What is Hopepunk? | Some Adjacent Sites

Hopepunk isn't just optimistic fiction. It's anchored in real-world resistance, mutual aid, and political movements that influence the Overton window. See some hopepunk books and non-fiction titles that built this foundation for me on my 'Shoulders of Giants' reading list.

Hopepunk defined:

One Atom of Justice, One Molecule of Mercy, and the Empire of Unsheathed Knives by Alexandra Rowland is the detailed starting point.

The part of that article that stuck with me, is this (my emphasis):

"Hopepunk isn’t pristine and spotless. Hopepunk is grubby, because that’s what happens when you fight. It’s hard. It’s filthy, sweaty, backbreaking work that never ends. It isn’t pretty, and it isn’t noble, and it isn’t nice, though I expect the natural inclination (and even my own instinctive inclination) is to make it so—to forget the word “radical” in the phrase “radical kindness,” to forget the “punk” part of “hopepunk,” which is really the operative half of the word. To forget the anger of it and let it soften, because softness is what we’re aching for. We want the world to be better—kinder, more just, more merciful. We still yearn toward noblebright, toward an honest and desperate belief that love conquers all. Except, when the other guy has more guns and fewer moral objections than we do, it doesn’t."

In contrast to the stories that lean toward the "hope" part of hopepunk (nothing wrong with that!), my writing leans more toward the "punk" part. One way to do this, is to punk the status quo that makes dystopia seem inevitable. A dirty job you say? Game on!

More here: The Opposite of Grimdark is Hopepunk by Alexandra Rowland

And here: Festive Ninja - Hopepunk: Articles, Resources and Recordings