Grimdark

What comes to mind when you think of the expression 'grimdark'? I see it's often ascribed to settings like Warhammer where there's a general sense of hopelessness and violence, but what else do you think could be called 'grimdark'? I've been curious about different sub-genres/settings, and I'm trying to see if that's a setting that I would be interested in exploring or not. I was mostly wondering if any of you have come across settings you'd describe as grimdark and what your brilliant eyes might detect as pitfalls of that setting to avoid (Or to embellish in!)

Specifically, I'd be interested in pairing it with elements of cosmic horror for a screenplay I've been pondering.

From wikipedia:

 

I do like to have a part (or a few maybe) where the protag(s) gets dragged through hell, but it's the dark before the dawn, and in other parts I need the contrast of joy and wonder and love etc. Personally I'm not big on tone poem stories, where one mood is established and remains through the whole piece, but that's just my personal opinion. I think of my stories more as concertos, where you go through a series of movements, each with a different emotional tone. At least I hope I'm doing that, and I try to.

Sorry, this probably isn't helpful at all to the topic at hand. Carry on.

 

I consider Michael Moorcock's Elric saga to be maybe the earliest grimdark fiction, though other works (eg Clark Ashton Smith's Zothique stories or Robert E Howard's Conan stories) could be seen as precursors. I've seen some argue that Elric is more proto grimdark but whatever... it laid so many foundations for the genre- a doomed, amoral, self-loathing hero; a baroquely cruel and violent world; horrific gods manipulating events and fomenting wars. The eight-pointed star symbolizing chaos, adopted by Warhammer, originates there as well.

 

For me, a big part of it is worldbuilding. I want to see a decrepit universe, rotten worlds, dead gods, toxic vapours, fungus-blighted countries, failed magic and misfiring tech, cities of pure dystopia, busted-up characters with little hope, impossible circumstances to thrive in yet life somehow, incredibly persists, despite there being no point and scant chance. One of the reasons I bailed on Abercrombie was there being not enough of this.

 

Honestly, the only time I've heard the term Grimdark is using it to poke fun at writers or subject matter that is trying too hard to be gritty or dark. Like having a character suffer an undue amount of angst, or having something gruesome happen less because the story demands it and more because the writer wants the reader to think that they're really pushing the envelope and aren't afraid to hold back.

What everyone else is describing as far as bleak worldbuilding, I would typically describe that as being melancholy, dreary, or despairing, but not with the negative connotation that Grimdark comes with.

 

When I hear "grimdark", I automatically think Warhammer 40k, which makes me think "pretentious" and "plagiarism". Unfortunately, because of that, the term doesn't leave me a with good impression. It feels like teen edginess to me.

 

To be honest, I imagine myself drinking a dark ale, from the UK.

 

It's a good point, I would want to conduct them more as haunting concertos to keep the setting from getting flat. Thanks for the insight!

I'll have to check into some of those sources, thanks for the recommendations! I completely forgot about Conan but yeah, that's definitely the vibe.

There will definitely be elements of this, but I'm also going to try to aim for something that feels organic and different than something that draws too heavily from the inspirations.

Yeah, I definitely want to avoid it feeling too much like a pastiche or underdeveloped.

That's a good generalization to keep in mind if I need to describe it to someone else. It helps keep out too much of the technical gritty stuff while conveying the general scope. Thanks

I don't know about pretentious and plagiarism because I'm not familiar with the source material myself. I know some people that liked the tabletop or video games but I myself have never really delved into it beyond surface level. I'm definitely going to work hard to stay away from 'teen edginess' though, which will probably require a lot of reflection lol. Thanks for pointing that out.

I'm more of a hard cider/mead human, myself. Beer/ale just isn't my vibe.

 

Wow, mead. There's a bit of swill I don't have much experience with. It's fermented honey iirc. I had some in norway a year or two ago though.