The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. All the keep opinions are by accounts with very few edits, which is ... not a good sign, usually. Policy-based discussion clearly points towards delete. It's surprising that the merger to Cyberpunk derivatives has not been discussed more, though, but such is life. Obviously this can be recreated if it ever gets more substantial coverage.  Sandstein  20:42, 12 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Solarpunk[edit]

Solarpunk (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log · Stats)
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Looks like a made-up genre to me. All references are either personal publications on tumblr or just questionable news articles, unrelated to actual works of fiction. Google book search struggles to bring anything up, there is just a couple of books with "solarpunk" in the title. There is actually a "solarpunk" genre on goodreads, but it's filled mostly by a single user [1]. Article itself doesn't list any works either, it's basically empty. Some more points are on the talk page Jazz (talk) 12:19, 19 March 2017 (UTC) — Jazz (talk • contribs) has made few or no other edits outside this topic. [reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Literature-related deletion discussions. Jazz (talk) 12:19, 19 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Whether it's being discussed here as if it's only a fiction subgenre, you can see on the talk page for it that it has been discussed as an 'aesthetic movement'.. yet no notable works of any kind and no real reliable sources have been added to the article. Centerone (talk) 21:01, 22 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
And yet, concepts which owe their entire existence to single biased individuals and break down outside of a very limited perspective are deemed "notable," complete with insinuations that anyone who questions their legitimacy must be a "right-wing authoritarian." This page stands at least as well on its own as the one in question does; nonetheless, there seems to be no debate as to the notability of the other. Again: if anything, a case can be made for merging it with "ecofuturism" (of which it's a clear spin-off). 2602:306:3A29:DBF0:A957:9936:F235:F92B (talk) 19:45, 24 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
And this relates to this article, how? We're discussing this article. Not any other. I don't know of these other concepts or biased individuals of which you speak, nor why we should deem them relevant. Centerone (talk) 12:02, 26 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Well, many of those 'novels' appear to be padded short stories about 20 pages long. Many if not all of them appear to be direct to amazon ebooks. I'm not even sure if some of them are really what one would consider 'solarpunk'... does anybody want to do a comprehensive study of them, or at least check each of them out to examine this argument? I stand by my previous statements in the talk page on the article. A subgenre of a subgenre that people are trying to wish into being simply by blogging about it and forcing an article on us. Also, if so many of them are notable, do they have their own pages, news articles from reliable sources, etc. etc. ? Centerone (talk) 19:43, 20 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
As far as I understand it, to be under a category on Amazon the publisher/author must choose that category. Wikipedia is about reporting facts. It is, therefore, a fact that 40+ works with real ISBN numbers have chosen to be published under the genre called 'solarpunk'. To that extent, it does exist. That should be the only criteria necessary.
I certainly don't believe that it is down to Wikipedia editors to decide whether a genre exists. It is, and always must be, down to the artists working in any particular genre to name their work how they choose. They are the owners of the genre. If you want to delete the genre, ask the artists first. I'm guessing they might object.
Personally, I don't think that it matters whether a work is a collection of short stories or a single story of epic length, but if it *does* matter, then a quick review of the stats on Amazon reveals that Viral Airwaves and Suncatcher are proper length novels, and Twenty One Twenty is even longer still. Does it matter that some of those 40+ novels are ebooks? Definitely not. The Martian and many other popular books/movies began life in that way.
I do, however, agree with the point that it would be helpful if a professional and independent literary critic were to review the literature in it's totality. I'm afraid I don't know anyone at the New York Times and I don't have time to read those books myself. Many of them might actually be rubbish for all I know. Over to the solarpunk fans to read the books written for them and write the reviews. But I say innocent until proven guilty, unless you want to read those books yourself from start to end and prove they are NOT "solarpunk", then your argument does not stand. Wikipedia is about facts, and it is a verifiable fact that 40+ solarpunk "novels" exist on Amazon. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Petulant Mouse (talkcontribs) 21:50, 20 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
No, it's not a verifiable fact that 40+ "solarpunk novels" exist. Yes, there are a few collections of short stories there. Many of the entries are also as I said, around 20 pages. 20 ebook pages does not a novel make. This is why I asked for someone to check on them. I didn't really want to go through each and every one of them to prove or disprove your point when it became clear that in a random sampling of them, several of those that I looked at were either 19-24 pages, collections of short stories, or didn't even seem to give them impression that they were really solarpunk, but rather potentially used the term as a marketing gimmick, which is common for this sort of direct to ebook publishing. Your claims are disingenuous. Centerone (talk) 02:34, 21 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Please be assured that no offence was intended. Here is the Amazon.co.uk top ten solarpunk books sampled on the 21st of March 2017 (47 results returned).
Extended content from Amazon.co.uk
1) Wings of renewal
A collection of short stories by 19 authors.
338 pages
2) Twenty One Twenty
A full-length self-published novel by Jason J Robinson
405 pages
3) Elf Saga volume 4
Part of a series of books by J Lewis
416 pages
4) A solarpunk titled book in Portuguese - a language I don't read, so I can't make further comment.
256 pages
5) The Solarpunk colouring book.
6) The Eleventh Upgrade.
A (very) short story by Charlotte Tracy
19 pages
7) Greenshift
A novella by Heidi Ruby Miller
160 pages
8) In Bright Glass
A novella by Virginia Marybury
114 pages
9) Double Nocturne
A novel by Cynthia Felice
330 pages
10) Viral Airwaves
A full length self-published novel by Claudie Arseneault, also known as White Renegade in a multiparty series.
478 pages
You are correct that one of those titles is only nineteen pages long, you are very probably also correct that a large number of those are Amazon slush-pile trash, but I still assert that I am correct in saying that some of those (but admittedly not all 40+) are of a decent length and therefore proper novels. Are they any good? That is honestly not for me to say without reading them all, and in any regards it would only ever be a matter of personal opinion, but they do call themselves Solarpunk, and if at least one of them is of a passable quality in the eyes of some readers, then that must go some way towards validating the genre. That is the one and only point I wish to make and I shall say no more. I never intended an argument. My warmest regards. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Petulant Mouse (talkcontribs) 05:23, 21 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Comment. You've just listed all the reasons why this article should be deleted: "hasn't been picked up by the mainstream", "an unfortunate lack of 'hard sources'", "give it another year" (WP:TOOSOON). Clarityfiend (talk) 23:57, 23 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
  • Despite the name, it's more of a derivative of ecofuturism than of cyberpunk (although the concept seems to incorporate the idea of ecofuturism as pushback against the unsustainable status quo, hence the "-punk" suffix). 2602:306:3A29:DBF0:A957:9936:F235:F92B (talk) 19:45, 24 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Relisting comment: All "keep" opinions are by IPs or accounts with very few edits. The discussion could benefit from the input of more experienced editors.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks,  Sandstein  08:06, 27 March 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Rcsprinter123 (notify) 17:11, 4 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
All that said, here's what I found that could contribute to notability: Solarpunk: a new movement sees the future in a positive light (ABC Online), This sci-fi enthusiast wants to make “solarpunk” happen (Grist), The New Utopians (The New Republic)... I see some halfway decent blogs/scifi websites, but meh. If you cannot add to this list, you should not be arguing to keep this. — Rhododendrites talk \\ 00:02, 5 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
What about this one? This article from last year call 'Two nerds' on the future of Earth from Arizona State University website pretty on talking about Solarpunk as genre? 2606:A000:85C0:E00:C16B:CDDD:4E2F:9860 (talk) 23:15, 5 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Could be a reliable source to include in the article, but it's a primary source. On one hand, it's a university publication about a university contest (i.e. only a little better than a press release). On the other hand, it's two people basically talking about starting a genre (i.e. a primary source and an indication it's probably too soon). — Rhododendrites talk \\ 15:24, 9 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.