Now im not a solarpunk fan myself but I have seen many leftwing/leftish people seen positive on it. Is it good / bad ? I havent really looked into it beyond surface level.
I think it’s fine. The societal changes necessary to address climate change are so wild that people literally lack capacity to imagine them. Solarpunk is an art genre to fill in that space.
Exactly, it’s basically been reduced down to just the aesthetics which can be readily repackaged and recuperated. It’s a floating signifier, waiting for a brand to attach to and be capitalized on. But since there’s something fundamentally good at its core, I still see value in it.
Sorry for being a boomer mom-type character archetype. Could you explain how solarpunk and cottagecore connect and why they are good but can be coopted? I honestly need to google cottagecore again; I remember hearing the word, but I’m not that online yet, I guess.
For cottagecore - I think it’s the fascist idealization of a past that never really existed. I’ve never really thought about the connection between cottagecore and solar punk, but I could see both having a twee idealized rural life aesthetic (with solar punk adding a dash of sci-fi)
Cottagecore was a lesbian aesthetic about escaping heteronormative society and going off grid. It got turned into a tradwife aesthetic about neo lebensraum. Solarpunk is similar, but the way it gets coopted is via green capitalism washing away the revolutionary parts of solarpunk and replacing them with consumerism of the eco friendly variety.
The sad part for me is that BMF was always completely legible to me, but I don’t think I can cook myself enough to ever actually post like that because I despise obscure jargonism.
Please continue your journey to become whitehat BMF.
Nah I think what set BMF apart was not so much the jargon, but assuming that the reader could keep up with immense amounts of subtext and implied meaning; usually their posts were long sequences of quotations followed by replies that imply several layers of contradicting and layered cultural criticisms, which you could only keep up with if you synchronized your mind to theirs in a fundamental way.
I think a really strong example of this is the fact that the most popular thing to showcase the solarpunk aesthetic is a freaking ad for a yoghurt brand that comes in disposable plastic packaging…
Wait the lesbians did cottagecore first? Thats cool and makes me feel better about it. There’s a minecraft youtuber I like called GeminiTay who’s wlw and before she came out she was doing Cottagecore builds in Minecraft and people found it unsuprising when she came out as bi because of this lol.
It’s an aesthetic. And yes aesthetics are political, but I think this is one of those ones that can go either way, in fact I feel that way about most “Punk” genres. There’s been progressive and reactionary cyberpunk, steampunk, whatever.
Some of solar punk seems to be “hey what if we did Soviet brutalist commie blocks but with more greenery”, so a more naturalistic and whimsical version of dense, organized, urban-proletariat society, which I think is kinda cool. Other times it looks more like an idealized version of what “techno-feudalism” would look like, a quaint, pastoral, sustainable version of being petite-bourgeois.
Soviet brutalist commie blocks but with more greenery
Of course, when you look at pictures of Soviet brutalist commie blocks that show the whole street instead of a single weirdly framed building, a lot of them fit that definition already (or at least they did until the 90s when the funding went away and nobody maintained the green spaces anymore).
It’s also telling that one of the major artworks used to “promote” the aesthetic is literally a yoghurt commercial, but since it’s a cute animation, it gets a pass.
Now im not a solarpunk fan myself but I have seen many leftwing/leftish people seen positive on it. Is it good / bad ? I havent really looked into it beyond surface level.
Solarpunk is good this is internet poisoning.
I think it’s fine. The societal changes necessary to address climate change are so wild that people literally lack capacity to imagine them. Solarpunk is an art genre to fill in that space.
IMO it’s good at its roots but can be easily coopted, it’s like cottagecore in that sense.
Twitter solarpunk is cooked because they all use screenshots from the same yogurt ad with lines like “a business is only as good as its people” lmao
Exactly, it’s basically been reduced down to just the aesthetics which can be readily repackaged and recuperated. It’s a floating signifier, waiting for a brand to attach to and be capitalized on. But since there’s something fundamentally good at its core, I still see value in it.
Sorry for being a boomer mom-type character archetype. Could you explain how solarpunk and cottagecore connect and why they are good but can be coopted? I honestly need to google cottagecore again; I remember hearing the word, but I’m not that online yet, I guess.
It’s alright, auntie, lol.
For cottagecore - I think it’s the fascist idealization of a past that never really existed. I’ve never really thought about the connection between cottagecore and solar punk, but I could see both having a twee idealized rural life aesthetic (with solar punk adding a dash of sci-fi)
Cottagecore was a lesbian aesthetic about escaping heteronormative society and going off grid. It got turned into a tradwife aesthetic about neo lebensraum. Solarpunk is similar, but the way it gets coopted is via green capitalism washing away the revolutionary parts of solarpunk and replacing them with consumerism of the eco friendly variety.
Tradwives really out here dressing like lesbians, except much like a heterosexual trad-douche, they really struggle with like everything aesthetically
Thank you, that makes sense. It’s nice to see young people respect their elders :^)
great post
I think if I just continue cooking my mind with enough Brace rants I’ll eventually become a good version of BMF
The sad part for me is that BMF was always completely legible to me, but I don’t think I can cook myself enough to ever actually post like that because I despise obscure jargonism.
Please continue your journey to become whitehat BMF.
Nah I think what set BMF apart was not so much the jargon, but assuming that the reader could keep up with immense amounts of subtext and implied meaning; usually their posts were long sequences of quotations followed by replies that imply several layers of contradicting and layered cultural criticisms, which you could only keep up with if you synchronized your mind to theirs in a fundamental way.
This is sounding like the Pynchon of posting.
Meh, I always thought everything was pretty straight forward and textual, maybe I misinterpretated it.
I think a really strong example of this is the fact that the most popular thing to showcase the solarpunk aesthetic is a freaking ad for a yoghurt brand that comes in disposable plastic packaging…
Wait the lesbians did cottagecore first? Thats cool and makes me feel better about it. There’s a minecraft youtuber I like called GeminiTay who’s wlw and before she came out she was doing Cottagecore builds in Minecraft and people found it unsuprising when she came out as bi because of this lol.
deleted by creator
Goblincore stay winning- the nouveau art nouveau
It’s an aesthetic. And yes aesthetics are political, but I think this is one of those ones that can go either way, in fact I feel that way about most “Punk” genres. There’s been progressive and reactionary cyberpunk, steampunk, whatever.
Some of solar punk seems to be “hey what if we did Soviet brutalist commie blocks but with more greenery”, so a more naturalistic and whimsical version of dense, organized, urban-proletariat society, which I think is kinda cool. Other times it looks more like an idealized version of what “techno-feudalism” would look like, a quaint, pastoral, sustainable version of being petite-bourgeois.
Of course, when you look at pictures of Soviet brutalist commie blocks that show the whole street instead of a single weirdly framed building, a lot of them fit that definition already (or at least they did until the 90s when the funding went away and nobody maintained the green spaces anymore).
It’s also telling that one of the major artworks used to “promote” the aesthetic is literally a yoghurt commercial, but since it’s a cute animation, it gets a pass.
Or as I like to call it, “Hobbitcore.”