Skip to main content

The problem with dystopian satirical fiction is that it's too real nowadays. You can sit around coming up with an idea for a short story but it just ends up being something like "DraftKings Jr: Sportsbooks for little leagues" and then you start to get terrified the silly idea you just had will actually become real in under 5 years

The #solarpunk people are on the right track I think with the idea of writing utopian fiction instead because it's genuinely more bold to imagine things actually being good. We're all cynical now so actually envisioning something worth fighting for is the real bitter pill we need now and not depresso wallowing in our pessimism.

The real opportunity I think is in the liminal space between the two. Write about a revolution in progress and the sorts of conflicts between now and what we want by 2050 or so.

#solarpunk

Neil E. Hodges reshared this.

in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Amalia Zeichnerin
Amalia Zeichnerin
• •
Yes. 💯 I am so tired of dystopian fiction, satirical or not.
in reply to Amalia Zeichnerin

Fluffy Kitty Cat
Fluffy Kitty Cat
• •
@amalia12 I'm not half bad at it but I hate looking back And being like "I accidentally successfully predicted DOGE get me off this burning rock" it's not original it's the new norm. Daring to be optimistic is the new Pushing boundaries
@Amalia Zeichnerin
in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

grouchox
grouchox
• •

hm.

Counterpoint: mankind survives by imagining the bad stuff.

It's not fun, but gives you a fighting chance.

in reply to grouchox

Fluffy Kitty Cat
Fluffy Kitty Cat
• •
@grouchox you're right but it appears that writing books like 1984 and the handmaid's table only ever seems to inspire Talentless hacks to turn the world into a combination of 1984 and the handmaid's tale. Dystopia has become mundane, unoriginal.
@grouchox
in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

grouchox
grouchox
• •
I suggest that's because you're not reading the Orwells of today.
Out there, someone is looking ahead further than everybody's headlight will shine.
in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Alex 🇵🇸
Alex 🇵🇸
• •
I know exactly what you mean, I've been reading Becky Chambers, who puts it so well.
A x
in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Derrial Book
Derrial Book
• •
Unfortunately, it is impossible to write engaging utopias. They are either painfully boring or devolve into painfully boring details. I mean, even the Bible does not actually describe future paradise, except through negation of bad things.
in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Chris Radcliff
Chris Radcliff
• •
Yes, absolutely. The core of a lot of solarpunk is “here’s how this small group of individually-broken people found each other and repaired a local system to protect each other from a menace” and yes it’s me I want that for us

Fluffy Kitty Cat reshared this.

in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Neil E. Hodges
Neil E. Hodges
•
Have you read Dies the Fire? :3
in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Neil E. Hodges
Neil E. Hodges
•

Yeah, it's really cool seeing people band together to weather the collapse of modern society. Probably what'll end up happening IRL if society does collapse. :3

(I should reread the series.)

in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Luke
Luke
• •
I think as a society we need more visions of hopeful futures, would be really nice. And I really wish like stuff like litRPG would use that for their background settings rather than dystopias, like it would work just as well with the actual story tbh would even be more enjoyable than all the suckiness. Solarpunk is going good work there, but there is so much unfilled space.
in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Fluffgar 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Fluffgar 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
• •

The whole process of working towards an ideal can make for very interesting stories. Lots of struggle and conflict available to spice things up.

Also, the ideal/utopia is an trajectory not an destination. Meaning not a reachable thing in itself, the point is to strive in that direction. A road, not a city.

in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Tinker ☀️
Tinker ☀️
• •
- Solarpunk literary genre has two distinct forms:
- Realized protopia where it is what we hope for
- The struggle to get to realized protopia which explores how do we bridge the gap between now and that ideal future
in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Jonathan Hartley
Jonathan Hartley
• •

This sounds to me like it has overlap with Damien Walters search for a 21 century science fiction, one that serves a culturally healing purpose by giving us a constructive shared vision of futures we can all rally behind.

But not by reacting to the failures of modernism (eg. The meaninglessness of life) by regressing to an ancient worldview, as the incipient fascists would have us do, dominated by the irrational, cruelty, and deeply unjust hierarchy.

Fluffy Kitty Cat reshared this.

in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Rexx Deane 🏳️‍🌈
Rexx Deane 🏳️‍🌈
• •
I'm writing something along these lines right now, but life has got in the way and I've stalled on it. The problem I have is overcoming the fear that once it's written, it's going to get consumed by generative AI scrapers (my first book has) and also won't find any buyers.
It's almost impossible to make a dent in the market with self-published work as it is.
in reply to Fluffy Kitty Cat

Jamey Sharp
Jamey Sharp
• •
Can I suggest "Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072" (https://www.commonnotions.org/everything-for-everyone)? It's people reminiscing about the period leading up to the revolution, after things have settled somewhat, and I think you'll appreciate how the authors walk that line between challenge and hope.

Everything For Everyone — Common Notions Press

Common Notions
Unknown parent

foundseed
foundseed
• •
@bouncinglime it is so good I have become evangelical about it. The watershed network is so close to exactly what I fantasize about. Incredible stuff
@🇵🇸 Mari :nb_crossbow:
⇧