Spring Is Not Gentle

subjects as dark academia aesthetics

english: knit turtlenecks, corduroy pants. going to stationery stores and buying ink. writing notes and penning stories in leather-bound notebooks. critiquing your friend’s essay as you walk hurriedly through a grove of oak trees in the rain on your way to class.

math: perpetually foggy glasses. biting your pencil eraser to focus when you’re stuck on a particularly difficult problem. taking notes and putting them into a worn binder, bursting with variegated papers. late night study sessions fueled by multiple cups of black tea.

chemistry: heavy old textbooks covered in post-it notes. empty beakers sitting in the windowsill, reflecting random patterns of light onto the classroom walls. a cozy striped sweater peeking out from underneath a pristine white lab coat. coffee from the local cafe, filled just to the brim with creamer - very precisely, a skill learned from hours spent measuring chemicals.

history: dark woolen coats, long socks hidden under plaid pants. old maps from all across the glove hung around the room. analyzing (and admiring!) prolific writing and pieces of art that have survived the test of time. long walks on cobblestone streets, stopping to read on the steps of a museum.

latin: sturdy leather backpacks with straps. stopping to explain the meaning of words and their roots, followed by looks of intrigue. writing latin sayings into tea-stained planners. sitting in a cafe, eating a macaron in a window booth and watching people walk by.

art: hair pulled back into a low bun, random strands poking out. hands always stained with paint, charcoal - the medium changes daily. sketching under a sycamore tree, its leaves slowly browning. standing in front of a painting in a museum, becoming lost in it, slowly pulled back in time into its story.

Things, I'm madly in love with:

books (classic and modern, poetry and novels, old and new)

penmanship

art (looking for art, creating art, being art)

vintage porcelain (especially with golden lines)

combine my clothes for that special look that I need today

Oscar Wilde

religious studies

tattoos

flea markets, second hands, vintage and antique stores, where I can find pieces with their own history

music halls with tall ceilings and great shiny chandeliers

Greece, Italy, United Kingdom

collecting different strange things – from animal bones and dry flowers to glass bottles and old greeting cards

natural history

botanic

creating my own beautiful world

imagine studying in the library after school and taking a nap in the poetry section with Oscar Wilde’s the picture of Dorian grey on your lap, so then at closing time they have to wake you up, then you bike home as the sunsets.

I get why people say dark academia is not healthy but let’s talk about the romanticism. I read again and again poems of things so trivial one might just take them for granted or overlook them, yet the poets give them life and importance and beauty. This way of falling in love with an open window, the light tap of the rain, the endless piles of books, the sunshine peeking through the curtains. This is what dark academia is really about. Making poetry out of overlooked events

december moods | dark academia

listening to hozier at late evenings ;

ah, you wish it was never summer again ;

tight, heavy scarfs hug your neck ;

hot chocolate: a lot of it ;

when you look out of window and see snow ;

reading winter-set classics — there's nothing better ;

hot chocolate, again ;

wool blankets and sweaters ;

cold, harsh vibes...

or cozy, warm ones ;

watching the environment slowly fall asleep ;

wearing even more turtlenecks than you did before ;

feeling like a winter fairy ;

studying charles dickens ;

dancing in empty hallways ;

meeting those weird aunts with whom you in some way connects ;

finding winter-themed words in dictionaries ;

reading winter myths ;

reading in a calm setting ;

celebrating yule and/or winter solstice

“Why are some people drawn to minimalist architecture and others to Baroque? Why are some people excited by bare concrete walls and others by William Morris’s floral patterns? Our tastes will depend on what spectrum of our emotional make-up lies in shadow and is hence in need of stimulation and emphasis. Every work of art is imbued with a particular psychological and moral atmosphere: a painting may be either serene or restless, bourgeois or aristocratic, and our preferences for one kind over another reflect our varied psychological gaps. We hunger for artworks that will compensate for our inner fragilities and help return us to a viable mean. We call a work ‘beautiful’ when it supplies the virtues we are missing, and we dismiss as ‘ugly’ one that forces on us moods or motifs that we feel either threatened or already overwhelmed by. Art holds out the promise of inner wholeness.”

— Alain de Botton & John Armstong, Art as Therapy

I recommend constructing a detailed image of who you want to be and how you want your life to be, down to all the details (love-life, work, money, your home, day to day life, etc). Flesh it out fully and let your heart and desires govern the whole thing, don’t hold back at all, create your ideal life. And everyday think about it - and feel it. Feel it as if your life is already that way. And make all your decisions according to its ultimate fulfillment. Get in touch with your values, what’s really important to you, and let them guide you.

A Thorn Amidst the Roses, 1887, by James Sant (1820-1916)

“We read to know we’re not alone.” - William Nicholson, Shadowlands