Students,

All my grief says the same thing— this isn't how it's supposed to be. And the world laughs, holds my hope by my throat, says: but this is how it is.

Fortesa Latifi // The Truth About Grief

—it's a very terrible realisation that whatever i do now will be affecting whatever i'll be in the future

Being the “eldest daughter” is nauseating and I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone

And also when Edgar Allan Poe said— "Tell me every terrible thing you did, and let me love you anyway."

My favourite character: smokes, drinks, reads greek and other dead languages, keeps a latin diary, kills someone by punching their collarbone, weaves an intricate web of lies and plot to escape jail, kisses his unrequited love and then shoots himself.

Me: now I know what Wilde meant when he said 'You will always be fond of me. I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.'

I agree with you SO MUCH. The core value of the dark academia subculture is academics, hunger for knowledge, love for knowledge. It is disheartening to see people completely ignore that part, and focus on the 'aesthetic'. At this point it has just become a fashion trend.

I find it funny that it is widely believed that the dark academia phenomenon was born on tiktok. Maybe I’m too old now (even though I’m not) and I’m starting to think like bitter old people who observe the changes around them and stubbornly can’t accept them? I remember when dark academia reigned supreme on tumblr, when we used to read, watch, listen, take photos and share it all while getting deeper and deeper into the dark corridors. Years later, I get the strong impression that we were doing it tired of the world around us growing so fast - a reality that was slipping more and more out of our hands, that was harder and harder to keep up with. We were just kids on the internet sharing sad quotes and “aesthetic” photos on our blogs. Dark academia was some sort of universe to escape to after a hard day. Something along the lines of video games. Today, dark academia is a negation of everything it originally carried with it. Once again, tiktok has appropriated it as an online aesthetic and subculture to spend more money, to pressure others to spend more money; to make certain demands and set the bars. The moment dark academia went beyond tumblr, it automatically ceased to be this imaginary universe, created for fun, and became a capitalist game. 

I hate that I’m taking this tone, but it’s hard for me to stop myself. After all, tumblr has always been a place where you can be mad, sad, happy all you want, without the specter of being cancelled. Ok, we’re anonymous here, but most of us are also total individuals who didn’t care too much about this platform besides our own blog. So yeah, I’m disappointed that dark academia reigns supreme on tiktok, and stores are starting to have special “dark academia fashion” tabs. I guess the only positive aspect of this is that it only raises the discussion of eurocentrism and elitism in literature and filmography that is identified with dark academia. Now that it has gone out into the real world some of the items in the “dark academia syllabus” can have negative effects if approached uncritically. And we all know how critically one approaches things on tiktok….

I’ve always wanted to complain about it a little bit. Am I alone in this? Do I sound pathetic and oh god - like a boomer? I just hate tiktok SO MUCH. And I used to love dark academia, SO MUCH. 

college students. this site is so sexy for notes btw

“I can’t hold enough of you in my hands.”

— Franz Kafka

Oooooh I'd like to add some—

Crinkled shirts

Eye bags or red eyes

Chapped or bitten lips (?)

papers, EVERYWHERE!

But a clean desk. I said DESK, let's not talk about the room

Cold hands

No concept of time or whatsoever while studying

Internally going FERALLLLL while keeping a straight face.

"I study better at night"

Screaming into the void

things that somehow scream physicist:

some weird mixture of dark academia chique and i-found-this-in-a-dumpster fashion

being a cat person!!!

black coffee

black ballpoint pens

messy folders

whiskey??

high alcohol tolerance

having a god- and inferiority- complex at the same time

being bad at pure math?

being queer always finds it's way into the mix

daddy issues

not letting go of certain pieces of clothing

also being creative

being a daydreamer and a realist

(lots of specifics about being a female physicist)

feel free to add your own!!

If I had a nickel every time a guy in a dostoevsky novel has been attacked in the face and instead of challenging the offender to a duel as they did back in the 1800s they didn't do shit, I’d have two nickels

ngl i love seeing boobs. gotta be in my top ten