Guest post by author Andrew D Meredith
I’ve spent several years in the writing community, building relationships, exploring the future of my own writing and others, trying to understand where it’s all going. No better place are these changes seen than in the continually debated topic of Grimdark vs Noblebright.
Honestly, that it’s even considered a debate is rather laughable: as though one cannot exist while the other does. This has sent me investigating, many times, to determine what these definitions mean, and what they represent for the writing community as a whole.
Joe Vasicek wrote an article detailing not two, but four story types. https://www.onelowerlight.com/writing/the-secular-cycle-of-grimdark-vs-noblebright/
(Rather than call these Subgenres, I’ll be calling them Aesthetics, because that’s what they are.) By placing two axes of Grim vs Noble, and Bright vs Dark we get two spectrums that define an aesthetic or feeling a story might convey.
A Grim vs Noble axis specifies how much agency characters have in changing the world around them.
A Dark vs Bright axis specifies that whether a story’s “Evil” or “Good” will end up on top by the end.
Thus, if a story sits firmly on two sides of two axes, we get the following Aesthetics:
GRIMDARK: A dark world where evil is prevailing, and probably will even after the story, and the heroes generally must seek out purpose in order to carve out something for themselves.
NOBLEDARK: A dark world where evil prevails, and could even win in the end, but where heroes rise and fall and generally must find victory through sacrifice–having died a noble death not giving in to evil.
NOBLEBRIGHT: A good world, where evil may try and win, but in the end, good will win. Good heroes and people will prevail, and perhaps even save evil from itself.
GRIMBRIGHT: The world turns. Good and evil press against one another, but heroes don’t have a lot of agency in what comes of it. Still, they can join in the adventure, and tag along for the bigger story unfolding.
Four Aesthetics? Why can’t it just be two? This is just further complicating the problem!
The thing is, there is no problem. The rise and fall of a preference for an aesthetic is in fact, as Vasicek points out, cyclical. See, the rise of a new style is really just the natural shift in preference as one aesthetic becomes less appealing, or not longer “relevant” to the current social landscape.
In the Strauss and Howe’s Generational theory, they posit that each generation (every twenty years or so) experiences a different turning that is best simplified by the following phrases:
Strong Men create Good Times
Good Times create Weak Mean
Weak Men create Bad Times
Bad Times create Strong Men
These four turnings appear to directly correlate to reading and writing preferences. See, the last Bad Times that Created Strong Men turning ended with World War 2. From that, we received one of the greatest examples of Nobledark: The Lord of the Rings. In the end, Frodo lost. Aragorn prepared to make his final sacrifice, and evil was defeated only because of the Euchatastrophe. Nobledark is what people needed to read: To process what had occurred for the 20s and 30s, leading to the war and the coming out of the Grimdark era that existed before WW2. We needed to read books that provided hope that things were actively changing. That First Turning, “The High” was exemplified by Tolkien’s work, and of course, paved the way for the next turning, during the 60s and 70s, and one that will most interest readers here: Noblebright.
All Creatures Great and Small, the Last Unicorn, Narnia, Star Trek: All had what many today might look back and call “sickening optimism.” But again, it was a processing of things that had happened and were happening. It was important. It was a time of Good Times Creating Weak Men, “The Awakening,” as those who rebelled against the system sought “more realism” or even a mundanity in their fiction.
This leads us into the 80s and 90s. The Third Turning, “The Unraveling,” the Era of Grimbright, or Weak Men Create Bad Times. Think of the problems faced by the heroes of the Wheel of Time, or Game of Thrones. There is a “things will continue as they do, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. But you can have a fun adventure.”
We’re now in what Strauss and Howe call a Fourth Turning, “The Crisis.” (We’re in the tail end, and heading toward its conclusion.) This entire turning is exemplified by Grimdark for the past twenty years. I’ve seen a few commentators state that Grimdark as a sub-genre is currently going to a change of self-realization and improvement, but I would argue it is rathe beginning to shift into Nobledark and melding with the beginning of the next cycle (First Turning). The next Nobledark era began with the rise of Brandon Sanderson since 2008. This of course, explains exactly why Noblebright, while scoffed at by some, has started to shoulder its way into speculative fiction. As Grimbright takes the throne from Grimdark (note, Grimdark isn’t going anywhere, it may just fall out of favor as a whole) Noblebright will continue to grow in its shadow. Until it takes the throne from Nobledark in another twenty years.
Why does any of this matter? Should Noblebright authors throw in the towel and wait twenty years? Absolutely not!
This is the time to grow, strengthening just what Noblebright is and can mean. Learn from older Noblebright writers of the 60s and 70s then forge your own path. In 40 years, as Noblebright prepares to hand the crown off to Grimbright once more, do it with confidence of a master storyteller, giving the stage to the next performer. Through this all we’ll encourage one another, and grow as a sunlit kingdom.
Why does everyone argue over what Noblebright is? Only because of what it certainly isn’t: Grimdark. What will best help anyone define what Noblebright is, is the action of exploring it, so it can reveal itself in due time–in its own bright way, where main characters are Heroes, and good prevails against an evil, no matter the darkness of the shadow it casts. Learn more about Andrew D Meredith and his work.
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