This is the attitude that every creative artist needs to take.
When you’re wondering if you have the guts to post that new fanfic or to send your manuscript to a publisher, remember this.
I live my life according to the Gospel of Craig Ferguson ♥
AMEN.
I wanna reblog this and add, that this is a mentality I adopted last year, and it’s been incredible. Do it for you, because you are having fun, who cares if it gets notes likes or reblogs, you are having a fucking blast, and that is incredibly important ❤
So the essence of grimdark is that everyone’s inherently sort of a bad person and does bad things, and that’s awful and disheartening and cynical. It’s looking at human nature and going, “The glass is half empty.”
Hopepunk says, “No, I don’t accept that. Go fuck yourself: The glass is half-full.” YEAH, we’re all a messy mix of good and bad, flaws and virtues. We’ve all been mean and petty and cruel, but (and here’s the important part) we’ve also been soft and forgiving and KIND. Hopepunk says that kindness and softness doesn’t equal weakness, and that in this world of brutal cynicism and nihilism, being kind is a political act. An act of rebellion.
Hopepunk says that genuinely and sincerely caring about something, anything, requires bravery and strength. Hopepunk isn’t ever about submission or acceptance: It’s about standing up and fighting for what you believe in. It’s about standing up for other people. It’s about DEMANDING a better, kinder world, and truly believing that we can get there if we care about each other as hard as we possibly can, with every drop of power in our little hearts.
Going to political protests is hopepunk. Calling your senators is hopepunk. But crying is also hopepunk, because crying means you still have feelings, and feelings are how you know you’re alive. The 1% doesn’t want you to have feelings, they just want you to feel resigned. Feeling resigned is not hopepunk.
Examples! THE HANDMAID’S TALE is arguably hopepunk. It’s scary and dark, and at first glance it looks like grimdark because it’s a dystopia… but goddammit she keeps fighting. That’s the key, right there. She fights every single day, because she won’t let them take away meaning from her life. She survives stubbornly in the hope that one day she can live again. “Don’t let the bastards grind you down,” is one of the core tenets of hopepunk, along with, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”
Jesus and Gandhi and Martin Luther King and Robin Hood and John Lennon were hopepunk. (Remember: Hopepunk isn’t about moral perfection. It’s not about being as pure and innocent as the new-fallen snow. You get grubby when you fight. You make mistakes. You’re sometimes a little bit of an asshole. Maybe you’re as much as 50% an asshole. But the glass is half full, not half empty. You get up, and you keep fighting, and caring, and trying to make the world a little better for the people around you. You get to make mistakes. It’s a process. You get to ask for and earn forgiveness. And you love, and love, and love.)
And THIS, this is hopepunk:
HOPE AND HONESTY IN A SOCIETY THAT VALUES CYNICISM AND DECEPTION IS SUBVERSIVE AND THEREFOR PUNK
I AM HERE FOR THIS MOVEMENT. HOPE AND HONESTY ARE DEEPLY PUNK ROCK. KINDNESS IS GOTH AS FUCK.
I’ve never made a film that I didn’t believe in, you know? However the picture turns out, I’ve always given everything to it. That’s kind of how I approach life. I can’t help it. There’s no part-way with me on anything in any area of my life.
I love the fact that I can make people happy, in any form. Even if it’s just an hour of their lives, if I can make them feel lucky or make them feel good, or bring a smile to a sour face, that to me is worthwhile.
Stay afraid, but do it anyway. What’s important is the action. You don’t have to wait to be confident. Just do it and eventually the confidence will follow.
Carrie Fisher
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Han & Leia Appreciation Week: Day 3, Part 1
There are so many wonderful things to say about Carrie Fisher, from her sense of humor to her kindness to her advocacy for mental health. But I think of this quote almost constantly. More than even Leia, the idea of “stay afraid but do it anyway” is a part of my daily life.
I’m one of those people who becomes paralyzed with fear. I have severe anxiety and I fight it every day.
I use procrastination as an unhealthy coping behavior. It started when I went to [insert snooty Ivy League here]: I didn’t think I belonged there, I didn’t think I was smart enough or good enough. So I stopped. I was so afraid of failing – or, of not being perfect – that I just didn’t do anything. I didn’t go to class. I didn’t do readings. I’d wait until the last second to turn in assignments. And I’d be terrified the entire time.
I’m in law school now, and I’m feeling those same feelings all over again. I’m literally paralyzed by my own fear. But I tell myself: stay afraid but do it anyway.
Paralyzed in fear is no way to live. Carrie knew this and she told all of us the best way she knew how to stop the cycle; her words help me every day.
I-want-my-IWTV 