Fables & Folklore for the Future -Part 2: Hopeful Storytelling

by Lil Zhang

Van Gogh’s Parisian Novels (Romans Parisiens/Les Livres jaunes) (November-December 1887)

Introduction

In the first part of Fables & Folklore for the Future, I looked at how different cultures experience time and, in turn, the future. I suggested bringing cultural myths and rituals into forecasting, as a way to connect with communities that are already imagining what comes next in their own ways, because the practice of futuring requires engaging with those who hold alternative views. It is essential that conversations about the future include the people who will live it: everyone. 

In this next part, I’d like to explore the role of fables and folklore in driving communities forward with a familiar principle in many stories, hope.

Happily Ever After

Most of the stories of my childhood ended with a satisfying resolution, and I loved walking away feeling like I understood a little more about the world and my place in it. Tales and myths from different times and cultures don’t always offer neat endings, but they did always provide some explanation or lesson that shaped a new understanding of the world. Creation stories explained how the world came to be, fairy tales promised happiness and justice, and fables offered moral guidance. These tales have always helped us navigate the uncertainties of the past and present, offering tools along the way, like the power of friendship in the Epic of Gilgamesh, the dangers of frivolity in the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tales (Figure 2), or the moral lessons of Aesop’s fables (Figure 3). Through these teachings, the stories also point toward a way forward. While “happily ever afters” might seem like naive optimism, they shaped our early sense of justice and wisdom, nurturing an innate desire to reach for something more, something better.

Figure 2. Grimm’s Fairy Tales by George Cruikshank

Figure 3. Aesop’s Fables by E&W Anstie Ltd.

Especially now, when the future feels increasingly unpredictable, I find myself returning to those old frameworks. These stories teach us that the future isn’t just something to forecast, but something to create through the choices we make and the values we hold. I think of Van Gogh’s Parisian Novels (Figure 1) depicting the still life of yellow-covered books that inspired him. He turned these stories into an act of creation itself. It reminds me that storytelling is a continuous process, with layers of imagination and ideas that build new worlds and a path forward.

Hopefully Ever After

As I got older, I found myself drawn to speculative fiction because it felt closer to what I was seeing in the real world. I used to think that navigating the uncertainties of the present meant reading stories that mirrored reality. Those stories offered warnings rather than guidance, which is valuable in its own way, but they didn’t give me the direction I was looking for. I read about climate change, societal breakdown, technological abuse, and dystopian governance, which did feel closer to reality than Aesop’s animal friends helping each other through a short journey. At the same time, I began searching for caped superheroes and fairy godmothers in politicians and educators, looking for a way forward. That’s when I started encountering stories that imagined more hopeful futures.

While science fiction as a genre has appeared in various forms around the world, the political and social anxieties of the early 20th century helped shape the dystopian form we are most familiar with today. More optimistic visions of the future have always been just as important. We see this in films like Arrival (2016) (Figure 4), which imagines interspecies cooperation, and Her (2013), which explores human connection through technology. The “Solarpunk” movement also carries this hope, with works such as Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia, Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 and The Ministry for the Future, and Cory Doctorow’s Walkaway imagining sustainable technologies and ecological solutions that suggest a better, more hopeful future.

Figure 4. Still from Arrival (2016), directed by Denis Villeneuve

Maybe it is time to bring back what older stories once did so well, helping people face uncertainty with hope. Folklore never ignored fear or hardship. It showed us how to live through it and how to imagine a path forward. If our modern stories could offer that same kind of guidance, they might remind us that the future is not only something to fear. It can still be something to shape, and even to believe in.

After Ever After

Hopeful futurism already exists in the stories that came before us. Fables teach that even in chaos, balance can be restored, and that justice, kindness, and persistence will always carry the story forward. In Filipino and Vietnamese folktales, the world often rebuilds itself after storms or wars, rooted in nature’s resilience and human spirit. In the African Anansi tales, the clever spider outsmarts stronger opponents, reminding us that intelligence and cooperation can overcome domination. These cyclical and moral structures offer a blueprint for imagining better futures. They tell us that collapse is never the end, only a turning point, and that wisdom can emerge from even the hardest lessons.

Our ancestors used fables not to escape reality, but to transform it. In returning to these older ways of thinking, I’ve started to see that futurism is not just about prediction or innovation, but about remembering. The stories that once taught us how to live with one another and with the earth still hold the wisdom we need now. They remind me that hope is not a naive belief in happy endings, but a discipline of care, imagination, and doing the right thing. Maybe the future begins, like all stories do, by looking back to once upon a time.

© Lian (Lil) Tran-Zhang, 2025

---

Lian (Lil) Tran-Zhang is a Design Researcher and Futurist focused on combining her academic foundation in neuroscience, cognitive science, and human-computer interaction with her passion for speculative design and strategic foresight. Currently based at a global design studio, she partners with clients, ranging from startups to tech giants, to craft innovative solutions in areas such as sustainability, robotics, AI, and social media. Beyond her professional work, Lil is deeply engaged in grassroots community organizing, weaving her commitment to designing a better future into her community.