My attempts at finding TV I like to watch haven't been successful lately. I like historical stuff, but not like Vikings, or Last Kingdom. Not like all those nasty pirate series. Not like Rome, weren't they the first to start this unholy diluvium of cookie cutter pseudo-historical modern TV? I like fantasy, but please don't GoT me. I'm giving up on Battlestar Galactica - there were some interesting ideas in this and it was bad almost good, but I can't stand its military propaganda-i-ness a minute longer.

It's all gore, rape, war, sex, big CGI battle, torture, two lines cheesy dialog, repeat. Every line of dialog these days seems to be written by a badly maintained, malfunctioning robot slave, every character half well constructed is allowed to descend into nonsense after 2 seasons, just so the 'aesthetics' consisting of an endless stream of highly detailed violence can be perpetuated. I'm glad the writers are on strike, nothing but good can come out of it. I hope they start small, independent studios and produce quality work.

I did watch quite some Neil Gaiman stuff I liked, and have heard a new season of Good Omens comes out? So that helps a bit. I like crime, used to watch a lot of British crime series, liked True Detective. I don't like sitcoms. I like serious stuff that's also funny, or vice versa. I like dialogs that make sense.

Please recommend me something, can be older or even old. I remember watching TV used to be fun but everything out there these days seems rather enshittified.

From the author's post on Mastodon: "Out now! SOLAR FLARE: Solarpunk Stories from the publisher Zombies Need Brains, LLC contains my story "Walking Through Fog." It's about birth and death, extinction and renewal, in a community that harvests their water from fog harps."

You can also purchase an ebook directly on the publisher's site. All other links to purchase this can be found at : https://wandering.shop/@sarenaulibarri/110737431038367717

You can follow the author directly on the fediverse at : @sarenaulibarri@wandering.shop

In 1993, Octavia E. Butler’s “Parable of the Sower,” a critically acclaimed novel centered around a teenage girl with the uncontrollable ability to feel the pain of others was published. Butler, who is considered a pioneering Black female science fiction writer, delved into themes of racial injustice, women’s rights and climate change. She passed away in 2006. But now, 30 years after the book was published, the opera, “Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower,” has its NYC premiere at Lincoln Center on July 13.

It’s a perfect time to take stock of some of the seminal works of solarpunk fiction that have helped build the foundation for the subgenre’s grand coming out party. Below, listed in no particular order, are five essential works of solarpunk fiction that should be on the bookshelf of not just every solarpunk fan, but also of everyone who loves science fiction and fantasy in general.

Not really solar-punk themed as they're a bit too historical but hopefully close enough in theme to be interesting to people here, librivox is great resource and a great example of what can be achieved when people work together.

http://librivox.org/noli-me-tangere-by-jose-rizal/ -- Truly brilliant and beautiful work by the revolutionary hero of the Philippines, largely speaking against the colonialist priests of the catholic church and the inequity of the system imposed on the people; wonderful and rich story with great characterisation and seriously good asides about life, politic and the world.

https://librivox.org/the-ragged-trousered-philanthropists-by-robert-tressell/ -- Written by a jobbing painter, this gritty tale of the life of a working man in Victorian England is powerful both for it's prose and passion, sad as it is inspiring this work is a must read for anyone interesting in the history of labour and working class sentiment.

https://librivox.org/a-dolls-house-by-henrik-ibsen/ - One of Ibsen's many fantastic plays, in this Nora realises she isn't a song bird and dances a tarantella wile delivering some wonderfully powerful lines to a great collection of characters. Also check out Peer Quint it's probably one of the best plays ever written, also it's soundtrack by Grieg is brilliant.

https://librivox.org/hard-times-by-charles-dickens/ -- a classic which shouldn't be overlooked simply for being so popular, if you didn't study it in school then certainly give it a listen, a vital work of English literature from one of the great progressive fathers of English Reform. In it Dickens introduces us to the many hardships, problems and inequities of life in Victorian England.

https://librivox.org/les-miserables-vol-1-by-victor-hugo/ - Brilliant novel, considered one of the 19th centuries best 'Beginning in 1815 and culminating in the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris, the novel follows the lives and interactions of several characters, particularly the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption.'

https://librivox.org/king-coal-by-upton-sinclair/ -- Sinclair expresses his socialist viewpoints from the perspective of a single protagonist, Hal Warner, caught up in the schemes and plots of the oppressive American capitalist system. The book itself is based on the 1914-1915 Colorado coal strikes.

https://librivox.org/news-from-nowhere-by-william-morris/ - 'News from Nowhere (1890) is a classic work combining utopian socialism and soft science fiction written by the artist, designer and socialist pioneer William Morris.'

https://librivox.org/looking-backward-2000-1887-by-edward-bellamy/ - Fascinating time-travel story about a guy who moves forward to the year two thousand to find a utopia, kinda a disheartening read in 2015...

https://librivox.org/the-woodlanders-by-thomas-hardy-2/ -- [also his other works like Jude the Obscure] A powerful assault on the class structure and sentiment of the day, set in the semi-fictional Wessex it shows how sticking with 'the system' does nobody any favours, it's not a fair or sensible system at all. (this version read by Tadhg is really beautifully read)

https://librivox.org/the-iron-heel-by-jack-london/ - 'A dystopian novel about the terrible oppressions of an American oligarchy at the beginning of the Twentieth Century, and the struggles of a socialist revolutionary movement.'

https://librivox.org/the-jungle-by-upton-sinclair/ - 'Sinclair wrote the novel to portray the harsh conditions and exploited lives of immigrants in the United States in Chicago and similar industrialized cities. However, most readers were more concerned with his exposure of health violations and unsanitary practices in the American meatpacking industry during the early 20th century, based on an investigation he did for a socialist newspaper.'

https://librivox.org/moving-the-mountain-by-charlotte-perkins-gilman/ - 'Moving the Mountain is a feminist utopian novel' 'first volume in Gilman's utopian trilogy; it was followed by the famous Herland (1915) and its sequel, With Her in Ourland (1916)'

Elizabeth Gaskell - https://librivox.org/author/410 - 'Often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era. Her novels offer a detailed portrait of the lives of many strata of society, including the very poor, and are of interest to social historians as well as lovers of literature.'

George Bernard Shaw - https://librivox.org/author/603 - 'Irish playwright, essayist, novelist and short story writer. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable.'

Oscar Wilde - https://librivox.org/author/114 - Fantastic and funny playwright and wit of the late nineteenth century, wrote many dramas tackling social issues and class.

https://librivox.org/siddhartha-by-hermann-hesse/ "Siddhartha is one of the great philosophical novels. Profoundly insightful, it is also a beautifully written story that begins as Siddhartha, son of an Indian Brahman, leaves his family and begins a lifelong journey towards Enlightenment. On the way he faces the entire range of human experience and emotion:"

I especially enjoy reading examples of how Solarpunk principles have been applied in the real world, or fiction that breaks down my own mental barriers about whether a better world is possible. So, I started this reading list to document my favorites. It's starting to grow as a community project, so if you want to make a contribution you're welcome.

Happy reading!

Here's a little nonfic on the fiction genre and a plug for a new book from the author of this guest column.

Imagination is the capacity to envision, experience, or describe things that exist outside of this universe or at least outside of our personal experience. Imagination breaks various laws of physics and laws of history (for those who still believe in the disgraced hypothesis that history has laws) by allowing us to step outside the totality and engage in acts of parthenogenesis.

I just finished listing to this series. So good! Highly recommend it.

Maybe some of you don't know about Bookwyrm yet (I have seen some links in this community though!). It is like GoodReads for tracking and sharing your reading, finding lists and rate books, but it is federated just like Lemmy :)

Somewhat outdated, but has some interesting older suggestions.

I quite enjoyed the ride. I liked its experimentation with genders, its dealing of nature versus nurture, what it means to be human, and what it means to be alien.

I love Octavia Butler and N.K. Jemisin's work, but most of the solarpunk content I've come across is short stories. What would y'all recommend that I can get lost in for a while?

Reckoning press is a nonprofit, annual journal of creative writing on environmental justice. I dig the stories I've read of theirs so far, and they seem to have really good goals.

Note: Some spoilers in the linked article!

Trailer for a PC game.

I've been trying to find ecological fiction. The famous one is Dune, but The Terraformers puts a focus on balancing ecosystems that feels fresh and unique. People on a built world struggle to find balance when the owners of this world exploit and break it and its inhabitants try to keep things together. There's a lot of exploration ojf "personhood" as well.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/206212

Hugo Award winner for 2022 best Novella.

Haven't read it myself yet, but other books by Becky Chambers are quite good.