I have the optimistic belief that I can tell which SFF works will be upbeat and which will be dour and depressing. But all too often this belief turns out to be an illusion. I once breezed into Mark E. Rogers’ Zorachus expecting the same lighthearted comedy that I found in Rogers’ Samurai Cat…even though the cover copy made it clear that lighthearted comedy was not on Zorachus’ menu.
Not every surprise involves discovering works that are unexpectedly depressing. Some stories give every indication that they are as bleak as would be the love child of Wuthering Heights and The Road and yet turn out to be exactly the opposite.
If you want to read something (relatively) light, you might be interested in the following unexpectedly upbeat works.
The Hole in the Ground, film produced by R.H.R. Productions for the Central Office of Information (1962)
Reliable diligence is to be expected from British workers, even volunteers like the majority of the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organization staffers. What makes the staff members’ unflappability remarkable is the task to which they have devoted themselves: documenting the detonation of enemy nuclear weapons, which as the film begins are already en route toward allied nations.
What follows is remarkable calmness under pressure, even on the part of civilians fleeing into their homes. Detonations are observed, located, the probable fallout patterns calculated, and appropriate warnings issued. The long-term consequences of World War Three fall beyond this film’s remit, but at least in the short term, the United Kingdom Warning and Monitoring Organization staffers manage the crisis with the same detached professionalism with which they might prepare a cup of tea.
I did not expect that the United Kingdom would not be the nation to which I would turn for optimistic takes on nuclear war. When the Wind Blows, Threads, and Brother in the Land are just a few works whose thesis is that nuclear war could well be a bit of a bother. The Hole in the Ground is a curious exception. Even staffers learning that their own home towns have been obliterated don’t seem much upset by the news.
Up the Walls of the World by James Tiptree, Jr. (1978)
Dr. Dann joined Project Polymer, only to discover that the Department of Defense’s parapsychology research program was staffed by deluded eccentrics and probable con artists. Given the dire news from planet Tyree, this is unfortunate.
A being of vast power, THE EVIL ONE, is bearing down on the planet Tyree, to the considerable detriment of Tyree’s intelligent inhabitants. Escape from Tyree is possible… by reaching across light-years to appropriate human bodies, leaving the human minds trapped in alien forms on doomed Tyree.
One or the other species must die. Or so it seems. Is there some other alternative, overlooked by humans and aliens, that will prevent tragedy?
Everything I said about the usual British works about nuclear war (doom, doom, and more doom) also applies to James Tiptree’s fiction… but not to this novel, where things work out much better than one would expect. Especially given that it was written by Tiptree.
One Hundred Shadows by Hwang Jungeun (2010)
Eungyo and Mujae have much in common. Both are dropouts. Both eke out meager livings in shops within the same run-down electronics market. Neither possesses much in the way of interpersonal skills. Both are slated to fall victim to encroaching gentrification. Either one or both might fall victim to inexplicable supernatural phenomena. In short, life isn’t great for either of them, and it will probably get worse.
Yet somehow, despite a comprehensive lack of interpersonal skills, the pair somehow meet and fall for each other. What follows is a romance majestic in its inarticulate awkwardness, a curious bright moment in a world seemingly designed to prevent joy.
Knowing as I did that this novel was inspired in part by the 2009 Yongsan apartment building incident, I expected events to unfold considerably more grimly than they did. Perhaps that’s the secret to cheerful contentment: set expectations low enough and even leopards eating one’s face may seem better than the alternative one expected.
Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead by Haro Aso and Kotaro Takata (2019– onward)
Akira Tendo was once cheerful and energetic. Years of slaving away for a rapacious employer has reduced the young man to a dispirited shell, too overworked and depressed to even clean his tiny apartment. Death would be a sweet release. Akira gets the next best thing.
Many of us, if confronted with a zombie apocalypse would focus on the drawbacks: shambling corpses, violent death. Not Akira! The zombie apocalypse means that he need never return to his horrible job. Even better, this impromptu holiday is an opportunity to check off every item on his bucket list…or die trying.
I once had a job where I was always disappointed to discover each morning that I had not experienced a fatal aneurism in my sleep, so the idea that someone’s job would be unpleasant enough that a zombie apocalypse would be a welcome relief is completely believable. I’d be willing to bet a lot of people reading this have been in the same boat.
Sadako-san and Sadako-chan by Aya Tsutsumi (2021)
Sadako-san’s angry ghost has long conducted a campaign of terror against unlucky mortals. Of late the murdered girl has encountered an unforeseen impediment. The means by which her curse operates depends on VCR tapes and CRT screens. As these become obsolete, Sadako-san loses her ability to kill.
Sadako-san finds an unlikely friend in young Sadako-chan. Prophesied to bring terror and despair to the world, Sadako-chan’s mother confined Sadako-chan in a small closet. Lifelong confinement has in no way blunted the little girl’s joie de vivre, nor her willingness to befriend a murdered girl, nor, most importantly, Sadako-chan’s ability to spot a possible technological workaround for Sadako-san’s problem: the power of YouTube.
There sure is some bad parenting going on in this manga. Nevertheless, this tie-in to The Ring franchise is surprisingly touching and life-affirming for a manga about a vengeful murdered girl and a young harbinger of doom uniting through the power of friendship.
Those are just five surprisingly upbeat works that I have encountered1. Have you had similar experiences? If so, let us know in comments.
