#modern classics

These are both essentially the same story, but I highly recommend you read the book first if you can. I read it in high school and I have NEVER forgotten it.

from the Aubrey-Maturin or Master and Commander series (1969-1999) by Patrick O'Brian

Propaganda:

Stephen decides to become Jack’s ship’s surgeon within like two days of meeting him, then they spend like a decade (time in the series is weird) sailing together.

submitted by anon artwork by @oochilka

Calvin and Hobbes

by Bill Watterson

Comic-Strip, Andrews McMeel Pub. - 1985-1995

They can't turn me out or shut me out or laugh at me or hide from me; I won't go, and Hill House belongs to ME.

Richard being on the outside of everything, the one who could only see the story through biased retellings, was strung on to justify and hide two murders, one of which he was manipulated to participate in. Being a pathological liar, I don’t think Richard had realized he could be lied to and strung along so easily by someone like Henry, who seemed to believe and go along with his lies, (Richard’s family life, financial situation, past school enrollments, etc.) but by the time he realized he could, it was too late.

To the reader, the book is a thriller, but to the characters the events of Hampden College were a retelling of a real life horror that all lead back to Henry, who will continue to haunt them until the end. Everything about the Bacchanal and the actions taken after it were rooted in the desire to let go, to be free and live for once; every consequence from the Bacchanal keeps them from ever letting go or being free again. Henry haunting them makes sure of it.

Apart from Henry and the way he seemed to control everything in an inhuman way, the Bacchanal and Julian together were terrible enough. A professor- an influential power over the Greek class- encouraging his students to participate in drunken sex rituals, which were known to be aggressive and unpredictable (the killing on Pentheus in The Bacchae, so on…). The the gruesome murder of the farmer (weather the class did the killing or not) tying them together while their biggest influence was able to disappear freely and act like he never encouraged them. Julian wouldn’t even go to Henry’s funeral- the boy who loved him more than his own father.

Along with each horror component I have mentioned, I’ve also heard theories about Dionysus being the one who is driving the class mad as punishment for disrespecting his rituals, which wouldn’t be out of character for the Greek god. It adds another layer of terror into the whole story. An alienated class encouraged into murderous and sexual rituals, a god possessing them with madness as punishment, the killing of their friend, the revealing of Henry’s mastermind through all of it, and ultimately the death and haunting of Henry Winter. Bennington College, which inspired Hampden, alone has its own mysterious elements to it. A surprising amount of missing persons cases, folktales that are mentioned in the book (cougars/mountain lions), and the haunting mountains of Vermont around it. It all ties back into the overall horror of The Secret History.

A specific part of the book that really gave me chills is after Henry’s death in the Epilogue when Richard says that he started living in the same apartments as Henry. The idea of the empty apartment and the untended garden reminding Richard every day of the sudden halt of everything that Henry had set in motion... I could imagine the slightest creak coming from behind the door when Richard passed it each day, making him stop and wonder. Seeing a shadow in the garden at night and it putting him into a cold sweat. Maybe even Richard ringing his phone once in a while just to see- just to make sure. Even after he finished college, the way Henry had left the other three is a state of constant worry, madness, and isolation would make anyone constantly wonder what else happened- what didn’t the others tell Richard? Was Julian like this too or was he out there living his morbid fantasies vicariously through other impressionable, young minds?