#solarpunk dawn

[solar-sunnyside-up]

"Solarpunk will never happen!"

As if it's not already coming, already here and starting to bloom before our eyes.

Neighborhood cooking clubs and libraries lending out more then just books, it's the art club that the community garden started, it's the funky gardens my neighbors have.

It's the DIY projects ppl wear with pride and ones that hide in the back of their dresser drawer. It's in the magazines and podcasts and in passing hope forward.

Like gruella gardening alone is enough for proof of concept for me, but the rise in community events and potlucks and fighting for rent caps and UBI and decentalizing energy and gardening is happening now.

And yea I gotta fight nazis and dickwards daily for it, and I gotta spend the time to educate and build up as I take down, but they can't say this future isn't coming. I'm here with you right now in it.

[eleanor-arroway]

times, places, and practices that I want to learn from to imagine a hopeful future for humanity 🍃

the three sisters (squash, beans, maize) stock photo - alamy // anecdote by Ira Byock about Margaret Mead // art by Amanda Key // always coming home by Ursula K. Le Guin // Yup'ik basket weaver Lucille Westlock photographed by John Rowley // the left hand of darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin // photo by Jacob Klassen // the carrier bag theory of fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin // article in national geographic // the dawn of everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow // braiding sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer // the birchbark house by Louise Erdrich // photo by John Noltner

I'm looking for more content and book recs in this vein, so please send them my way!

[alpaca-clouds]

The Inner Contradition of Capitalism

Okay, let me talk about something that I took away from several books I have read during the last few months: Capitalism is shitty.

"No shit," you might say. "You needed to read a book for that?"

No, of course I knew that before. I knew before that capitalism is shitty for about 90% of people who have to live under it - and of course for the environment as well. There is a reason I am an anarcho communist and Solarpunk.

However, there is another thing about this: Capitalism is shitty, even for those who are "winning it". While there is very little resaerch on the mental health of the super rich, because most of them obviously do not want to participate in this research, there were some very, very few of them allowed research to happen. And here is the thing: There is some evidence that if you acquire riches to a certain point you might actually get better. You are gonna be a bit less stressed and worried until you reach that point.

But "that point" is actually fairly low - from modern capitalism's point of view. While the few papers existing on it might disagree, but generally speaking it is somewhere between 1 and 3 million. Basically it is the kind of money, where you actually can live just from the money you already have, as long as you do not live in abundance and just relax into a normal lifestyle, rahter than getting a villa and yacht.

But here is the thing: As soon as you are richer than that, research suggests, you will actually get more and more miserable.

Now, again, we just have very little in terms of multimillionaires, yet alone billionaires, who will allow for psychologists and neurologists to actually do studies on this. So we have very few data points from where to extrapolate.

But what we have greatly suggests that the more money they get, the more unhappy and more angry they become.

Additionally there is quite a lot of research that suggests that there is indeed a particular personality profile, that will get into those positions. And that personality profile actually has probably also to do a lot with previous abuse.

Don't get me wrong: I absolutely deteste billionaires. I think they are the source for a lot of the ills in our world. They are horrible humans with so much blood on their fingers. However... In some regards I also pity them. Because if you look at them, you do know that... they are not actually happy, are they?

Will they try to tell you they are? Absolutely. But they are not. They are unhappy, and more than anything they are driven by the fear to lose the stuff they have. Because they know how easy that is - and fear how miserable they could be.

And sure, they will claim how much they work and how great they are for it - because we have this idea of meritocracy in our heads. But... That is also bullshit, and they do kinda know it.

As I wrote about yesterday, I have recently read the non-fiction book "The Dawn of Everything", and within the book there are actually quite a few examples of people, who during earlier times of colonization and the conflicts between indigenous people and colonizers, had been kidnapped and taken as hostage by the indigenous. And... a lot of them were freed, only to return and realize, that the life of the indigenous people was just a whole lot better. And quite a few of these hostages decided on their own will to return living with the indigenous people who had taken them hostage.

And yes, in one case this included one of the superrich at the time.

And this to me is the thing: Capitalism as it is, does not make anyone happy. There really are no winners here. There are only losers. No matter who, everyone is worse of because of it. There is nobody here, who might be profiting. Even those who seem to be profiting are actually for the most part miserable.

I honestly do wonder a lot, why this even could happen. It is a question that the book poses a lot, it never finds an answer. Because technically humans were always more intelligent than this. We were more intelligent than creating society in a way that most of us were so darn unhappy.

We talk so much about the "winners" of capitalism. But the truth is, that they do not exist. Because from what little data we have, there is actually good indication, that those who "won capitalism" and truly gave away most of that money (rather than just putting it into a self-controlled trust), were the only ones who became happy.

[gentlyrowan]

METAL FLOWER, MARK III

IV. Inland Waters: Highlands (A Farewell)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892)

Flow down, cold rivulet, to the sea

Thy tribute wave deliver:

No more by thee my steps shall be,

For ever and for ever.

Flow, softly flow, by lawn and lea,

A rivulet then a river:

No where by thee my steps shall be,

For ever and for ever.

But here will sigh thine alder tree,

And here thine aspen shiver;

And here by thee will hum the bee,

For ever and for ever.

A thousand suns will stream on thee,

A thousand moons will quiver;

But not by thee my steps shall be,

For ever and for ever.

🌺

[cherryberrycheol]

Welcome To The Jasmine & Ember | Choi Seungcheol | fluff

Pairing: choi seungcheol x reader

Summary: the golden petals festival is in three days, and the entire town seems to have collectively decided now is the perfect time to remember they need flowers to celebrate the coming of summer. you and seungcheol spend your days running the shop. this routine is familiar: cozy early mornings, the tea blends, the flower arrangements, his stealing of your hair pieces and your small revenges.

Word count: 1.4k

Genre/warnings: fluff, slice of life, flower-tea shop au, modern-ish fantasy au, solarpunk vibes, dragon!seungcheol x human!reader, they are long time friends in this but there's romantic tension if you squint, domestic bliss once more because i can't get enough of coziness and comfort, seungcheol is giving me strong cuteness aggression (also don’t ask me about the logistics of his tail and clothes, he probably has different pants for different moods or smth lol); reader has hair long enough to pin (let me know if you spot some more descriptive words), if i missed anything else let me know.

A/N: the warm cozy vibes of this universe are very much inspired by the comics series by Katie O'Neill "The Tea Dragon Society". i was planning to post it in may but then life hit me like a freight train and i was too overwhelmed to even think about this text. but considering the theme of it i still feel it's pretty much on time for end of spring to early summer vibes. i hope you enjoy! (⸝⸝º ^ º⸝⸝)

The text below isn’t proofread, proceed at your own discretion; if you see any mistakes I’m sorry, English isn’t my first language.

Masterlist

The morning air hums with the restless energy of late spring, thick with the scent of blooming jasmine and damp earth. It was raining all night. You wake at the early crack of dawn to the sound of Seungcheol already moving downstairs in the living quarters, the muffled clink of glass and metal jars, the occasional muttered curse as something undoubtedly refuses to cooperate. The shop doesn’t open for hours and you love the fact that you get to enjoy the quietness and earliness of the morning in your own set tempo.

You stay in bed for a little longer, your eyes looking at the window where the early rays of sunshine begin to trespass the blinds. Soon you get up, uncurtain the window and let the light in, taking a deep inhale of ozone-heavy air. The day promises to be good.

When you come down to the living quarters Seungcheol is already gone, likely tending to the shop before it opens. You sigh with a small pout—you like having breakfast together with him, it’s a much more pleasant ritual than eating alone. But the sight of a carefully arranged plate and a cup of tea warms your heart nonetheless and you smile, sitting down.

By the time you make it into the shop, the workroom is already stirring with controlled chaos. Seungcheol stands at the blending table, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, the sparse scales along his forearms catching the lamplight as he measures out dried petals of chamomile and lavender. His brow is furrowed in high concentration, hands steady and  precise despite the hints of sleep still clinging to the edges of his expression.

"You’re up early," you murmur and a yawn follows your words as you slide up to the counter.

He doesn’t look up, but the corner of his mouth twitches. "Someone has to make sure the rosehip blend doesn’t taste like dirt this year."

You snort, reaching for the clipboard of pending orders that are to be fulfilled for today. In the age of solar- and magic-fueled technology you still like to write things out by hand occasionally. 

The list is daunting—twenty custom bouquets, fifty specialty tea blends, fifteen of which are entirely unique to the customer, and a last-minute request from the mayor’s office for centerpieces. The Golden Petals festival is in three days, and the entire town seems to have collectively decided now is the perfect time to remember they need flowers to celebrate the coming of summer.

Seungcheol’s tail—which only manifests in his human form when he’s comfortable with it—flicks against your calf as you pass with a clipboard, the spaded tip catching briefly on your pants and you almost stumble, hissing a curse at him.

"Stop looming. You’re blocking the light."

"You’re breathing too loud."

"I don’t."

"You do when you’re concentrating." You duck just in time to avoid the dried chamomile bud he flicks at your head. With a gremlinish giggle you retreat to your side of the shop where you begin figuring out flower orders that you’re to fulfill before the shop opens.

The morning passes in a blur of flowers, tea blends and paperwork. Customers begin trickling in as soon as the sign on the entrance door flips to "Open", their requests piling up faster than you can process them. A frazzled woman needs a bouquet for her mother’s birthday, something bright, cheerful and yet gentle, by tomorrow morning. An elderly man requests his usual order of mint-and-honey tea, but could you add extra lavender this time? His joints have been aching.

Seungcheol handles the teas with the same single-minded focus he applies to everything, his voice low and steady as he explains the differences between this year’s first-flush green tea and last year’s batch. His scales ripple along his neck when a particularly picky or indecisive customer insists on sampling every blend before committing, but he doesn’t complain. Not out loud, at least. But you notice the irritation in the way his fingers tap the countertop in that certain rhythm.

Then you catch him stealing your hairpin halfway through the afternoon. It’s an old habit, one he’s had almost since your first year working together. Or at least ever since you two grew comfortable with each other. Whenever the orders pile up too high, whenever the noise of the day's bustling becomes a little too much, his fingers find their way to your hair, plucking whatever shiny thing has caught his attention that moment. Today, it’s the big silver clip you’d worn to keep the strands out of your face while arranging bouquets. Its removal leaves your hair to cascade freely behind your back.

You don’t call him out on it. Not yet. You’re too busy with arranging another bouquet to put it down and immediately chase after him. All you do is heave a sigh.

And wait.

You wait until he’s elbow-deep in a new batch of citrus-infused black tea, his back turned, before swiping his favorite measuring spoon from the counter. The thing is ancient—a delicate, hand-carved utensil with an unreasonably pretty handle he’d once told you came to him from some long-dead dragon ancestor. He pretends it’s just a tool, but you’ve seen the way he meticulously polishes it every moment he gets.

The spoon disappears into your apron pocket with a satisfying swish of metallic friction against fabric. And then you quickly figure out a place to hide it, a small devilish smirk stretching your lips.

Seungcheol notices its absence within minutes when he decides to experiment with mixing two different blends. His head snaps up, his nostrils flaring as he scans the worktable. When his gaze lands on you, in the opposite corner of the shop assembling your bouquets, you’re the picture of innocence—or at least, you hope you are.

"Where is it?" he demands.

You blink. "Where’s what?"

"My spoon."

"Which spoon?"

He growls, the sound more draconic than human, and stalks toward you. You dart behind the counter, laughing, but he corners you easily, his arms braced on either side of the wood as he leans in. Up close, you can see the flecks of fire hues in his dark eyes, the way the tiniest, faintest of scales shimmer under his jawline when the light hits them just right. You continue laughing, a purely nervous fit of giggles, as you lean back so much you have to prop yourself up on your elbows for support.

"Give it back," he murmurs, his voice low.

You tilt your chin up and manage to put on a serious face. "Give me my hairpin."

A standoff.

He breaks first, exhaling sharply through his nose before reaching into his pocket and producing the clip. It’s warm and slightly bent—probably from being clenched in his fist all afternoon that he owned it. You take it with exaggerated care, then jokingly pat his cheek as if praising a puppy for successfully obeying a command. Seungcheol growls in a warning and you defensively press yourself into the counter even more, trying not to laugh too loudly this time.

"Check the cash register."

He takes a long suspicious look at you and finally steps back, giving you space. He walks back, muttering something under his breath that sounds suspiciously like "vindictive little—" but cuts himself off as he yanks open the register drawer. The spoon sits innocently atop a stack of bills, gleaming under the shop lights.

When he turns back to you, his expression is caught between exasperation and reluctant amusement. "You’re a menace."

You grin and stick your tongue out at him. "I’m learning from the best."

Something flickers in his gaze at that—something warm and complicated—but it’s gone before you can put a name to it. He shakes his head, tucking the spoon safely into his apron pocket, and returns to his teas.

The shop bell chimes as another customer enters, and the moment passes.

By the time evening rolls around, your fingers are stained green from stems, your back aching from hours of bending over bouquets. Seungcheol isn’t faring much better—his black and red hair is a mess from running his hands through it, his scales dulled with exhaustion.

But what matters is that the orders are filled. The shop is still standing. And, well, you have each other to rely on.

When you collapse onto the back step to watch the sunset, Seungcheol silently joins you as he always does, pressing a steaming cup of chamomile into your hands while taking a sip out of his own cup. You take the tea with a smile, and a muttered ‘thanks’, your fingers briefly brushing his and you will yourself not to shiver or even worse—jump.

And just like that another day is done. And another tomorrow is waiting.

*.(๓•͙ ˕ •͙๓).* like + reblog + comment if you enjoyed your time reading this!

Masterlist

[dungeonofthedragon]

Non-Violent Adventurous TTRPGS

Today is ANZAC day in Aotearoa New Zealand. It seems a very appropriate time to share some games about helping and healing.

Monster Care Squad by Sandy Pug Games

A game about nurturing monsters and healing them of their pain. In the creator's own words, you play a squad of elite veterinarians. I love games that make you feel you're making a positive difference. I hope to play this one some time.

Ngen Mapu by Helena Real and Evil Hat Productions

This game's gorgeous art is what first caught my eye, but what really drew me in was the premise. Playing as manifested spirits from the dawn of time, you must stop people who are causing serious harm to the natural world without hurting them. What happens if you hurt them? Well, you risk becoming a corrupted ngen called a wekufe.

Wanderhome by Jay Dragon of Possum Creek Games

A game of wandering animal folk. Wanderhome has been on my 'to buy' list since its release. This review sums up a lot of why I love it. The grief and hope of a game that takes place in a world recovering from war appeals to me far more than a game about fighting a war. Plus, my favourite part of roleplaying is exploring a character's internal world, and there are so many chances for that here.

Lunar Echoes is a hack of Wanderhome set in a solarpunk future!

[puddleorganism]

Perhaps a cyborg Stress :3

I didn’t feel like drawing anything human shaped…

So naturally I spent over 5 hours drawing a mech

For the hybrid swap game.

Bonus design notes under the cut bc I like mechs

When I first started sketching I got the idea of a sort of solarpunk mech with a terrarium in it, after which it started to dawn on me that glass is one of the worst materials you could possibly built a mech out of. Because the thing about mechs is that they’re very large, very heavy, and very mobile, all of which are not conducive to keeping glass intact. So a lot of this design requires a bit of suspension of disbelief. And a lot of literal suspension.

It ended up being covered up by the arm, but the sternum-like structure on Stress’s chest is comprised of 3 parts that can slide along each other to absorb a lot of shock. There’s also a similar structure under her hips, but it’s even more obscured so you can’t really see it.

Also, all of the metal that touches the glass is padded with rubber.

She’s also got a bit of meat on her, because what is a mech without a bit of body horror? And also I didn’t feel like coming up with mechanics for those sections. I spent over 3 hours on the lineart (for reference, most of the art I make takes around 3 hours total) so I cut some corners later on in the process. I think you can really tell on the hips & tail, but the rendering masks it well enough.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Francis Spufford’s “Cahokia Jazz”

Tomorrow (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."

Francis Spufford's Cahokia Jazz is a fucking banger: it's a taut, unguessable whuddunit, painted in ultrablack noir, set in an alternate Jazz Age in a world where indigenous people never ceded most the west to the USA. It's got gorgeously described jazz music, a richly realized modern indigenous society, and a spectacular romance. It's amazing:

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Cahokia-Jazz/Francis-Spufford/9781668025451

Cahokia is the capital city of Deseret, a majority Catholic, majority indigenous state at the western frontier of the USA. It swirls with industry, wealth, and racial politics, serving as both a refuge from Jim Crow and a hive of Klan activity. Joe Barrow is new in town, a veteran who survived the trenches of WWI and moved to Cahokia with his army buddy, Phineas Drummond, where they both quickly rose through the police ranks to become detectives.

We meet Joe and Phin on a frigid government building rooftop in the predawn night, attending a grisly murder. Someone has laid out a man across a skylight, cut his throat, split his chest open, and excised his heart. This Aztec-inspired killing points at Cahokian indigenous independence gangs, some of whom embrace an apocryphal tale of being descended from Mesoamerican conquerors in the distant past. That makes this more than a mere ugly killing – it's a political flashpoint.

The Klan insists that Cahokia's system of communal land ownership is a form of communism (Russia never ceded Alaska in this world, so the USSR is now extending tendrils across the Bering Strait). They also insist that Cahokians' reverence for the Sun and the Moon – indigenous royals who have formally ceded power to elected leaders – makes them a threat to democracy. Finally, the Cahokians' fusion of Catholocism with traditional faith makes the spritually suspect. A rooftop blood-sacrifice could cause simmering political tension to boil over, and for ever white oligarch drooling at the thought of enclosing the shared land of Deseret, there are a thousand useful idiots in white hoods.

Joe and Phin now have to solve the murder – before the city explodes. But Phin seems more interested in pinning the case on an Indian – any Indian – than he is on solving the murder. And Joe – an indigenous orphan who has neither the language nor the culture that the Cahokians expect him to have – is reappraising his long habit of deferring to Phin.

This is the setup for a delicious whodunnit with a large helping of what if…? but Spufford doesn't stop there. Joe, you see, is a jazz pianist, and his old bandmates are back in town, and one thing leads to another and before you know it he's sitting in with them at a speakeasy. This gives Spufford a chance to roll out some of the most evocative, delicious descriptions of jazz since Doctorow's Ragtime (no relation):

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/41529/ragtime-by-e-l-doctorow/9780812978186

It's not just the jazz. This is a book that fires on every cylinder: there's brilliant melee (and a major battle set-piece that's stunning), a love storyline, gunplay, and a murder mystery that kept me guessing right to the end. There's fakeouts and comeuppances, bravery and treachery, and above all, a sense of possibility.

Most of what I know about Cahokia – and the giant mounds it left behind near St Louis – I learned from David Graeber and David Wengrow's brilliant work of heterodox history, The Dawn of Everything:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/08/three-freedoms/#anti-fatalism

Graeber and Wengrow's project is to make us reassess the blank spaces in our historical record, the ways of living that we have merely guessed at, based on fragments and suppositions. They point out that these inferences are vastly overdetermined, and that there are many other guesses that fit the facts equally well, or even better. This is a powerful message, one that insists that history – and thus the future – is contingent and up for grabs. We don't have to live the way we do, and we haven't always lived this way. We might live differently in the future.

In evoking a teeming, indigenous metropolis, conjured out of minor historical divergences, Spufford follows Graeber and Wengrow in cracking apart inevitability and letting all the captive possibility flow out. The fact that he does this in a first rate novel makes the accomplishment doubly impressive – and enjoyable.

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/04/cahokia/#the-sun-and-the-moon

[bloominisce]

watched this recently whilst on a ghibli film marathon and it never dawned on me as to how intense this film is in terms of stakes. it really is an epic, with such an engaging protagonist. one of my favorite films that I’ve slept on for years tbh + cool solarpunk

also here’s some sketches I did on the side from inspo lol

gotta use tumblr more man.

[imthepunchlord]

Do you think yellow and orange can work for a solarpunk-themed character? I'm coming up with a team, and one of the characters is solarpunked theme,d and I'm having trouble figuring out what I want their main color to be. I know the main colors of solarpunk are green and yellow, but I already have ideas for a green-coded character, and I think incorporating orange with yellow can really help boost the sun/solar part.

I would probably suggest yellow between the two as that's more tied to the sun in media and in culture.

It may stem from the significance and favor of gold, which is usually a huge symbol of wealth, power, and even divinity. Gold is a shade of yellow, and the sun is an iconic celestial body.

And if you need some additional details to back it, a lot of the themes and symbolism of the sun can be found within yellow's own color meaning and themes.

The sun symbolizes clarity and brilliance, yellow as a color is tied to intellect and inspiration. Yellow as a color represents happiness and energy, the sun is a symbol of optimism (hope for a new day, a new dawn), and the sun is tied to life (being one of the things plants needs to grow).

Orange isn't a stretch, as that can echo the sun's fiery nature, but yellow would probably be the better pick.

[solar-sunnyside-up]

Crafting Cinemas

Crafting cinemas are usually a special night held by movie theaters that encourage you and your friends to bring crafts along to the theater!!

I've seen most of them take place in Australia I will say they are picking up steam world wide bc they ROCK!! The last one a friend was telling me about was actually also a yarn swap which blows my mind.

While they started with doing things like knitting at the movies since it's so portable, most events encourage ANY craft ranging from painting to knitting to rug making to lace making!

So keep an eye out or definitely an idea for a community movie night!!

[kaezerdoodles]

TUE Earth HC

I know we only see glimpses of the state of Earth in The Ultimate Enemy but I like to think that there’s more to it. Hear me out:

Amity isn’t the only human city, there are other bastions all over the world. And I feel it would make sense for them to try to capitalize on the limited space they have under the shields. In the episode it reveals they advance in technology quite a bit but they need to feed their population. So it makes sense to have plants incorporated into just about everything. Like this-

(Images from Google, last one from the Chobani animated commercial)

All solarpunk in aesthetic. While the wasteland we see outside of the Amity bastion is just the immediate area- like maybe a 5 to 10 mile radius. And it’s only like that because of Dan and Valerie’s battles. But the rest of the world, while still destroyed, is being reclaimed by nature.

(Concept art for Horizon Zero Dawn)

I don’t think Dan would care enough to destroy nature. Maybe parts of nature that humans value but other than that he wouldn’t bother. So the world would end up looking like this. And personally I feel this makes the world much more interesting (and beautiful).

[alpaca-clouds]

How We Lost the Ability to Imagine

Today I want to speak about something that Graeber and Wengrow bring up in The Dawn of Everything. And that is, that over the time the modern world - especially in "the west" and very especially in America - lost basically all those holidays, that were topsy-turvy and any related celebrations.

Originally in Europe often both "Carnival" and Christmas were topsy-turvy days, meaning that during those days the royals and nobility would be treated as servants, while the servants would be treated as nobles. Graeber and Wengrow argue, that this had a very specific reason for the socities: it reminded those on top of the society, that they only held their position, because the peasants allowed it. If they exploited the peasantry too much, there would be a lot more peasants to act up and turn around.

Of course, at the same time it was very typical during those days that during those festivities the nobles would afford big, big banquets for their peasants to basically show them their appreciation and such. And sure, while in Europe those festivities were fairly loosely connected to those ideas, though this kind of festivals were very common all around the world. Graeber and Wengrow go so far to say, that they assume that whenever hierarchies naturally arose within a society, these traditions almost automatically came to be.

Sure, you can argue whether this might be their personal bias as anarchists, but I do think there might be something onto it (though then again, I am also an anarchist).

And yes, they are absolutely right: In general it seems that the USA absolutely lacks - on a nation basis - any holiday like that. And to be honest, while Europe these days does still have Carnival just like in ye olden days, it is not really what it was. Sure, there are "Carnival Kings" and queens and what not, but frankly it is just a bit of comedy, a bit of costumes, and a lot of getting very, very drunk. And the billionaires definitely are not the ones funding it.

And there is something sad about this, because I think it does connect to this:

This is also where I would come back to storytelling, which obviously is one of those topics near and dear to my heart. Be it in regards to Solarpunk or to just general alternate stories.

Because I notice that a lot of writers tend to struggle with just different ways of depicting worlds.

Basically, when it comes to stories, those tend to come in mainly three different flavors:

A society that comes down to some sort of royality and/or nobility based, though often with a good bit of capitalism flavoring (like, I cannot even start counting the "medieval fantasy" worlds I have read, in which the world so clearly runs by capitalist principles - you get that this is not realistic, right?)

Basically a society based on our modern society. Either just a modern setting, a near future setting, a near past setting, or a secondary world with a somewhat modern setting (a lot of steampunk does this too). Sure, some of those stories do comment on it as the society being an issue - but it is still the standard.

Fascism of some flavor.

But there are no societies that actually do have a better basis for the people living there.

I mean, personally I find it already fairly frustrating how few stories that are set in the middle ages actually depict a realistic medieval society. As - for example - I cannot think of a single book or movie or show or comic in which the society has at least one topsy-turvy holiday, even though pretty much every single medieval society had one of those.

Though then again this might also be connected to most fantasy books with a medieval setting being often framed around the point of view of some nobles, rather than that of peasants.

And then there is obviously the other thing I mentioned: A lot of fantasy worlds that are supposedly medieval actually very much follow a capitalist logic. (I am looking at you, forgotten realms, I am looking at you.) Which is just... not realistic.

And people, I am begging you: Look a bit into anthropology, look into how else people have lived at different times in different places. Please do not always just redo capitalism. PLEASE.

[the-local-library-witch]

Can you recommend a (few maybe) good books about the environment/solar punk fantasy ish novels?✨🌿

Hello! I’ve found a couple of books I think you’ll like.

First is “The Summer Prince” by Alaya Dawn Johnson. This book has some great Afro and Amazofuturism themes. Two artists named June and Enki fall in love and use their art as a form of rebellion against a government trying to limit access to technology.

The second one I found is “Foxhunt” by Rem Wigmore. In an improved future, the protagonist Orfeus is mistaken as an energy criminal and is being hunted by The Order of the Vengeful Wild. This book has great solarpunk and LGBTQIA+ themes and representation.

I hope you like them!

~LW 📙🌻

[godsofhumanity]

have you heard of the mechanisms?

they're a band of immortal space pirates that do albums based off of various mythologies.

id recommend starting with Once Upon a Tim (in Space), aka, grimms fairytales but space lesbians sea shanties

there's also The Bifrost Incident (detective story with norse space lesbians on a train), Ulysses Dies at Dawn (film noire greek dystopian steampunk), and High Noon Over Camelot (western arthurian solarpunk)

just it is imperative that if you listen you listen chronologically (as in song 1 song 2 song 3) and do NOT skip because otherwise you will miss vital bits of the story.

the mechanisms themselves are all characters with names and backstories too! they're really fun :)

hii yes someone many moons ago recommended them to me. i do not like their music though sorry 😞

[syntheros-artemidos]

Horizon Zero Dawn. it's the most solarpunk game I've ever played and I love it to pieces.

My dearest followers and mutuals and friends and lovers. I am going to extend one deadly serious question to you on this beautiful afternoon.

What is your #1 video game recommendation