How to classify my speculative novel, a conundrum. To some, it might appear to be contemporary fantasy. Yet those in a spiritual path like mine will recognize The Working as fabulism (magical realism for those of us not Latinx or BIPOC—real world with a magical element). It dawned on me last week: it is a lunarpunk story.
An amorphous container
The genre (or subgenre) is new—at least, the label for it is new. Core to lunarpunk are hope and optimism. Like its hopeful, optimistic sibling solarpunk, lunarpunk is an evolving container, not easily defined and not concretized by definition. Jay Springett describes solarpunk as a container where some elements are pulled to the center as if by gravity of overlapping thought. Other elements float in and out at the edges, which are fuzzy, making for an amorphous and fluid container. With lunarpunk, even more so.
For me, lunarpunk
- illuminates the silvery shadows of solarpunk
- adds nonlinear, intuitive ways of thinking and feeling
- is magical
- speaks truth in non-Western-science ways of knowing
- creates paths to a just, regenerative world and bright futures
- not only centers environmental justice, it lifts social, economic, and all forms of justice and their intersectionality
- decenters humans in the web of life and illuminates relationships, communication, web-weaving among all beings
- holds the reality of different realms and communication across realms
Hold that thought!
A bullet list doesn’t cut it. Here’s a much better way to express what lunarpunk is for me:
And since lunarpunk is amorphous, even from one person’s viewpoint, my take on it will continue to evolve. Like solarpunk, it is a movement and an aesthetic—a much wider container than solely a literary genre. As people write, sing, dance, act in lunarpunk ways, and exchange notions of lunarpunk, my feeling for it will evolve.
Why is my story lunarpunk?
The coven sets a path to bright futures when they discover the energy Working to counteract the greed- and authoritarian-fueled eco-cataclysm on our doorstep. As I said up top, this isn’t fantasy. Though I’m happy to have folks think it is; truth seeps in more readily through fiction. The coven works with energy, which is what Witches do, and energy is the basis of all components of matter, of ecosystems, of life—ask a physicist! That’s the lunar part of lunarpunk, as are communicating with nonhumans and visiting the astral realm. The punk part is their real world action, including street protests and blockades. They stand up to power, countering uber-capitalism and racism. Plus, they bring people together, network, collaborate.
Whoops, is this a spoiler for The Working? No, because I’m not revealing what the Working is. That’s the surprise and core to the story as is how the coven finds it.
As I was writing the story (more accurately, as I was scribing the story my Ancestors asked me to tell), I realized The Working is the real Secret that will benefit all. (I’m referring to the 2006 book that purports to reveal the laws of the universe and how to use them to benefit your life.)
The Working works on all levels, mundane to magical, literal to metaphoric. I’m seeking publication of the novel and hope you get to meet Betsy, Sail, Fire, Mari, and Tal—the coven—soon.
Enjoy the doodle of the coven I created for this post. As you see, I’m much better at drawing trees and sky than humans!
Soon, my nonfiction article about solarpunk will be published on the Center for Sustainable Futures website, and I’ll let you know when it posts. Through the article, you’ll get to hear many more voices than mine.
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Towards solarpunk and lunarpunk futures!