I was recently honored by SF Signal, today, one of the oldest and most successful fanzines on the internet, by having them post one of my articles. "The Appeal of Grimdark" is an article by me discussing, well, the appeal of Grimdark.
Available to Read Here
To me, grimdark is a state of mind and really can be achieved any multiple number of ways. Not the least bit being, "this is a situation where the point is not for the hero to make the world a better place but to simply stand up to the world, no matter how many punches is being thrown in his face."
It's an attitude which influenced both The Rules of Supervillainy and Esoterrorism both, though the former at least does have superheroes. They just don't hang around in Falconcrest City. For Esoterrorism, it's a Crapsaccharine World (thank you TV tropes.org) where the beauty and glamour of the Red Room covers up the violent power of monsters as well as how genuinely awful humanity's ignorance is.
I hope you'll check out my article, I had a lot of fun writing it.
I think that the best example o f Grimdark is the Metro games. Particularly, the first one Metro 2033. Unlike the Fallout games, one of the themes is that while humanity isn't dead yet it is terminal. Even the finale gives you the sense that you only averted extinction for a few years at best.
ReplyDeleteOne of the other themes is that there will be a massive cultural disconnect when it come to frames of reference between those who knew life before the bombs dropped and those born in the Metro.