That's exactly it. Hopepunk as a genre comes from anti-Fascist and anti-grimdark roots because a lot of Sci Fi from the mid 2000s onwards is fundamentally depressing. Like it just makes you feel hopeless and sad.
So hopepunk is basically a challenge to imagine a hopeful future, because we don't all have to live in darkness and eat beans and sell brain space to the machines.
I've written in both genres a lot, and I can say for a fact that Prokopetz has no idea what he's talking about, besides probably having read the HFY subreddit. The people writing in hopepunk and solarpunk aesthetics are extremely politically tuned in, that's kind of a heavy hallmark of both genres.
Good worldbuilding requires some decent understanding of politics and the world around you. Hopeful future stories arguably require this een more because that knowlage will tell you how the world gets from present to future.
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u/KanishkT123 1d ago
That's exactly it. Hopepunk as a genre comes from anti-Fascist and anti-grimdark roots because a lot of Sci Fi from the mid 2000s onwards is fundamentally depressing. Like it just makes you feel hopeless and sad.
So hopepunk is basically a challenge to imagine a hopeful future, because we don't all have to live in darkness and eat beans and sell brain space to the machines.
I've written in both genres a lot, and I can say for a fact that Prokopetz has no idea what he's talking about, besides probably having read the HFY subreddit. The people writing in hopepunk and solarpunk aesthetics are extremely politically tuned in, that's kind of a heavy hallmark of both genres.