The space to discuss Solarpunk itself and Solarpunk related stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere.
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Just here to say fuck that Space Karen!
That movie came out in 1986. How could he possibly have known about Elon Muska and Twitter, and the violent takeover and ensuing disintegration of the platform?
It's quite the relevation. It's all right there.
Yeah its kind of amazing :) (Although I think the story also is kind of universal)
PS: The similarity was noted before, check this out: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/this-crazy-japanese-film-just-blew-away-twitters-tweet-record/
"Twitter revealed a new tweet-per-second record on Friday and it seems the 143,199 tweets-per-second milestone was triggered by the airing of a Japanese animated film. [...] In the film, the protagonists send the city's airborne fortress tumbling out of the sky with the magic word, "balus" which roughly translates to "destruction." [...] So strong is the pull of "Laputa" -- even apart from the Ghibli Rule--that during the last airing on Dec. 9, 2011, Twitter logged a then-record-breaking 25,088 tweets per second of fans posting "balus'' at the same time it was spoken during the movie--despite a public plea from the social-networking site to hold off."
I think Twitter always in a way tried to be the castle in the sky. Also, I think people just found it fun to mess with it.
At one point I pondered using Laputa as a RPG setting where Muska wouldn't have been such an idiot and welcomed both Sheeta and Pazu, and started gathering the descendants of the Laputa royal family, and restored a part of Laputa's grandeur.
Interesting. Although I think at some point there will always be a Muska. Exclusivity and aristocracy doesn't usually led to good things ...
That would still have been an interesting way to explore these questions. Royalty does not exist in a vacuum, it is a product of many principles that Sheeta and Pazy would not be fan of (not even Muska I bet).
But thing is, Miyazaki is very anti-tech. He did not want Laputa to be a dream followed by solarpunk, it was supposed to be a cautionary tale about the fall of technological societies. It prefered to focus on the destructive powers rather than on the post-labor utopias that the Laputa robots could have brought.
That would still have been an interesting way to explore these questions. Royalty does not exist in a vacuum, it is a product of many principles that Sheeta and Pazy would not be fan of (not even Muska I bet).
That's true. Could certainly be interesting, I mean, they build the whole thing and probably spend a few generations there.
But thing is, Miyazaki is very anti-tech. He did not want Laputa to be a dream followed by solarpunk, it was supposed to be a cautionary tale about the fall of technological societies. It prefered to focus on the destructive powers rather than on the post-labor utopias that the Laputa robots could have brought.
I would call his relationship with tech ambivalent, because the tech of Laputa is primarily positive and exists in harmony with nature. It just falls into the wrong hands.
Reading the Nausicaä mangas convinced me otherwise. He is one of those believers in the wisdom of nature and the inherent evilness of tech. Which is a shame because I really like his universes otherwise.
Ok, that's a little let-down. Although I don't think its that he is completely against tech, maybe his views changed over time since many of his movies feature technical advantages and not always in a bad way, for example the moving castle ...
The Moving Castle is not his own story, it comes from a novel.
The underlying theme of his movies is that tech is attractive and that good people use tech to do good but that it always ends badly anyway. That they would have been better off without going that road.
Ok, you're starting to convince me. I still think some of his works are great solar punk even though maybe he didn't intented them to be ...
Oh certainly! But just like William Gibson hated the term "cyberpunk" despite being considered a main pillar of the genre, I think Miyazaki would reject the "solarpunk" term even though Laputa is pretty much spot on in that style!
This somehow reminds me Altered Carbon
never watched it sry