recover. "You are right and these men hate women. We are told about gender equality, you wouldn't expect that anymore, especially not in your organization. But it's not a fiction. They are still misogynist."

Being here reminds me of the good things of life with J. I miss the commotion of Dog, Pup, Cat and the pygmy goats around. I miss my garden, I miss walking outside and feeling soil under my feet. Sitting outside with morning coffee, our door opening towards the east. Fighting the brambles away from my vegetable gardens, growing ridiculous amounts of tomatoes and courgettes, handing them out to whomever I run into on the street. My little pet project to learn the name and uses of every plant in our garden. My neighbors horse, and the goat that keeps him company. The haystack we share. The other neighbors permaculture garden. Chatting up everyone on the street. I don't live there anymore.

[entity56]

Entity 56's Low-Standards Bucket List (aka list of things to live for for someone with very little hope for their future)

Write and publish at least 1 original work of fiction

Run in a tall grass field

Camp under the stars

Catch, kill and eat a fish

Grow a black cherry tree to fruit-bearing age

Watch my cat Mei become 10

Get an apartment or house with my found family

Cultivate a permaculture garden in my future backyard

Go into college as an experimental psychology major/go into college as a culinary arts major (I'm not picky atp)

Attend a pride parade

Begin to watch the sunset and/or stargaze nightly

Throw a solstice festival (and have people attend)

Make life feel truly worth living again

ULTIMATE GOAL:

find long lasting peace in life

[dannyfoley]

Tamás Kaszás

The art presented in the Bourne Vincent Gallery focus on the themes of defining the role of the artist in society, going beyond the field of art into other areas of knowledge and work, as well as abolishing the boundaries between art and everyday life.

Agro-Culture, 2011, Neo-Agro (posters), 2011

A constellation of sculptural works composed of farming utensils, found materials, and posters. The works reference the artist’s interests in folk science, fictional anthropology, and self-sustainability.

Tamás Kaszás, an artist-anarchist, imagines the society of the future functioning in a post-fossil fuel economy. Using simple found materials, he practises art as a lifestyle and a form of survival and lives in a house he built on the island of Szentendrei-sziget on the Danube. His references include: folk wisdom, crafts, climate movements, permaculture, as well as proposals of historical communal movements, for example Temporary Autonomous Zones (T.A.Z.) introduced by Hakim Bey. Posters from the Neo-Agro series are displayed in various public buildings in Limerick.

Tamás Kaszás artist and activist who lives outside of Budapest (HU). Recent presentations have taken place at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg (CA), Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna (AT) and Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest (HU).

[devils-sacrament-catering]

🎈🍭🤲 but also 💞🪄☯️

🎈My style of writing is a reflection of whatever I've been most fixated on lately. I got fixated on monster fucking and climate disasters, so I wrote monster fucking on the shore of the Aral Sea (former). I got really fixated on AI and permaculture, so I wrote about a food forest on a ship run by an AI. I'm very phasal.

🍭 My first writing was just poems for English class assignments. I really got into poetry when I went to a terrible, unaccredited school and the only way out was to apply to an arts high school alongside an intended major. I liked poetry enough and ended up loving it as time went on. I didn't actually get into writing fiction until my 20s and I still haven't written much original fiction. (I'd argue that half of my fics are basically original fiction tho since they're so irrelevant to the source material. It wouldn't take much to rebrand some of them.)

🤲 Writing gives me a sense of accomplishment. It shares my world view with others in interesting ways. Sometimes it just gives me peace of mind to know I put something into the world that didn't already (as far as I've been able to discover) exist. I wrote some of my stuff just because I couldn't find anyone else doing it quite like that.

💞 The characters are definitely most important to me. They have to be interesting, possibly even to the point of being very flawed. And I need to feel like they are actually from the world they're presented in.

🪄 My post-writing self care regimen involves moving on with my life as quickly or as slowly as the situation necessitates and that's all I have to say about that.

☯️ Because I see no point in lying, I do not think engagement fosters a healthy fandom experience. I feel healthiest in fandom when I am least directly engaged. I see only two exceptions: Ao3 comments and DMs with fandom friends. It's a bit of a paradox since there has to be some level of engagement to even meet people to begin with, but that's how I feel. Anyway, if it wasn't obvious, I have pretty bad social anxiety and I don't deal with it. I stumble through.

[el4dev]

The Vegetal Calderas by Paul Elvere DELSART

The Vegetal Calderas, designed and conceptualized by Paul Elvere DELSART, are among the most emblematic, innovative, and symbolically rich components of his global transformation initiative within the EL4DEV program and the broader universe of the Green Empire of the East and the West. These monumental structures are not simply architectural or ecological installations; they are multi-functional, self-sufficient, vertical ecosystems that serve as the technological, environmental, spiritual, and cultural cores of the LE PAPILLON SOURCE complexes. Their purpose is to regenerate both the Earth’s natural balance and humanity’s collective consciousness through the integration of science, ethics, art, and symbolic meaning.

From a technical and environmental standpoint, the Vegetal Calderas are designed as vertically developed, climate-regulating infrastructures that operate in harmony with the surrounding biosphere. They are inspired by the geological concept of a caldera - a volcanic structure formed by the collapse of a magma chamber - but are reimagined as artificial, lush, and highly functional vegetative ecosystems built upward rather than downward. These towering structures consist of multiple ecological layers and integrate complex systems for moisture generation, air purification, microclimate stabilization, biodiversity support, and soil regeneration. They are capable of capturing atmospheric water, producing oxygen, and acting as urban lungs in regions affected by pollution, aridity, or loss of vegetation.

Each Caldera functions as a biospheric engine. It generates its own microclimate, supports vertical agriculture, and provides shelter for various plant and animal species. It emits beneficial electromagnetic fields designed to harmonize with human biology and enhance well-being, based on the scientific and speculative integration of environmental engineering with subtle energy systems. These fields are meant to foster both physical and psychological health, promoting a sense of serenity, regeneration, and connection with nature. The structure is also equipped with energy-efficient technologies, water recycling mechanisms, and self-sustaining agricultural components that allow it to operate with minimal external input.

In terms of spatial and symbolic design, the Vegetal Calderas are sacred architectural objects. They are constructed not just as utility-focused buildings but as vertical temples of planetary reconciliation, places where ecology, pedagogy, and spirituality intersect. Their interior and exterior spaces are crafted for contemplation, learning, cultural expression, and collective ceremonies. They include amphitheaters, classrooms, exhibition spaces, meditation rooms, observation decks, and permaculture gardens, all interwoven into a coherent, vertical structure. Their form evokes harmony and beauty, inviting visitors to enter an immersive, sensorial experience that educates, heals, and inspires.

Functionally, these Calderas are knowledge transmission centers. They host transdisciplinary educational programs, workshops, and interactive experiences that combine environmental science, art, philosophy, and social innovation. The goal is not only to inform but to transform the visitor’s worldview, nurturing a sense of planetary citizenship and responsibility. Each Caldera is also a storytelling space, embedded within the transmedia fiction of the Green Empire of the East and the West, where visitors become participants in an unfolding narrative of global regeneration and ethical awakening.

On a diplomatic and geopolitical level, the Calderas serve as ambassadors of the Green Empire of the East and the West’s values. Strategically located in participating municipalities across continents, they symbolize a peaceful and visionary presence—physical markers of a growing, decentralized civilizational movement. As part of the wider network of LE PAPILLON SOURCE infrastructures, they act as diplomatic and cultural bridges between different societies, functioning as loci for international dialogue, inter-municipal cooperation, and soft power projection through societal diplomacy. They do not impose, but invite; they do not dominate, but resonate.

From an economic perspective, the Vegetal Calderas also function as revenue-generating eco-touristic and educational destinations, drawing visitors, researchers, educators, and students. The income generated from activities and events supports the financial sustainability of the host territory and reinvests into local development, thus linking ecological innovation with community empowerment. Their presence increases the territorial attractiveness of municipalities and creates new local economies centered around ethics, sustainability, and creativity.

Each Caldera is modular and replicable, designed to be adapted to the unique environmental, cultural, and social conditions of each territory. This modularity ensures that while the underlying principles remain constant - regeneration, education, cooperation - the specific implementations can be locally owned and contextually relevant. As such, the Calderas are not imposed as standard models but co-developed with local actors, reflecting Paul Elvere DELSART’s broader philosophy of distributed architecture and participatory governance.

In conclusion, the Calderas Végétales of Paul Elvere DELSART are visionary infrastructures that unify ecological function, symbolic meaning, and societal transformation. They are central pillars of his utopian yet actionable civilizational model. These structures do not merely decorate the landscape; they generate new landscapes of thought, behavior, and possibility. They represent the physical and metaphysical heart of the EL4DEV program - a fusion of engineering, ecology, storytelling, and ethics - where Earth regeneration and human awakening become one and the same process. Through them, Paul Elvere DELSART offers a blueprint for an architecture that is not only sustainable, but soulful, serving both the biosphere and the imagination.

Find more information

Boards (French and English)

Beacons (English)

LinkTree (all my blogs in French, English and Spanish)

My books (in French, English and Spanish)

[delphiniumarchangelmoon]

Hi I randomly developed a Sonic hyperfixation despite knowing g nothing about it and just kinda… halfassedly immersed myself in the fandom for a few weeks and here’s all my thoughts so far:

This fandom has the funniest people on the goddamn planet whose soul did you sell to be this fucking funny

Me: *slaps Metal Sonic’s head* this bad boy can fit so much self-projection in him!

(No seriously if this happened to me in like. 2018 I would have been so fucking cringe ass annoying about it. I say this with love to my former self and no criticism of anyone else. But I was so fucking annoying about fictional characters i related to back then. I was smart enough to keep it on a sideblog under a different name tho)

He/she bigender metal sonic who gets a new, similar-to-sonic-but-still-distinct paint job (I think robins egg blue + light spring green instead of blue and yellow) as a part of her transition. buy my silence

If metonic: Sonic constantly showing Metal off and bragging about how cool his girl/boyfriend is

If anything else: Sonic immediately adopting himself as Metal’s big brother and absolutely adores calling him his “little brother/sister”

Either way: Sonic goes into debt buying/making all the pride merch he can

Expanding on the previous point: I feel like every character in this franchise is trans in every direction like I haven’t found a headcanon I dislike. It just vibes. Average non binary transition goals: Sonic character

I desperately need two evil gay middle aged men to adopt me. Will the family dynamic be healthy? No. But it’ll fix me I prommy

I’ve gotten the impression that no one else really knows what’s going on either because there’s so much media in this franchise which 👍 best kind of fandom in my experience.

That being said there is a criminally low number of chatfic/discord server fics in this fandom I thought you guys would love that kind of brain rot

I don’t smoke weed but if I did I’d want to do it at like 11:00 pm on a summer evening sitting in a white plastic chair with Knuckles. That would also fix me. We’d invent world peace. Obtuse weirdo to obtuse weirdo communication.

The above point is in no way related to the fact that everyone who draws him human draws him really fucking hot. I swear. You gotta believe me.

I’m arospec and fully ace I swear. I just think we could group therapy each other into saving the world ok. Maybe cry in each others arms. Come out to each other. Deal with the crushing weight of our family’s expectations vs. our own wants and needs. Maybe run away together to start a permaculture homestead. Get married for tax benefits and to get my family off my back and also cause I like throwing parties. Kill an evil man and destroy the body, taking the secret of the justice we dealt to our graves. Platonically.

Okay maybe I’d smooch him. On like the cheek tho, I don’t do that tongue shit that’s gross.

[daitoshi]

Too many hobbies tbh.

I recently got into leatherworking. I build articulated masks. I sculpt and draw and write fiction. I garden, and learn about environmental stewardship and permaculture and plants.

I want to learn to read crochet patterns! I want to learn how to taxidermy!

that tiktok that’s like “name a single hobby of yours outside of media consumption” she got em a bit why lie

[fatalpoison4u]

Afrofuturism:

Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic, philosophy of science, and philosophy of history that explores the developing intersection of African diaspora culture with science and technology. It was coined by Mark Dery in 1993 and explored in the late 1990s through conversations led by Alondra Nelson.

Afrofuturism addresses themes and concerns of the African diaspora through technoculture and speculative fiction, encompassing a range of media and artists with a shared interest in envisioning black futures that stem from Afro-diasporic experiences. While Afrofuturism is most commonly associated with science fiction, it can also encompass other speculative genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and magic realism.

Nnedi Okorafor has repeatedly expressed her strong preference for the term "Africanfuturism" to describe her own work in particular (see further reading below), arguing that "Afrofuturism" relates to an external, Western experience of Africa, while "Africanfuturism" draws attention to writers actually from Africa.

Solarpunk:

The genre was coined on Tumblr in 2014 when a single post swept bloggers into an excited frenzy. Solarpunk is a literary genre and art movement that envisions how the future might look if humanity succeeded in solving major contemporary challenges with an emphasis on sustainability, human impact on the environment, climate change, and pollution. It is a subgenre within science fiction, aligned with cyberpunk derivatives, and may borrow elements from utopian and fantasy genres.

Contrasted to cyberpunk's use of a dark aesthetic with characters marginalized or subsumed by technology in settings that illustrate artificial and domineering built environments, solarpunk uses settings where technology enables humanity to sustainably co-exist with its environment alongside Art Nouveau-influenced aesthetics that convey feelings of cleanliness, abundance, and equability. Although solarpunk is concerned with technology, it also embraces low-tech ways of living sustainably such as gardening, permaculture, positive psychology, and do-it-yourself ethics. Its themes may reflect on environmental philosophy such as bright green environmentalism, deep ecology, and ecomodernism, as well as punk ideologies such as anarchism, anti-consumerism, anti-authoritarianism, and civil rights.

The central theme throughout solarpunk is the integration of advanced technologies into society in a manner that improves social, economic and environmental sustainability. It is starkly contrasted to cyberpunk which portrays highly advanced technologies that have little influence on, or otherwise exacerbate social, economic, and environmental problems. Whereas cyberpunk envisions humanity becoming more alienated from its natural environment and subsumed by technology, solarpunk envisions settings where technology enables humanity to better co-exist with itself and its environment.

Solarpunk is more similar to steampunk than cyberpunk. Both steampunk and solarpunk imagine new worlds but with different primary sources of energy, steam engines and renewable energy. Though, whereas steampunk focuses more on history and uses Victorian era aesthetics, solarpunk uses more Art Nouveau style and looks to the future. Solarpunk also shares some elements with retrofuturism and Afrofuturism. The retrofuturist reevaluation of technology, its desire for understandable mechanics, and rejection of mysterious black-box technology are found in solarpunk works. As is the Afrofuturist's counter to mass-cultural homogeneity, the reckoning of injustices, and use of architecture and technology to correct power imbalances and problems in accessibility.

Previously published novels that fit into this new genre included Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed (1974), Ernest Callenbach's Ecotopia (1975), Kim Stanley Robinson's Pacific Edge (1990), and Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993), largely for their depictions of contemporary worlds transitioning to more sustainable societies. However, the first explicit entries published into the genre were the short stories in anthologies Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastic Stories in a Sustainable World (2012) (which was the third part of the publisher's trilogy of short story collections preceded by Vaporpunk and Dieselpunk), Wings of Renewal: A Solarpunk Dragons Anthology (2015), Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation (2017) and Glass and Gardens (2018).

Retrofuturism:

Retrofuturism is a movement in the creative arts showing the influence of depictions of the future produced in an earlier era. If futurism is sometimes called a "science" bent on anticipating what will come, retrofuturism is the remembering of that anticipation.

Steampunk:

What is Steampunk? It is a retro-style Speculative Fiction set in periods where steam power is king. Very often this will be in an Alternate Universe where the internal combustion engine never displaced the steam engine, and as a result, all manner of cool steam-driven technologies have emerged, ranging from Airships to submarines. In essence, it's applying the question of "What if the future happened sooner?"

Some writers and fans refer to the "shiny happy" version as "Victorian Fantasy", "Gaslamp Fantasy" or "Victorian Futurism". Supernatural or paranormal tropes are more frequently included in this approach, in which case the Encyclopedia of Fantasy favors "Gaslight Romance". The more Victorian branch of steampunk sometimes also incorporates vaguely Lovecraftian elements. Steampunk is not to be confused with Goth, although the two subcultures do share a similar fashion sense and there is some crossover.

Although many works now considered seminal to the genre were published in the 1960s and 1970s, the term steampunk originated largely in the 1980s as a tongue-in-cheek variant of cyberpunk. It was coined by science fiction author K. W. Jeter, who was trying to find a general term for works by Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates, 1983), James Blaylock (Homunculus, 1986), and himself (Morlock Night, 1979, and Infernal Devices, 1987) — all of which took place in a 19th-century (usually Victorian) setting and imitated conventions of such actual Victorian speculative fiction as H. G. Wells' The Time Machine. William Gibson and Bruce Sterling's novel The Difference Engine (1990) is often credited with bringing about widespread awareness of steampunk.

While most of the original steampunk works had a historical setting, later works often place steampunk elements in a fantasy world with little relation to any specific historic era. Historical steampunk tends to be science fiction that presents an alternate history; it also contains real locales and persons from history with alternative fantasy technology. "Fantasy-world steampunk", such as China Miéville's Perdido Street Station, Alan Campbell's Scar Night, and Stephen Hunt's Jackelian novels, on the other hand, presents steampunk in a completely imaginary fantasy realm, often populated by legendary creatures coexisting with steam-era and other anachronistic technologies. However, the works of China Miéville and similar authors are sometimes referred to as belonging to the "New Weird" rather than steampunk.

[indyfilmlibrary]

Wall: A Story about Two Gardens in Three Parts (2023) – 1.5 stars

You would think a film which loosely professes to be about permaculture and ethical crop production might want to dispel a certain number of preconceptions audiences will have going into it. But Or Schaap leans into every hippie stereotype going.

Director: Or Schaap Writer: Or Schaap Running time: 45mins Wall: A Story about Two Gardens in Three Parts is a hybrid film, presenting itself as an experimental documentary, but which also hinges largely on the vivid description of fictional events. By the time its 45 minutes have run, what it wanted to achieve with this unique cinematic mode is no clearer than when it began. I can roughly…

[elodieunderglass]

age of sail/napoleonics, allotment/food gardening, keeping chickens, golden age detective fiction, Celtic languages, Waldorf/steiner-montessori parenting - not even touching on permaculture; do not touch on permaculture - foraging and food preservation, the lord of the rings, horses -

There’s certain hobbies and interests that aren’t inherently conservative or regressive but do attract a lot of people who are those things or worse and when you’re a progressive person involved in those hobbies hearing that someone else is interested in your hobby usually has to involve some “But are you normal about it?” conversations before you get too excited