Julian Morrow: ''Honesty Is A Dangerous Virtue''
Julian's class is a cult, no getting around that—He's selective about his student because he wants to wade out the vulnerable from the resilient and questioning: And of course, Julian has a God complex (But that goes without saying, now doesn't it?) An Example—When Julian addresses Richard by ''Pepin'' It's on purpose, him testing to see if Richard would be the sort to push back or not, well he hadn't, had he? And reaching our scenes conclusion, it's back to ''Papen'' again; Julian had gotten the proof he needed.
Julian was a teacher given leniency due to his heavy donations, Hampton College was desperate for donation (As many University would be/are) So what if he was a tad odd in his practices? His reputation was undeniably accredited, and he'd hardly been doing anything illegal—And I mean, education around cults wasn't exactly booming at the time was it?
So yes, the College ignores the fact Julian shouldn't be allowed to teach, despite him 1) Purposely isolating his students 2) Accepts them based on their world views/what materials they've read, and what their own ideologies are—Along with 3) Accepting them based on their wealth and how Isolated they'd been—It's all brushed under the rug of academics.
The class is so obsessed with upholding this particular image of refinement that—they do not seem to notice that, just how they condescend everyone else around themselves, Julian had done the very same to them, the entire time.
If you listen to Donna Tartts audio books, Julian's tone of voice is even more so noticeable—He feigns astonishment and wonder to the point of a waxy quality, and within our very first greeting there it is: When he initially rejected Richard, he really is sorry that he couldn't possibly accept him into his class; It meant this young man would miss out on Julian's godly guidance, something truly extravagant—How egotistical is that? Julian comes of as flattering to whom ever he is faced with, but said flattery is used to bolster himself up each time.
You know—He was far more apologetic about Richard ''not being able to join his class'' Than he ever were about Bunny's abrupt passing.
Julian is just a bored old man who longed for his youth (-To be something it hadn't? Perhaps?) To regain the power he once had in his early adulthood. He grew up isolated himself, I think that's quite clear—He's less akin to Henry and more so Richard in this case, as he wished to flip his trauma into something bewitching threw fictionizing himself. Really he should've majored in the Dramatics considering how eager he is for excitement—That Bacchanal never would've happened without himself, and when Henry had brought it up he had the perfect opportunity to stop the situation before it started, but he didn't.
He knew it would be a sex ritual with dangerous dinking and drug use (Their young adults, going overboard is to be expected and they did didn't they.) Yet he still wanted it to happen.
Bunny's own quote sums up Julian well enough: ''Julian is like one of those people that'll pick all his favourite chocolates out of the box and leave the rest''
I found Julian particularly disgusting because he knew what power he held over these vulnerable individuals, and really considering this fandoms leniency towards ''Doing it for the Aesthetic'' It seems to me he's fooled many of us—It's why I sometimes like respond to tsh posts with ''Your parents didn't love you, did they?'' Because really, for someone to thirst for poison they must've been parched for years—Because like many abusers do, Julian made a silent promise: To feel the true terror at the face of our own thirst for beauty.