There has been some conversation about what Ecopunk means in the description of my upcoming novella, The Tea Goddess. I coined the term, in relation to literature, as an obvious homage to the genres of cyberpunk and steampunk; But what is an ecopunk story?
I’d say that the roots of ecopunk go back to works such as Wyndham’s “Day of the Triffids”. In the novel, unlike the original 1950′s motion picture release, triffids were engineered organisms. They were originally plants created for military warfare by the soviets. The byproduct of this “eco-weapon” was that the plants themselves created a form of sustainable crude oil. Along those lines I would also consider Harry Harrison’s “Make Room, Make Room”, and the subsequent adaptation “Soylent Green”, to be within the genre.
This sets up some of the criteria for what I believe defines ecopunk. The genre will usually contain themes of the following nature:
Sustainable Resources
Ecological disaster brought on by man
A return to nature
Use of organic technology over conventional contemporary technologies.
Spiritual themes related to the natural world.
Although not every ecopunk story must contain all of these themes, and I’m sure there are plenty of other bullets that could be applied, I think this list summarizes what to look for.
In recent history motion pictures have really latched on to this genre, not having a name for it necessarily. I would consider James Cameron’s “Avatar” to be an example of ecopunk.
In animation the work of Miyazaki is very deep in this ecopunk movement, especially “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind”. Other Japanese ecopunk stories include “E.Y.E.S. of MARS” and “Origin: Spirits of the Past”. There are numerous other works within the genre processed in Japan, possibly because the Shinto religion is so closely linked to the natural world and the spirits that inhabit it.
From Europe comes Rene LaLoux’s 1988 release “Gandagar” (renamed Light Years in the US market) which pitted a nature-based techological society against machines from the future. It’s very much worth a look for a fan of ecopunk.
For at least the last decade there’s been a real-world ecopunk movement spearheaded by lifehackers and survivalists. This mirrors the computer hacking community of the late 70s and early 80s which gave rise to cyberpunk.
My interest in the topic has been spurred on by my wife’s living walls, hydroponic gardening, household solar conversions, and other “off the grid” activities. I’m excited and I hope ecopunk is able to be one more vehicle to bring these ideas to a mass audience.
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