Hopepunk is a subgenre of speculative fiction, conceived of as the opposite of grimdark. Works in the hopepunk subgenre are about characters fighting for positive change, radical kindness, and communal responses to challenges.
In 2017, fantasy author Alexandra Rowland proposed the term hopepunk as the opposite of grimdark , which is a subgenre that is particularly dystopian, amoral, or violent. [1] [2] Their [lower-alpha 1] initial Tumblr post, "The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on," received over 50,000 comments. [4]
Rowland expanded the concept further in an article on the subject, "One Atom of Justice, One Molecule of Mercy, and the Empire of Unsheathed Knives." [5] As more people engaged with the concept, the definition of hopepunk took on more specific parameters. The aesthetic of hopepunk is generally agreed to incorporate a mood of gentleness or softness and a sense of self-awareness of weaponized optimism, with a worldview that fighting for positive social systems is a worthwhile fight. There is an emphasis on cooperation as opposed to conflict. There is an awareness within hopepunk works that happy endings are not guaranteed and that nothing is permanent. [1]
In 2019, hopepunk was one of Collins English Dictionary's new and notable terms. [6]
The various "-punk" subgenres are connected by the idea of social disruption. Hopepunk in speculative fiction explores resistance, rebellion, and resilience as counters to apathy and cynicism. [7] Hopepunk describes works such as books, movies, and television shows, that reveal hope in the face of challenges and acts as a counter to pessimism. [8] Scholar Elin Kelsey describes it as "a narrative of positive resistance" and contrasts it with noblebright , which takes as its premise that not only are there good fights worth fighting, but that they are also winnable and result in a happy ending. [9] [1] Where noblebright is the narrative of the hero, hopepunk instead celebrates the collective response. [9]
Rowland has pointed out that anger is also a part of hopepunk, saying "sometimes the kindest thing you can do for someone is to stand up to a bully on their behalf, and that takes guts and rage." [10] Initially describing a subgenre, its use has extended to refer to motivations, narrative tone, outlook. The editors of Uncanny Magazine define it as "radical empathy" and "radical kindness", contrasting it to the hopelessness of grimdark. [10]
Stories in the hopepunk subgenre reject the fatalism and cynicism of grimdark. Hopepunk characters persevere, believing in the possibility of something better in the face of difficult realities. [11] Rowland has described the feeling of hopepunk as "people standing up to terrifying regimes and holding the line against them, and surviving against all odds just by force of sheer, bloody-minded obstinacy". [12]
Hopepunk is an approach in which characters choose to fight to make things better, and are motivated by noble motives. Some critics and fans considered the awards of both the Hugo Award and Nebula Award to The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal as industry recognition of hopepunk literature. [13] Hopepunk, a reaction to decades of dystopian, nihilistic fiction, explores how goodness and optimism can be acts of rebellion. [14] A hopepunk narrative is driven by fierce caring and the will to fight for something. [15] The worlds described in hopepunk works are not utopian or even necessarily hopeful; the genre is expressed in the ways characters approach issues. [16]
Hopepunk has been described as a "cultural phenomenon", akin to socially disruptive socio-political movements like #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter. [12] Hopepunk emerged during bleak sociopolitical times within a broader culture emphasis on extreme self-care, communal care, and wellness. [1] In May, 2018, the Nebula Conference included a hopepunk panel. [1] Vox described N. K. Jemisin's third Hugo Award in 2018 as real-world activism in the spirit of hopepunk, recognizing the themes of humanity and love in her work. [1]
The state of the world around the 2020s (pandemic, climate change, economic and geopolitical crises) gave hopepunk a greater appeal to readers. [15] Sales of young-adult dystopian fiction were in decline. In 2018, Cat Rambo, then the president of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, said that more nominees for the Nebula Awards featured "strong, feel-good elements" than in previous years. [8]
Intended to describe a literary subgenre, people have used the term to describe films, politics, religion, and everyday activities. [17] It has been popularized in discussions about "everything from politics to pregnancy", according to America magazine associate editor Jim McDermott. He posits that the foundation of the Catholic faith is a form of hopepunk. [11]
In 2019, the BBC allocated £150,000 for hopepunk podcasts. BBC executive Jason Phipps says people want "detailed, diverse characters who are unafraid to be fighting for something, choosing hope even when things are bleak." [18] A thriller called The Cipher was selected for its debut hopepunk podcast. [19]
In an interview, journalist and author Annalee Newitz disputed that hopepunk is a genre, saying "Any kind of story can have elements of hopepunk". Newitz views hopepunk as the opposite of apathy. [20] Lee Konstantinou, associate professor of English Literature at University of Maryland, College Park, is skeptical of the genre, saying "You can't just depict an imagined world ravaged by environmental disaster or war or oppression, and then sprinkle a little bit of hope at the end. Hope has to be earned." [8]
Some critics have called hopepunk "pious", "sentimental", and "microaesthetics with marketing ambitions". [14]
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison has been described as the "quintessential hopepunk fantasy novel". [1] Other science fiction books that have been characterized as hopepunk include:
Beyond science fiction books, the term hopepunk has been applied to television shows, movies, and fictional characters. The Den of Geek hopepunk explainer gives examples such as Snowpiercer , when Curtis blows up the train; Mad Max: Fury Road , when Max and Furiosa return to the Citadel; and The Expanse , when Naomi allows desperate refugees from Ganymede aboard Rocinante. [10] Some other examples are:
Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden, known by her pen names Robin Hobb and Megan Lindholm, is an American writer of speculative fiction. As Hobb, she is best known for her fantasy novels set in the Realm of the Elderlings, which comprise the Farseer, Liveship Traders and Tawny Man trilogies, the Rain WildChronicles, and the Fitz and the Fool trilogy. Lindholm's writing includes the urban fantasy novel Wizard of the Pigeons and science fiction short stories, among other works. As of 2018, her fiction has been translated into 22 languages and sold more than 4 million copies.
An adventure film is a form of adventure fiction, and is a genre of film. Subgenres of adventure films include swashbuckler films, pirate films, and survival films. Adventure films may also be combined with other film genres such as action, comedy, drama, fantasy, science fiction, family, horror, war, or the medium of animation.
Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy literary, artistic, and cinematic works that incorporate disturbing and frightening themes. It often combines fantasy with elements of horror, possessing a dark and gloomy tone or an atmosphere of horror and dread.
Since the advent of the cyberpunk genre, a number of cyberpunk derivatives have become recognized in their own right as distinct subgenres in speculative fiction, especially in science fiction. Rather than necessarily sharing the digitally and mechanically focused setting of cyberpunk, these derivatives can display other futuristic, or even retrofuturistic, qualities that are drawn from or analogous to cyberpunk: a world built on one particular technology that is extrapolated to a highly sophisticated level, a gritty transreal urban style, or a particular approach to social themes.
Annalee Newitz is an American journalist, editor, and author of both fiction and nonfiction, who has written for the periodicals Popular Science and Wired. From 1999 to 2008, Newitz wrote a syndicated weekly column called Techsploitation, and from 2000 to 2004 was the culture editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In 2004, Newitz became a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. With Charlie Jane Anders, they also co-founded Other magazine, a periodical that ran from 2002 to 2007. From 2008 to 2015, Newitz was editor-in-chief of Gawker-owned media venture io9, and subsequently its direct descendant Gizmodo, Gawker's design and technology blog. As of 2019, Newitz is a contributing opinion writer at The New York Times.
Charlie Jane Anders is an American writer. She has written several novels as well as shorter fiction, published magazines and websites, and hosted podcasts. In 2005, she received the Lambda Literary Award for work in the transgender category, and in 2009, the Emperor Norton Award. Her 2011 novelette Six Months, Three Days won the 2012 Hugo and was a finalist for the Nebula and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. Her 2016 novel All the Birds in the Sky was listed No. 5 on Time magazine's "Top 10 Novels" of 2016, won the 2017 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the 2017 Crawford Award, and the 2017 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel; it was also a finalist for the 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
io9 is a sub-blog of the technology blog Gizmodo that focuses on science fiction and fantasy pop culture, with former focuses on science, technology and futurism. It was created as a standalone blog in 2008 by editor Annalee Newitz under Gawker Media. In 2015, io9 became a part of Gizmodo as part of a reorganization under parent company Gawker.
Nanopunk refers to an emerging subgenre of science fiction that is still very much in its infancy in comparison to its ancestor-genre, cyberpunk, and some of its other derivatives.
Project Hieroglyph is an initiative to create science fiction in order to spur innovation in science and technology founded by Neal Stephenson in 2011.
Throne of the Crescent Moon is a fantasy novel written by American writer Saladin Ahmed. It is the first book in The Crescent Moon Kingdoms series. The book was published by DAW Books in February 2012. The book was nominated for the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel, 2013 David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer and the 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novel. It won the 2013 Locus Award for Best First Novel.
Ancillary Sword is a science fiction novel by the American writer Ann Leckie, published in October 2014. It is the second novel in Leckie's "Imperial Radch" space opera trilogy, which began with Ancillary Justice (2013) and ended with Ancillary Mercy (2015). The novel was generally well-received by critics, received the BSFA Award for Best Novel and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was nominated for the Nebula and Hugo awards.
The Goblin Emperor is a 2014 fantasy novel written by the American author Sarah Monette under the pseudonym Katherine Addison. The novel received the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel and was nominated for the Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy Awards. It was well-received by critics, who noted the strength of the protagonist's characterization and, unusual for fantasy, the work's warm and understated tone.
Grimdark is a subgenre of speculative fiction with a tone, style, or setting that is particularly dystopian, amoral, and violent. The term is inspired by the tagline of the tabletop strategy game Warhammer 40,000: "In the grim darkness of the far future there is only war."
Ferrett Steinmetz is the pen name of author William Steinmetz, who writes science fiction and urban fantasy and has been active since 2004.
The Future of Another Timeline is a 2019 science fiction novel by Annalee Newitz. The feminist time-travel adventure follows Tess, a professional time traveler, geoscientist, and secretly a member of the Daughters of Harriet (Tubman), who are working to make the future better for women.
A fantasy podcast is a podcast related to or discussing the fantasy genre, which usually focuses on the magical, supernatural, mythical, or folkloric. Fantasy stories are set in fictional universes or fantasy worlds that are often reminiscent of the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Despite having a fictional setting, fantasy stories can contain or reference locations, events, or people from the real world. Characters in these stories often encounter fictional creatures such as dwarves, elves, dragons, and fairies. Common types of fantasy podcasts are audio dramas, narrated short stories, role-playing games, or discussions and reviews of fantasy topics such as fantasy films, books, games, and other media. The intended audience of a fantasy podcast can vary from young children to adults. Fantasy podcasts emerged from storytelling and the creation of the radio. Fantasy podcasts have often been adapted into television programs, graphic novels, and comics. Fantasy podcasts are a subgenre of fiction podcasts and are distinguished from science fiction podcasts and horror podcasts by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, respectively, though these subgenres regularly overlap.
The Terraformers is a science fiction novel by Annalee Newitz, published on January 31, 2023. Environmentalism is a major theme.
Autonomous is a 2017 science fiction novel by Annalee Newitz. It is Newitz's debut novel and was published by Tor Books on September 19, 2017. Set in a near future Earth, the book describes a world where both humans and intelligent robots can be owned as property. The events of the novel follow Jack, a "drug pirate" who manufactures illegal versions of patented drugs, and Paladin, a combat robot who is owned by the law enforcement agency searching for Jack after one of the drugs she reverse-engineered turns out to have dangerous side effects.