Back in 2021, the Nation magazine looked at “the novel solutions of utopian fiction” – as covered in these pages at the time:
Utopian fiction – Sidmouth Solarpunk
Back in 2016, they had interviewed an author with lots of novel solutions in her utopian fiction:
“Don’t readers ever get tired of being told that the world is coming to a nasty, ugly end and only a very few people will survive, by luck and by violence?” That’s the question asked by legendary science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin during her 2016 interview published by The Nation. It was a poignant question when it was asked. Five years later, the answer is echoing throughout the halls of the literary world, and it’s a clear and resounding yes!
The Solarpunk Future: Five Essential Works of Climate-Forward Fiction | Tor.com
Ursula Guin was writing decades before the term ‘solarpunk’ was used to refer to such ‘utopian fictions’ – but she clearly had the tropes and themes common to solarpunk running through her work:
As one of the foundational works of alternative society fiction, “The Dispossessed” serves as an inspiration to many solarpunk authors. The novel depicts an anarchist society where inhabitants live in harmony with their environment, creating a model of sustainable living that resonates with contemporary concerns about climate change and resource consumption. As you read “The Dispossessed,” you will be transported to a world where the pursuit of knowledge and the preservation of the environment are paramount. Le Guin’s exploration of the tensions between individual freedom and collective responsibility will leave you with a deep understanding of the challenges facing any society seeking to create a sustainable future.
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Always Coming Home by Ursula K Le Guin is fascinating to me. Its not so much a novel as it is a fictional ethnography of the Kesh, a tribe living in a post climate change Napa Valley… These tenets are very similar to ethos of the solarpunk movement. The Kesh society is not perfect; they are isolationist, their medical practices would not be able to treat the majority of modern medical problems, and their pacifist nature leaves them vulnerable to more aggressive tribes. However, I find the philosophy and general system of organization that Le Guin has invented very promising. Whenever I read this book, I feel nostalgic for the towns described, even tho that sounds weird. I highly recommend this book to anyone in the solarpunk movement as a peek into what a decentralized and environmentally mindful society might look like.
Always Coming Home is a massively overlooked Solarpunk book : r/solarpunk
An Introduction to The Solarpunk Genre | Book Riot
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