@lexy

Earlier, I struggled a bit with "does it (solarpunk stories) matter?"

I firmly believe storytelling and art matter a great deal, especially now, especially in movement building and imagining a better future (and fighting all the nihilism and fascists), but back then I wanted some DATA haha to prove it!

So I did a deep dive (as only an engineer-turned-writer would), and wrote up this podcast (with DATA!) about what narratives actually move people to action: https://brightgreenfutures.substack.com/p/episode-24-lets-talk-about-the-doom

@lexy
I often say solarpunk is a "robust" solution (set of solutions) to "how to live more justly and more sustainably on the planet?" because I see people come from all different paths and find their way to solarpunk values (some deeper than others, some focused on one aspect or another more keenly, but all orbiting some central ideas).

@lexy I think the premise is fine, but I'm leery of gatekeeping what "true solarpunk" is — I think it's one of many labels we've attached to a much wider cultural change we're having (and part of making happen!). I definitely call it a movement, I write in the lit genre, I admire the aesthetics, but it's even more than that... it's a *reaction* people are spontaneously having against the brutalist world and all its Horrors.