The year isn't halfway over, but I'm sure most of us are ready to see it go. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, massive job loss, police brutality, and rioters disrupting peaceful protests, it's obvious that our economic and political systems are failing a lot of people, especially marginalized ones. When the situation improves, we need to make systemic changes. Speculative fiction authors are leading the way in imaging what a better future would look like, particularly in genres such as solarpunk and hopepunk.
Hopepunk is a very new subgenre that was named in 2017. Like rebellions in the Star Wars universe, it is built on hope and surviving past the end times. The genre emphasizes community, kindness, and resistance. You can find examples of hopepunk stories at the link above and here. Much of Star Trek is hopepunk, as is parts of The Lord of the Rings. These stories obviously pre-date the naming of hopepunk as a separate subgenre, so the ideas have been around for a long time. However, I do think the psychological need for stories like this is greater than ever.
I have written a solarpunk story, "A Shawl for Janice," which is part of the Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters anthology. The main characters in my still-in-progress urban fantasy trilogy are kinder than many others in their community, which allows them to gather allies.
Are there elements of hopepunk in your stories? Do you have any favorite examples of hopepunk? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
One reason people found the old Star Trek so hopeful was the mix of races on the bridge, who all treated each other as social equals (except for making fun of Spock's ears). This was in the late 60s.
ReplyDeleteSeth McFarlane created the hopeful show The Orville because he noticed that science fiction TV series had gotten very dark.