icomefromthemoon

[icomefromthemoon]

Discovering Hopepunk

Did y'all know that the best thing in the world is friends who teach you new words? Because it's thanks to a friend close enough to be a brother that I have a word for what Naomi Novik's incredible Scholomance trilogy is. Time to meet hopepunk.

Hopepunk is brand-spanking new on the literature scene, and the term itself is attributable to author Alexandra Rowland, who coined the term in 2017. Collins English Dictionary picked it up in 2019, which is how you know it had enough traction to be legit.

So what is the definition of hopepunk? Rowland described it as "the opposite of grimdark" that is composed of "one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy, and the empire of unsheathed knives." Collins Dictionary is a little more precise in their definition: "A literary and artistic movement that celebrates the pursuit of positive aims in the face of adversity."

Novik's Scholomance trilogy begins with the world's deadliest boarding school and concludes with the truth of how a maw mouth is made, and all of those elements should objectively combine into a grimdark trilogy. And yet. El, her himbo hero, and kickass girlsquad refuse to go quietly into darkness and despair. They embody hope, resilience, and resistance to the toxic social order they have been raised I and are expected to perpetuate if they survive graduation--and that is the furthest thing from a guarantee.

El's journey from furiously pissed-off outcast and loner to Golden enclave crusader is never not compelling, and the insistent kindness for its own sake and radical hope that spits in the face of literal monsters in the literal walls means that hopelessness never touches this narrative. Sometimes things are *really bad* but it wouldn't be a story otherwise. The difference is that while George RR Martin is determined to beat the hope out of both his characters and his readers, Novik and El will beat it into you if they have to.

[icomefromthemoon]

I think one of the reasons why I love El as a protagonist so much is that yes, she never uses her powers to hurt anyone, and yes, she saves people’s lives constantly. But at the same time, she’s portrayed as a bit of a misanthrope- she doesn’t like most people (and has good reasons for that), is constantly angry, is probably the biggest cynic in the books… I just have so much appreciation for the fact that she isn’t shown as particularly noble or kind or any of those traditionally “heroic” traits, but is so fundamentally good. It isn’t natural to her or just part of her personality- she has to choose it, again and again and again. El is such a good example that being “good” or “heroic” isn’t a character trait, it’s something that you choose, and there’s no excuse for not choosing it.

Throw in the way Ophelia is described as being everything El knows she could be, if she ever went maleficer, and it makes an incredible comparison. Ophelia is how it would look like for El to write off goodness/kindness as something for someone else who has different choices or different ambitions. She literally wrote off her anima- her own conscience- as something unnecessary given her position in the enclave and what she wanted to accomplish. El and Ophelia both have immense power, both have capacity to do terrible things to accomplish their goals, but one chooses power and the other chooses people.

Even at the end of the books, Ophelia gets a fucking promotion, even though everyone knows what she’s done. El, on the other hand, is described as being a bit aimless, realizing her dream needs to be accomplished by someone else, and needing a lot of therapy. She wasn’t even able to stop the use/creation of maw mouths outright- compared to Ophelia, her goals remain unaccomplished. And El, being the angry bitter person she is, takes that with a massive fuck you and keeps choosing the right thing with all the spite and hope in the world. These books are a testament to what it means to choose kindness and it’s done so, so well thanks to El.

Just,,, non-traditionally good characters. They mean everything to me.

[icomefromthemoon]

Mild spoiler for The Last Graduate ahead, but:

Having just reread the whole series, I love how at odds El and the Scholomance are. Like, El's pessimism is a great way of making your narrator unreliable, since El is sometimes right and sometimes wrong always expecting the worst response from everyone around her(a thought worthy of another entire post), but it becomes very funny once she realizes that part of the problem at school is that she can't do small spells? Like, she spends the whole first book being like 'this school is the devil tempting me to evil, it wants me to become a maleficier, I can't even ask for a simple cleaning spell without getting horrible spells for summoning mortal flames and enslaving an army of people, I hate it', and meanwhile the Scholomance is flipping frantically through its catalogue of spells gathered over thousands of years, desperately trying to find a spell in a language El knows that she can also cast with her affinity for working incredibly large and powerful spells. El's over here driving a bulldozer and saying, 'I would like to build a Jenga tower' and the Scholomance is looking at her with the weary despair of a preschool teacher knowing they're going to be suffering through a temper tantrum soon but unable to stop it.

El, a furious teenager who doesn't know as much as she thinks she does: I don't wanna summon a mortal flame! I want my room clean!

The Scholomance, a giant building that cleans its own hallways, floors, dishes and various and assorted other workings with mortal flame: Why is this child testing me

Also hilarious in retrospect is El's blithe statement in the first book about how no one would ever give her that much mana to do these high volume spells bc mana isn't free or easy to acquire and so the school is clearly telling her to turn maleficier and kill her fellow students all while Orion is humming to himself as he kills mals and dumps oodles and oodles of mana into the New York power sharers.

El "I'd rather die than ask for help" Higgins: I won't do these spells bc no one will give me mana

The Scholomance, as loudly as a building who may or may not be partially sentient and who can't speak human languages: Wow, those sure are some HIGH MANA VOLUME spells you got there! If only there was SOMEONE around who would be able to provide you with a NIGH LIMITLESS FLOW OF MANA so that you'd be able to cast them!

Orion: :)

El: *hisses like a feral cat*

Orion: :(

The Scholomance: oh my freaking god

Hilarious. Top tier humor.

[icomefromthemoon]

the scholomance series is like what if the person destined to save the world fell in love with the person destined to destroy it what if the person who everyone thought was going to destroy the world was the one to save it and what if the person everyone thought would save the world was the one to destroy it what if tearing down the world was the way to save it and what if high school really fucking sucked

[icomefromthemoon]

A Deadly Education really said “stop asking who needs to pay the price of a broken system and start asking who’s going to help fix the broken system”

[icomefromthemoon]

"i'll get older but your lovers stay my age" alina starkov and"i'm a soldier who's returning half her weight" zoya nazyalensky and "you kept me like a secret" evelyn hugo and "i kept you like an oath" celia st james and "all i felt was shame" kaz brekker and "you held my lifeless frame" inej ghafa and and "you never called it what it was" severin montagnet alaire and "did the love affair maim you too" laila and "i'm in a new hell every time you double-cross my mind" helene aquila and "i'd like to be my old self again but i'm still trying to find it" laia of serra and "you lose the one real thing you've ever known" elias veturius and "check the pulse and come back swearing" roma montagov and "this thing was a masterpiece till you tore it all up" juliette cai and-

[icomefromthemoon]

"i'll get older but your lovers stay my age" alina starkov and"i'm a soldier who's returning half her weight" zoya nazyalensky and "you kept me like a secret" evelyn hugo and "i kept you like an oath" celia st james and "all i felt was shame" kaz brekker and "you held my lifeless frame" inej ghafa and and "you never called it what it was" severin montagnet alaire and "did the love affair maim you too" laila and "i'm in a new hell every time you double-cross my mind" helene aquila and "i'd like to be my old self again but i'm still trying to find it" laia of serra and "you lose the one real thing you've ever known" elias veturius and "check the pulse and come back swearing" roma montagov and "this thing was a masterpiece till you tore it all up" juliette cai and-

[icomefromthemoon]

The Noble House of Black

Now that the new Bridgerton season is out on Netflix, I was thinking that it would be cool to have a series of books about the members of the The Noble House of Black. Kind of the Bridgertons, because each book is about a sibling. So more or like, it would be like this:

Book 1: Cygnus and how he met Druella. I imagine him being very self centered and obsessed with the idea of perfection. So he tries to be better than his siblings. Cygnus showed a nice side of him to Druella, and later he shows a manipulative and insane side of him to her. He is possessive and explosive. And later we see how Bella, Andy and Cissy are raised. Bella being her father's favorite.

Book 2: Alphard. I headcanon him as a gay man who was closeted most of his life, because he was afraid of what others might say. I think he met a boy when he was younger and that boy made him see things from another perspective. Alphard didn't get married because he kept a secret life and secret affairs with different men. And he was a big supporter of muggle rights but nobody knew. Because he did everything on secret.

Book 3: Orion and Walburga. For me, Orion was obsessed with Walburga from an early age. And he manipulated everyone who was interested in her to leave her alone. While Walburga thought there was something wrong with her because nobody liked her. They kind of messed around and Walburga got pregnant by mistake. And they were forced to get married. That would explain (but not justify) why Walburga doesn't like Sirius. Because falling pregnant with him ruined her life.

Book 4: Bellatrix. How she was a normal girl who loved her sisters and had dreams, aspired things in life. But this guy Voldemort was becoming powerful and she became fascinated by him. She was forced to marry Rodolphus but she never loved him. I want to see the path that made Bellatrix become that insane, so loyal to Voldemort and one of the most savage death eaters to exist.

Book 5: Andromeda. We would see a shy and obedient Andromeda, who loved her family and thought that what they preached about muggles and muggleborns was true. And then she meets Ted and everything inside of her changes. She realizes how crazy her family actually is. And she lives a forbidden romance with Ted until she decides to run away with him.

Book 6: Narcissa. It would technically be the story of how she met Lucius. How Narcissa is in the middle of the war. Divided between what Andromeda and what Bellatrix say. And I want to see Narcissa completely blindfolded by the idea of Blood Supremacy, what Voldemort preached. While not knowing what the Death Eaters actually did. Kind of how many German people didn't know about the Holocaust and were blinded about the German Patriotism. And I want this to cause friction in her relationship with Lucius. And even Bellatrix.

Book 7: Sirius. We would see his rebelty, the way he is the black sheep. We would see the story of how he met The Marauders and the adventures that he lives with them. And just like Andromeda, Sirius also detaches (very slowly) of the idea of blood supremacy. And he starts seeing muggles and muggleborns in another light. Also, I want to see his struggle with queerness. How he falls in love with Remus. And how that made him change as well.

Book 8: Regulus. We would see the smallest Black be expected to follow his families expectations. And not only from the blood supremacy side. But also the muggle supportive side. Like Andromeda and Sirius, expecting him to follow their steps of leaving everything behind. And in my headcanon he is aroace. So he is expected to live an intense romantic story and do everything for love like all the members of his family did. But he is like: "Nah I am not interested". But he tries to find some nice pureblood lady to marry. To please his parents. And he tries to find an epic romance interest, to please Sirius and Andromeda. But he just isn't able to be attracted to anyone.

But there is another alternative for the Jegulus lovers. We would see Regulus trying to forget about James, and trying to push him away because he is not supposed to feel that way for him. So we would have their tragic love story.

And we would also see his decisions and his path of becoming a death eater and then regretting it.

Basically each book would be about one member of the Noble House of Black and their lives until their tragic deaths or destinies. Because they all ended up badly.

The book series would be called The Noble House of Black. And imagine having a Netflix adaptation of them. Just like the Bridgerton books.

Anyway. I wish I had time and energy to write this. Let's see maybe in the future.

[icomefromthemoon]

*The marauders talking in the afterlife*

James: “Your mother was there for me at a time when no one else was” MATE WHAT THE FUCK

Sirius: NO REALLY REMUS WHAT

James: *looks at Sirius* WHEN DID WE EVER LEAVE THAT MAN ALONE

Sirius: I think I might’ve gone to the bathroom once?

James: Oh yes and I blinked one time

[icomefromthemoon]

*The marauders talking in the afterlife*

James: “Your mother was there for me at a time when no one else was” MATE WHAT THE FUCK

Sirius: NO REALLY REMUS WHAT

James: *looks at Sirius* WHEN DID WE EVER LEAVE THAT MAN ALONE

Sirius: I think I might’ve gone to the bathroom once?

James: Oh yes and I blinked one time

[icomefromthemoon]

*In a meeting with the Potters after a certain Gryffindor party*

McGonagall: *Sliding a photo across the table*

McGonagall: Do you have anything to say for this photo Mister Potter?

The Photograph in question: *Depicting the Gryffindor common room bedded out with empty firewhiskey bottles/Alice, Peter and Sirius passed out on the floor/Remus and Lily sharing a joint/Dorcas and Marlene making out against the wall/Frank, Mary and Pandora dancing and finally James in the centre of the common room with one fist in the air and another swung over Regulus’ should with a beer loosely hanging from his fingers as they kiss*

James: Thats not me.

Mcgonagall: Thats not you?

James: Nope…

[icomefromthemoon]

*In a meeting with the Potters after a certain Gryffindor party*

McGonagall: *Sliding a photo across the table*

McGonagall: Do you have anything to say for this photo Mister Potter?

The Photograph in question: *Depicting the Gryffindor common room bedded out with empty firewhiskey bottles/Alice, Peter and Sirius passed out on the floor/Remus and Lily sharing a joint/Dorcas and Marlene making out against the wall/Frank, Mary and Pandora dancing and finally James in the centre of the common room with one fist in the air and another swung over Regulus’ should with a beer loosely hanging from his fingers as they kiss*

James: Thats not me.

Mcgonagall: Thats not you?

James: Nope…

[icomefromthemoon]

Regulus: *sneaking under the covers*

Sirius: What, and I mean this nicely, the fuck are you doing?

Regulus: *realising he had in fact NOT found the right bed in the dark*

Regulus:

Sirius:

Regulus: heyyyy... remember- remember when we were children... and-

Sirius: *yawning but throwing the covers open* just get in

Regulus: *slowly and wordlessly crawling in*

Sirius:

Regulus:

Sirius: ...are you alright?

Regulus: *mortified* fine. im fine, just sleep. go to sleep.

[the next day]

James: *in tears*

Regulus: actually fuck off I haven't gone to his bed like that since I was nine

James: why didn't you just pretend you'd been sleepwalking?! what happened to "im a slytherin, i never panic"?

Regulus:

Regulus:

Regulus: *dejected* i truly cant put into words how much i hate you and the way you remember everything

[icomefromthemoon]

*playing twister*

kaz: right hand red.

wylan: *ends up on top of jesper*

jesper: …you’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?

kaz: i stopped spinning like 15 minutes ago. honestly, i’m surprised you didn’t notice

[icomefromthemoon]

James, running late to class: Sorry, professor, I'm late. My alarm clock didn't go off.

Everyone in the classroom staring at him:

Professor Flitwick: Nice of you to join us, Mr. Potter.

James, walking to his seat next to Sirius:

Sirius, staring holes at the back of James' head:

Professor Flitwick, turning around to resume his lesson, but just before he adds: I'd advise you you don't mistake your uniform with someone else's next time you're running late.

James, clueless: What? *then, whispering to Sirius* What?

Sirius, shooting daggers at him: Prongs. Who's Slytherin tie is this?

James, blinking, and slowly looking down at the green tie he's wearing, before looking up sheepishly: Haha, you're not going to belive this—

[icomefromthemoon]

Jesper, to Kaz: *drunk as hell* Kaz thinks he knows everything but he has no idea I'm in love with Wylan.

Kaz: *criminal offensive side eye* Shut. Up.

Jesper : Ops! Sorry! My bad.

Jesper, to Wylan: Kaz thinks he knows everything but he has no idea I'm in love with Wylan.

Wylan: Y-you're in love with me?!

Jesper: ...

Jesper: Where the f*ck is Inej when I am talking to her?!

[icomefromthemoon]

more ead and sabran now that i have finished with uni for the summer!!