The Brothers Karamavoz, Fyodor Dostoevsky //The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt // Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh

spring is not gentle

trembling towards tomorrow

trepidation of love now renewed;

it is a scab scraped over winter

and its bloody, weeping wounds.

idk who needs to hear this but when your english teacher asks you to explain why an author chose to use a specific metaphor or literary device, it’s not because you won’t be able to function in real-world society without the essential knowledge of gatsby’s green light or whatever, it’s because that process develops your abilities to parse a text for meaning and fill in gaps in information by yourself, and if you’re wondering what happens when you DON’T develop an adult level of reading comprehension, look no further than the dizzying array of examples right here on tumblr dot com

“In films, we are voyeurs, but in novels, we have the experience of being someone else: knowing another person’s soul from the inside. No other art form does that. And this is why sometimes, when we put down a book, we find ourselves slightly altered as human beings. Novels change us from within.”

— Donna Tartt, in this 2013 interview by Laurie Grassi for Chatelaine (via boykeats)

Bacchanale, 1871, Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Medium: oil,canvas

M E T A N O I A

[GREEK]

(n.) The journey of changing one's mind, heart, self, or way of life; spiritual conversion.

comprehensive list of books that will make you think a lot

at the request of @uglydumbbitchdotcom and @dreamingmappist (just to let you know, most of this is european and pre-1930 so if you're looking for literature from other continents this is not the list to go to. i wish i knew more about african, asian, and latin american literature, but alas - i do not.)

a portrait of the artist as a young man and dubliners: short stories of a city by james joyce

anything by fyodor dostoevsky (specifically crime and punishment, demons, notes from underground, but really anything will do and i'm not going to list his complete works on here)

the goldfinch and the secret history by donna tartt

frankenstein by mary shelley

fathers and sons by ivan turgenev

station eleven by emily st. john mandel

the death of ivan ilyich by leo tolstoy

in the first circle by aleksandr solzhenitsyn

paradise lost and paradise regained by john milton

till we have faces and that hideous strength by c.s. lewis

ninety-three and the man who laughs by victor hugo

faust, pt. 1 by goethe

the ulster cycle and an táin bó cúailnge

the a wrinkle in time quartet by madeleine l'engle

grace by paul lynch (this might be sort of an odd addition but he's one of the authors who follows in the joyce tradition and this is a beautiful book with a fascinating plot set during the great hunger so it deserves a place here)

a streetcar named desire by tennessee williams

the plough and the stars by sean o'casey

the grapes of wrath by john steinbeck

common sense by thomas paine

macbeth and henry v by william shakespeare

a room of one's own by virginia woolf

beowulf

say nothing by patrick radden keefe

one hundred years of solitude and the general in his labyrinth by gabriel garcia marquez

the underground railroad by william still

the letters of vincent van gogh

my god, there is a lot of russian literature on there. anyway, here are the books that made me think the most and hardest out of anything i've read

“You don’t love someone for their looks, or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear.“

– Oscar Wilde

“wild geese” from dream work by mary oliver, may 1986

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!

Julius Grimm (1842-1906)

In 1888, Julius Grimm used photography and telescope observation to create this intricately detailed and precise oil painting of the moon. In the night sky, the moon is always lit from behind you – so the shadows of the craters can never appear as they do in this painting. Grimm instead regarded the moon as if it were a still life, bathed in golden light emanating from the left side of the painting. 

“The picture should only be hung or positioned, that the light falls onto the picture from the side where the arrow is positioned, because otherwise, in the case of incorrect lighting, the effect could be completely lost.”