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OBSOLETE! Introduction to OBSOLETE! #10

O 0 - S
S
Solarpunk: More than
Issue #10
OB # 1 Cyberpunk with a sunny
THE IRREGULAR JOURNAL
E
! disposition.
L
OF POST-REALITY SOCIAL

E P
COMMENTARY, SPECULATIVE

T
FICTION, ART, POETRY, ANARCHISM -Ricardo Obsolete-
& ELDRICH FANZINE MADNESS

E A M Late in 2013, I set about putting together Obsolete’s

L S
first (and so far, only) anthology of anti-statist science

O -
fiction, called “AnarchoSF #1” (#2 is coming. I

B S 1 0
Featuring the
Writing & Artwork of:
promise.) At the time, it was hard to find a lot of

DF
writers of speculative fiction or science fiction (SF)

O ! # E
that fit neatly into that category, and furthermore,

L
P
wanted to be identified as anarchists. Admittedly, the

T E
Marina De Bris first attempt lacks coherence (duh, we’re anarchists)

M kP
although I love all of the stories in the book and I think

E
Andrew Dincher

A
it succeeds overall.

L Blair Gauntt
S
ar
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Less than a year after the publication of AnarchoSF, I

S 0
Jonna Higgins-Freese set about researching environmental SF in the hopes of

B 1
m

finding more focus for the next volume. Being an old

# E
David Lantow
O
cyberpunk and a professional solar installer, I took a

!
Nicholas Oakley
L
er

shot and searched “solarpunk.” I was excited to find

T E
Ricardo Obsolete
Pthat yes- others were thinking the same thing.

M
at

E
Timothy Leary was asked by a Rolling Stone reporter
Scott Szpisjak

L A
once what do do after taking his advice to “turn on,

S
W

O -
E. Lili Yu tune in and drop out,” to which he responded, “Find

S 0 0
the others.” Leary loved the internet, loved computer

B 1 1
games, and it was because of this imperative to “find

O # #
the others.” He knew technology was going to be part

E !
This zine is a production of the
OBSOLETE! PUBLISHING EMPIRE
E !
of human evolution. Not surprisingly, so do
solarpunks. But when I started finding the others, it

E T
PO Box 72, Victor, IA, 52347
obsolete-press.com
E T turns out there is a lot more to their ideas than just
another version of techno-utopianism.

O L O L
anarchosf@riseup.net

O
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spawned cultural aesthetics in the real world. It seems

O - S
that SP is putting the ideology first and the writing is

0
S
still nascent. Second, he is trying to redefine “punk”

OB 1
as something more broadly revolutionary and

# E
optimistic than may be in the comfort zone of first-gen

E ! punks like myself.

P L
I’ll admit that both of these points are probably good

T M
things. SF needs a big shot of feral technology and

LE A
earth-based optimism. That takes time. Old punks

- S
In 2014, Arizona State University futurist/SF blog need to have our assumptions challenged. Let the

S O
Hieroglyphs posted “Solarpunk:Notes toward a

0
weekend bourgie bikers– the lawyers and financial

B 1
Manifesto” by Adam Flynn. “It’s hard out here for advisers with their high-dollar Harleys– have the black

DF
O # E
futurists under 30...” Flynn writes. “...We’re leather. Let the young Black Bloc crusties throw the

! L
solarpunks because the only other options are denial bricks. Let’s go out and save some shit.

E P
or despair.” He goes on to write: “Solarpunk is about I think this approach is expressed really well by the co-

T kP
finding ways to make life more wonderful for us right

M
author of the amazing anthology Octavia’s Brood,

E
now, and more importantly for the generations that

A
adrienne maree brown. In an interview with Fifth

L S
follow us – i.e., extending human life at the species
Estate Magazine, she said that “... I believe all
ar
O -
level, rather than individually. Our future must involve

S 0
organizing is science fiction. Trying to create a world
repurposing and creating new things from what we

1
that we’ve never experienced and never seen is a

OB
m

already have (instead of 20th century “destroy it all and

# E
science-fictional activity. And, to get to a world where
build something completely different” modernism).

! L
there is no rape, no homelessness, no inequality, is
er

P
Our futurism is not nihilistic like cyberpunk and it

E
going to require a good amount of future casting and
avoids steampunk’s potentially quasi-reactionary

T
future thinking, aligning ourselves into the future,

M
at

tendencies: it is about ingenuity, generativity,

LE
exploring and playing with how we’re going to get

A
independence, and community.
there."

S
W

O -
And yes, there’s a -punk there, and not just because it’s
Currently, solarpunks point to the pantheon of

S 0 0
become a trendy suffix. There’s an oppositional quality
established “eco-fiction” writers like Kim Stanley

B 1 1
to solarpunk, but it’s an opposition that begins with

# #
Robinson as examples of what they aspire to. In this

O
infrastructure as a form of resistance. We’re already

! !
issue you will find my interview with T.X. Watson (not
seeing it in the struggles of public utilities to deal with

E E
to be confused with Tex Watson), co-founder of
the explosion in rooftop solar.”

T T
Solarpunk Press, the leading publisher of SP fiction.

E E
All I can say to that is… RIGHT-ON! I couldn’t agree T.X. openly admits that as a genre, SP is in its

L L
more. BUT… two things occur to me when reading formative stage and in the process of maturation. They

O O O
Adam’s piece. First, He makes no mention of science are putting out some interesting stuff by young writers,

S S S
fiction. Cyberpunk or steampunk are SF genres that

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though. Sunvault: Anthology of Solarpunk and Eco-
MODNAF Report
O
Speculation edited by Phoebe Wagner and Brontë

0 - S
S
Christopher Wieland is also due out soon, adding to Reviews of all sorts of stuff from an over-the-hill

OB 1
the currently sparse SP library. I hope that the next fanboy. Three paragraphs. No more, no less.

# E
AnarchoSF will add additional documentation to

E !
Solarpunk’s growth. For now, this zine is dedicated to
exploring some of the ideas embodied in the new sub- Readin’ Papers
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genre.
T M
Books Rule.

LE A
---------

O
I’m freaking out about the content in this issue. It is

- S
The Space Merchants

0
S
SO DAMNED GOOD. Aside from my ramblings and by Fredrick Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth

B 1
the whacked out funnies by OBSOLETE! Co-founder

DF
E
Re-reading this 1952 classic work by two of science

O
Blair Gauntt, we have cover art by New York
printmaker Dave Lantow and photo collages by
! # L
fiction’s most underrated masters, I was struck by how

P
prescient and fresh the insights are in this book that

E
Australian eco-fashion and found-artist Marina DeBris.

T kP
was written in an era of blaster wielding alpha space-

M
Fiction- oh my god. E.Lily Yu’s Hugo nominated males and husband-hunting secretaries in sexy space

L E
“Cartographer Wasps and Anarchist Bees” is to me,
everything solarpunk aspires to. From Scotland,
A
suits. They envisioned a world ruled by a handful of

S
ar
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mega-corporations who pump out omni-present
AnarchoSF featured writer Nicholas Oakley is back

S 0
advert-prop and products laced with highly addictive

1
with another great SF story and OBSOLETE!

OB
m
ingredients to keep consumers lulled into

# E
newcomer Jonna Higgins-Freese comes onboard with complacency. Sound familiar?

! L
a story that looks at environmental realities through the
er

Star-class copywriter Mitch Courtenay of the Fowler

E P
interface of humans with their own past and Scott
Schocken advertising agency is our protagonist. He is

T
Szpisjak rounds out the fiction with The Last Fall. I

M
at

sort of a retro-futurist Don Draper… an adman in a

LE
interview T.X. Watson of Solarpunk Press, and

A
world where admen are held in the same esteem as
Andrew Dincher contributes a great essay on the

S
W

doctors and lawyers. Mitch is handed the greatest ad

O -
origins of Solarpunk.

S 0 0
campaign of all time– the development of the planet
I hope you dig it as much as I do!!

B 1 1
Venus– and his job is to convince consumers that they

O # #
want...no, they NEED… to move to the scorched

! !
hellscape. His plans for personal glory are interrupted,

E E
however, by a radical anti-capitalist of conservationists

T T
(consies) monkey-wrench the Venus project, and

E E
Courtenay is kidnapped, his identity changed, and he

L L
is forced to survive among the consumers while he

O O O
plots his return to power.

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It is Swiftian social satire as filtered through the lense

- S
I was pleased that Saadia spent plenty of time on the

S
of young Pohl, who himself worked a day-job in the

1 0
Ferengi… after all, they are us. The capitalists, the vice

OB
chain smoking, highball swigging work of Madison peddlers, the libertarian free-market worshippers. Like

! #
Ave. before achieving success as writer and editor.
Kornbluth, who along with Pohl was a member of the
L E
Ayn Rand fans with a sense of humor, living by the
“Rules of Acquisition,” The Ferengi characters are

E
radical SF group “The Futurians,” was responsible for

T P
part of what makes Deep Space Nine my favorite Star

M
pulling together a manuscript that Pohl had virtually Trek series. Their society is in the process of positive

LE A
abandoned, and together the two completed what was social change, and the story of that change is a little bit

- S
to become one of the great novels of the SF genre. like a Norman Lear sitcom embedded in a Science

S O 0
Fiction epic.

B 1

DF
E
Trekonomics

O by Manu Saadia

! # Flickering Lights
L
E P
In the Star Trek universe, members of the United
Movies & TV rot your brain... So good.

T kP
Federation of Planets live in a post-scarcity culture,

E
free from the banal concerns of wage slavery,

A M
OL
capitalism and commerce. The characters are free to
OSI74

S
ar
-
pursue meaningful work, as they define it for

S 0
themselves. This is at the heart of Star Trek and what OSI74 is simply, the most fun thing to watch on TV.

B 1
Or, whatever passes for TV these days. Available on
m
makes it different from other storytelling franchises…

O # E
the characters are able to get on to dealing with bigger, Roku or Vimeo, the programing is part MST 3K, part

! L
New Wave Theatre, and part Channel J. The “about”
er

universal problems because their basic needs are met.

E P
page on their website says it best… “OUTER SPACE
Economist and Trekkie Manu Saadia does an amazing

T
INTERNATIONAL is an “off world” production

M
at

job of breaking down and analyzing “Trekonomics.”

LE
colony and distribution network bringing you

A
He examines the difference between the the original

S
unusual, experimental, and entertaining programs
W

O -
series, which takes place in the 23rd century, and The
from many different creative worlds. We’re thinking

S 0 0
Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and Voyager, which all
beyond standard television and learning from the great

B 1 1
take place about a century later. The big difference is
pioneers of UHF, Home Video, and Early Cable that

O # #
the replicator– a device that can make anything– that is
we grew up with. We’re also taking a bit of inspiration

! !
the lynchpin of the abundance of the 24th century.
from Drive-In theaters, Backyard movies, Community

E E
Access to the replicator is what allows the people of the
media, Film festivals, Comic books, “Mom-N-Pop”

T T
federation to choose to study history, tend bar, or
video stores, and The Space Race...Like it or not, this

E E
enjoy the value of artisanship. Freedom from need does
is the future of Cinema. We want you to be nostalgic

L L
not exclude freedom from want, though– and therein

O
about the future again.”

O O
lies the drama.

S S S
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At first glance, the programs seem to all fall into some that up too!) along with content from Paranoia

O
variation of the “Creature Feature” genre of wacky

- S
Magazine and DC area’s legendary Monster

0
S
hosts showing campy movies, but if you spend a bit Madhouse. All of the content is FREE (sometime you

OB 1
more time with OSI74, you will find an impressively get what you pay for) and the entire experiment in high

# E
deep catalogue of completely indie SciFi and horror weirdness is viewer supported. Dig it all, then drop

E !
content, conspiracy theory wackiness, and even some
pretty great all-original programs. And– to be fair–
some coin in the tip jar, jerky!!

P L
T
some pretty awful stuff as well. It’s as if John Waters

M
LE
High-Rise

A
ran a public access station in the 80’s with Ghoulardi,

S
Barbara Crampton and George “the Animal” Steele as Full disclosure: I love the books of J.G. Ballard. To me,

S O
talent. But instead of John Waters, the ringmaster of
this circus is Mr. Lobo aka Alan N. Smithee (look it -
there is nothing that turns my perceptions on their

0
1
heads more than the experience of reading Ballard. For

DF
# E
up), who’s own show, Cinema Insomnia, has the motto the duration of the book, I am looking at everyday life

O !
“They’re not bad movies...just misunderstood.”

L
through “They Live” shades. A convenience store

E P
becomes not just a convenience store, but a setting

T kP
where the pathologies of seemingly normal people

E M
collide, if just for a moment, in the artificial light of raw

A
L
consumerism and addiction. “High-Rise” captures

S
ar
O -
Ballard on film perfectly, at last.

S 1 0
Spielberg did a good job with “Empire of the Sun” and

OB
m

# E
Cronenberg got too close to the material with “Crash,”

! L
but Ben Wheatley, the director of the incredibly trippy
er

E P
“A Field in England” brought “High-Rise” to the

T
screen in all of its cool, disturbing, sexy and perverse

M
at

LE
glory. As is often the case in Ballard’s work, upper-

A
middle-class life is distilled through technology, to its

S
W

O -
essence, and that essence is very, very ugly. Tom

S 0 0
Hiddleston and Jeremy Irons are superb, but it is Luke

B 1 1
Evans as the appropriately-named “Wilder” who steals

O # #
the show.

E
Among the other amazingly amazing programs to
! E !
The influences of vintage Kubrick or classic
Cronenberg on this film are unmistakable. But

T T
choose from: Utopia Fantastika, brought to you by
Kubrick is dead and Cronenberg has moved on from

E E
Olav Phillips (look him up), Sleazy Pictures After Dark
his most challenging period to more commercial work.

L L
with Sleazy P. Martini (look him up) and Church of the
Still, I couldn’t help thinking back to his 1975 low-

O O O
Subgenius (dear god, don’t tell me you need to look

S S S
budget Canadian horror masterpiece “Shivers,” in

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which a parasite runs rampant in a luxury high-rise science and history, anarchist philosophy, comics, SF

O
apartment building, creating a population of sex-

- S
books and movies, and even an ongoing softcore spy-fi

0
S
crazed zombies. I’m betting Ben Wheatley checked out audio adventure is woven into the segment breaks.

OB 1
“Shivers,” before making “High-Rise,” and I suggest And, unlike SO many podcasts, Brian brings the

# E
you check both movies out for a double helping of content. He does his prep, and the production value is
bizarre excellence.

Chatter
E ! P L
high. When so many other podcasters seem to think it
enough to record their stoned skype geek-banter on

T M
shitty headsets and put it out there, Sovryn Tech

LE A
Podcasts are like assholes- everybody has one. And, delivers the goods.

S
like assholes, some are more entertaining than
others.

S O 0 -
Within the Wires

B #1
Sovryn Tech

DF
O E
Dammit, some people really know how to use the

L
Podcasts come and go from my subscriptions list, but

!
podcast medium. The good folks who bring us

P
Brian Sovryn’s podcast has been a weekly listen for

E
Welcome to Night Vale a n d Alice Isn’t Dead have
several years. Known as “The Golden Stallion of the

T kP
another extremely disturbing and hilariously weird

M
Tech World”, “Sov Tzu” and “The Rated-R Radio

E
audio series out there for you to delve into. Presented

A
Star”, Brian brings the energy level of a smack-talking

L
as a series of “relaxation cassettes” each individual

S
ar
O -
WWF star to the topics of science and technology. He
podcast is a brain-training exercise divided into a “side

S 0
isn’t just a technophile, though. He also has genuine,

OB 1
non-ironic/non-hipster enthusiasm for “cheese.” 80’s
m

# E
and 90’s high camp pop culture, from hair-metal to

! L
Knightrider. And did I mention that he is an anarchist?
er

E
One-time devotees of the New Hampshire “Free State”

T P
M
at

project, Brian and creative collaborator/co-habitator

LE A
Stephanie Murphy cut their talkshow chops as clever

S
W

and intellectual Sunday night co-hosts on the

S O
otherwise dopey libertarian dude-bro sausagefest Free

0 - 0
B 1 1
Talk Live. The dynamic duo quickly proved too free-

O # #
thinking for the free-talkers, however, and they headed

! !
out on their own to create a whole lot of funny and

E E
thought-provoking content. They now co-host Sex and

T T
Science Hour and Stephanie is producer and occasional

E E
co-host of Soyrn Tech.

L
There is a whole lot of discussion about cyber-security

O
and block chain/bitcoin/altcoin topics along with
O L
A” and “side B.” It doesn’t take long to realize that

O
S S S
there is something extremely weird going on here-

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embedded in the guided exercise is a story. A story of
an inmate in an institution. And that inmate is YOU.

0 - S Advert

S
B #1
Sunvault:
O E
Here’s a piece of advice: don’t listen to this podcast

! L
while driving. The “cassettes” actually are relaxing-

E P
maybe a little TOO relaxing. If you are distracted, the Stories of Solarpunk &

T
story doesn’t hang together. It’s almost like playing a

M
LE
brain game. I suggest going all-in and listening to Eco-Speculation
Within the Wires with your eyes closed, in a comfy

S A
This upcoming anthology of speculative

-
O
chair or even better, on a couch. You will find yourself

0
fiction, edited by Phoebe Wagner and

S
reaching a meditative state, just before a full-on belly

1
Brontë Wieland, will be published by

B
laugh brings you out of the role of subject and back to

DF
# E
Upper Rubber Boot Books in spring 2017.

O
audience member. Trippy, funny, relaxing, I rarely

consuming.
E !
experience audio storytelling that is this all-

P L
The stories focus on times of
environmental crisis and the people

E T
Written by Welcome to Night Vale collaborators Jeffrey

kP M
inhabiting these tipping points,

L
Cranor and Janina Matthewson with music from Mary
A
fighting to affect change and seek

S
ar
O -
Epworth, this 10-episode series was created as a fill-in solutions, even if it’s already too

S 0
while Welcome to Night Vale was on hiatus. The third late. But these are stories of hope,

OB 1
m

original series from this creative team, Within the

# E
not just disaster! Turn your lens to
Wires continues to show their versatility, even while

! L
those crucial moments in a world’s
er

staying within the quirky, creepy storytelling style they

E P
are known for.
history when change can be made

T M
by the right people with the right
at

LE A
tools. Remember: hope can spark in

S
W

even the grimmest of situations.

S O 0 - 0
O B # 1 #
sunvaultantho.wordpress.com
1
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On the OriginsE
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imagination; speculating on the future, altered pasts,
of Solarpunk
O 0 - S and wildly discordant presents. Throughout the 1950s

S
and into the early 1960s, an era commonly referred to
–Andrew Dincher–

B 1
as the “golden age” of science fiction, SF writers

O # E
As a genre, science fiction (SF) has a vague and speculated on possible worlds and, in a more general

! L
contentious history. Some would argue that the genre sense, adhered to plausible hard SF stories. Authors

E P
began with the utopian narratives of Early Modern such as Arthur C. Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac

T M
Europe such as Sir Thomas Moore’s Utopia, while Asimov, and Alfred Bester all wrote hard SF with an

E
others argue that it began with Mary

A
emphasis on the possibilities of the future. Throughout

L S
Shelley’s Frankenstein. On the other hand, some the 1960s and 1970s, however, SF began focusing

S O 0 -
would argue that SF was a unique creation of the late
19th century, beginning with the works of Jules Verne
more on the soft sciences with a movement now known
as the “new wave.”

B 1

DF
# E
and H.G. Wells, then skyrocketing (pun intended) to

O
Authors such as Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick,

! L
popularity in the 1930’s with the creation of
Harlan Ellison, James Tiptree, Jr., and Joanna Russ

E P
magazines like Weird Tales, Amazing Stories,
(just to mention a few) were some of the forerunners of

T kP
and Astounding Science Fiction.

M
the new wave. They wrote stories that focused more on

L E S A
Regardless, SF has a unique ability to speculate on the
future of human, and in some cases other than human,
the human condition in technologically advanced
worlds, and focused less on science and technology.
ar
O -
existence. Though it would be a mistake to say that all

S 0
This is not to say that authors such as Heinlein and

1
SF examines the negative outcome of human Clarke didn’t also discuss the human condition, and

B
m

# E
civilization in dystopian and post-apocalyptic that authors such as Delany and Russ didn’t think

O ! L
narratives, many of the most widely read SF stories about technology. But rather there was a shift in the
er

E P
highlight the struggles of humanity in an already overall tone of SF moving towards the social sciences.

T
apocalyptic or dystopian world.

M
at

Several pivotal SF novels, however, focused heavily on

E A
In steps solarpunk, a new movement in SF that

L S
ecological and environmental themes. Frank
W

examines the possibility of a future in which currently Herbert’s Dune, a transitory novel that fits somewhere

S O 0 - 0
emerging movements in society and culture such as the between the new wave and the golden age, explored the

1 1
green movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, idea of a galactic struggle for “Spice,” a substance that

O B # #
and certain aspects of Occupy Wall Street coalesce to expands consciousness allowing for precognition and

! !
create a more optimistic future in a more just world. In faster than light travel. Dune also dealt with the ecology

E E
the words of Sir Isaac Newton, however: “If I have seen of an entirely desert planet and the struggles of human

T T
further, it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” civilization to survive and adapt in a harsh and

E E
Like Newton, the solarpunk movement stands on the unforgiving world.

L L
shoulders of giants: giants of science fiction.
Similarly, other SF authors have dealt with ecological

S O S O S O
By its very nature, SF pushes the boundaries of the and environmental issues in their fiction. Ursula K. Le

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Guin, a new wave writer, deals with environmental and conventions that will be used by solarpunk authors by

O
ecological topics in several of her works. “Vaster than

- S
dealing with environmental justice and imagining a

0
S
Empires and More Slow,” for instance, is a short story solar system in which humanity has found a way to be

OB 1
that discusses the possibility of an alien planet covered responsible with its environment. It could almost be

# E
with vegetation that is, in and of itself, a single considered a solarpunk novel, but since it pre-dates

E !
thinking, living, sentient being. Kim Stanley Robinson,
who is currently writing environmental SF, in his
P L
solarpunk, its place in the canon is unclear.
Regardless, 2312 is a perfect example of what

T
novel 2312, sets up a dilemma in which humanity is solarpunk embodies.

M
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able to terraform other planets such as Mars and
Out of these various incarnations and phases of

S
Venus, but is yet unable to heal the wounds done to

O -
evolutionary twistings and turnings, solarpunk has
Earth through climate change. All of the ice on Earth

S 0
emerged. As a genre, it sits atop the shoulders of past
has melted and New York—a still functional city—has

B 1
science fiction visionaries. No one can know exactly

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been flooded, making it a “Super Venice.”

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what this new genre is destined for, but its origins are

E !
These authors also tend to deal with social issues
involving the environment. 2312 follows many of the
clear.

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An Interview With of really interesting places to go with that. Especially in

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T.X. Watson
- S
kind of de-constructing the hyper-modernist singular

0
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narratives of authority and Western ideas in science as
of SolarPunk Press

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they relate to science fiction.

! #
T.X. Watson and Faith Gregory are co-conspirators at
L E
E
solarpunkpress.com, providing a platform for new

T P
M
writing in the fledgeling solarpunk genre. T.X. blogs at

LE A
txwatson.com and watsons-solarpunk.tumblr.com. A

- S
graduate of Northern Essex Community College in

S O
spring 2015 with associate degrees in philosophy and

0
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journalism, T.X. studies Science Fiction and Fantasy

DF
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as a form of Activism at Hampshire College. They're

! L
nongender; most conventional and neo-pronouns are

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acceptable.

------

E T kP M
L
A lot of the Solar Punk stuff I'm reading online

S A
ar
O -
references Kim Stanley Robinson, Octavia Butler,

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and other established writers. Who are the young

1 0
On your website it mentions an emphasis on the

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m

writers that are championing solar punk?

# E
near future. I'm hearing you say that there are

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The first person that comes to mind is Claudie perhaps two takes on solarpunk. one emphasizing
er

E P
Arsenault, who was in the first issue of Solarpunk the near-future and the other re-imagining the

T
fantasy genre. How do you see those coming

M
Press. Right when solarpunk started to become a thing
at

LE
that people were talking about, she came out with a together?
novel called Viral Airwaves which she retroactively

S A
In Claudia's story in our second issue there is a really
W

S O
described as solarpunk. She said “I didn't know that
there was a name for what I am writing, but this fits.”
0 -
good example of that. There is a haunting in a near
future solarpunk-style setting. In Kayla's story in our
0
O B # 1
After that she organized Wings of Renewal which was a

#
first issue, there was a story called “Reilly and the
1
! !
solarpunk and dragons anthology. She blends a lot of Winged Lizards of Tel Aviv” that also blends science

E E
solarpunk elements with a lot of fantastical elements, fiction and fantasy. It takes place in a post-revolution

T T
which I think is really cool. My co-editor at Solarpunk near future and explores how communities exist in the

E E
Press is really passionate about blending fantastical and hypothetical era of the end of capitalism.

L L
science fictional elements in Solarpunk. There are a lot
What science fiction tradition do you come from

S O O
personally? What brought you to solarpunk?

S S O
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I was supposed to get a new dosage every three weeks.

O - S
It had been closer to five this time. Sometimes I could

0
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go a full six without needing it, spacing out the pills as

OB 1
best as I could, whereas other times – usually over the

# E
summer, when the air was the worst – I'd be crawling

E ! P L
up the walls and chomping at my pillow, counting every
minute of every day before I was permitted my next fix.

T M
There was a reason I left it for as long as I possible

LE A
could. I'd found an abandoned building in the north of

S
the city that I had mostly to myself, except for a few

S O 0 -
packs of stray dogs. One of the good things about
living this far north was the lack of people; the old

B 1

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manufacturing and industrial hubs had long fallen into

O Pharma
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decay, and there was plenty of room and space for me

E P
to stay without meeting anyone for days, even weeks, if

T kP
–Nicholas Oakley– I didn't venture too far afield from my building. No-

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Despite the thick plated glass between us, there was a
M
one but a few homeless junkies knew I was living in

A
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their city. That was usually a good thing. No

S
ar
-
definite tremble in the pharmacist’s black hands as he

O
authorities, no kids, no vigilantes to have to deal with.

S 0
delicately counted out the dosage onto the counter, Finding food was easier, too.

OB 1
one pink pill at a time.
m
But privacy had its own particular drawbacks.

# E
I knew better than to try conversation. I stood The screams, when I did emerge, were the least of it.

! L
patiently, aware of the looks I was getting from the
er

That morning, on my way to the pharmacy in the

E P
customers huddled against the walls of the narrow north of the city, a woman – out of shock, disgust or

T M
store. Someone was crying; muffled sobs escaping pure malice, I'll never know – tried to run me down
at

LE
through cupped palms. I'd like to say that it didn't

A
with her car. I avoided it, of course, but she collided

S
bother me, even after all these years, but it did. They with a parked car nearby. I stumbled quickly away
W

O -
didn't make little pink pills for that pain. At least none from the smoking wreck. Glancing back, I saw

B S
I could get my hands on.

1
I'd left it too late, as always. The cough was getting 0
someone carrying the woman away from the crumpled

1 0
# #
vehicle. Her face was covered in blood, and her arms

O !
worse, blood toxicity escalating, this alien atmosphere
eating away at me from the inside. The tics were so bad
hung limply at her sides.

!
E E
I started to run.

T T
that when I did manage to drift off to sleep they'd jerk The sirens caught up with me a few minutes after the
me awake, leaving me on edge and panting for breath.

E E
crash. I’d only got a few blocks. They were just local

L L
That morning I had barely been able to get up, despite enforcers. I could tell right away that they'd never dealt

O O O
the soaked sheets and fetid smell that acted as strong with someone like me before. They bristled with rifles,

S S S
motivators.

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The Cartographer Wasps one drowned in the evacuation, weighed down with the

O 0 - S remains of an apricot. They reconvened upon a stump

S
and the Anarchist Bees and looked about themselves.

O B # 1
— by E. Lily Yu —

E
"It's a good place to land," the foundress said in her
sweet soprano, examining the first rough maps that the

E ! P L
For longer than anyone could remember, the village of
Yiwei had worn, in its orchards and under its eaves,
scouts brought back. There were plenty of caterpillars,
oaks for ink galls, fruiting brambles, and no signs of

T M
clay-colored globes of paper that hissed and fizzed with

E
other wasps. A colony of bees had hived in a split oak

A
wasps. The villagers maintained an uneasy peace with two miles away. "Once we are established we will, of

O L - S
their neighbors for many years, exercising inimitable course, send a delegation to collect tribute.

S 0
tact and circumspection. But it all ended the day a boy,
"We will not make the same mistakes as before. Ours

1
digging in the riverbed, found a stone whose balance

B
is a race of explorers and scientists, cartographers and

DF
O # E
and weight pleased him. With this, he thought, he
philosophers, and to rest and grow slothful is to die.

! L
could hit a sparrow in flight. There were no sparrows to
Once we are established here, we will expand."

E P
be seen, but a paper ball hung low and inviting nearby.

T kP
He considered it for a moment, head cocked, then It took two weeks to complete the nurseries with their

M
paper mobiles, and then another month to reconstruct

E
aimed and threw.

L A
the Great Library and fill the pigeonholes with what the

S
Much later, after he had been plastered and soothed,
ar
O -
oldest cartographers could remember of their lost
his mother scalded the fallen nest until the wasps

S 0
maps. Their comings and goings did not go unnoticed.
seething in the paper were dead. In this way it was

B 1
m
An ambassador from the beehive arrived with an

# E
discovered that the wasp nests of Yiwei, dipped in hot

O
ultimatum and was promptly executed; her wings were

! L
water, unfurled into beautifully accurate maps of
made into stained-glass windows for the council
er

E P
provinces near and far, inked in vegetable pigments
chamber, and her stinger was returned to the hive in a

T
and labeled in careful Mandarin that could be

M
paper envelope. The second ambassador came with
at

E
distinguished beneath a microscope.

A
altered attitude and a proposal to divide the bees'

L S
The villagers' subsequent incursions with bee veils and kingdom evenly between the two governments,
W

S O 0 -
kettles of boiling water soon diminished the

0
prosperous population to a handful. Commanded by a
retaining pollen and water rights for the bees—"as an
acknowledgment of the preexisting claims of a free

O B # 1 # 1
single stubborn foundress, the survivors folded a new people to the natural resources of a common

! !
nest in the shape of a paper boat, provisioned it with territory," she hummed.
fallen apricots and squash blossoms, and launched

E E
The wasps of the council were gracious and only

T T
themselves onto the river. Browsing cows and children
divested the envoy of her sting. She survived just long
fled the riverbanks as they drifted downstream, piping

E E
enough to deliver her account to the hive.

L L
sea chanteys.
The third ambassador arrived with a ball of wax on the

O O O
At last, forty miles south from where they had begun,
tip of her stinger and was better received.

S S S
their craft snagged on an upthrust stick and sank. Only

OB OB OB
 T E P
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"You understand, we are not refugees applying for at all. Finally she said, "A tenth, in a good year—"

O
recognition of a token territorial sovereignty," the

- S
"Our terms," the foundress said, "are not

0
S
foundress said, as attendants served them nectars in negotiable."

OB #1
paper horns, "nor are we negotiating with you as equal

E
The guards shifted among themselves, clinking the
states. Those were the assumptions of your late

! L
plates of their armor and shifting the gleaming points
predecessors. They were mistaken."

E P
of their stings.
"I trust I will do better," the diplomat said stiffly. She

T M
"I don't have a choice, do I?"
was older than the others, and the hairs of her thorax

LE A
were sparse and faded. "The choice is enslavement or cooperation," the

S
foundress said. "For your hive, I mean. You might

O -
"I do hope so."

0
choose something else, certainly, but they have tens of

S
"Unlike them, I have complete authority to speak for

#1
thousands to replace you with."

DF
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the hive. You have propositions for us; that is clear

O
The diplomat bent her head. "I am old," she said. "I

! L
enough. We are prepared to listen."
have served the hive all my life, in every fashion. My

E P
"Oh, good." The foundress drained her horn and took loyalty is to my hive and I will do what is best for it."

T kP
another. "Yours is an old and highly cultured society,

M
"I am so very glad."

E
despite the indolence of your ruler, which we

L
understand to be a racial rather than personal
A
"I ask you—I beg you—to wait three or four days to

S
ar
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proclivity. You have laws, and traditional dances, and impose your terms. I will be dead by then, and will not

S 0
mathematicians, and principles, which of course we do see my sisters become a servile people."

OB 1
m

respect."

# E
The foundress clicked her claws together. "Is the

! L
"Your terms, please." delaying of business a custom of yours? We have no
er

E P
such practice. You will have the honor of watching us
She smiled. "Since there is a local population of tussah

T
elevate your sisters to moral and technological heights

M
moths, which we prefer for incubation, there is no need
at

LE
you could never imagine."
for anything so unrepublican as slavery. If you refrain
from insurrection, you may keep your self-rule. But we

S A
The diplomat shivered.
W

O -
will take a fifth of your stores in an ordinary year, and a "Go back to your queen, my dear. Tell them the good

B S
tenth in drought years, and one of every hundred
larvae."
1 0
news."

1 0
O"To eat?" Her antennae trembled with revulsion.

! # ! #
It was a crisis for the constitutional monarchy. A riot

E E
"Only if food is scarce. No, they will be raised among broke out in District 6, destroying the royal waxworks

T T
us and learn our ways and our arts, and then they will and toppling the mouse-bone monuments before it was

E E
serve as officials and bureaucrats among you. It will be brutally suppressed. The queen had to be calmed with

L L
to your advantage, you see." large doses of jelly after she burst into tears on her

S O
The diplomat paused for a moment, looking at nothing

S O
ministers' shoulders.

S O
OB OB O B
 T E P
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"Your Majesty," said one, "it's not a matter for your busy but content, the bees now lived in desperation.

O
concern. Be at peace."

- S
The natural terms of their lives were cut short by the

0
S
"These are my children," she said, sniffling. "You need to gather enough honey for both the hive and the

OB 1
would feel for them too, were you a mother." wasp nest. As they traveled farther and farther afield in

# E
search of nectar, they stopped singing. They danced

! L
"Thankfully, I am not," the minister said briskly, "so
their findings grimly, without joy. The queen herself

E P
to business."
grew gaunt and thin from breeding replacements, and

T M
"War is out of the question," another said. certain ministers who understood such matters began

LE A
"Their forces are vastly superior." feeding royal jelly to the strongest larvae.

- S
Meanwhile, the wasps grew sleek and strong. Cadres of

O
"We outnumber them three hundred to one!"

S 0
scholars, cartographers, botanists, and soldiers were
"They are experienced fighters. Sixty of us would die

B 1
dispatched on the river in small floating nests caulked
for each of theirs. We might drive them away, but it

DF
O # E
with beeswax and loaded with rations of honeycomb to
would cost us most of the hive and possibly our queen

! L
chart the unknown lands to the south. Those who
—"

E P
returned bore beautiful maps with towns and farms and

T kP
The queen began weeping noisily again and had to be alien populations of wasps carefully noted in blue and
cleaned and comforted.

E M
purple ink, and these, once studied by the foundress

A
L S
"Have we any alternatives?" and her generals, were carefully filed away in the
ar
O -
depths of the Great Library for their southern advance

S 0
There was a small silence.
in the new year.

OB #1
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"Very well, then."

E
The bees adopted by the wasps were first trained to
The terms of the relationship were copied out, at the

! L
clerical tasks, but once it was determined that they
er

wasps' direction, on small paper plaques embedded in

E P
could be taught to read and write, they were assigned
propolis and wax around the hive. As paper and ink

T
to some of the reconnaissance missions. The brightest

M
at

were new substances to the bees, they jostled and

LE
students, gifted at trigonometry and angles, were

A
touched and tasted the bills until the paper fell to educated beside the cartographers themselves and

S
W

-
pieces. The wasps sent to oversee the installation did

O
proved valuable assistants. They learned not to see the

S 0 0
not take this kindly. Several civilians died before it was thick green caterpillars led on silver chains, or the dead

B 1 1
established that the bees could not read the Yiwei bees fed to the wasp brood. It was easier that way.

O # #
dialect.

! !
When the old queen died, they did not mourn.
Thereafter the hive's chemists were charged with

TE E
compounding pheromones complex enough to encode
the terms of the treaty. These were applied to the

E
papers, so that both species could inspect them and
E T
By the sheerest of accidents, one of the bees trained as
a cartographer's assistant was an anarchist. It might

L
comprehend the relationship between the two states.
L
have been the stresses on the hive, or it might have

SO O O
been luck; wherever it came from, the mutation was

S S
Whereas the hive before the wasp infestation had been

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18
 T E P
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L
“I’m doing it for the three credits,” said Pablo, her

O - S
excavation partner.

0
S
“If I had guts and conviction, I’d quit and go install

OB # 1 solar panels or something. Or maybe go be a wind

turbine tech.”
E
E ! P L
“Um, okay,” Pablo said, not that interested. He

T
dumped another trowel full of dirt into an orange five

M
LE
gallon bucket with “Let’s Do This,” emblazoned on

- S A
the side. Holly always thought the color and the

O
enthusiastic insistence of the slogan were a bit much

S 0
for the ordinary task. After a moment, thinking about

B 1
it in spite of himself because moving a cup of dirt at a

DF
O ! # E
time did not require huge mental effort, Pablo asked,

L
“How would that work? You’re not exactly handy with

T E tools.”
P
L E kP A
“Ouch,” Holly said.M
S
ar
S O 0 -
“Hey, just saying,” Pablo said. She knew he was

Very Long Ago, Right Here#1

B
m

E
thinking of the day the sifter had broken, how she had

O ! L
struggled to see how to tighten the screws at the top of
er

E P
the frame, though it was perfectly obvious after he had

T
–Jonna Higgins-Freese– shown her how. It wasn’t her strength, figuring such

M
at

E
things out.

A
Digging in the dirt.

L
So here she was, broiling in the sun, swiping and

S
W

“Why are we doing this, what’s the point?” Holly

O -
flicking at the dirt with this tiny brush to avoid

S 0 0
asked, flicking her trowel semi-expertly. Here she was,
disturbing what always turned out to be a rock.

B 1 1
in the middle of a continent, at a middling college, a

# #
Fiddling while Rome burned! Or trenching while the

O
middling student, excavating at some middling site in

! !
the middle of summer, in the middle of the first century world died. And burning fossil fuels every day, just to

E E
of the third millennium, while everything else was the get out here, even if they did all pile into the

T T
worst, the most, the awfullest – carbon dioxide going archaeology department van. She should sleep at the

E E
above 450, a thousand species dying every day, nitrate site, a protest.

L L
levels in the river water two times more than needed to No way. Who knew what was in these woods so close

O O O
kill babies. to town. Besides, she needed to sleep indoors, to get

S S S
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 T E P
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“Can I see the camera?” I asked. Debby was filming a
The Last Fall
- S
stray cat walking down the street—a grey tabby with
flaking bald patches.

S 0
-Scott Szpisjak-
“Okay.” She clumsily took the camera off her hand and

OB # 1
I was ten years old when my mother died, in the middle
gave it to me. The pleather strap was loose on my hand,
but it was soft and smooth from wear.
E
! L
of the Last Fall. I pointed the camera at my mother and called out,

E P
She had hated the last fall. Not autumn itself, with its waving my free hand over my head. She looked up from

T
warm foliage climbing into the greying sky and her book and waved once. I thought a smile played

M
LE
everything else it entailed, but the culture that across her lips. She returned to her book.

A
surrounded the Last Fall. They always wrote it like She died that night. She left for a walk, and was hit by a

S
car that was leaving a party down the street. The coffin

-
that, with capital letters. The next Big Thing. She told

S O
me that when the scientists announced that we had
polluted past the point of no return, that the last fall
was closed at her funeral, not that anyone would have

0
wanted it open.

B 1
was inevitable, the campaigns to change our ways of

DF
# E
***

O
life, and reduce pollution, and recycle, or whatever and That was when my father deciding we were leaving for

E !
save the Earth disappeared. So people stopped talking
about how they were considering starting to carpool to

P L
Mars. He said it was because of opportunities there.
Earth was growing stale, drying up, he said, and he had

T kP
work, and started having parties. My mom was angry been planning on doing it anyway. Rationalization after

E
that they had stopped caring. From then on, the leaves
would stop changing color and stay green until they
rationalization.

A M
L
“This is about Mom,” I told him.

S
fell. But my dad and I left before I had to see that.
ar
O -
“No, Lianne,” he said, “this is not about your mother.

S 0
Barbecues came back in a big way, even though my It’s about us, and opportunity. A chance to start over.”

1
mother told me that they were supposed to be a

OB
He was still trying to convince himself. The lines
m

# E
summer activity. But when my mother grew up, the sounded rehearsed, but later I realized he was
summers were as hot as our fall temperatures now, she

! L
parroting the billboards and posters and commercials
er

said. So it was almost the same. Neighbors gathered in for the Martian corps without even realizing it.

T E
their backyards, cooking expensive meat on 1960s
style grills, the cardboard boxes they had been shipped
P
“A chance to start over after Mom died.”

M
“No, Lianne, you don’t get it. I don’t want to talk about
at

LE
in still sitting next to the garbage bins on the curb. My this. Now why don’t you go and pack?”

A
mother didn’t go to these events, deigning instead to I went to my room and put my things into one of the

S
W

-
stay at home on the porch, drinking her coffee, but I

O
cargobins that had been sent to us when my dad’s
went with my father.

S 0 0
application got accepted. They were grey plastic and
On October seventeenth, we went to a party at the

1 1
stamped with the logo of AynCo: crossed pickaxes in

B
Matthews’s house, across the street. Their daughter,

# #
front of a circle dotted with craters: Mars. Underneath

O
Debby, was my age. Her father had dug up an old video were the words “Property of AynCo.” That’s all we

E !
camera from a box in the basement, which Debby told
me filmed “VHS tapes,” “You play them on a ‘VCR,’” other choice did we have?

E !
were from then on, really. Once we got to Mars, what

T T
she told me, as clueless as I was concerning what that I didn’t pack much. Some clothes, as specified by the

E E
meant. We filmed the party, wandering from room to official packing list, a few things that were replaceable
room until we ended up in the front yard. My mother

L L
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was sitting on our porch, across the street. She was had hung in the living room with a few family photos

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reading a yellowed paperback.
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loaded onto it, and a necklace I had stolen from my

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