BOOKS & COMICS
ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARKNESS?
A brief explainer of the hopepunk movement, its origins, and its possibilities. BY KAYTI BURT
The Expanse, both the book series and TV adaptation, is an example of hopepunk storytelling.
WHEN AUTHOR ALEXANDRA Rowland first posted to Tumblr in 2017, “The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk. Pass it on,” she had no idea how intensely that sentiment would resonate with the platform’s community and beyond. “Initially, I was just vaguely bemused that anyone was listening to me,” Rowland says, “but at the same time, I understood intellectually why hopepunk was resonating
HOPEPUNK READING GUIDE 14 DEN OF GEEK
with people. Simply put: they were hurting, and hopepunk was a thing that helped comfort the hurt.” What is hopepunk? It depends on who you ask. Rowland, quoting her essay “One Atom of Justice, One Molecule of Mercy, and the Empire of Unsheathed Knives,” says: “Hopepunk is a subgenre and a philosophy that ‘says kindness and softness don’t equal weakness, and that, in this world of brutal cynicism
and nihilism, being kind is a political act. An act of rebellion.’” To understand hopepunk as a concept it helps to understand what it stands in contrast to. Grimdark is a fantasy subgenre characterized by bleak settings in which humanity is fundamentally cutthroat, and where no individual or community can stop the world’s inevitable decline. Hopepunk, in contrast, believes that the very act of trying has meaning,
THE GOBLIN EMPEROR by Katherine Addison
WAYWARD SON by Rainbow Rowell
TRAIL OF LIGHTNING by Rebecca Roanhorse
SAGA by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
CHOIR OF LIES by Alexandra Rowland
THE EXPANSE by James S.A. Corey
UPROOTED by Naomi Novik
PARABLE OF THE SOWER by Octavia Butler
THE SOL MAJESTIC by Ferrett Steinmetz