Really loved this breakdown of solarpunk and the different shades you describe – especially the cozy vs. thrilling distinction. It’s super helpful language for figuring out where a project sits.
With NUVAGAIA, a bilingual (ES/EN) sci-fi universe I’m building, I’ve been wrestling with that exact question. It probably lives somewhere between Rooted Solar and Metropolis Solar, definitely on the thrilling side: a post-collapse world where three human civilisations – Solarnati, Hydrovelan and Nanocodax – are trying to build socially just, desirable futures… while dealing with very weird, cosmic-scale entities in the background.
Your “desirably sustainable, more socially just, and inspiring action” definition really hits home – NUVAGAIA leans into the horror and tension, but the point is still to imagine futures worth fighting for. Thanks for putting this together and for the questions at the end, it’s given me much better words to talk about what I’m doing.
In terms of “shade”, I’d call NUVAGAIA “Rooted, thrilling solarpunk-adjacent with cosmic horror”.
Thanks so much for the reply! I’m a subscriber to the Substack newsletter, and thanks to this link I’ve now dived into the blog as well. After reading it, NUVAGAIA definitely lives more on the fantastical + thrilling side, visually closer to the brighter/kawaii end, with only the Solarnati clearly solarpunk-coded while Hydrovelan and Nanocodax drift into other speculative spaces (though all three are still trying to build better futures).
Your framework has given me much better language to explain that maybe it’s solarpunk-adjacent rather than straight-up solarpunk. I’m really looking forward to sharing the first stories and transmissions once they’re out so you can check it out.
Thank you for sharing this. This isn't the first time I've seen Solarpunk, but this is the first time I've read the deep dive. Based on the definition alone, this most definitely reminds me of Hoodoo. We use our connections to nature and all it offers to empower our communities and Black lives. At the same time, we use our Inner and outer resources to protect ourselves from White supremacy and fight it head on with our ancestors' aid/wisdom. Speaking of which, I'm going to share this with my people. Thank you again.
Cottage and rooted solar punk seem the best! I hate the trend of sci-fi to always be doom and gloom, metropolis planets, AI brutality, robot police brutality, human brutality... We want to see the good timeline!
I appreciate this breakdown which is a helpful starting point. However, for those of us who’ve been subverting the dominant paradigm for decades we have grown accustomed (and periodically tire of) others branding the movements for their own benefit. I stumbled across the Earth First movement in the late 1980s and it was then galvanizing people who live wild spaces together to fight for them. Many of us are still doing this while now doing “cottage-solar”/permaculture on the edge of the wilds to stay out of the cross hairs of the currently unfolding collapse of industrial civilization
Thanks Don. Saluting all you've been building green over the years. Is the naming here maybe a case of a rose by any other name? Or to use another floral metaphor letting many seeds grow?
We’d say there is space for a whole other lot of punks. Do you have any examples of Lunarpunk fiction (esp short stories) we might check out to wrap our heads round that other punk?
uhhh.... thats a great question: im not sure this punk existed per se before my comment! but im sure something is out there in the ether - and if not i might have to write them myself!
People have been talking about lunarpunk for a few years now, although much of what we've seen has been from the Web3 community regarding issues around privacy / transparency > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Pov8cO7O4&pp=ygUSd2hhdCBpcyBsdW5hcnB1bms_ But there are others who've used the term out there too. If you do research it more feel free to send us some notes :)
Ha! Such synchronicity! I'm in the process of making something right now and was having trouble describing the concept concisely. SolarPunk describes it perfectly! Thank you, thank you, thank you, for posting this. About to do a deep dive on your Substack!
PPS - We’re planning a round up of our best posts to celebrate the 100th one in a few weeks time so if you subscribe you can get that straight to your inbox :)
I believe the strips fit into Happy and Cozy Solar.
I found these divisions very interesting.
For me, what makes Solarpunk unique is precisely the ability to create stories without major conflicts and to imagine a better future without becoming monotonous. This is something very special in the genre and, in my view, its greatest difference compared to all others.
Lately I've become interested in the moral and affective (sic) power of cosy, as a genre that pushes kindness, cooperation, empathy, inclusion and a "nobody so small that they're overlooked" vibe and values. I used to dismiss this stuff as flimsy escapism, (even as I'm not keen on horror, gore, thriller and the affect they arouse); after reading a couple of well-written examples lately, I've been changing my mind.
Afrofuturismo, amazofuturismo e futurismo indígena já são solarpunk desde antes de o solarpunk existir! Mas é muito bom conhecer mais sobre o solarpunk, é bem inspirador!
I used to hype solarpunk just like you, but as I've deepened my sci-fi and futurist literacy, I realise that pedestallising a singular "-punk" is not the way to go. Here are my thoughts (please take them as constructive provocations):
1) most of the visuals I've seen depicting solarpunk are basically distant-future net zero porn - how does that motivate people in the near-term?
2) when it comes to the art, it often defaults to this whimsical, cutesy or Ghibli-adjacent aesthetic - why? Surely that infantilises the vision.
3) related to that, a major demographic is obsessed with cyberpunk: straight men (See here Dami Lee's point: https://youtu.be/UVlBmdvIC6s?si=ivvpIjXIb2LULoqO&t=166) how can solarpunk appeal to them more, while staying true to its roots and plural ethos?
4) pitting solarpunk as the angel to cyberpunk's devil invites the same problems that the utopia-dystopia binary creates (I've written about this here: https://mutantfutures.substack.com/p/007)
5) it seems to cover too much ground, literally. solarpunk should make more room for soilpunk. solarpunk often eclipses things like fungi and other bio-intelligence with transformational potential.
6) does winter not exist in solarpunk? shouldn't we be depicting hopeful visions of the future giving all the seasons a platform?
Keep fighting the good fight but also, remember that staring too long at the sun gives you blind spots. Solarpunk is but one piece of the mosaic of equitable imaginaries we have available to us, and they all matter.
Really loved this breakdown of solarpunk and the different shades you describe – especially the cozy vs. thrilling distinction. It’s super helpful language for figuring out where a project sits.
With NUVAGAIA, a bilingual (ES/EN) sci-fi universe I’m building, I’ve been wrestling with that exact question. It probably lives somewhere between Rooted Solar and Metropolis Solar, definitely on the thrilling side: a post-collapse world where three human civilisations – Solarnati, Hydrovelan and Nanocodax – are trying to build socially just, desirable futures… while dealing with very weird, cosmic-scale entities in the background.
Your “desirably sustainable, more socially just, and inspiring action” definition really hits home – NUVAGAIA leans into the horror and tension, but the point is still to imagine futures worth fighting for. Thanks for putting this together and for the questions at the end, it’s given me much better words to talk about what I’m doing.
In terms of “shade”, I’d call NUVAGAIA “Rooted, thrilling solarpunk-adjacent with cosmic horror”.
Thank you so much for your kind words Nuvagaia. Looking forward to checking out your work. Out of interest did you read our deep-dive blog as well (https://www.solarpunkstories.com/blog/what-is-solarpunk-one-thing-or-many) or just the Substack post?
Thanks so much for the reply! I’m a subscriber to the Substack newsletter, and thanks to this link I’ve now dived into the blog as well. After reading it, NUVAGAIA definitely lives more on the fantastical + thrilling side, visually closer to the brighter/kawaii end, with only the Solarnati clearly solarpunk-coded while Hydrovelan and Nanocodax drift into other speculative spaces (though all three are still trying to build better futures).
Your framework has given me much better language to explain that maybe it’s solarpunk-adjacent rather than straight-up solarpunk. I’m really looking forward to sharing the first stories and transmissions once they’re out so you can check it out.
I like the aesthic/shade split. Suggest you can have cozy metropolis, fantastical metropolis, thrilling cottage ect.
Rooted rooted might need some wordsmithing :) Activist rooted?
Rooted squared? ;)
Thank you for sharing this. This isn't the first time I've seen Solarpunk, but this is the first time I've read the deep dive. Based on the definition alone, this most definitely reminds me of Hoodoo. We use our connections to nature and all it offers to empower our communities and Black lives. At the same time, we use our Inner and outer resources to protect ourselves from White supremacy and fight it head on with our ancestors' aid/wisdom. Speaking of which, I'm going to share this with my people. Thank you again.
Cottage and rooted solar punk seem the best! I hate the trend of sci-fi to always be doom and gloom, metropolis planets, AI brutality, robot police brutality, human brutality... We want to see the good timeline!
How would you feel about fantastical cottage solarpunk… on the moon? > https://substack.com/@solarpunkstories/p-181307580
I appreciate this breakdown which is a helpful starting point. However, for those of us who’ve been subverting the dominant paradigm for decades we have grown accustomed (and periodically tire of) others branding the movements for their own benefit. I stumbled across the Earth First movement in the late 1980s and it was then galvanizing people who live wild spaces together to fight for them. Many of us are still doing this while now doing “cottage-solar”/permaculture on the edge of the wilds to stay out of the cross hairs of the currently unfolding collapse of industrial civilization
Thanks Don. Saluting all you've been building green over the years. Is the naming here maybe a case of a rose by any other name? Or to use another floral metaphor letting many seeds grow?
this was such a great post! I'm definitely a rooted solar - and i'd add that perhaps there is space for Lunarpunk (mystical, witchy, earthy)
Thanks Ines :)
We’d say there is space for a whole other lot of punks. Do you have any examples of Lunarpunk fiction (esp short stories) we might check out to wrap our heads round that other punk?
uhhh.... thats a great question: im not sure this punk existed per se before my comment! but im sure something is out there in the ether - and if not i might have to write them myself!
People have been talking about lunarpunk for a few years now, although much of what we've seen has been from the Web3 community regarding issues around privacy / transparency > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Pov8cO7O4&pp=ygUSd2hhdCBpcyBsdW5hcnB1bms_ But there are others who've used the term out there too. If you do research it more feel free to send us some notes :)
Thank you so much for pointing me in this direction this is definitely a rabbit hole I'm falling down - I'll be back in touch with findings
Ha! Such synchronicity! I'm in the process of making something right now and was having trouble describing the concept concisely. SolarPunk describes it perfectly! Thank you, thank you, thank you, for posting this. About to do a deep dive on your Substack!
That’s awesome! Feeling the synchronicity vibes while typing this! Looking forward to checking out your work in due course.
PS - did you read our deep-dive blog as well (https://www.solarpunkstories.com/blog/what-is-solarpunk-one-thing-or-many) or just the Substack post?
PPS - We’re planning a round up of our best posts to celebrate the 100th one in a few weeks time so if you subscribe you can get that straight to your inbox :)
Ugh. I'm unable to subscribe at this time BUT, may I send you a DM with an idea I have? Or perhaps there is a way to connect through your website?
Best to reach us here > https://www.solarpunkstories.com/contact
Thank you! 😁
I believe the strips fit into Happy and Cozy Solar.
I found these divisions very interesting.
For me, what makes Solarpunk unique is precisely the ability to create stories without major conflicts and to imagine a better future without becoming monotonous. This is something very special in the genre and, in my view, its greatest difference compared to all others.
What is this strip you refer to?
Just to clarify 😊 these are my comic strips on my profile, in the Happy & Cozy Solar style.
Great, looking forward to checking it out 👍🏽
Lately I've become interested in the moral and affective (sic) power of cosy, as a genre that pushes kindness, cooperation, empathy, inclusion and a "nobody so small that they're overlooked" vibe and values. I used to dismiss this stuff as flimsy escapism, (even as I'm not keen on horror, gore, thriller and the affect they arouse); after reading a couple of well-written examples lately, I've been changing my mind.
What are these well-written examples you speak of? We’re intrigued 🤔💚
Not found any Solarpunk cosy yet,but Tamsyn Russell on here is doing great cosy. Try this ... https://open.substack.com/pub/tammasinbiscuit/p/use-by-december-29th?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=p3krk
Afrofuturismo, amazofuturismo e futurismo indígena já são solarpunk desde antes de o solarpunk existir! Mas é muito bom conhecer mais sobre o solarpunk, é bem inspirador!
I used to hype solarpunk just like you, but as I've deepened my sci-fi and futurist literacy, I realise that pedestallising a singular "-punk" is not the way to go. Here are my thoughts (please take them as constructive provocations):
1) most of the visuals I've seen depicting solarpunk are basically distant-future net zero porn - how does that motivate people in the near-term?
2) when it comes to the art, it often defaults to this whimsical, cutesy or Ghibli-adjacent aesthetic - why? Surely that infantilises the vision.
3) related to that, a major demographic is obsessed with cyberpunk: straight men (See here Dami Lee's point: https://youtu.be/UVlBmdvIC6s?si=ivvpIjXIb2LULoqO&t=166) how can solarpunk appeal to them more, while staying true to its roots and plural ethos?
4) pitting solarpunk as the angel to cyberpunk's devil invites the same problems that the utopia-dystopia binary creates (I've written about this here: https://mutantfutures.substack.com/p/007)
5) it seems to cover too much ground, literally. solarpunk should make more room for soilpunk. solarpunk often eclipses things like fungi and other bio-intelligence with transformational potential.
6) does winter not exist in solarpunk? shouldn't we be depicting hopeful visions of the future giving all the seasons a platform?
Keep fighting the good fight but also, remember that staring too long at the sun gives you blind spots. Solarpunk is but one piece of the mosaic of equitable imaginaries we have available to us, and they all matter.
The one with sheet health care access.