Hopepunk: Mapping the Recuperative
May. 27th, 2019 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resoluteFiction provides maps of the unknown future.
When Alexandra Rowland coined the term hopepunk in 2017, she said, "The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk." Straightforward, evocative. Maddeningly terse. Rowland later wrote a blog post articulating her initial thought. What I say here adds to and expands on her thinking.
The portmanteau "hopepunk" has two parts, hope and punk. Both are critical to defining and understanding hopepunk. Both are required.
At Wiscon 43 I heard a fantastic definition of hope from Andrea Hairston. She said, optimism sees what is and says, that's just fine. Hope, on the other hand, sees what is and says that's a mess - what can we do to fix it? Hope is active.
That is the hope of hopepunk. It is not optimism and sunshine. It is what I heard referred to as recuperative fiction, the narrative that bad things have already happened, and here we still are.
Hopepunk understands that hope is a community effort. No human alone can change the world. Humans choosing to each take actions that support and reinforce the actions of other humans, that is how the world is made. Optimism says, I'm sure someone else is handling things. Hope knows that this is usually bullshit, and that even if someone is working on a solution, they can always use a little help. Hopepunk knows protagonists do not exist in a vacuum. Hopepunk knows that no-one is really a protagonist. We are all supporting characters in each other's stories.
Hopepunk is not dystopian fiction. Dystopian narratives tend to concern themselves with disruptive, escaping, or dismantling oppressive regimes. But those stories end with the collapse of governments, leaderships, churches, and states. While we may get an epilog of many years later, the story effectively ends with "we won!" Dystopian narratives have a goal.
Hopepunk is not a narrative of defeating oppression because evil is not a fight-once villain. Hopepunk insists on making the future. Whatever terrible systems and oppressive cult governments came before, they are gone in hopepunk, as long as we remain vigilant. We remember. We stand guard. We keep making the future we want. Hope is a verb and punk is a way of living.
The William Gibson cyberpunk classic, "Burning Chrome," contains the line "The street finds its own use for things." It is a punk ethos, born of the working class and socialist punk movements in the U.K., wherein people made their own community. Punks made music, art, clothing, style, and social contracts by themselves and on their own terms. They took what they needed from the oppressive and often abusive socio-political settings around them and made their own everything. Destruction for the purpose of creation. The street makes its own use.
It is vital to hopepunk that things be built. Grown. Repurposed. Created. Hopepunk takes what it can reclaim from failed and flawed systems and makes its own use. Hopepunk knows that this process doesn't end. Crops are cyclical, as are societies. Clothes and governments both need maintenance.
Hopepunk communities are making something new. Hopepunk expects that generations are coming after the present story, that the future contains children and villages and the rituals of living. Hopepunk believes this because hopepunk makes it real. Hopepunk has time for grief and anger, for depression and fear, but has no tolerance for defeatism or inertia. Hopepunk is busy getting things done, because what other option do we fucking have?
***
A Partial and Limited Reading List Based on What I Have Read:
Bannerless, Carrie Vaughn
The Wild Dead, Carrie Vaughn
Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear
Finders, Melissa Scott
Sun, Moon, and Dust, Ursula Vernon
And the Lamb Shall Devour the Lion, Margaret Killjoy
When Alexandra Rowland coined the term hopepunk in 2017, she said, "The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk." Straightforward, evocative. Maddeningly terse. Rowland later wrote a blog post articulating her initial thought. What I say here adds to and expands on her thinking.
The portmanteau "hopepunk" has two parts, hope and punk. Both are critical to defining and understanding hopepunk. Both are required.
At Wiscon 43 I heard a fantastic definition of hope from Andrea Hairston. She said, optimism sees what is and says, that's just fine. Hope, on the other hand, sees what is and says that's a mess - what can we do to fix it? Hope is active.
That is the hope of hopepunk. It is not optimism and sunshine. It is what I heard referred to as recuperative fiction, the narrative that bad things have already happened, and here we still are.
Hopepunk understands that hope is a community effort. No human alone can change the world. Humans choosing to each take actions that support and reinforce the actions of other humans, that is how the world is made. Optimism says, I'm sure someone else is handling things. Hope knows that this is usually bullshit, and that even if someone is working on a solution, they can always use a little help. Hopepunk knows protagonists do not exist in a vacuum. Hopepunk knows that no-one is really a protagonist. We are all supporting characters in each other's stories.
Hopepunk is not dystopian fiction. Dystopian narratives tend to concern themselves with disruptive, escaping, or dismantling oppressive regimes. But those stories end with the collapse of governments, leaderships, churches, and states. While we may get an epilog of many years later, the story effectively ends with "we won!" Dystopian narratives have a goal.
Hopepunk is not a narrative of defeating oppression because evil is not a fight-once villain. Hopepunk insists on making the future. Whatever terrible systems and oppressive cult governments came before, they are gone in hopepunk, as long as we remain vigilant. We remember. We stand guard. We keep making the future we want. Hope is a verb and punk is a way of living.
The William Gibson cyberpunk classic, "Burning Chrome," contains the line "The street finds its own use for things." It is a punk ethos, born of the working class and socialist punk movements in the U.K., wherein people made their own community. Punks made music, art, clothing, style, and social contracts by themselves and on their own terms. They took what they needed from the oppressive and often abusive socio-political settings around them and made their own everything. Destruction for the purpose of creation. The street makes its own use.
It is vital to hopepunk that things be built. Grown. Repurposed. Created. Hopepunk takes what it can reclaim from failed and flawed systems and makes its own use. Hopepunk knows that this process doesn't end. Crops are cyclical, as are societies. Clothes and governments both need maintenance.
Hopepunk communities are making something new. Hopepunk expects that generations are coming after the present story, that the future contains children and villages and the rituals of living. Hopepunk believes this because hopepunk makes it real. Hopepunk has time for grief and anger, for depression and fear, but has no tolerance for defeatism or inertia. Hopepunk is busy getting things done, because what other option do we fucking have?
***
A Partial and Limited Reading List Based on What I Have Read:
Bannerless, Carrie Vaughn
The Wild Dead, Carrie Vaughn
Ancestral Night, Elizabeth Bear
Finders, Melissa Scott
Sun, Moon, and Dust, Ursula Vernon
And the Lamb Shall Devour the Lion, Margaret Killjoy
Permission to Metaquote?
Date: 2019-05-28 09:05 pm (UTC)You captured this so well.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-28 11:52 pm (UTC)Emphatic nod!
I didn't go to Wiscon. Thanks for posting about this panel.
Re: Permission to Metaquote?
Date: 2019-05-29 12:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-29 12:35 pm (UTC)Re: Permission to Metaquote?
Date: 2019-05-29 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-05-29 07:07 pm (UTC)Who was on the panel?
I actually think *all* the Hugo Best Novel nominees are hopepunk. I note that, though they come from a broad spectrum of subgenres, they all have something in common: the protagonist(s) do not come from powerful families. There are no rulers or children of rulers, no children of wealth & privilege, no heroes who start out in a position of power and have to learn to use it. And no Hidden Heirs, Lost Princes, etc. They're all Sam or Frodo, none are Aragorn or even Pippin.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-29 08:50 pm (UTC)This is info is available on the public web
Date: 2019-05-31 11:17 pm (UTC)