I find a lot of this optimism in horror as well, IT being my favorite example. Sure, there will be child eating demons from the ancient abyss, but love, loyalty and friendship will defeat it. Similar to the hobbits in Lord of the Rings. The small people win.
I went to the WWII Memorial in Washington DC a couple of years ago. On stone, they had quotes from soldiers and world leaders and thinkers. And what struck me was that it was the ordinary people, farmers and blue collar workers who fought and defeated Hitler. A reminder that ordinary people uphold the world. And it’s in those people, my own friends, family, neighbors and children, that I put my hope.
Finding that glimmer of hope in horror can sometimes be more challenging than remaining awful, I think! Though it's a tricky balance - go too positive and it can feel like a betrayal of the story or genre.
“Sure, there will be child eating demons from the ancient abyss, but love, loyalty and friendship will defeat it” <-- this is just one of the best sentences ever 😍
This is by no means an optimistic novel, but if there's a novel that captures the absolute depth of despair and nihilism it is Neville Shute's "On the Beach". This book rocked my world. Don't read it if you're looking for a good time. I'm mentioning it because it was the book that most accurately captured that sense of terminal despair.
For happy, cheerful books--well, I can't say exactly. There's only two kinds of books--books that I can read to escape, or books that I can read to learn. When I'm not feeling great I spend more time reading books for learning. An escape can be effective as an escape even without being happy. Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers was philosophically interesting and had an expansive world. If the world feels bigger than the story I will typically enjoy it for that reason.
I haven't read the source novel, but the film Under The Skin left me feeling an acute sense of terminal despair. Numerous moments in the film that are unrelentingly difficult to watch.
Funnily, those on the other side of the aisle in politics have much the same feelings about the 90s changing into the post 9/11 era, and then moving onto the current world, but for different reasons.
I wonder if 90s nostalgia is just for a time period that's gone, but I genuinely do think it's because it was the last era where just about everyone expected things to keep getting better.
That's a really interesting observation. The single big shift that I can think of around that time, which affected *everyone* regardless of politics, location, culture or anything else, was the rise of the internet.
Late-90s is when it started, accelerating in the 2000s with the iPhone.
I do wonder whether that's the defining before/after mark for most people, even if we don't quite realise it. The internet impacted on all of us at all levels of society and interactions. Perhaps it made us more aware of our differences, which is what has led to people being unsettled and the increased polarisation.
I'm not basing that on anything concrete, just my own experiences. The 90s, though, was the last point in history when our social circles and our awareness of 'the world' was quite small. The people we knew in life were the people in our immediate geographical vicinity, mixed with work colleagues and old school friends. Our comprehension of politics, of culture, came from very limited sources in small, curated moments: things like the 6 o'clock news. Singular, shared moments. Someone with extreme views would have been less likely to meet anyone else with those views.
After the 90s, that went away and everything changed. Not necessarily for better or worse, but certainly different...
I liked Cory Doctorow's WALKAWAY, though it doesn't start out optimistic. There's a lot to go through before getting to that part. I pre-reviewed it at an old blogging site here.
I've only read a couple of Doctorow's books, a long time ago, but they definitely had an optimistic angle. I should read some of his recent stuff - be interesting to get his take on where tech has ended up going.
This line "...grim scifi detective story in which everything is falling apart: but ultimately it’s going to be about finding a way through that collapse..." really speaks to me. It's hard to articulate why, exactly, but I think this line encapsulates how it feels to have grown up in the U.S. as a teenager in the 2000s. Absolutely including the sense that the real world is a grim sci-fi story and it takes a detective procedural to ever understand even innocuous events; treat every news story like a crime scene and hunt for motive, means, and opportunity.
What motivates characters to find a way through that collapse, though? What makes some (most, I think) of us try to find that way through, while some (only a few, I hope) would rather play the fiddle and watch while everything around them burns?
Are the answers down to the individual? Everyone must find their own reason to carry on?
Optimistic novel? I'm scanning my shelves for a happy optimistic sort novel and I don't see any. (Does that say something about novels or something about me?) Thinking about this though, I don't think optimism is very relevant to the art of the novel since the starting point of nearly every one of them is some sort of conflict. Even if a sunny resolution might be found, artistically speaking it should arrive after a certain amount of pain and struggle. I think "bittersweet" is as good as it gets when it comes to serious fiction. Happy Hollywood endings just end up feeling a bit cheap. Here's the thing though: Though a story line might end as a big bummer, hopefully there will be some laughs along the way. Or, if not laughs, some uplifting emotions will leak in. I recently read a couple of novels in which the emotional needle starts at "moderately depressed" and basically stays there all the way to the downbeat endings. (I think I'm straying from your question. Sorry.) I just think there should always be some room for happy (or at least humorous) moments in long-form fiction, even if there can't be a happy ending. I think humor is like the fresh-crushed tomato that tames that too-salty stew.
Absolutely! And yes, being optimistic in my writing doesn't necessarily mean creating 'happy endings'. Those are for young children's fiction. A satisfying ending will be complex, incorporating lots of elements that cut across all sorts of emotions. It can lean towards a positive ending, but that only really works if it's contextualised with counterpoints.
Good point about having a range of emotions, too. A story will feel one-note regardless of what the tone is. Even in the worst of time we tend to find humour; or when we're doing well, we'll find ways to be sad or depressed. Humans are weird.
Yes to all that. But when I read your "what's your favorite optimistic novel?" I was sitting in my book-lined bunker and wondering... "isn't maybe just one of these a little bit optimistic?" Struck out on that, but some are pretty funny though... By the way, how do you manage to do all this stuff? Muti-layered novels, questionaires, essays, group writing projects. Do you ever get a chance to sleep? I'm pretty amazed.
Ha - it always feels like I'm not doing enough. :P
It's tricky but I've cut back on some things. I rarely watch movies now, which immediately frees up a couple of hours a night. I have a rule that I have to do at least 20 minutes of writing (or writing-related) before I sit down to play a game or something else. I'm also fortunate in that I was work 4 days a week, which brings back some time.
Everything still feels very slow to me. I think it's having faffed about for thirty years, I'm now playing catch-up.
2016 was a disgusting year. I lived in Brixton at the time and the year began with Davie Bowie passing away unexpectedly. From that point, it was like everything else crumbled too, as if Bowie had been holding things together.
But I agree about optimistic fiction and actually believe the zeitgeist feels like it currently much prefers optimism over more pessimism. Possibly the reason for the success of Becky Chambers' scifi novels in recent years.
I find a lot of this optimism in horror as well, IT being my favorite example. Sure, there will be child eating demons from the ancient abyss, but love, loyalty and friendship will defeat it. Similar to the hobbits in Lord of the Rings. The small people win.
I went to the WWII Memorial in Washington DC a couple of years ago. On stone, they had quotes from soldiers and world leaders and thinkers. And what struck me was that it was the ordinary people, farmers and blue collar workers who fought and defeated Hitler. A reminder that ordinary people uphold the world. And it’s in those people, my own friends, family, neighbors and children, that I put my hope.
Finding that glimmer of hope in horror can sometimes be more challenging than remaining awful, I think! Though it's a tricky balance - go too positive and it can feel like a betrayal of the story or genre.
“Sure, there will be child eating demons from the ancient abyss, but love, loyalty and friendship will defeat it” <-- this is just one of the best sentences ever 😍
This is by no means an optimistic novel, but if there's a novel that captures the absolute depth of despair and nihilism it is Neville Shute's "On the Beach". This book rocked my world. Don't read it if you're looking for a good time. I'm mentioning it because it was the book that most accurately captured that sense of terminal despair.
For happy, cheerful books--well, I can't say exactly. There's only two kinds of books--books that I can read to escape, or books that I can read to learn. When I'm not feeling great I spend more time reading books for learning. An escape can be effective as an escape even without being happy. Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers was philosophically interesting and had an expansive world. If the world feels bigger than the story I will typically enjoy it for that reason.
I haven't read the source novel, but the film Under The Skin left me feeling an acute sense of terminal despair. Numerous moments in the film that are unrelentingly difficult to watch.
Wow. I have not thought of this book in a long while!
Funnily, those on the other side of the aisle in politics have much the same feelings about the 90s changing into the post 9/11 era, and then moving onto the current world, but for different reasons.
I wonder if 90s nostalgia is just for a time period that's gone, but I genuinely do think it's because it was the last era where just about everyone expected things to keep getting better.
That's a really interesting observation. The single big shift that I can think of around that time, which affected *everyone* regardless of politics, location, culture or anything else, was the rise of the internet.
Late-90s is when it started, accelerating in the 2000s with the iPhone.
I do wonder whether that's the defining before/after mark for most people, even if we don't quite realise it. The internet impacted on all of us at all levels of society and interactions. Perhaps it made us more aware of our differences, which is what has led to people being unsettled and the increased polarisation.
I'm not basing that on anything concrete, just my own experiences. The 90s, though, was the last point in history when our social circles and our awareness of 'the world' was quite small. The people we knew in life were the people in our immediate geographical vicinity, mixed with work colleagues and old school friends. Our comprehension of politics, of culture, came from very limited sources in small, curated moments: things like the 6 o'clock news. Singular, shared moments. Someone with extreme views would have been less likely to meet anyone else with those views.
After the 90s, that went away and everything changed. Not necessarily for better or worse, but certainly different...
I liked Cory Doctorow's WALKAWAY, though it doesn't start out optimistic. There's a lot to go through before getting to that part. I pre-reviewed it at an old blogging site here.
https://steemit.com/scifi/@plotbot2015/post-scarcity-punk-review-of-walkaway-by-cory-doctorow
I've only read a couple of Doctorow's books, a long time ago, but they definitely had an optimistic angle. I should read some of his recent stuff - be interesting to get his take on where tech has ended up going.
Already seen Becky Chambers mentioned, but her books are wonderfully hopeful examples of sci-fi. This post was amazing!
Thanks, Matt!
This line "...grim scifi detective story in which everything is falling apart: but ultimately it’s going to be about finding a way through that collapse..." really speaks to me. It's hard to articulate why, exactly, but I think this line encapsulates how it feels to have grown up in the U.S. as a teenager in the 2000s. Absolutely including the sense that the real world is a grim sci-fi story and it takes a detective procedural to ever understand even innocuous events; treat every news story like a crime scene and hunt for motive, means, and opportunity.
What motivates characters to find a way through that collapse, though? What makes some (most, I think) of us try to find that way through, while some (only a few, I hope) would rather play the fiddle and watch while everything around them burns?
Are the answers down to the individual? Everyone must find their own reason to carry on?
Optimistic novel? I'm scanning my shelves for a happy optimistic sort novel and I don't see any. (Does that say something about novels or something about me?) Thinking about this though, I don't think optimism is very relevant to the art of the novel since the starting point of nearly every one of them is some sort of conflict. Even if a sunny resolution might be found, artistically speaking it should arrive after a certain amount of pain and struggle. I think "bittersweet" is as good as it gets when it comes to serious fiction. Happy Hollywood endings just end up feeling a bit cheap. Here's the thing though: Though a story line might end as a big bummer, hopefully there will be some laughs along the way. Or, if not laughs, some uplifting emotions will leak in. I recently read a couple of novels in which the emotional needle starts at "moderately depressed" and basically stays there all the way to the downbeat endings. (I think I'm straying from your question. Sorry.) I just think there should always be some room for happy (or at least humorous) moments in long-form fiction, even if there can't be a happy ending. I think humor is like the fresh-crushed tomato that tames that too-salty stew.
Absolutely! And yes, being optimistic in my writing doesn't necessarily mean creating 'happy endings'. Those are for young children's fiction. A satisfying ending will be complex, incorporating lots of elements that cut across all sorts of emotions. It can lean towards a positive ending, but that only really works if it's contextualised with counterpoints.
Good point about having a range of emotions, too. A story will feel one-note regardless of what the tone is. Even in the worst of time we tend to find humour; or when we're doing well, we'll find ways to be sad or depressed. Humans are weird.
Yes to all that. But when I read your "what's your favorite optimistic novel?" I was sitting in my book-lined bunker and wondering... "isn't maybe just one of these a little bit optimistic?" Struck out on that, but some are pretty funny though... By the way, how do you manage to do all this stuff? Muti-layered novels, questionaires, essays, group writing projects. Do you ever get a chance to sleep? I'm pretty amazed.
Ha - it always feels like I'm not doing enough. :P
It's tricky but I've cut back on some things. I rarely watch movies now, which immediately frees up a couple of hours a night. I have a rule that I have to do at least 20 minutes of writing (or writing-related) before I sit down to play a game or something else. I'm also fortunate in that I was work 4 days a week, which brings back some time.
Everything still feels very slow to me. I think it's having faffed about for thirty years, I'm now playing catch-up.
“It’s not the end. Not yet.” Love this kernel of hope.
2016 was a disgusting year. I lived in Brixton at the time and the year began with Davie Bowie passing away unexpectedly. From that point, it was like everything else crumbled too, as if Bowie had been holding things together.
But I agree about optimistic fiction and actually believe the zeitgeist feels like it currently much prefers optimism over more pessimism. Possibly the reason for the success of Becky Chambers' scifi novels in recent years.
It felt like one thing after another. A very difficult time.