Hopepunk is all about weaponised optimism

In the modern world, we find most of our rebellious clusters of artists online. So it makes sense that the literary world’s most defiant response to impending disaster has come from one of the internet’s most progressive and defiant creative communities: Tumblr.

“The opposite of grimdark is hopepunk,” declared Alexandra Rowland, a Massachusetts writer, in a two-sentence Tumblr post in July 2017. “Pass it on.”

With this simple dictum, the literary movement known as hopepunk was born.

Depending on who you ask, hopepunk is as much a mood and a spirit as a definable literary movement, a narrative message of “keep fighting, no matter what.” If that seems too broad — after all, aren’t all fictional characters fighting for something? — then consider the concept of hope itself, with all the implications of love, kindness, and faith in humanity it encompasses.

arketyp.

In the modern world, we find most of our rebellious clusters of artists online. So it makes sense that the literary world’s most defiant response to impending disaster has come from one of the internet’s most progressive and defiant creative communities: Tumblr.