— James Elkins, Pictures And Tears: A History Of People Who Have Cried In Front Of Paintings

you don’t need to go to a prestigious university or an exclusive boarding school to get dark academia vibes. you can be a pretentious brooding scholar at your local public high school as well. leave books on renaissance paintings and ancient rituals open on library desks. write ominous notes in the margins of textbooks. quote byron on the bathroom stall door. wear an unmistakable scent of perfume, so when you enter a classroom, everyone knows that you’ve arrived. cut your hair in the sink of the science lab. slip roses into random lockers. surround yourself with a few number of close friends and form your own secret circle. gain a reputation. have whispers follow you down the hallways. I would, however, advise against murder.

Tabula Rasa

Noun

[tab-yuh-luh rah-suh, -zuh, rey-]

1. a mind not yet affected by experiences, impressions, etc.

2. anything existing undisturbed in its original pure state.

Origin: In Latin tabula rasa means “erased tablet, a tablet rubbed clean (of writing).” Tabula has many meanings: “flat board, plank, table, notice board, notice, game board, public document, deed, will.” For schoolchildren the schoolmaster’s command Manum dē tabulā “Hand(s) off the tablet!” meant “Pencils down!” Rasa is the past participle of radere “to scrape, scratch, shave, clip.” The inside surfaces of a folded wooden tablet were raised along the edges and filled with wax for writing. The wax could be erased by smoothing with the blunt end of a stylus (more correctly stilus) or by mild heat. The Latin phrase is a translation of Greek pinakìs ágraphos “tablet with nothing written on it, blank tablet,” from Aristotle’s De Anima (Greek Perì Psychês, “On the Soul): “What it [the mind] thinks must be in it just as characters may be said to be on a writing tablet (pinakìs) on which nothing is yet actually written (ágraphos).” Tabula rasa entered English in the 16th century.

“The alarm wakes him, and he opens his eyes to a new day. He feels rested, reset, a tabula rasa.” - Lisa Genova, Inside The O'Briens, 2015

Death and the Maiden by Ana Sanchez

“it is a marvel that those red rose-leaf lips of yours should be made no less for the madness of music and song than for the madness of kissing. Your slim gilt soul walks between passion and poetry. I know Hyacinthus, whom Apollo loved so madly, was you in Greek days.”

Oscar Wilde to lover Lord Alfred “Bosie” Douglas, January 1893

Dark Academia things I do without noticing

- Having a ridiculous amount of tabs open of Wikipedia pages about ancient paintings, essays about Plato’s books and information about ivy league university’s.

- Listening to Hozier, Lana del Rey, classical music and slowed down versions of pop songs.

- Carrying notebooks, now twice the size as they were when I first bought them, filled with notes, paintings, lose papers with sketches and Latin words and their definition. 

- Finishing a book and immediately starting another one.

- Staying up till sunrise while drinking tea and reading poetry.

How to Save Your Own Life, Erica Jong

Classic literature

as imperceptibly as grief - emily dickinson / picnic at hanging rock dir. peter weir / a summer wasting - belle & sebastian / jordan tiberio / nervous young inhumans - car seat headrest / little women dir. greta gerwig / francis forever - mitski / 4 aventures de reinette et mirabelle dir. éric rohmer / aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe - benjamin alire sáenz

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

— William Shakespeare, from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream“, published p. 1596

This is fucking fantastic. The Edelweiss Pirates.