In Solar Punk, "technology is applied in appropriate situations to foster harmony between people and their environment." While this is theoretically accurate in Solar punk, Years' worth of literature has not been able to envision a future where the natural world and technology co-exist.
While researching solar punk, I found associations between solar punk's main concepts and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.
The novel discusses the disastrous effects of technology and nature's influence to enlighten humanity and shows that both cannot co-exist. In turn, Frankenstein is a timeless, romanticist cautionary tale that still applies today.
Born from Brazilian literature and art, solar punk rejects dystopian pessimism and focuses on renewable futures and utopian societies. Solar punk is one of the fastest growing sub-genres in 21st-century literature. Not only does it challenge the status quo, but it also "encourages mobilisation toward environmental solutions and effective change." (Mahrab, B. 2016) As Adam Flynn reiterates, "solar punk is about finding ways to make life more wonderful for us right now and more importantly for the generations that follow us… it is about ingenuity, generativity, independence and community…Solar punk is a future with a human face and dirt behind its ears." (Flynn, A. 2014)
While Frankenstein isn't recognised as a solar punk novel (rather a romanticist), I couldn't help but draw connections between the two topics. Solar punk significantly focuses on being one with nature while using technology to human advantage. This contrasts with Frankenstein, where Mary Shelley warns us that the double life isn't viable. Initially, I viewed solar punk as a futuristic sub-genre, but as I delve into its characteristics more, its focus on nature and the organic becomes clearer.
This trait makes sense as solar punks seem to want to go back in time, but unfortunately, we cannot. Despite this, we can learn from the romanticist elements in Frankenstein to inform our solar-punk future.
For Mary Shelley, the fundamentals of the romanticist period were a crucial aspect of the novel: "we as beings in society should believe in the sanctity of human life" (Cohan, M. 2018). The romanticists found that with the changing world, the industrial revolution and the age of enlightenment, the only way to remain "human" was to keep in touch with nature. Victor Frankenstein embodies this straightforward science concept through his "transgression of nature's inviolable laws" (Wolfson, Susan, Knowledge and Science). Allured by the power and potential of science from a young age, Frankenstein aspires to the glory that comes with knowledge. This ruthless pursuit of knowledge proves dangerous, as Victor's act of creation eventually results in the murder of his family. Frankenstein's story is regarded as a "cautionary tale both to Robert Walton, who learns of the dangerous nature of pursuing certain kinds of knowledge, and most importantly the general reader." (Wolfson, Susan)
Mary Shelley warns the audience against science and technology through the novel's subtitle. She illustrates that actions have their consequences, and stemming from that, we should not play god. The subtitle, the modern Prometheus, refers to Greek mythology, where Prometheus stole fire from the gods, gave it to man, and suffered for eternity. Shelley parallels this story throughout her fiction novel, where "Frankenstein pursued a place of forbidden knowledge in arrogance" (Cohan, Minori. 2018).
"Frankenstein is a story that highlights the repercussions of an unregulated, morally bankrupt scientist playing 'God'" through his use of unrestrained technology. This novel teaches the audience that the only way to stay 'human' is to surround yourself with nature. We see this theme in solar punk as well but with the (although, in my opinion, unrealistic) addition of technology. In the Stanford University School of Engineering's video, we find that "engineers need to be educated not just in engineering… they need to care about the impacts of the technologies they're going to be inventing" to thrive with both of these concepts in solar punk. While this context is related to engineering, Shelley's lesson can be applied to universal life. To build our utopian, solar-punk life, we must utilise technology and scientific growth while understanding and actively working against the impacts. As the solar punk manifesto states, "In Solar punk, we've pulled back just in time to stop the slow destruction of our planet. We've learned to use science wisely, for the betterment of our life conditions as part of our planet. We're no longer overlords. We're caretakers. We're gardeners." (The solar punk community. 2014)
