Sunday Musings - Grimdarkness My Old Friend
Grimdark AND super colourful!
As always, the idea behind a Sunday Musings is that Adam takes a concept and times an hour and a half to write it in. This week, we get grim-darkened.
Over the last year or so, I've noticed a trend regarding the Trench Crusade releases that has caught my eye. A repeated phrase of "true grimdark" or "uncompromising Grimdark" which caused the motors in my brain to register that what I think of as a "Grimdark setting" isn't exactly how others have seen it. So, with brain in hand, I've set off down a rabbithole.
A grimdark one obviously. Man eating bunnies and all that.
Honestly. Read this book if you’ve not already.
Grimdark, to me, has always been a genre of extremes. Yes, the unrelenting grind of existence is needed, but so is the gallows humour. In this case, being used as a swing by small children until the bits drop off. It's why Turnip and Swill calls to me, because behind the blood, mud and horror lies some very silly concepts that are both horrendously dark and yet incredibly hilarious. 40k works best for me when the ridiculousness of the setting is brought into the focus, Warhammer Fantasy in both Battle and Roleplay flavours don't have as much, but still slot in the silly like a rubber knife between the ribs of terror. There should always be a balancing act, the more extreme one becomes, the other has to balance. Warhammer 40k is funny. It's always been funny. The bones lie in the meat of satire, and cover themselves in some truly groan-worthy jokes (and to be fair, some truly excellent ones) amongst the misanthropic mire.
There is a traumatic element to the genre, and one that is not to be lightly ignored. Grimdark is usually a setting where hope crawls towards death, where moral ambiguity is rife, and where the idea of "good" and "evil" fall to the wayside when simply trying to survive. It's Emmerdale in Mordor without the hobbits or heroes. Or farmers.
That one got away from me.
Grimdark as a term came into prevalence back in the mid 1980s, with Glen Cook's "The Black Company". Since then, buoyed by Warhammer 40000, it's managed to become known as the "Anti-Tolkien" style, though I would say it's got more to do with pushing back against the identikit Fetch Quest Fantasy that refused to move on for far too long. I can't help but see a Joe Abercrombie or Mark Lawrence book as a direct response to the Drangonlance setting...but that may just be me. Also, just because people will be upset if I don't mention it, yes, George R.R. Martin's books could easily be classed as part of the genre, but they do lack the bleak humour of the other authors previously mentioned.
It's funny that, given 4Ok's importance in the genre, Grimdark is still mostly seen as a Fantasy subgenre. Of course, it's far from the truth as multiple arms of speculative fiction, horror or even historical (alternative) fiction falls into the camp. It's grown into a crosscut of a term that straddles so many areas now, it's hard to think of as simply a sub-genre. Less a term, and more of a vibe, as the cool kids may or may not say.
Grimdark as a term is often used to explore works that are focused on just darker elements, larger levels of violence or nihilism in general, but I feel without the humour, without that small level of light it isn't Grimdark. Grimdark is satire after all, and satire without a target to satirize is a flat, unrewarding experience. Grimdark asks questions about power, about actions and about morality in absolutes, all pumped up to dizzying extremes. It's not a replacement for Dark Fantasy, which has it's own political and sociological attributes but instead a darkly humorous manner in which to explore the cogs and the machine as a whole, and feel a freedom to allow criticism to set sail.
It exists due to how we as the audience changed and shifted over the last centaury, as complexity overtook simple storytelling. The black and white Good Hats vs Bad Hats was washed aside as audiences craved and hunted for the morally grey in-between. After all, evil is an action, not a person and as the world became more an more uncertain over the last few decades, people look to stories to resonate with as we have always done. There's often a sophistication in such stories that a straightforward "noblebright" or "hopepunk" tale may miss, as explorations into the corrupting pull of power, or indeed the actions of simple survival, may take.
Perfection
However we look at how fantasy and science fiction holds up a mirror to the world, we can see layers of the real world looking back. The genre of Grimdark fiction holds the mirror to uncomfortable truths, be they of crumbling society or the ideals embedded into human nature. It allows us to reflect on the worst parts of the human spirit in a safe manner.
The need to challenge the status quo is a constantly evolving beast, and what was the punk of yesterday becomes "dad rock" of tomorrow. Grimdark is very much a part of that ongoing change now, provoking and prodding at conventions and morals, and exploring the nuanced human experience.
Of course, I’d be glad to hear what you feel about the term, and how you translate it into your games.
As always, I remain
Adam