Greenpunk.net

Archive for the ‘Non-fiction’ Category

Let’s review, in case you are new to the GreenPunk site:

GreenPunk: a technophilic specific movement centered on characters using and being affected by the use of DIY renewable resources, recycling and repurposing. GreenPunk would emphasize the ability of the individual – and his or her responsibility – for positive ecological and social change.

First, let me tell you a short story. Last fall, bought a new DVD player that at my budget, felt like state of the art. A shiny black Toshiba that was going to max out the images and sounds onto my television for a long, long time.

The DVD player died last month; it didn’t even last longer than 9 months. It cost originally about 100 dollars. Getting an estimate and fixing it would actually cost probably double of what I paid. Unlike appliances from our parents’ generation, these new devices are essentially disposable. Now I have to find out who I or where I can donate my shiny black DVD player.

I bought a new player today. I tried to find the cheapest DVD player possible at Target. 40 bucks, this time a metallic grey, and it does all the stuff the old one did. Now, when it dies and my heart turns even more brittle than before, my pocketbook won’t feel so bad. But what about the materials and the parts of these devices? Are they useless? Why do we think it’s just okay to throw stuff out so easily?

Ah, the agonies of the developed world.

The point of my story is not to tout my techno-fetishes. It is this: As writers, GreenPunk writers, what are our responsibilities to make sure that the tools of our trade are also reusable and renewable? Should we work only online, avoiding printouts on paper and ink consumption? Should we seek used computers to type out our essays and short stories for this Web site? Should we promote writing software, tools and computers that comply with green and sustainable practices? I’d love to start a discussion in the comments below on these topics. Writing is no longer a process that comes from notebooks and typewriters and reams of bond paper. Well, that’s being too hyperbolic. Many of us, I included, still write on paper. But should we be thinking harder about not using paper? Should we use our technologies to not only write interesting words and stories, but to also push further the ideas of GreenPunk?

You. Tell. Me.

Cesar Torres is a Chicago writer. His blog “Urraca” chronicles his process and efforts in publishing. He writes fantasy, science fiction and other speculative fiction; He also blogs about bugs, birds and music.

When I was a kid, punk rock was a novelty presented by the local media as something strange, weird, wicked, perverse and decadent. Obviously, I loved it from day one, and even though I was too little to be seriously into it, the words “punk rock” entered forever into my dictionary of all that is good and true in this world.

Later, when I first heard of something celled “cyberpunk”, I was hypnotized. What could possibly be wrong with something that sounded so cool? Punk, cyber, computers, hackers, police states, corporations, the struggle of common people against post-industrial society… It soon became a small obsession of mine, and has been one of my favourite aesthetical styles since then.

However, time passes, we grow older, maybe wiser, and over the years I witnessed the name “cyberpunk” slowly turn into a fashionable and senseless cultural label that lost most of its original meaning, if it ever had one. Back in the 1990s, everything had to be cyber-something to look cool and marketable. There were lots of trashy pop cultural products like Cybercops, Cyber Lions, Cybersex and stuff like that, and whatever had virtual reality in it was hot enough to sell.

Lately, Steampunk became another hot trend, as confirmed by the hordes of cosplayers invading the latest conventions. However, the more I see pictures of people dressed up in victorian outfits and carrying golden-coated handguns, the more I wonder if any of those people have ever seen an actual steam-powered engine working.

But what puzzles me is the choice of the word “punk”. Why is it steampunk, and not cybersteam? We must dissipate the marketing fog that obscures the meaning of things and check our good friend, the dictionary, to figure out what this actually means.

The prefix  “cyber-” comes from greek:

• κυβερνητικός (kybernētikos) – Good at steering, good pilot.
• κυβερνητική τέχνη (kybernētikē technē) – The pilot’s art.
• κυβερνισμός (kybernismos), κυβέρνησις (kybernēsis) – Steering, pilotage, guiding.
• κυβερνάω (kybernaō) – To steer, to drive, to guide, to act as a pilot.

The pilot’s art! Isn’t it beautiful?

So, cyber refers not only to machines, but mainly to the control of machines. That would explain why steampunkers are so fond of their costumes and don’t bother much about driving around in steam-powered cars.

Well, then what about the “punk” part? Our dictionary has a lot of meanings for it:

1. A prostitute. (1604, William Shakespeare, ‘Measure for Measure’)
2. The bottom in a male-male sexual relationship.
3. Prison slang: A male used for sex by larger or stronger inmates.
4. A social and musical movement rooted in rebelling against the established order.
5. The music of the punk movement, known for short songs with electric guitars, strong drums, and a direct, unproduced approach.
6. A person subscribing to the movement, a punk rocker.
7. A worthless person.
8. A juvenile delinquent, young petty criminal or trouble-maker.
9. A utensil for lighting wicks or fuses (such as those of fireworks) resembling stick incense. (1907, Jack London, The Road)
10. Various kinds of material used as tinder for lighting fires, such as agaric, dry decayed wood or touchwood.

Well, what a diverse array of meanings. I prefer to believe that cyberpunk is rooted on definition number 8, its outcast characters struggling to survive on a corporate-controlled world. Sadly, over time, many people who embraced meaning number 5 of punk ended up becoming meaning number 1 in order to make a lot of money, leaving their fellow punks from definition 6 feeling like definition 3.

That being said, cyberpunk is the science-fiction based on the struggle of juvenile delinquents against the people who control the machines. Steampunk, on the other hand, is more like pseudo-trouble-makers who like to dress up like people did in the day and age of steam engines.

So… what about greenpunk?

Being a newly proposed “movement”, it’s had to say whatever it will become, but as a newly joined member of its ranks, I tend to believe we should work somewhere around meanings 9 and 10. Not that I want to set fire to whatever we have left of green in this sad blue planet of ours, no… But from all the definitions on that list, “setting fire to something” is the one that really sounds like revolution to me.

You see, the problem with punk rock is that it never evolved as a whole. Each subspecies of the punk rock family developed into something else, thus gaining new names, shapes and colours. The urgent lyrics of the nuclear era can still mean a lot to (some of) us, but the general idea of punk rock became just another fashionistic trend. Thanks to the endless power that media has to turn all that is true and pure into washed-out, clean, safe, family values forms of entertainment, punk rock too became a caricature of itself, losing most of its society-changing power.

As far as I can tell, in our societies, everybody knows we need to change in order to survive and create a healthy sustainable world for our kids to live in. But who is going to actually start this change? We are all apes, and we learn from examples. Rationality is something we take for granted. Every human being is capable of rational thinking, but it takes a long time and a lot of effort. Most people don’t bother much about being rational, as some economists are beginning to prove. And these people won’t act unless someone else shows them what to do, by setting examples to be followed. That is how memes work, and that is how most people chose their clothes, their jobs, and the movie they are going to see on the weekend. They need the example to follow, and they need an authorization to change.

I am not saying here that we are the best examples one should follow. But we can be the fire-starters of something new.

To close this sorry excuse for an article, I’d like to quote one of the greatest philosophers of the XX century – british crust-punk band Discharge:

The savage mutilation of the human race is set on course.
Protest and survive.
Protest and survive.
It’s up to us to change that course.
Protest and survive.
Protest and survive.

“Finding so much plastic there was shocking,” said Goldstein. “How could there be this much plastic floating in a random patch of ocean–a thousand miles from land?”

It’s big. Really big. Twice the size of Texas. Like a malevolent jellyfish, it drifts with the currents, plastic debris entrapping and strangling marine life, their carcasses adding to its mass. It’s slowly rotting. Some of it biodegrades in the sunlight, becoming small enough for animals to eat. It disrupts their hormones. They can’t reproduce. They become ill. They die.

We did this. What will we do now?

We could remove it. Recycle it. Make amends. Do better.

Will we?

Maybe they will. Maybe we can help them.

A city powered by solar cells and wind turbines, where 80% of the water is recycled. A city planned to be green. That’s Masdar, an urban environment being built in the middle of the Arabian desert, close to the Abu Dhabi emirate. The 2.3 square miles city combines traditional Arabian architecture, Italian piazzas and uses the micro-climate to both extract energy and keep the streets at comfortable temperatures. It’ll support up to 50,000 people and will be focused on technology industries and education. Masdar will be completed in 2016.