What does "dark" mean?

[M_K_Babalon]

Darkest thing I've probably wrote here, is probably Babalon's Curse. Under my other name, would be this incest story where the mom is obsessed with her son, that I never finished.

 

[NuclearFairy]

Suffering doesn't always mean dark though. At least not to me.

Using my own stories as examples:
My Son Riley Starts off with a tragedy, and has the MC nearly in tears the whole time. But I think it has a hopeful thread to it that keeps it from being dark.

Neptune's Blessings Whoa boy, does Mathias suffer, and he continues to suffer, but he never gives up, he never stops trying to survive, he's always looking for an out, and even when he thinks things are hopeless for him, he still hopes that things will get better for his kids. Again, I think the hope is what keeps it from being dark.

Fluffy Bunny Tea Party Is a dark tale of revenge and being willing to do anything, including dying himself to obtain it. Probably the darkest story I've ever written...

So, I guess for me, it's not dark unless you can paint a sign that says, "Abandon all hope"

 

[anthrodisiac]

So, I guess for me, it's not dark unless you can paint a sign that says, "Abandon all hope"

I think it's far darker to have hope, then crush it. Snuff out the light right as their fingers graze its edge. God, I love doing that.

Uh, I mean, I'm really nice and pleasant and would never inflict horrific atrocities on characters

 

[NuclearFairy]

I think it's far darker to have hope, then crush it. Snuff out the light right as their fingers graze its edge. God, I love doing that.

Uh, I mean, I'm really nice and pleasant and would never inflict horrific atrocities on characters

Your last name wouldn't happen to be Vetinari, would it?

 

[gloomyMoron]

Would all distopian stories qualify as dark?

Not necessarily. I would say almost all dystopian stories have elements of darkness, but they, themselves, need not be dark. Most probably are, to be sure, but I can conjure in my head several stories that are in dystopian settings but aren't, themselves, dark.

For the most part, yeah. Even if they don't look like it. Take the game Cyberpunk 2077. It might not look distopian, but it is. There's the corperations run everything, yeah, but on a deep dive, the corperations had waged a war before the point of the game, and many suffered. Night City is the only city for miles in a wasteland. Cybernetics drive people insane, and only the rich can get the cure. Most people don't know there is one. All food is synthetic or made from engineered bugs.

Cyberpunk 2077 is very dystopian though, and appears dystopian even at a surface level. I mean at glance it might not seem so bad, but looking at it any longer than ten seconds should and the disparity should become evident. I, also, don't consider Cyberpunk 2077 inherently dark. Yes, it has a lot of suffering. It has and deals with a lot terrible things the come from society and people. And the corporate take over of society is definitely a grim clarion call about the dangers of corporatization and late stage capitalism that we find ourselves hurdling towards. It certainly isn't a nice world to live in, but there are still themes and threads present that keep it from, in my opinion, being fully dark. Said in another, more succinct way: The world of Cyberpunk 2077 is full of darkness, but itself not entirely dark.

Also concerning synthetic food and engineered bugs: That's not inherently dark. That's just a necessity in that universe and is something that is being researched in real life. Not for the nefarious purposes of profit, but to help combat famine, livestock farms, and the droughts/decreased water/shifting fertile lands caused by climate change.

Even some of the utopian ones are dark.

This, though, I absolutely agree with. Especially if the twist is that the utopia is a façade. One of the books that I remember most from Elementary School and has influenced my thoughts the most (after the Dune series) was The Giver. I read that in... I don't remember if it was 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade, but it has stuck with me for a very long time; 30+ years.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Not necessarily. I would say almost all dystopian stories have elements of darkness, but they, themselves, need not be dark. Most probably are, to be sure, but I can conjure in my head several stories that are in dystopian settings but aren't, themselves, dark.

Cyberpunk 2077 is very dystopian though, and appears dystopian even at a surface level. I mean at glance it might not seem so bad, but looking at it any longer than ten seconds should and the disparity should become evident. I, also, don't consider Cyberpunk 2077 inherently dark. Yes, it has a lot of suffering. It has and deals with a lot terrible things the come from society and people. And the corporate take over of society is definitely a grim clarion call about the dangers of corporatization and late stage capitalism that we find ourselves hurdling towards. It certainly isn't a nice world to live in, but there are still themes and threads present that keep it from, in my opinion, being fully dark. Said in another, more succinct way: The world of Cyberpunk 2077 is full of darkness, but itself not entirely dark.

Also concerning synthetic food and engineered bugs: That's not inherently dark. That's just a necessity in that universe and is something that is being researched in real life. Not for the nefarious purposes of profit, but to help combat famine, livestock farms, and the droughts/decreased water/shifting fertile lands caused by climate change.

This, though, I absolutely agree with. Especially if the twist is that the utopia is a façade. One of the books that I remember most from Elementary School and has influenced my thoughts the most (after the Dune series) was The Giver. I read that in... I don't remember if it was 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade, but it has stuck with me for a very long time; 30+ years.

I'll agree with Cyberpunk. I was trying to think of a utopian movie I saw, that was secretly dark, I can't remember the name, but the woman finds out everybody for decades were clones, that couldn't reproduce. They discovered somebody got pregnant, and she shut down the cloning machine