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5 years ago

Dark Academia Lifestyle

Remain an enigma, talk less about yourself. In social situations, make it a game, even if you are a rather social person, to shroud yourself in mystery. If others show interest in you, answer vaguely. Disappear at specific times. Reveal little of your background. When you do speak, speak in riddles or quotes. That isn’t to say you should never speak up in class or in debates, have opinions and remain socially active; however, keep people guessing a lot of the time, and, if you’re really into it, only speak when spoken to.

Wear vintage clothes, elegant accessories, monochrome colors. Emphasize sharp features with purely dark or light colors and jewel tones. I usually find nice vintage clothes at random thrift stores. Keep an open mind.

Listen to jazz and classical music. Listening to older, more tasteful music brings a spark of elegance to your life. I, personally, like to hear the used jazz vinyls crackle. There are multiple types of dark academia; to me, jazz demonstrates the erratic artist spirit of revolutionaries, while classical music possesses me with the sophisticated spirit of a Classicist who has preparing tea down to a science.

Light candles. Doing things such as writing, reading, and getting ready for bed by candlelight makes it seem thrice as elegant and academic… going to sleep so late never looked so enticing. On the other hand, you could wake up before dawn, light some candles, and study or read.

Stay ahead in school. Read your textbooks ahead of time, write essays about anything you’d like at all, just for practice. If you’re learning about something in science, devise experiments to illustrate the concepts to yourself and make them easy to remember. If you’re reading a book in English, read a handful of articles about the author beforehand to prepare, write down quotes from the book, make essay pitches, write to your heart’s content a critique of the book, an analysis of the book, of gender roles in the book. In history courses, find articles about the subject matter, annotate them, and write about them. If you’re taking a math class, devise applications of the concepts and solve problems of your own creation.

Go to libraries, museums, bookshops, and coffee shops. These are all really good places to sit in the corner and read for hours on end. Not only do you get Mysterious Points but you get an aesthetic environment and (hopefully) some peace in which to devour literature. I know that in the upcoming term, I’m going to be in the library from opening time to closing time every day.

Make Ancient Roman or Greek food. To be honest, the food was of so much better quality than it often is today, so I would suggest looking into some ancient cuisine archives to look for some recipes for your dinner party. Not only is it most of the time much better than modern food, but it’s also much more elegant. Not to mention it is fun and enlightening to try recipes which are perhaps completely foreign to you.

Have routines. Perhaps your life is erratic, but you can feel some semblance of order and elegance by creating rituals for, perhaps, everything. You might start the day off with a walk around the neighborhood or a nearby pond. I start my writing sessions by 1) playing jazz 2)opening my windows 3)reading Belief and Technique for Modern Prose 4)chugging a whole glass of water really fast 5) breathing violently. Feel free to make up really weird Winding Down routines, like, I don’t know, closing all your windows, stripping down, and meditating for 20 minutes before you go to sleep. Literally anything. It doesn’t even have to be useful, it just has to be strange.

Hang stuff up on your walls. Postcards, paintings, drawings, poetry, snippets from books, moodboards, your routines, lists (places you want to go, people you want to meet, things you want to do), playlists. Make it yourself and make it chaotic and, most importantly, make it aesthetic.

READ. Read anything and everything educational. Do it. Just, don’t pick up your phone for 3 days because you’re reading, just ignore everything else. Good things to read would be: feminist literature, nonfiction, mystery novels, Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier…

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ad-meliora-tendo

5 years ago

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ad-meliora-tendo

5 years ago

the dark academia girl

her body is always slightly bent to the side from being used to carry her leather satchel, heavy with books and notes

passes notes to her friends in latin during class to avoid being caught by the teacher

spends her evenings wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket drinking chamomile tea and reading ancient greek philosophy

can recite stabat mater by heart

quotes philosophers in her essays without actually specifying it's a quote

sneaks red wine in a thermos at school

has lent tsh to all her friends, encouraging them to annotate it

has engraved "pulvis et umbra sumus" on the stone of her school building

is excited beyond reason for duolingo latin

has named her roomba "alyosha"

wears very low heels/flats but can and will run after her bus in stilletos if need be

has pierced ears but rarely ever wears earrings

collects old books

is a grandma in terms of operating electronic devices

uses old books as a means of holding coffee/tea cups

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ad-meliora-tendo

5 years ago

Dark Academia Procrastination

‣ watching the clouds pass by your window

‣ completely changing your spotify playlists

‣ reading up on long-dead philosophers and some new ones

‣ boiling the kettle three separate times because you keep forgetting that you put it on already

‣ painting your nails

‣ listening to the trees and the birds within them

‣ flipping through unread books hoping one will catch your attention

‣ reading poetry and tasting it on the back of your tongue

‣ dabbling in witchcraft

‣ thinking about Oscar Wilde

‣ experiencing intense nostalgia but letting it consume you instead of pushing it away like you usually do

‣ getting too involved in the classical music you’re listening to and feeling the crescendo in your soul

‣ fantasizing

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ad-meliora-tendo

3 years ago

it's crazy that people can consume the same media yet come away with vastly different & wrong opinions. not me though because i'm always right

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ad-meliora-tendo

5 years ago

listen bro. u gotta have frivolities or else life is meaningless

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ad-meliora-tendo

5 years ago

New Renaissance by KOTY2

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ad-meliora-tendo

5 years ago

hi! i was hoping you could help me out. i’m really interested in the dark academia ‘lifestyle’ (if that’s what you call it?) but not necessarily the fashion. what kinds of things do dark academics do? basically i guess i’m asking how can i be a dark academic? i hope this makes sense. thanks

Hihi! Yes I can definitely give some tips. Dark academia has a lot of associations so you can pick and choose what you vibe with, but here is what dark academia means to me personally:

1) Love of learning: what really stands out to me is the constant searching for new ideas and the love of knowledge. It could mean studying at school really hard, or researching miscellaneous topics in depth because you just love to expand what you know; always being curious. Persoanlly, this also means being open minded to new information and able to unlearn things too. This is related to -

2) Love of reading: as academia itself is tied to reading, many people have a passion for books, literature, and poetry. There isn’t a specific style of book you have to read, but if you like reading try diversifying your genres and seeing if you enjoy the classics, some non-fiction, young adult, whatever you enjoy. Check out your local libraries, listen to audiobooks, keep a book in your bag - whatever works for you! Also you don’t have to read the classic DA books (The Secret History, etc.) unless you actually want to!!

3) Appreciation of art, music, beauty, architecture: appreciating the arts can mean a few things. You can actively go to museums, galleries, read up on artists you enjoy, visit places with unique architecture, listen to classical music and the like. But I feel it can also mean just being aware of the beauty in your environment, and noticing small moments in life that others might miss. Maybe you pass a building that has a particularly beautiful stone archway, or you stop to listen to a violinist outside the subway station, or you tuck a postcard of a favourite painting into your notebooks or doodle meaningful lyrics on a napkin. Not everyone has a huge museum near them!

Let me quickly say what dark academia DOESN’T mean to me:

Being elitist or classist: so much of the aesthetic is rooted in classism, being privileged (e.g. going to private schools and fancy universities, looking down at people who aren’t seemingly as “smart” or “worldly” as you), which I think is harmful to both others and yourself. I believe the true spirit of DA is to be kind and inclusive! There is also the aesthetic of copious amounts of alcohol and drugs and caffeine but personally I try to keep it a healthier lifestyle haha.

There is no one way to enjoy DA, so have fun with it, find your own style, and respect others!

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5 years ago