Yesterday My German Teacher Said "being A Poet Must Be So Eye Opening But So Constraining At The Same

*dives out the window* the forest is calling my name

vintage astronomy

dark academia life is just [reads book in one sitting] [tries to memorize shakespeare quotes] [scribbles unintelligible greek words on back of hand] [quotes arthur rimbaud] [commits murder] [drinks 5 cups of coffee] ["looks like you missed your latin lessons today!" ft. a terrifying owl] [quotes oscar wilde] [wears poofy clothes] [quotes the secret history] [writes bad poetry in notes app] [yearns to be understood]

dustpages

Greetings and Salutations, I’m new to the Dark Academia community. And I’ve absolutely fallen in love with what being a dark academic is about. But, I’ve had some trouble fully implementing dark academia into my lifestyle. Are there any tips to clothing?(styles and shops)things I should do or say? Just would love to have all tips and tricks! I love your page by the way!

how to implement dark academia into your life: the ultimate guide

fashion

if you look up dark academia fashion, you should find a lot of tweed, wool, corduroy. this is good. you want that.

things to keep an eye out for: 

a tweed blazer (of course). buy it secondhand so it already has that ratty feel. some (like my beloved @thoughtcriminals ) wear it very fitted and rock it, some others (like myself) like it just a tad too big. It ultimately depends on how and with what you’ll wear it. If you plan on wearing over sweaters, don’t get one that’s too tight, especially around the sleeve area; conversely, if you layer it under a winter coat, the sleeves should not be too thick so that it doesn’t bundle up.

a few woolen trousers. try to have around four or five. they must all fit you perfectly. bonus if they have belt loops (belts are A Staple of androgynous da students). I personally have a corduroy one, a check one, a striped one and a plaid one. keep the colour scheme in the earthy tones (cream, brown, forest green), and if you are like me and you like to eat/drink a lot, make sure that they have extra room. optimal cuts include, but are not limited to: straight, tapered (’cigarette trousers’), sailor, and palazzo. you also want to be able to crouch in them, it’s much easier in case you’re involved in a murder :)

button-ups. a lot of them. these, along with the trousers, are your wardrobe staples. i absolutely adore victorian/edwardian inspired blouses, with cool lace collars and all, but you also need simpler, sleeker ones. large billowy sleeves are an absolute yes too. they can be white, cream, ochre, brown, bordeaux... take your skin tone into account and your ability to not stain your clothing whenever you eat.

cool socks. do NOT underestimate what socks tell about your character. they should keep your feet warm and toasty, and also have quotes on them. or you can be like me and be too lazy to match socks: if so, just buy a 15-pack of short plain white socks. but if you’re really cool, buy these.

a woolen coat. to wear atop your button-ups and blazer. the popular choice seems to be long and black, but red or houndstooth also work super well. what you want is potential to be noticed, whether by having it swish behind you when you hurry past people in the corridors, or just popping out in the middle of all the common folk dressed in black with your bright red. extra points if you do both at the same time.

other essentials include: mid-length circle skirts, an off-white fisherman’s sweater, a full suit, WAISTCOATS, ties, and bowties. also jewellery: a watch, a locket, some rings... keep it minimal. 

decor

dark academia room decor is surprisingly much harder to find. in general what seems to be popular is: chaotic but with one colour scheme, Full Victorian or basic furniture but stylish accessories. in general i’d say staples are: white bedsheets, wooden desk (bonus if it has ink stains), piles of books everywhere, a collection of old books definitely won’t go amiss, half-finished chess games, coffee stains. basically you want to look careless but still moderately tidy.

lifestyle

this one is a subject of controversy. if you want to live a true-to-the-books dark academia life, then drink, be elitist, be rich, smoke, gamble, kill a man. i do not agree with this. here is my version of the dark academia life.

always thirst for knowledge. whether it be by watching that documentary with the cool birds, or by reading the memoirs of the duc de saint-simon, try to expand your knowledge in all the directions you can. 

be hedonistic, but never put yourself in danger. drink wine if you want to. smoke cigarettes/weed if you want to. stay up late if you want to. but always know what you are doing. never get wasted on alcohol or other things; you must always be in control of yourself and your actions. 

read books! lots of em. if you can, never leave your house without a book. come back with more books. read classics, non-fiction, poetry... anything you can! thirst for knowledge

quote stuff. quoting authors in a conversation will immediately make you seem more cultured. on that note, try to expand your vocabulary as much as you can, to be well-spoken. Bernadette Banner is your goals.

don’t conform to society’s standards. take up a stupid hobby. experiment with your image. hack into the school to make vivaldi your new bell tone. meditate at four in the morning. stain that book from the 1900s with coffee. seize the bloody day, make the most out of life the way you want it  want to be an antequary? want to have a sugar daddy who you can escape but is strangely smitten by you? want to play saxophone at three in the morning? do it. and fuck anyone who tells you otherwise. dark academia is about being eccentric in a world of sheep.

a lot of people say that being gay is an inherent part of da. i disagree. do what you want! kiss your best friends. be heterosexual. have a liaison with nb folk. da is about hedonism. if you want it and the other person wants it, then i see no issue.

for more lists of any kind head to my blog! i will lengthen this in time when i feel the courage to; for now, i don’t. my inbox is always open if you have questions or requests.

12. why the 1880s?

something about this decade really sings to me. I find in particular, nearing the end of the nineteenth century, so much was happening on around the world in terms of arts, politics, technology, colonization. world events and global news don’t personally reach the day-to-day lives of the everyday folk, but they are an important part in gauging what life, thought, and society was about—what things were important then and now?

basically for myself, reminding me of notable things that occured during the 1880s—some thematic, some of relevance to context and characters, and the rest just ?? interesting and/or wild?

cocaine is a hot new cure for everything and anything. perscribed, sold in foods and more. heroine introduced as a lesser-addictive substitute for morphine…

lots of developments in fields of psychology; many experiments and happenings; Freud starts his work 1886.

1880-1914 had +twenty million immigrants to the United States: Germany, Ireland, England, China had the most arrivals.

William Dorsey Swann, the first self-proclaimed drag queen, organizes a series of drag balls in Washington, D.C. 1880-1890s.

Jack the Ripper claims his “first” victim in 1888 White Chapel, London. big scare.

Sherlock Holmes first appears in Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study In Scarlet as part of the British magazine’s Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is published in 1886. Gothic fiction, drawing from emerging fields of science and psychology. & Treasure Island was published earlier in 1883 by him too!

Mark Twain drops The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889).

Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant’s second novel is published in 1885. about a man who seduces and manipulates high society French women in the French colonies for power and wealth. MOVIE WAS ADAPTED IN 2012 STARTING ROBERT PATTINSON LOL

western European art movements very romantic and swirly and pretty: Monet, Debussy xoxo.

meanwhile, African American ragtime music becomes the “pop” music across the pond here.

North Dakota (1889), South Dakota (1889), Montana (1889), Washington (1889) become states.

train segregation laws flag beginning of Jim Crow; Civil Rights Movement of 1875 voided, making discrimination in private is not illegal, and prohibiting state intervention to personal or commercial segregation. l*nching continues throughout the south. slavery may be over on paper, but indentured labour is legal.

1882 infamous O.K Corral gunfight.

Gold Rush continues, all over the world—South Africa, to British Columbia, to California, to Argentina, to Russia-China borders.

centuries of American “Indian” wars continue.

American Dawes Act of 1887 granted American government authorization to regulate indigenous lands, including creating and assigning and enforcing reservations.

Sitting Bull’s 1883 speech of the atrocities experienced at the hands of white American settler colonists.

Canadian Pacific Railway 1881-1885. foreign labourers were hired to do a lot of heavy, dangerous, unwanted work. in America, more than 100,000km of tracks were laid by majority Chinese, Irish, Scandinavian workers.

America’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 was officiated, enforcing law of a Head Tax to be paid for every Chinese person entering North America. over the course of the next couple of decades, the fee of $1,500 was doubled to $5,000 was increased 500% to $25,000 in today’s currency—per person. this had devastating and lasting impacts on generations and societies of Chinese living both overseas and already in North America. propaganda at this time created many racist myths that persist today: there are too many Asians, they are taking our jobs, (the men) are gross and effeminate and a threat to (white) women, they shady and scheming people. these were the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality in American and Canadian history. (I study Asian Canadian history, I can go on about this all day)

Tong Wars (1883-1913) had Chinatown gangs and factions in violent street wars across America, San Fransisco to New York.

large, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish rioting (pogorm) and antisemitism rampant throughout Imperial Russia, 1881-1882 had more than two hundred anti-Jewish events alone. Jews continue to be racialized and othered.

fuck ton of colonization happening in Africa and the Middle East, Southeast Asia. Berlin conference 1884-1885 literally chopped up Africa to distribute to European powers.

Irish nationalist efforts to push forth Home Rule bill of sovereignty is defeated in British Parliament. Irish are not “white”, they are “othered” in Europe and in Americas.

use of photographic film pioneered by George Eastman, who started manufacturing film. his first camera (Kodak) was ready for sale in 1888.

Thomas Edison gets lit in New York 1883 with first electrical power station. next several year sees major cities being lit up with street lamps and public lighting with the science and works of a Nikolas Tesla (1886-1893).

hell of a lot more inventions in the works and patents being claimed. Hertz and radiowaves, Bell for telephone services.

“Between the years of 1850–1900, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways the male society did not agree with”

way too much history to cram, obviously. here are some keywords for further research oki

prison industry / spiritualism / opium epidemic / irregular and uneven “modernizations” in rural vs. urban areas / class and poverty gaps / morality scares, checks, comparisons, gaps / new businesses and gadgets, products, tech to help with anything / fascination of the (colonial) Other; side shows, “freak shows” and other human zoos

Christopher Mullins

— James Elkins, Pictures and Tears: A History of People Who Have Cried in Front of Paintings

I’ve seen a lot of curious people wanting to dive into classical music but don’t know where to start, so I have written out a list of pieces to listen to depending on mood. I’ve only put out a few, but please add more if you want to. hope this helps y’all out. :)

stereotypical delightful classical music:

battalia a 10 in d major (biber)

brandenburg concerto no. 5

brandenburg concerto no. 3

symphony no. 45 - “farewell” (haydn)

if you need to chill:

rondo alla turca

fur elise

anitra’s dance

in the steppes of central asia (borodin) (added by viola-ology)

if you need to sleep:

moonlight sonata

swan lake

corral nocturne

sleep (eric whitacre) (added by thelonecomposer)

if you need to wake up:

morning mood

summer (from the four seasons)

buckaroo holiday (if you’ve played this in orch you might end up screaming instead of waking up joyfully)

if you are feeling very proud:

pomp and circumstance

symphony no. 9 (beethoven; this is where ode to joy came from)

1812 overture

symphony no. 5, finale (tchaikovsky) (added by viola-ology)

american (dvořák)

if you feel really excited:

hoedown (copland)

bacchanale

spring (from the four seasons) (be careful, if you listen to this too much you’ll start hating it)

la gazza ladra

death and the maiden (schubert)

if you are angry and you want to take a baseball bat and start hitting a bush:

dance of the knights (from the romeo and juliet suite by prokofiev)

winter, mvt. 1 (from the four seasons)

symphony no. 10 mvt. 2 (shostakovich)

symphony no. 5 (beethoven)

totentanz (liszt)

quartet no. 8, mvt. 2 (shostakovich) (added by viola-ology)

young person’s guide to the orchestra, fugue (britten) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

symphony no. 5 mvt. 4 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)

marche slave (tchaikovsky) (added by eternal-cadenza)

if you want to cry for a really long time:

fantasia based on russian themes (rimsky-korsakov)

adagio for strings (barber)

violin concerto in e minor (mendelssohn)

aase’s death

andante festivo

vocalise (rachmaninoff) (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)

if you want to feel like you’re on an adventure:

an american in paris (gershwin)

if you want chills:

danse macabre

russian easter overture

egmont overture (added by shayshay526)

if you want to study:

eine kleine nachtmusik

bolero (ravel)

serenade for strings (elgar)

scheherazade (rimsky-korsakov) (added by viola-ology)

pines of rome, mvt. 4 (resphigi) (added by viola-ology)

if you really want to dance:

capriccio espagnol (rimsky-korsakov)

blue danube

le cid (massenet) (added by viola-ology)

radetzky march

if you want to start bouncing in your chair:

hopak (mussorgsky)

les toreadors (from carmen suite no.1)

if you’re about to pass out and you need energy:

hungarian dance no. 1

hungarian dance no. 5

if you want to hear suspense within music:

firebird

in the hall of the mountain king

ride of the valkyries

night on bald mountain (mussorgsky) (added by viola-ology)

if you want a jazzy/classical feel:

rhapsody in blue

jazz suite no. 2 (shostakovich) (added by eternal-cadenza)

if you want to feel emotional with no explanation:

introduction and rondo capriccioso

unfinished symphony (schubert)

symphony no. 7, allegretto (beethoven) (added by viola-ology)

canon in d (pachelbel)

if you want to sit back and have a nice cup of tea:

st. paul’s suite

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

l’arlésienne suite

concierto de aranjuez (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)

pieces that don’t really have a valid explanation:

symphony no. 40 (mozart)

cello suite no. 1 (bach)

polovtsian dances

enigma variations (elgar) (added by viola-ology)

perpetuum mobile

moto perpetuo (paganini)

pieces that just sound really cool:

scherzo tarantelle

dance of the goblins

caprice no. 24 (paganini)

new world symphony, allegro con fuoco (dvorak) (added by viola-ology​)

le tombeau de couperin (added by tropicalmunchakoopas)

carnival of the animals (added by shadowraven45662)

if you feel like listening to concertos all day (I do not recommend doing that):

concerto for two violins (bach)

concerto for two violins (vivaldi)

violin concerto in a minor (vivaldi)

violin concerto (tchaikovsky) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

violin concerto in d minor (sibelius) (added by eternal-cadenza)

cello concerto in c (haydn)

piano concerto, mvt. 1 (pierne) (added by iwillsavemyworld)

harp concerto in E-flat major, mvt. 1 (added by iwillsavemyworld)

and if you really just hate classical music in general:

4′33″ (cage)

a lot of these pieces apply in multiple categories, but I sorted them by which I think they match the most. have fun exploring classical music!

also, thank you to viola-ology, iwillsavemyworld, shayshay526, eternal-cadenza, tropicalmunchakoopas, shadowraven45662, and thelonecomposer for adding on! if you would like to add on your own suggestions, please reblog and add on or message me so I can give you credit for the suggestion!

spring is not gentle

trembling towards tomorrow

trepidation of love now renewed;

it is a scab scraped over winter

and its bloody, weeping wounds.