12
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 19 Nov 2023
12 points (83.3% liked)
Solarpunk
5393 readers
69 users here now
The space to discuss Solarpunk itself and Solarpunk related stuff that doesn't fit elsewhere.
Join our chat: Movim or XMPP client.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
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's true. Could certainly be interesting, I mean, they build the whole thing and probably spend a few generations there.
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!