In an essay for Lit Hub, Alexa Schmitt Bugler wonders why fans love dark, brutal fantasy.
“Grimdark is a feeling as much as a genre,” Bugler says. “Rather than embrace the idealized nobility of classic fantasy, grimdark instead seethes with brutality. Grimdark is, at its core, anti-Tolkien—a postmodernist rejection of universalist ideas of morality, human nature, and social progress.”
And that’s what audiences like (see: Game of Thrones). This type of fantasy has its critics, who decry its cynicism, brutality, racism, and misogyny, but also its fans, who say the subgenre is true to human nature. But Bugler says there’s more at work: audiences are drawn to catharsis.
“Grimdark is much like horror, in that it presents a terrible, even terrifying, reality—one a reader can immerse themselves in but escape from easily, simply by closing the book,” she explains. “It can distract us from our own terrible, sometimes terrifying reality, comfort us, and even provide some interesting lessons.”
Bugler says that grimdark is a worth successor to our oldest legends and folklore, which were cleaned up by the Grimm Brothers and later Hollywood. “Cruelty and caprice have always been attractive plot devices, because they have always existed—and often triumphed,” Bugler says. “When done well, with care and intelligence, dark and violent tales can offer valuable insights into the human experience. Not only do they portray the lowest lows to which humanity can descend, they often illustrate the value in the struggle to ascend—even in the face of injustice, bigotry, and death.”
