Concept: Me, Speaking A Foreign Language, My Pronunciation Is Perfect And My Accent Is Indistinguishable

@academia-lucifer

i love codependent relationships in fiction i love watching two messy people unforgivably in love with each other shatter the world around them i love seeing interpretations of love as a cosmic disastrous redemptive force i love watching love consume people whole i love looking at romantic relationships and going "oh that is so fucked up! good for them"

anyway take this quiz to see which 2 greek gods sum up ur personality

("I exist in two places: here and where you are")

Suzanne Buffam, "Vanishing Interior"

Sufjan Stevens, "The Only Thing"

Rene Ricard, "And Then I Tried"

i have so much to say about how badly i want a pretentious shakespeare-obsessed academics friend group and a boy to have intense homoerotic tension with but i yearn for it so much that i have no idea how to put it into words

a disclaimer for the following post: i wrote this at a time when i was incredibly insecure. i felt incompetent in many areas of my life, and you can see that reflected in the books i chose to include in my list. although i did not lie (i really did enjoy all of the books on the list), these are not books that i think everyone should read. most of them did not change my life; they were good literature, and nothing more. i have grown up a little bit since making the list, and i recognize now how immature it was to make this list of books everyone “should” read, in an attempt to sound educated and feel intelligent. i’m not going to delete the list, because it does have some really good books on it, but life is too short to read books out of a sense of obligation. so either read these because you want to, or read something else instead :)

20 books everyone needs to read at least once because people will reference them in front of you your entire life:

“the faerie queene,” by edmund spenser. this poem is both an epic and an allegory, written in (mostly) iambic pentameter. it is divided up into six books (plus a little bit of a seventh) which you should read, if for no other reason than the fact that there’s supposedly an exclusive book club at harvard university for the select few people who have finished all six sections

“romeo and juliet,” and “othello,” both by shakespeare. these plays both involve two lovers who die because of communication issues. and they’re both super important to read because there are so many references to them, both in other pieces of classic lit., and in modern culture

“the picture of dorian gray,” by oscar wilde. if you can’t tell, this is my favorite book ever. if you can get past the purple prose, it’s one of the most ‘dark academia’ books ever. it’s got references to other famous pieces of literature (which i’ll include on the list), lots of gay shit, a dramatic young adult who loves shakespeare, and ofc, murder

“the brothers karamazov,” by fyodor dostoevsky. actually started reading this one to impress a boy; i think that perhaps he and i have different concepts of what is considered impressive, but the book has turned out amazing, so i’m happy. it has lots of wonderful philosophical and theological discussions. the one thing you may not like is that Dostoevsky constantly goes off on little tangents (like Herodotus). it simultaneously fascinates me and makes me want to smack him with a stick

“the prince,” by niccolo machiavelli. this isn’t classic literature so much as it is political science, but honestly, so many people talk about ‘machiavellianism’ without ever having read the original Machiavellian treatise, and it would be so much better to just read the book and then be able to cite machiavelli himself at your next political-philosophy discussion.

“the canterbury tales,” by geoffrey chaucer. these are classics. they’re filled to the brim with medieval language and sexual innuendo, but that’s part of what makes them so wonderful. if that’s not enough of a selling point, ‘the tale of the deathly hallows’ from “harry potter” is super similar to ‘the pardoner’s tale’ from this book.

“the divine comedy,” by dante alighieri. includes a crap ton of great history references and some super sick burns directed towards the corrupt people of dante’s time.

“meditations,” by marcus aurelius. the original metaphysical journal. probably the epitome of ‘light academia’ if i’ve ever read one

“the great gatsby,” by f. scott fitzgerald. jay gatsby is low-key super relatable…and so is nick, the third wheel…and so is daisy, who feels like women are forced by society to be ‘beautiful little fools’

“the iliad” and “the odyssey,” by homer. i will never ever be able to read ‘the iliad’ again without sobbing hysterically. :’((

“frankenstein,” by mary shelley. not only is this a great book in terms of philosophical potential, but there are so many great things to debate about in it. and, it’s written by a woman :)

“oedipus rex,” by sophocles. my favorite book in 9th grade, though god knows why my mother let me read it then

“metamorphoses,” by ovid. a collection of my all-time favorite myths, which every single person needs to read because it explains how the ancient romans believed the world operated, from the way the sun rises, to the reason we hear echoes.

“the aeneid,” by virgil. suggested by @catilinas :) the final addition to the holy iliad/odyssey/aeneid trinity, written hundreds of years after the last part, by a different author, and in latin instead of the original greek. chronologically ocurrs at about the same time as the odyssey, although from the trojan perspective.

“1984” (suggested by @alexickotowaffle) and “animal farm,” both by george orwell. i’m sticking them together because although the plots are completely different, they both remind me of today’s culture in rather unfortunate ways. but they’re very well written, and i do adore orwell’s style :)

“don quixote,” by miguel de cervantes. an absolutely hysterical book; i kept laughing out loud the entire time i was reading it. it satirizes getting wrapped up in the world of books, to which i’m sure we can all relate.

“hamlet,” by william shakespeare. finally crossed this off of my “to read” list and i absolutely loved it. hamratio (is that the ship name for hamlet x horatio?) is wonderful, the whole play is excellent, and i would highly recommend it

I could have watched an entire episode of Holt and Kevin talking on the phone about rice. (via @santiagoswagger)

↳ requested by anonymous

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov

concept playlists

it’s bacchanal time, baby: songs for when you infiltrate a group of classics students and you all love each other. you hold a bacchanal together and see spectacular visions of dionysus and immortality in the midst of ecstasy. when you return to your body you feel you do not know yourself and question if you ever can. the light of the fire is dying and you’re covered in blood. you’re all covered in blood.

lime green slushies & god: you’re in a gas station food mart in the middle of the night and you meet someone. you know they’re not human, but they might be. all you know is that they’re holy. and you’re not. you get a bright green slushie and want to ask them for guidance. they pay for your slushie. you’re neon now.

bottom of a hotel pool: it’s your birthday and you’re at the bottom of a hotel pool. you know you should come back up. you know you shoulld go to the candles and frosting. you stay at the bottom and listen to the muffled thunder in the the distance. you feel the water’s divine power within you and you know you can breathe.

literary liaisons: you’re following your crush in the library. you’re taking note of the books they pick up, picking up one of your own. an hour before close, you go back to the shelf they went to and pick up their book. through the shelf’s gaps, you lock eyes with them. who’s following who now? and why? There’s a metallic taste in your mouth, and you lick your lips.

pink silk & poison: the sweet smell of the rose oil you’re putting on your body hangs in the air. the doorbell rings. you wrap yourself in your pink silk robe and go down to open the door. it’s the police. your husband has died. at least he left you his will. you turn up the volume of the record player.

motel terrors and subtext: there’s a boy in a motel room on his knees with a gun to his head. there’s a girl in a motel room with her finger on the trigger. a bottle breaks. that means ‘i love you’. you shut your eyes. what a pair.

glitter pluming between us: you’re in a club where everything is washed in blue lights. there’s a boy with glitter dusting his cheekbones and he’s all you can see or want. you should be the villains in each other’s stories. but under the lights and music all you can feel is love. you’re both in the alley now and out here the glitter cuts like a knife.

season of the witch: it’s near halloween and you’re discovering a new kind of power. in the hidden section of your university library you discover grimoires. in yourself you discover magic. somehow you know your whole life’s path has led you here.

get your lyres out, boys: you’re the oracle of delphi. amidst the smoke of incense and offerings of grapes and honey you witness history. the rage of achilles, the burden of atlas, the flight of icarus. time does not exist.

raging feminist: you’re a raging feminist. you’re dismantling the patriarchy and rallying. you’re discovering the power in femininity and womanhood.

sunday morning cappuccinos: it’s sunday morning and you wake up early to the smell of breakfast. you pull on a cashmere sweater and go into the kitchen of your loft where your lover is pouring you coffee. you both have goals and are working to achieve them. it’s cold and you make plans to have a movie night together in the warmth.

all this, and love too, will ruin us: you’re in love for the first time and you feel like you’ve discovered something no one ever has. you’re consumed and can swallow the world whole.

“I love the night passionately. I love it as I love my country, or my mistress, with an instinctive, deep, and unshakeable love. I love it with all my senses: I love to see it, I love to breathe it in, I love to open my ears to its silence, I love my whole body to be caressed by its blackness. Skylarks sing in the sunshine, the blue sky, the warm air, in the fresh morning light. The owl flies by night, a dark shadow passing through the darkness; he hoots his sinister, quivering hoot, as though he delights in the intoxicating black immensity of space. ”

― Guy de Maupassant

Photography by: Handsonl