I've loosely been watching the "What is Solarpunk?" discussion with interest, but have never personally felt comfortable defining it in terms of either technology or lifestyle. "Cyberpunk" as a genre managed to cover a wide diversity of each as authors wondered how new technology might get appropriated into people's own existing ways of life.
But a key thread is often around the politics of that technology - who controls it and who owns it. The "punk" part is an appeal to some form of disruption and/or individual freedom - which may then convert into the freedom of a group or community.
So I don't believe "cottagecore" exists in a different universe to a "solarpunk" one - rather, "Punk" to me means that many different approaches can exist, but also that by exploring that diaspora of approaches and philosophies, we can find more holistic, harmonious solutions to society than simply replacing the technology, or forcing people to become farmers.
Thank you @Scribe for your very thoughtful comment. We agree that many different shades can coexist in the same narrative universe, let alone in our solarpunk movement. Our hope with our upcoming article "Solarpunk has many shades, and that's OK" is to help people become more tolerant of the diversity out there, while there still being some meaningful core we can gravitate around.
I've loosely been watching the "What is Solarpunk?" discussion with interest, but have never personally felt comfortable defining it in terms of either technology or lifestyle. "Cyberpunk" as a genre managed to cover a wide diversity of each as authors wondered how new technology might get appropriated into people's own existing ways of life.
But a key thread is often around the politics of that technology - who controls it and who owns it. The "punk" part is an appeal to some form of disruption and/or individual freedom - which may then convert into the freedom of a group or community.
So I don't believe "cottagecore" exists in a different universe to a "solarpunk" one - rather, "Punk" to me means that many different approaches can exist, but also that by exploring that diaspora of approaches and philosophies, we can find more holistic, harmonious solutions to society than simply replacing the technology, or forcing people to become farmers.
Thank you @Scribe for your very thoughtful comment. We agree that many different shades can coexist in the same narrative universe, let alone in our solarpunk movement. Our hope with our upcoming article "Solarpunk has many shades, and that's OK" is to help people become more tolerant of the diversity out there, while there still being some meaningful core we can gravitate around.