'Īt the other end of the spectrum to grimdark is noblebright. It's just that grimdark teaches a different lesson. 'Grimdark is not toxic in comparison to hopepunk. 'Grimdark is not lesser than hopepunk,' Rowland said. Rowland noted, for example, that Game of Thrones is a strong example of grimdark, given that characters who have an honourable and moral view of the world often lose out to characters who engage in cutthroat realpolitik. 'If you want to win you have to sort of descend to the level of the villains and meet them on their terms.' 'Grimdark says that there's no point in trying to be good,' Rowland said. In grimdark stories, good characters inevitably make bad decisions, and the truly great people suffer because of their hope.Īlexandra Rowland is the author of a Conspiracy of Truths and a Choir of Lies, the latter to be released in 2019. If hopepunk is optimistic, grimdark is cynical and dreary.

Though neither are formal genres, Rowland uses the terms to contrast what makes hopepunk unique. Rowland frames hopepunk in opposition to two other perspectives in literature: grimdark and noblebright. Nothing about a movie's or a video game's or a book's setting or story choices precludes it from hopepunk, either. Hopepunk isn't so much a genre as it is a perspective on stories - one that is optimistic and is about people fighting for change despite overwhelming odds. an essential core of being capable of malice, but we also contain a huge capacity for goodness and for caring about each other and for rebuilding our communities in intentional and positive ways,' said Rowland to Tapestry host Mary Hynes.

Rowland is the author of A Conspiracy of Truths, and the creator of a hopepunk manifesto on media. But people demanded to know more about 'hopepunk,' a word she'd just coined. When Alexandra Rowland wrote those words on the social media website Tumblr, she didn't know it would elicit thousands of follow-ups and comments. A literary movement about hope and continued resistance kicked off with two sentences back in July 2017:

A choir of lies by alexandra rowland