#deerslayers

‘Khairei’. Deerslayers

Entry: 008 // Literature // Title: The Secret History Author: Donna Tartt Year: 1992

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I must say I have never read a book that gave me anxiety from the first page down to the last page like this one. But I loved every minute of it.

This book is so popular among certain communities here in Tumblr, so I decided to read it (even though it was not originally in my schedule) and indulge myself to what the spectacle was all about. 

AESTHETIC & ATMOSPHERE 

“There is no exquisite beauty… without some strangeness.” — Edgar Allan Poe

I guess this is the reason why this book inspired an entire community to form in Tumblr. The book was able to tell a narrative so idyllic and “aesthetic” it makes my heart hurt. It sort of makes you want to be a student in Vermont, inside Hampden College. I fell in love with how incredibly scenic it was even just through words (and despite the looming darkness within the story itself). Tartt was constantly painting the setting in the pages, which of course, I take as an ode to one of the first few lines Richard says in the book. 

I liked how Richard’s room was small but the light from outside can seep through, how a character lounges beautifully  in a window seat, how secretive the Lyceum is, how the skies looked or how the breeze felt. I was charmed and seduced by the appeal of it all.

THE LYCEUM PATRONS

“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.'' -  Aristotle

What can I say, they were deluded in Greco-Roman ideals. So much so that they became a bunch of demented cuckoos. Each of them was flawed, even Richard who seemed impartial and innocent, but he was a liar that pretended to be something he is not just so he can fit the “aesthetic” of his friends. Did they even truly know each other? The fatal flaw that he himself admitted in the beginning proved to be true. I mean, who else would freeze in the snow just so he could keep up the image of a man who never begged for money? 

“Does such a thing as 'the fatal flaw,' that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature? I used to think it didn't. Now I think it does. And I think that mine is this: a morbid longing for the picturesque at all costs.”

Also, the way it was written (by that, I mean Richard’s point of view) had a certain way of downplaying the depth of their misguided acts. They eliminated Bunny because he was the only one who saw through the delusion - he did not like being superficial. As much as Bunny himself was a fraud, he said everything outright and blatant. His unwarranted blabbers of unspoken truth and double entendre probably ruined the sense of perfection they were trying to echo. They were all imperfect anyways, but Bunny’s flaw of never seeing his own flaws was his undoing. 

ELITISM 

The sense of elitism in their group was a point to be taken. They were handpicked by their professor and certainly thought highly of themselves since they were chosen (it reminds me of the Slug Club made by Professor Slughorn in Hogwarts). They were alienated from the rest of the school, and from within it might have felt like a sense of superiority and selectiveness; but from the outside perspective, they were just a bunch of snobbish and weird students who felt too proud to be friends with anyone outside their own.

I also liked how they used foreign language a lot, like Latin, Greek and French. Although it caused me to pause reading and look up whatever they were saying, it served the purpose of creating the gap between the reader and their group. It must be the same way the other students in the school felt about them – a bunch of alien kids who spoke a different language and therefore do not mingle with them.

BEAUTY

One of the reasons why this story charmed me is that I share the same fascination with the Greeks and the Romans. They were so extraordinary and exquisite that they almost feel like mere story characters in our history books and not actual humans who walked this Earth. And the Greeks and the Romans definitely knew and lived whatever the meaning of “beauty” might be.

“There is nothing wrong with the love of Beauty. But Beauty - unless she is wed to something more meaningful - is always superficial.”

Well, these kids did try to emulate the way the Greeks and Roman lived their lives. But what they failed to realize was that it was all superficial. And pointless. They thought that if they lived among themselves and tried to create their own sense of ideal reality, they will be better off and a step closer to their idols. They were not in touch with real life, they did not even know that humans already stepped on the moon (huh?). They are just like the Dreamers: living for the aesthetic without actually making change. They were not in sync with reality, which I find the most disappointing, considering how their love for art and literature could have contributed for something substantial.

Julian was their epitome. They venerated Julian as their teacher and in their eyes he can never do no wrong. He taught them about ideals. Yet when the time came for him to use this knowledge and wisdom for the right reasons, he refused to do it and fled. Like a coward. He could not live up with his words. Words are wind. He was such a traitor in my eyes. A fraud. 

SO WHAT WAS THE POINT?

“Forgive me, for all the things I did but mostly for the ones that I did not.”