In this bonus chat, Ariel and Christina talk about the 1984 Studio Ghibli film - and solarpunk inspo par excellence - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Does the film live up to its significant reputation and deserve its cred? Is Nausicaä a solarpunk role model, or is this more of a princess-on-a-mission-style of legend? Tune in as we discuss this and more!

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/8178247

We're editing down the manual, and I'm sharing some backstory to the world that didn't make the cut in the manual. This is the kind of silly microfiction that players are encouraged to write and share. This particular piece I wrote because I was trying to imagine where gorillas would live in the US, and why, and how.

In writing the backstory for Ewan Reinhart, I decided that the Gulf Coast was probably the most ecologically sensible place to try to establish a population of gorillas, and then started imaging the circumstances under which the US would do so. Surprise: it's the military industrial complex working hand-in-hand with border control!

The Establishment of the Gulf Coast Gorilla Population

Starting in the 2030s, Northwestern State University in Louisiana began trying to create a stable population of gorillas within one of Louisiana’s wildlife preserves. Among the project goals were tests of whether uplifting would improve the ability of the gorillas to thrive and assist humans in optimizing their survival. Several years after transplanting heirloom gorillas from US zoos and administering enhancement programs, the US Department of Defense began piloting Project Primal Warrior: a project to test the feasibility and performance of gorilla shock troops. In 2042 the DOD invested heavily in the Louisiana Gorilla Sanctuary project with the goal of creating 1,000 gorilla infantry soldiers by 2050 and the goal to produce 10,000 u-gorilla soldiers by 2060. They continued to generously fund the Louisiana Gorilla project in order to support the project goal of producing a target population of 40,000 gorillas in the US by 2060 in order to support Project Primal Warrior.

Herman Ducharme was among the early cohorts to undergo Army training. In 2042, at the age of ten he began keeping a journal at the request of his handler. Concurrently, he began keeping a private diary in addition to one his handlers reviewed. It documents Herman’s exploration into unscreened literature at the fort library and conversations among the other gorillas about their situation. Ducharme’s secret diary would go on to establish a historical record of an emerging political consciousness among the early gulf coast gorilla troops. In 2048, the military began deploying army-trained gorillas along with Customs and Border Patrol agents. In 2049, the Bureau of Land Management began establishing gorilla habitats for mixed populations of maximally and minimally enhanced gorillas along most of the eastern third of the US-Mexico border. Though the pretext was for gorilla conservation, contemporary news coverage recognized the motivation to try and surveil and control the border.

By 2052 the Department of Homeland Security began the top secret project Simian Sentry. Under the program, DHS began incentivizing, manipulating, and pressuring the population of 8,000 gorillas living directly along the border to discourage crossing attempts through violence against humans who passed through their territory. Around the same time, residents of the southern Gorilla sanctuary became acquainted with members of the nascent parahuman rights movement through their contact with Veronica Sandoval’s production team, who were working on “Voices of the Unheard”.

In 2056, the brutal murder of a family camping in Louisiana brought national attention to the danger the gorillas living along the gulf coast posed. In the midst of the furor, a young gorilla investigator named Whisper Dubois and a human partner broke the story on the clandestine militarization of the southern Gorilla sanctuary by the DOD and CBP under Simian Sentry. The program was canceled following heated congressional hearings that took place amid a fierce public debate over the public perception of Gorillas. The DOD began phasing out Project Primal Warrior soon after. Attempts to evict 6,000 u-gorilla infantrymen from the barracks in which they’d lived since they were children led to riots among both gorillas and humans. The military eventually completed the move-out by offering a generous severance package and investments in gorilla infrastructure. Because of the gulf of trust between the Gulf Coast Gorillas and the US government, these monies were directed – on the gorillas’ insistence – to the Circle of Nations for management and disbursement. By 2060, the weakened US government had lost interest in managing the complicated situation they’d created along the gulf coast. To the gorillas’ delight, the federal government eagerly left matters to the states and the Circle of Nations as much as possible going forward.

After reading "The Ministry..." for 3 painful years, I can finally share my review with you!

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/7767375

@sarenaulibarri@wandering.shop is teaching a seminar that looks very cool. I'm excited to hear what she's saying. Ticket start at $25, but are on a generous sliding scale.

I'm teaching a seminar for Clarion West on April 4th! Drawing on my experience as an anthology editor for World Weaver Press and a story reviewer for Imagine 2200, I'll go over some of the most common issues that I see in climate fiction slush piles.

#solarpunk #lunarpunk #ClimateFiction #ClimateWriters #ScienceFiction #SciFiWriters #ClarionWest #WritingClass #Imagine2200

https://clarionwest.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/clarionwest/eventList.jsp

We are excited to announce that we have signed an agreement with author BrightFlame to publish her debut novel, The Working, where a modern coven must thwart a looming eco-cataclysm and find the key to the bright future we all need.

BrightFlame writes, teaches, and makes magic towards a just, regenerative world. Her speculative fiction is featured in Solarpunk Magazine, Bioluminescent (Android Press), and Solarpunk Creatures (World Weaver Press). She is known for her teaching in the worldwide pagan community and co-founded the Center for Sustainable Futures at Columbia University that features her workshops and nonfiction.

When there's a new RPG on the block claiming to do #Solarpunk, I'm obviously interested. Recently, @FullyAutomatedRPG made its way to me via @fiction so I'm giving it a look. What does it want to do? It wants to be a kind of D&D for Solarpunk – a big kitchen sink game that becomes a cornerstone for the genre. That's… Hm, I like my RPGs written with a lightning focus on telling specific stories, so I feel like I'll be biased against #FullyAutomated, but let's see. 1/8

Fully Automated! is a free open-source tabletop roleplaying game set in a wild solarpunk future! And we’ve got some exciting additions since our last update in December.

First, there's the incredible cover art by Sean Bodley!

Next, there’s new interior art by Jacob Coffin, along with pages and pages of new content by our amazing open-source community of developers.

While there’s still lots of editing to do, the current text of the game manual and of the first campaign of adventures represent a pretty close approximation to what you’ll find in the final version. You can find both (for free) on our website at fullyautomatedrpg.com!

That’s the other thing: in addition to our Discord server, we now have a website, a Mastodon account (@fullyautomatedrpg@mstdn.games) and a Lemmy community (SLRPNK.net/c/fullyautomatedrpg). Follow us or join our mailing list for updates as we approach the release of the official first edition of the game. And if you want to contribute art or ideas, our developer group is always grateful for new contributors!

See more of Sean Bodley’s work at seanbodley.com, and Jacob Coffin’s work at jacobcoffinwrites.wordpress.com.

A newly sentient AI inhabits a Roomba to escape from their research office, and a robotic dog hunts for rain in a drought-ridden world. A murder of crows disrupts production on a solar farm, and a young woman communes with a telepathic fungal network to protect a forest. A suspicious cat follows bees across the rooftops of a solarpunk city, and a rabbit hitches a ride to the Grand Canyon to fulfil a prophecy. The path toward better futures is one we must walk alongside other creatures, negotiating the challenges of multispecies justice. Solarpunk Creatures introduces a whole new cast of more-than-human protagonists: organic and digital, alien and fantastic, tiny and boundlessly large.

Reckoning 9 is open for general submissions! There is no specific theme for this issue; if your work concerns any aspect of environmental justice, from food sovereignty to ocean plastics to industrial cleanup to Indigenous rights, we want to see it. In fact, we look forward most eagerly to perspectives none of us has thought of. Please help us learn and understand.

As always, we are seeking art, poetry, short fiction, and creative nonfiction up to 20,000 words in length from Indigenous, Black, Brown, queer, trans, disabled, neurodivergent and/or otherwise marginalized writers and artists from everywhere, and we pay $50/page for poetry and art, 10c/word for prose. Deadline for this issue is the solar equinox, September 22, 2024.

Grist’s Imagine 2200: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors short story contest celebrates stories that offer vivid, hope-filled, diverse visions of climate progress. From 1,000 submissions, our reviewers and judges selected the three winners and nine finalists you will discover in this collection. These stories are not afraid to explore the challenges ahead, but offer hope that we can work together to build a more sustainable and just world. Through rich characters, lovingly sketched settings, and gripping plots, they welcome you into futures that celebrate who we are and what we can become — and, we hope, inspire you to work toward them.

The full story is from a solarpunk anthology Solarpunk Creatures.

How Star Wars can help today’s young rebels bring down empire, defeat the dark side, and save the future - Welcome to the Rebellion explores the radical political roots of Star Wars and shows how the saga continues to inspire a new generation of activists and campaigners today.

What does it mean that our most popular modern myth is a radical left story about fighting corporate authoritarianism? From its roots in the 1960s new left, Star Wars still speaks to millions of people today. By design, the saga mirrors our own time and politics. A real empire of corporate domination has arisen within weakened and corrupted republics. Now it threatens our existence on a planetary scale.

But, the popularity of Star Wars also suggests that if we tell the right stories, we can welcome many more people to fight for a better world...

There’s also a slideshow summary of the book here, and you can read a series of blog posts based on the main arguments in the book starting here.

Interview with the author Michael Harris on THIS IS REVOLUTION podcast, featuring Chris Cutrone: "Why The Left Needs Grand Narratives" (SoundCloud) (YouTube)

I really enjoy "A Psalm for the Wild-Built" by Becky Chambers. It's a nice, serene escape to what could be. What other books help you relax and maintain a positive outlook?

I'm curious what people think of this article with regard to the solarpunk literary movement, past present and future.

These awards “seek to celebrate the vibrancy and diversity of the current and future landscape of science fiction, fantasy and horror by recognizing incredible feats in storytelling and outstanding efforts towards inclusivity within the genre.”

Have not read them yet, but sounds somewhat interesting.

I've really enjoyed his novels that grapple with how we can make computer technology work for us rather than for large corporations. His next book, The Lost Cause, is being called "the first great YIMBY novel," a solarpunk look at a post Green New Deal society.

I know Fables (e.g. The Wolf Among Us) is not solarpunk – yet! Go make spinoffs, it's in the commons now! 🔥

Excerpt:

World-building is a literary tool primarily used to shape science fiction, fantasy, and other speculative fictions. It can be a way to support Black folks to articulate their boldest political imaginations by reimagining and reconnecting to an ancestral sense of Spirit and Story: who we are and what we mean to the world. Building these worlds allows us to reimagine and reaffirm our shared values and ways of being together, in ways that center Black love, Black joy, Black rest, Black time. We can reimagine and redesign our neighborhoods and cities as liberated zones and decolonized spaces, and reimagine and transform our systems and structures—from governance, to economics, to education—to reflect our values.