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I've never heard of Solarpunk before, but I'm going to go read/watch everything in this genre now.

"If Cyberpunk rebelled against post-war optimism, Solarpunk rebels against today’s structural pessimism. Only around since 2015, Solarpunk creates bright, beautiful worlds with rich atmospheres. Solarpunk’s aesthetic draws inspiration from Art Noveau and artists like Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki. If Hayao Miyazaki’s Future Boy Conan is Solarpunk’s Alphaville, Beasts of The Southern Wild is Solarpunk’s Shockwave Rider."

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There's nothing 'punk' about it. We just stopped being creative with naming subgenres.

It's more appropriate to call it "Solarhope"

> There's nothing 'punk' about it.

To state the obvious, others disagree. Here's how the "manifesto" page linked from the OP [1] puts it:

> The “punk” in Solarpunk is about rebellion, counterculture, post-capitalism, decolonialism and enthusiasm. It is about going in a different direction than the mainstream, which is increasingly going in a scary direction

[1] http://www.re-des.org/a-solarpunk-manifesto/

I wait until they re-discover Soviet SF from 1960s.

Any recommendations?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_(novel)

Not exactly from 1960s, but: The Mystery of the Third Planet 1981 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TAmISW76Rk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noon_Universe (not coincidentally, this name is also reminiscent of the sun)

One thing to bear in mind is that the series begins with stories that are very optimistic (some would say naively so), but the themes increasingly became darker as the authors aged.

Cosmopunk!

What is Soviet SF like?

Most of it is difficult to read nowadays, it’s mostly about spreading the idea of communism to the outer space and coping with the ideologically immature alien nations. But there are some gems, of course. Strugatsky brothers as a fine example, they started to write on early 60s and even thought their early prose is full of communism ideology, the overall quality is amazing. Check their “Hard to be God” book, it’s one of my all time favorites.

Judging from the behavior of the current brigade of people taking part -at least in theory- of many of those movements, I would say the opposite, that is the scary part. A new-inquisition in which your sins are going against the current orthodoxy of social justice and similar movements. Now, that is the kind of book I would read, also to be honest many works have been produced in that vein, like Harrison Bergeron, form 1961!

It is also ironic, that most of the people exposing this movement, are esentially white WEIRD , a tiny sliver of the world population to whom also belong most of the dominant class.

>It is also ironic, that most of the people exposing this movement, are esentially white WEIRD , a tiny sliver of the world population to whom also belong most of the dominant class.

That may be true, but we need to start somewhere. Actually we need to start lots of places, but a movement coming from amongst the most priveliged is a really good sign if you think about it. At least as long as they don't overimpose their view on the less fortunate.

It's clearly to draw contrast against cyberpunk and to rebel against mainstream cynicism. It doesn't have to be negative to be punk.

Maybe it's rebelling against Cyberpunk.

I was a really big fan of Cyberpunk in the late 80's and early 90's but looking at the genre now... well it hasn't aged well, in my brain at least.

Solarpunk and Afrofuturism, seem like great evolutions of Cyberpunk and I was really happy to discover them. However, much like back in 1988 when I couldn't find enough Cyberpunk to suit my wants, I've not found a whole lot of deliberate and well fashioned Solarpunk stuff.

I did find this and it seems like a good place to begin:

http://www.re-des.org/a-solarpunk-manifesto/

Indeed, good/interesting ideas doesn't equate good entertainment, unfortunately. Personally I find most speculative fiction to be boring, childish, and full of worn-out tropes (hero's journey, again?!). But in non-fiction I can heavily recommend the writings of Mark Fisher (aka k-punk).

Speculative Non fiction?

I find all fiction to be mostly full of worn-out tropes. What's that old saying about there only being seven fundamental stories, or something?

But the devil is in the details. IMO, execution trumps trope.

Lunarpunk is like a dark mode version of Solarpunk. It’s all about human societies settling and thriving in remote places, usually on alien moons with their home planets looming just over the horizon.

Modern SF near future sub-genres are almost always called x-punk. (for x in [Steam, Diesel, Atom, Solar] ). I suggest we should call the phenomena punk-gate. (Not to be confused with gate-punk, which is near future political thriller.)

The post negligently omits reference to Octavia E Butler for prior art

Her works are the best place to start

Best place? Surely not. They are not cyberpunk. Try Pat Cadigan instead. Then Gibson. Then Sterling or Effinger.

I'd suggest going back to John Brunner and The Shockwave Rider. TSR is generally considered one of the foremost examples of "proto-cyberpunk" and laid the groundwork for a lot of what came after. Plus it's just plain and simply a fun novel to read.

Yes, solarpunk is worth putting in your brain.

Any favorites you'd recommend?

> If Hayao Miyazaki’s Future Boy Conan is Solarpunk’s Alphaville ...

I'm not exactly sure what this comparison means, but isn't Future Boy Conan set on a post-apocalyptic world where young boys are left to fight ruthless mecha-criminal gangs by themselves?

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