Well now. This is new and uncertain for me. I’ve been writing things for people for over a decade, but never really thought about blogging. Yet, with the way things have been going throughout the world the past two years, perhaps a change is in order.
So a bit of history then on what I write and why: I’ve been actively writing fiction work (on a commission basis) for about a decade now. Science fiction is my specialization most certainly, but I also enjoy a good high-fantasy setting if I get to stretch my legs on things. Sci-fi inspired me as a youth to think of new ways of being, new ways of perceiving things, and new ways of interacting with other people. It gave me hope in a time when I had very little and showed me that I wasn’t alone in desiring that hopeful future.
Of course, it’s become increasingly challenging to write hopeful work with well, gestures at everything.
Still, I’m nothing if not stubborn. Much of my fiction writing comes from a Queer space, where I explore those relationships that were all too often denied a perspective reference in culture when I was younger. I still remember pondering why I felt so similar to certain characters who were blatantly Queer coded, only for them to later be revealed as “absolutely straight, no question about it”. Made for a very isolating experience, especially growing up in a Fundamentalist household. In light of that, I rather enjoy plucking these coded characters up and making them into something interesting and new within that new paradigm. What happens when a character that’s been hard-coded by Word of God to be one way is turned into something else, and how does that impact the story around them?
Obviously this can be taken to many different paths: experiences with racism, or other minority experiences, but as my lived experience is with Queerness, it is where I center my attention. A lot of my ire tends to be around what I see as utterly unrealistic depictions of people in mediums that purport to be “real” compounded by flawlessly perfect exteriors. Nah, not my style. I like the ugly gnarled branches of the tree, it tells a much more interesting story than the manicured hedge bush identical to all its peers down the road.
So that’s the fiction writing side of things, what else is there?
Well, that’s where it probably will get a little weirder. See, I’ve been pretty invested in this rather silly notion called “surviving the calamity”. When I was about twelve years old, I was introduced to this concept called “Global Warming”. It hadn’t been rebranded yet at the time, so it was the original, more accurate name. “Climate Change” is nebulously non-threatening on purpose. What’s changing? Where? Why? How long until it does? Will I be impacted by it? Where as “Global Warming” very clearly says “it’s getting hotter, everywhere, because CO2, now, and yes.” It started a very intense period for me of reading and researching trying to understand what was transpiring (I was extremely bored as a youth and science is interesting, don’t judge) which consumed a good portion of my childhood. Of course, there were the raging debates going on at the time as Bush II was doing his razzle-dazzle - a feat worthy of airing on Broadway - alongside his cohorts.
I say “debates” lightly, as they were more or less a more milquetoast variant of what happens now, in late 2022. A whole lot of smokescreens to protect the people who were ardently committed to doing nothing, because doing something required giving up an iota of power. Not happening. So teenage me entered a protean form of doomspiral before it became a recognized phenomena. Every article was worse than the last, the projections were clear, and so was the political reality of it all. Worse yet, there was nothing I could do. I was poor, born into a poor family whose parents themselves were poor. Influence? Nope. Connections? Zip.
Naturally, faced with overwhelming existential doom I did what any sane teen did; I wrote. Angst-driven drab stuff looking back at it, but it was the catalyst for what would eventually become an actual ethos. A thesis of thought that has coalesced into a part-time art movement at around the same time (See: Solarpunk).
This is where the rest of my work centers around. It is a combination of political thought, analysis, historical comparison, sociological studying, and futurism. Though I use the term “futurism” with care, as it has been co-opted from its original intended meaning and turned into a mechanism to describe what is at best Ecomodernism and at worst Ecofascism. For me, I went the opposite direction of the empty white buildings and the iPod aesthetics - I explored vernacular design, historical buildings (and by this I mean ancient), and radical experimentation from when people were braver in architecture. All of these elements tie together, for no urban space is deprived of the human element, and thusly must adhere to that human reality. Bridging this with sociology gives you a holistic approach, which is something modernists have understood for a time, but they have also abandoned its lessons in favor of compromising with the existing modalities of the now.
What does this mean? In a vacuum, nothing, but in the context of a broad range of technologies and theories, it means change. A fundamental examination on what it means to live in an urban space, and how that urbanization in turn reflects the power dynamic of everything else around it. Cities have always been the centers of power - that is no less true today than it was 10,000 years ago when the first structure was built. But the history of this has been washed away, alongside so much else, in favor of establishing an iron grip on the now. There cannot be another way, because it has always been this way. Or said another way, “Capitalism is the only alternative!”
For anyone under the age of 40, this has been a nightmare phrase encapsulating the despair we feel as the world is force-marched over a cliff. For no real reason either. In comparison to the economic costs impaired now, or in the future (hopefully?..) the transition to alternative forms of energy in the year 2000 would have been a fraction of what it will inevitably become. Instead, it’s been the same excuse over and over again. It’s always been this way, it always will be this way. I’m actually reminded of a character from Stargate, Baal, who says something to the effect of “my peers fell for their own propaganda” and I feel that applies here. Are the individuals and entities driving this calamity just as much enthralled to it as everyone else?
Who knows.
For me, it just speaks towards the breaking of the systems of networks that have made cities and thus societies successful. This landed me on the rather unusual work of Paolo Soleri - Arcologies: The City in the Image of Man. If it sounds odd, that’s because it is. Not simply due to the title, but the sheer ambition of it. The gall of it. The audacity this person had for decrying the works of the last century as tortuously impoverished in spirit. He is right, naturally.
But what’s more interesting is the methodology. Exploring it, one would think it but a pipe dream, the vaulting ceiling of madness of some drugged up designer with screws loose, and yet. When you examine it from a perspective of “would this work to secure human survival” it suddenly has some merit to it. Taking the idea of highly concentrated urban areas from a historic position, you’ll quickly see how our ancestors consistently built cities that were dense and defensible. That doesn’t apply in the here and now as modern warfare is radically different, but when the enemy is the climate itself, we start to see some returning options. The arcologies proposed by Soleri go even further, however, and this alongside other ideas proposed in his book have acted as an inspiration for me.
When I was pursuing an Architectural and Design degree, I wanted to see if his ideas would really work. When I was tapped to work on the Moon Society Challenge Lunar Base contest, I had an opportunity to explore closed loop systems in extreme detail with experts. Seeing the seminal works of Nexus Aurora and the Mars Colony Competition inspired even further.
If people are designing for settlements on other hell-blasted worlds, then why don’t we bring that back here?
I’m not the first nor will I be the last to have that light-bulb moment. Anyone who spends any time at all investigating space will rapidly realize that any advances we make there are just as readily applied here. Thus the massive explosion in technologies since the Space Race of yesteryear. Contextually though, we’ve yet to really apply all the theories together.
So as not to spoil things, I’ll be republishing my works here on this newsletter for people to read through individually. It’s still an active part of research for me, one of those “life long works” I suppose.
Well, there we have it. A general breakdown of intent, full of plot holes and rough points and uncertainty.
I did say I liked the gnarled branch better.