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An enlightened friend:

Fanfiction implies the existence of the Foefiction!

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I just realized it's a genre I actually wrote in!

alxd.org/ministry-for-the-futu

alxd - solarpunk hacker · The Messiah & The God-Emperor of Zurich: a review of Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Ministry for the Future"As someone deeply interested in Solarpunk and climate fiction in general, I encountered a lot of recommendations of "The Ministry For The Future" by the esteemed science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson (later: KSR). The endorsements came from activists, academics, writers and game designers, programmers and climate entrepreneurs: everyone around me seemed to be impressed with the book. It is said to draw a comprehensive, grim, realistic, and yet still optimistic trajectory of our civilization towards a better, sustainable future past the Climate Catastrophe. The author consulted it with over 40 scientists, activists, and conservationists who made sure that "The Ministry…" presented us with a grounded vision. I started reading it deeply intrigued and hopeful, impressed by the scale and scope of the book, stunned by the rawness of the first chapters. However, as I turned the pages, I quickly stopped in my tracks: I realized that "The Ministry…" is very different to what I assumed it is, to what my friends described when recommending it to me. I struggled to continue, clenching my teeth …

@alxd that was a cathartic read, I never knew what to do with the cognitive dissonance from the contrast between the book and the rave reviews but you nailed it! I nearly chucked it across the room when I got to the bits about the world religion, like oh, the UN is gonna fix that up real quick too?? Is it on the blockchain?! 😂😩

@kattrali I still have this cognitive dissonance when discussing the book with people. Even when confronted with specific quotes (Frank not sharing his water and causing people to die) people argue that "this wasn't in the book".

Several times I heard "we need a book that gives us hope and you're taking it away!". That's specifically why I wanted to sketch a book which could give hope without neoliberal colonialism :P

Delisa

@alxd The book as a whole reminded me of the opening of Notes towards a Manifesto, except inverting the intent to imply that "WorldChanging and TED talks, to artfully-designed green consumerism and sustainable development NGOs" were actually the basis of a inspirational, functioning future. I want so much more for everyone's imaginations. ☀️🔧

@kattrali try other #solarpunk books! LX Beckett's Gamechanger, Cory Doctorow's Walkaway and The Lost Cause, Ruthanna Emrys' Half Built Garden.

They are all imperfect, sketches, proposals, but much more bold and brave than KSR's safety of a Zurich cafe.

I wrote more about them at lenses.alxd.org/

alxd - solarpunk hacker · Solarpunk: lenses and foundations
More from alxd ✏️ solarpunk prompts

@kattrali Im also working on a series of notes towards Solarpunk game design, because a lot of games are modelling the climate similarly to KSR, while others, like Terra Nil, are really technosolutionist and don't portray humans in the better tomorrow.

@alxd oh that's rad! it was kind of a bummer at the end of each terra nil segment to be like, "and then nobody ever lives there or sees this landscape again"!