Post AU9MI4V4DpyrugAnRY by alxd@writing.exchange
(DIR) More posts by alxd@writing.exchange
(DIR) Post #AU9MI2cRDSgk4xbeee by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T18:22:51Z
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Today my #solarpunk essay was to be published in a Polish literary magazine, but I decided not to authorize the changes from the editors.One of the most important parts of my 10-page essay was a chapter on the importance of acknowledging the upcoming #climateTrauma in culture. They decided it sounds "too much like a manifesto" - and cut it out completely.I think it's a very important sign: talking about climate trauma is just too alien for us.#writing #trauma #climatechange
(DIR) Post #AU9MI4V4DpyrugAnRY by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T18:25:12Z
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The editors asked me to rewrite the chapter, making it clear that #solarpunk promises that we can avoid the trauma, or at least diminish it.The problem is: I said no such thing.I wrote that we need to acknowledge that we will be hurt, we need to stop escaping from this thought, stop romanticizing it - and only then we will be able to see some authentic, practical #hope which can give us strength to carry on.
(DIR) Post #AU9MI6MHJU8fg04o1Q by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T18:26:49Z
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This will be a collective trauma, not just for individuals and families (examples of those are easier to find in our culture).It will not be a singular traumatic experience, it will be years of changes, of _losing_ something we already have, with no ability to romanticize it like we did for so many zombie and other apocalypses (🍓 ).We will keep on living through it.
(DIR) Post #AU9MI89addB5FE9hWS by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T18:30:17Z
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We need to start exploring hard, painful images: only this way we will see hope and beauty behind them.We can describe the refugee camps like Kim Stanley Robinson did in The Ministry For The Future: blank, hopeless places.We can also look for real-life examples of solidarity, ingenuity, mutual aid. Something like we describe in https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts/episodes/the-refugee-camp and https://podcast.tomasino.org/@SolarpunkPrompts/episodes/the-electronics-graveyard , like you can find in real-life https://communitere.org/ and a lot of other communities.
(DIR) Post #AU9MIA19hxcT1eDzea by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T18:32:48Z
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If we are to write #solarpunk that matters, that inspires, that gives us something, we need to acknowledge this upcoming pain, much deeper and more over-encompassing than Covid. Everything else will drown us in despair or denial.We need to write about characters, communities that feel this despair and choose to find purpose, beauty and hope in the world around them. They choose to believe it's worth trying and building something more.
(DIR) Post #AU9MIBqwssdwiZSs1Q by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T18:35:49Z
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#solarpunk culture can process this upcoming trauma - which is already around us, just smaller, easier to ignore - like a person would process their personal trauma during therapy.We need to stop avoiding it, start noticing it, talking about it - and realizing that it's easier when we can support each other through it.We can create symbols of this anti-despair, plant them for others to find, if we choose to write such stories.I wish everyone to be able to encounter at least one such story.
(DIR) Post #AU9MIDa0SqHO4bYMtM by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T18:37:28Z
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This is why I preferred my essay to go unpublished in a printed magazine: I don't want to paint #solarpunk as just another "collection of books", oh look, nice aesthetics, let's talk climate utopias.Nope.We have much bigger, harder challenges ahead, and I don't want to paint the movement as infantile just because the editorial board is not ready to accept such a thought.
(DIR) Post #AU9Miq4tx1OT0EhL7o by bydesign@discordian.social
2023-03-30T18:28:45Z
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@alxd Like Corona, but worse?
(DIR) Post #AU9MirGHYC5ifp1wVE by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T18:38:22Z
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@bydesign well, if you look through the prompts of @SolarpunkPrompts you will see that I mean much worse, but at the same time: allowing for more hope.We will have more epidemics, far worse than Corona.
(DIR) Post #AU9Mirp1T1sePZHgeW by bydesign@discordian.social
2023-03-30T18:40:57Z
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@alxd @SolarpunkPrompts nice, sounds like cyberpunk
(DIR) Post #AU9MisXKoHKGd014im by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T18:44:04Z
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@bydesign @SolarpunkPrompts ...why?
(DIR) Post #AU9Mit7UdqFWR8vx56 by bydesign@discordian.social
2023-03-30T18:47:15Z
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@alxd @SolarpunkPrompts because it's dystopian. Solarpunk idea was promised to be optimistic
(DIR) Post #AU9MitfAcdBi7agqZc by 8petros@petroskowo.pl
2023-03-30T18:52:19Z
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I disagree. Reality is neither optimistic, nor pessimistic, but realistic. Solarpunk approach may be focused on the side of hope, but hope is not about avoiding trauma. It is about overcoming it. The way out is through.This is what solarpunk tells us from the very beginning (with growing contact with reality).The dystopia (cyberpunk for example) tells us there is no way out - it is just an eternal way through. The difference is essential.
(DIR) Post #AU9Nq8oqlokx6nEhBA by 8petros@petroskowo.pl
2023-03-30T19:04:53Z
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Except for very few, we all get launched into an adult life already traumatized. It takes decades to recognize it and then to start dealing with the fallout. PTSD od cPTSD are not just for the military or rare extreme cases. And then we meet the all-crisis and complement our Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with the sum of all fears - Pre Traumatic Stress Disorder. This predicament, again, is largely denied and suppressed. It is, in fact, the greatest obstacle blocking people from dealing with real dangers - that is why I appreciate so much people like Jem Bendell, making universal mental healthcare the frontline of the fight for our survival.No one can reasonably promise a way to avoid trauma that is already inside us. I salute you, @alxd for your steadfast attitude (and for certain changes in it, visible if I check sufficiently seldom ;-))
(DIR) Post #AU9RkZa0lH2mBUtaNM by polezaivsani@chaos.social
2023-03-30T19:07:20Z
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@alxd That's squarely laudable stance in my books (sorry for the pun).Does the article cover more things than say your recent interview with t3? Or rather, why not publish it yourself? Publishers are so fossil-fuel-era-style :)
(DIR) Post #AU9RkaKRycBsVWcflA by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T19:18:17Z
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@polezaivsani its very similar to my t3 essay, just in Polish, with added local context.I added some things about not waiting for a savior also in the context of literature and art, where we dont want masterpieces, but each person contributes something small - like our prompts - upon which a bigger whole is built.I might publish it on my blog, but maybe a bigger piece on trauma would be better?
(DIR) Post #AU9RkauboB78JfXY7U by polezaivsani@chaos.social
2023-03-30T19:29:39Z
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@alxd The way you approach trauma was the crux of this story for me. I sure would be keen to hear more on it.I recall recently hearing an account of high school (iirc) students asking teacher to stop bringing up the climate crisis topic since it was too daunting and they saw no way of addressing it.There sure is going to be more of such stories and we need to learn how to tackle this problem, how to grasp it, embrace it. How to acquire the toolset needed to sway the course for the better.
(DIR) Post #AU9RkbLuAgwrgKJLfM by alxd@writing.exchange
2023-03-30T19:32:15Z
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@polezaivsani a lot of my research - and the prompts - stemmed exsctly from this inability to deal with the climate crisis at schools.We wanted to offer high schoolers some readymade situations where the trauma is already processed, where they must acknowledge the pain, but automatically see the hope beyond it.We need more of that in the culture.Sadly, a lot of literary experts are not ready.
(DIR) Post #AU9Rkc5HRzFDx3XaOO by polezaivsani@chaos.social
2023-03-30T19:41:29Z
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@alxd a random thought, can people having gone through crises already herald and help embrace the looming times? E.g. those who fleeing from wars (khm, thank you, Russia) or other major economical or political catastrophes, these people should have some lived through experience of dealing with things worse than what one might see in better off countries.Not sure how easily such experience can be transferred or shared, thinking out loud mostly.
(DIR) Post #AU9RkccxQmBPdVITsu by 8petros@petroskowo.pl
2023-03-30T19:48:44Z
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For years I am trying to do it at the nanoscale, and my conclusion is that it can only be transfered to those who already acknowledged their trauma AND the fact that thwi coping mechanisms are not up to the challenge. And this is still a tiny group, pretty niche at tthat.Also, we need people who already processed this experience and it takes years or decades. You are looking for people from my generatio, whose trauma was related to highly probable nuclear armaggedon.