cubitum eamus?

here is a list i made on letterboxd. there aren’t too many but i add to it occasionally. i add films according to the genre, not the aesthetic. i also don’t add ones i don’t like so kill your darlings isn’t on there, but you might want to check out kill your darlings.

yay this is so exciting! i’m so glad i could help someone discover dark academia and i can’t wait until you read tsh :) hmm as for tips... 1) don’t confine yourself to the aesthetic. i thought i was 100% classic dark academia but lately i’ve started adding personal touches like my passion for goth music/aesthetics and art i like. it feels so much better to be myself and not how people think dark academia has to or should be. 2) summers can be hard. in summer focus less on the clothing styles and more on the colours and lightweight fabrics, because you won’t get away with turtlenecks and trousers. 3) it’s more than just clothing, it’s about knowledge. don’t be afraid to go all out on learning about subjects you like - and these subjects don’t have to just be classic things, but anything at all that you personally want to learn about! 4) i was afraid to go dark academia because of what people would think. but it made me happy and that’s all that matters, plus people actually really like it, even people who would never like dark academia for themselves.

black and white and grey blazers that resemble lab coats, beakers lined up on the windowsill, chalkboards with equations that trail downwards, black coffee and earl grey tea, the smell of disinfectant and chemicals that stays in your hair for days, a monochromatic yet varied wardrobe, round eye and ful vue and pince nez glasses with wire frames, vodka and gin as your beverage of choice, dark black fountain pen ink on stark white notebook paper.

well i do think it would be neat to meet a famous person. but i see celebrities and famous people as two different things. i think of celebrities as people who don’t really work hard to get their fame, whereas i see famous people as people who have dedicated their life to something and honed in that skill and make their living off of it. i’d want to meet a famous person, someone in one of my favourite bands or maybe an actor or an author. i don’t care for celebrity culture, it all seems phony to me. idk if i saw emma chamberlain walking down the street i’d probably be like “wow. that’s emma chamberlain”. but i wouldn’t care to talk to her. but if i saw my favourite musician walking down the street i’d probably go chasing after him and want to strike up a conversation.

as far as travelling, yes 100% it is important. you can have a good fulfilling life without it, but life is so so much better with travel. it’s so eye-opening.

Ones I have read:

1. The Secret History is a must. Richard moves to Vermont to a liberal arts college and finds an intriguing group of students in the classics circle. They murder their friend Bunny (which is not a spoiler, since it is revealed on the first page. Instead of a whodunnit, it’s a whydunnit. There are parts 1 and 2, 1 being before the murder, 2 being after. AMAZING characters, AMAZING writing style. Tartt is incredibly descriptive and deliberate in everything she writes, and this is no exception. You will literally go crazy over this book. Also it’s gay

2. If We Were Villains (though I’ve only read a little). Has lots of Shakespeare, acting, murder, gay, etc. It’s told from 10 years later. Many da blogs swear by this book and compare it to The Secret History, however, I personally think writing style is everything and I don’t really like Rio’s writing style, I find it very basic and non descriptive. But I do still suggest reading it just because there are so many references to it and it is considered The Secret History’s sibling, pretty much

3. Maurice (it’s also a great movie) by E.M. Forster. I haven’t really heard this one mentioned much in dark academia but I do really believe it fits into the genre. It’s in the 1910′s and about this guy named Maurice who is going to Cambridge University. He meets this other guy named Clive and they fall in love, but they’re insecure about being gay. There’s a lot of gay repression and whatnot since it’s the 1910′s, and that kind of provides the dark element. Basically Maurice decides to pursue his gayness and Clive just ignores his gayness, and it shows the two different ways their lives went because of this decision

Ones I haven’t read:

1. Dead Poets Society by Nancy Kleinbaum. Yes, I know this is better known as a film, but the film is based off of the book. Books are always better than films, so I suggest this (and if you haven’t watched the film, do that right away because it is a staple of dark academia)

2. Black Chalk by Christopher Yates. About a group of people at Oxford who started a game of dares, but the stakes grew higher and the dares got more dangerous. The book takes place fourteen years later when they meet for one more round. Again, I haven’t read but I hear a lot of good things about it

3. The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman. I’ve only heard of this one recently but it seems to have a very complex plot and backstory, lots of death, classics, and studies. Still, I haven’t read it so I can’t recommend it too highly yet

4. The Groves of Academe by Mary McCarthy. It just came in the mail for me the other day! From what I can tell it’s just about a teacher at a university who is convinced the other teachers all hate him, so he does outrageous things. I don’t know too much about it but from what I can tell it might even be more dark academia than The Secret History.