There’s a new Sci-Fi genre called… well, abstract-concept-with-punk-attached. Because the human race lost all creative ability in the mid-80s and has been pumping out derivative remakes and hot takes ever since. Though the idea that we’re fantasizing about hope should come as a surprise to no one. Utopias imagine dystopias and dystopias imagine utopias. Of course, all our imagined utopias and dystopias are infected with the actual dystopias and utopias around us. Man, I could really go for a Fruitopia, rn, for some reason.
In the midst of current political, economic and environment uncertainty, many of us may have noticed a tendency to fall into cynicism and pessimism. Could hopepunk be the perfect antidote?
If you feel wary of optimism, you are far from alone. Writers and philosophers across human history have had ambivalent views of hope. These contradictory opinions can be seen in the often opposing interpretations of the Pandora myth, first recorded by Hesiod around 700 BC. In his poem Works and Days, Hesiod describes how Zeus created Pandora as a punishment to humanity, following Prometheus’s theft of fire. She comes to humanity bearing a jar containing “countless plagues” – and, opening the lid, releases its evils to the world. “Only Hope remained there in an unbreakable home within the rim of the great jar,” Hesiod tells us.
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