We have a very tangled relationship with hope.
It’s like hot ex-lover we can’t quit. We deny we have it or even want it—we’re too cool for that! But we desperately, ardently do, and when there’s even a flicker of it, we leap up, hearts aflame, ready to tumble into love again because it just feels so good. Then we think we’re chumps for falling for the dopamine once again.
If we can step back from the emotional chaos for a moment, it’s easy to see that hope is a good and necessary part of joyful living… and for getting through the vicissitudes of life. But in trying times, we need a deeper understanding of how that works, so we don’t feel like we’ve been punked by our need for things like joy and feeling hopeful. Because we’re stretched thin as it is, thank you very much.
Hopepunk is all about interrogating the nature of hope and how we can not only bring it deeper into our lives, solidly anchoring it for the long-haul, but also use it to move the world forward.
From November 2, 2020:
| It might sound strange, but I didn’t really expect my new hopepunk novel to sell. I was focused primarily on writing it, compelled to get it written in the middle of this hope-less time, this time of anxiety and stress. If writing about radical compassion was punk, then writing it while the world was coming unglued was punk as hell. I don’t go for half measures. Apparently. More accurately, I wanted to channel the feelings and thoughts I was having during this difficult time into my art. And art, as we all have been told repeatedly, doesn’t sell. Of course, that’s nonsense, even I know that. And yet, I was too absorbed in the creation to worry about marketing or any of that. Selling it didn’t matter—creating it did. But when I finally shared the book—its gorgeous cover, the description I’d labored over—the response was… visceral is the only word I have for it. People were excited. They were wowed by it. And I just thought… Oh. I didn’t expect that. Because I didn’t have expectations at all, honestly. |
You give me such hope.
4 Kinds of Hope
I recently stumbled across an insanely cool academic presentation at a climate conference, dissecting hopepunk, climate fiction, and dystopias. Jasmin Kirkbride, Ph.D. student, examined the roles 4 kinds of hope played in fiction and climate activism, and how one could assist (or hinder) the other.
Fascinating.
4 kinds of HOPE:
- Hope as deceiver—wishful thinking, false hope
- Hope as object—external, “best we can hope for”—better term is “optimism”
- Hope as sustainer—trying to keep hope alive despite depressing reality
- Hope as catalyst—individual and communal action—radical hope, “realistic hope”, this is what motivates change
People are afraid of hope as a deceiver—false hopes just break our hearts in the end. Hope as “optimism” is fine, but can often be based on a flawed understanding—blind optimism doesn’t help much, especially when things are dark. But sustaining hope is necessary to get us through those dark times. That’s something more akin to faith. And hope as a catalyst happens when light shines on the path and we can see the way forward.
Kirkbride said HOPEPUNK focuses on hope as a sustainer and catalyst. And that it transgresses the line between fiction and reality to manifest hope in its readers.
THIS. This smart lady I have never met gave a talk at an obscure climate conference about exactly what I was writing.
And this… this is why the book resonated with people. I wrote it because I needed to. People were energized by it because it manifested a sustaining and catalyzing hope about the future.
And that was just the concept! And the cover! And the description! (Which, if I’ve done my job, are realistic representations of the book.)
This little book is doing its job even before it is released.
And that, my friends, gives me hope… the sustaining and catalyzing kind that has me eager to get this second (and third and fourth) book written, so they can keep manifesting that hope in the world.
This week is going to be rough. Hold tight. Be patient. Demand that all the votes be counted because that’s what we do in a democracy, and I’ll insist that we still have one.
Then go manifest some hope today in your corner of the world. It’s what we all need.
Peace and Love,
Sue