Solarpunk and Storytelling w/ Phoebe Wagner

This is a conversation with Phoebe Wagner, co-editor of the 2017 book Sunvault: Stories of Solarpunk and Eco-Speculation alongside Bronte Christopher Wieland.

Twitter + Instagram @ firethesetimes

Topics Discussed:

- What is Solarpunk?
- What is wrong with modern storytelling about the future?
- Playing with words (example of Permablitzing)
- Patriarchal tropes (‘men with guns’) and moving beyond them
- Is knowledge power?
- Working on the language we use
- Is there a crisis of the imagination?
- Going from fiction to non-fiction and action
- Community-building
- What’s punk about solarpunk?

Works mentioned:

- Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
- Parable of the Talent by Octavia Butler
- Moon of the Crusted Snow: A Novel by Waubgeshig Rice
- Robin Wall Kimmerer on the Language of Animacy

Recommended Books:

- The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
- Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Cover Art by Likhain for the Sunvault book

[tentenfortynine]

Thank you 🙏 such a good conversation. Love the recommendations and the phrase "hope through action". Also epic closing song 🧚‍♂️

[andrewchoi]

Make world and humanity 100% ageless sustainable solarpunk immortal utopian resilient future

[danielburns]

The concept art for a fully realized solarpunk future makes me want to write a story in that setting. Would that be considered solarpunk or just me using the aesthetic? What are criteria for a a book to be considered solarpunk? For a story to be considered
solarpunk, should it be set in our present with character making changes and upholding the movement’s ideals? Or can I set it in the future where we’ve already achieved solarpunk, and the story be about whatever in that setting? I’m thinking as long as the story features the harmony we achieved (in the near or distant future) or are trying to achieve (in the present) as well as ideals and actions about mindfulness, eco villages, sustainable energy, vibrant visuals, harmony between people and planet, then it could be considered solarpunk, but I’m new to solarpunk and not sure. I want to be respectful and mindful to what makes a story solarpunk. I’ve listened and heard some requirements but what about a story in a setting in the further like that aesthetics and art? And what kind of conflicts would a future that has achieved solarpunk, like in the art and paintings, have? What kind of conflicts does a present that is trying to achieve solarpunk, have?