Episode 1.1: An Introduction to Dark Academia
It’s here! The first episode of ‘The Dark Academicals’ is ready for your listening pleasure.
We’re launching the podcast by delving into the origins of dark academia, why it’s had a sudden resurgence in popularity, the many criticisms of the genre and what actually makes a dark academia novel in our eyes. We even talk a little about the seminal texts of the genre and give you a rundown of what you can expect from the future of ‘The Dark Academicals’.
Happy listening!
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TEXTS MENTIONED
‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt
‘If We Were Villains’ by ML Rio
‘Othello’ by William Shakespeare
‘Hamlet’ by William Shakespeare
‘Titus Andronicus’ by William Shakespeare
‘All’s Well’ by Mona Awad
‘Bunny’ by Mona Awad
‘Prep’ by Curtis Sittenfeld
‘Stoner’ by John Williams
‘Normal People’ by Sally Rooney
‘Piranesi’ by Susana Clarke
‘The Great Gatsby’ by F Scott Fitzgerald
‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ by Oscar Wilde
‘Brideshead Revisted’ by Evelyn Waugh
‘Maurice’ by EM Forster
‘Ace of Spades’ by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
'Madam' by Phoebe Wynn
'The Great Gatsby' by F Scott Fitzgerald
'Catherine House' by Elisabeth Thomas
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to The Dark Academicals, the podcast where we delve into the mythos of dark academia, one book at a time.
I'm Sophie Waters.
And I'm Sarah Purnell.
Before we launch into the novels themselves, we're going to ask, what is dark academia? How do we define a dark academia book, while also considering broader categories, and books we consider dark academia adjacent. We're also going to look at the seminal texts, and these are the books that started it all. Plus the classic and ancient texts that help inform the genre. We'll also recognize the criticism surrounding dark academia. And finally, we'll discuss our aims and goals for The Dark Academicals. podcast.
It's really difficult to pin down a definition of dark academia as a literary genre, I think. Because recently, it's kind of become a bit more of an aesthetic than a literary genre.
Yeah, I don't think, I think at the minute, it's not particularly recognized anywhere really, other than people who know of the aesthetic or have read and liked that kind of book. And then they found that it kind of falls into this category of dark academia.
Yeah, absolutely. It's almost like a subculture in that way, like, which I think actually fits with, with the origins and with the vibes of dark academia, because it has influences from the 50s. It has influences from Shakespeare, and from ancient times, it's, it's kind of a cumulative genre that dumps everything together. But trusty old Wikipedia, states dark academia as "a social media aesthetic, and subculture concerned with higher education, writing, poetry, the arts, and classic Greek and Gothic architecture. The subculture is associated with ancient art and classical literature."* And I find it really interesting that that definition, put social media at the front of that definition, rather than literature, which was my introduction to it. And I think yours as well.
Yeah, I think I only kind of became more aware of it as an aesthetic on social media, because I was already interested in it from reading books, like 'The Secret History'.
Definitely. And I think over the course of the last couple of years, and throughout the pandemic, it's taken on its own life on social media in a way that it wasn't present before, than other in those pockets of literature.
Yeah, I mean, I don't think I don't think it's a coincidence that it took off during lockdown specifically. Like, I think it found a good home in younger audiences, from people who were facing long periods of isolation, their education was disrupted, and this hyper focus, almost like aggressive focus on online learning, and everything's online, and it's all technology focused, it's almost like a rebellion to be more interested in something that's often considered a dead subject, or a dead language.
Yeah, and I think also the consistent and the endless devaluing of arts by our government, by people who are in charge of university courses, and people who are in charge of giving people these jobs and funding this sector. Young people are living in the height of their passion projects, being undervalued and cut continually.
It's something that's just been brewing for a long, long time, because even when I was at school and doing A-levels and stuff like they, my school, my sixth form, and my secondary school moved from being, I can't remember what it was, but it turned into a Technology College. And so then, when I was picking my A-levels, there was a big emphasis on taking a route that would lead you in a science or technology subject rather than opting for the arts or, or, you know, English literature or language.
Yeah, my Sixth Form was the same, it was sports and science, but it also had a really strong academic background, and I could never understand how those two meshed in one place.
Yeah.
So I think like part of my choice of a university, which was you know, famous for its creative writing programs, particularly its Creative Writing for Young People program. It was such a, a nourishing environment for the arts, and I almost think it kind of shaped a bad example of how the world feels about literature because once you leave university the rest of the world isn't like that. And I think like dark academia kind of gives that space to kind of call back to the power of language and art and creation in a way that our society doesn't respect or allow in that space unless you are of a certain demographic.
Yeah. I mean, if we're gonna look at a timeline for dark academia, so we've got the release of The Secret History' in 1992, and I haven't looked at the numbers, but I feel like that if you compare that against, like declining funding and arts, it would just marry, I think it would match up.
Yeah, I agree. And obviously 'The Secret History' is set in America in the 80s, Donna Tartt herself was reflecting on her time at a small, elite, Humanities university, but they don't really exist in that way anymore, especially in the UK.
No, and I think as well, the 90s was the beginning of the internet, it was the beginning of online cultures, which have, for the most part, not been particularly kind to subjects like literature, or studying classics, or any kind of creative, if it's not digital, then it's not worthy.
And I think that's probably one of the reasons why millennials have that attachment to dark academia, because it's, it's an astounding and romantic view of a time when there was value in it and there was funding, and Gen Z, kind of, almost, are taking on that nostalgia for a time they never knew. Yeah, because they want it to be like that. And hopefully, like, the power of that will evoke some change when you know, when these kids are old enough to vote, when they're old enough to have that social say in how their society and education is run.
I mean, on the flip side, social media, for dark academia, TikTok has been pivotal, I think for its explosion, I think TikTok helped by Pinterest and Instagram. But it's just a strange, it's a strange combination of media for it to for something like, again, like even if it was even if it was, even if we're not talking about 'The Secret History', but we're looking at an older text or, you know, something like Sophocles, but it can somehow find a home of people on an app that got popular for doing dances. Like it's just a very strange coming together.
But I also think that in the TikTok space, it's not so much about the books, it's about the aesthetic. It's about the moody dark browns, and the blazers, and the high neck tops. I don't know what they're called. And the, you know, the skull on the desk. Yeah, I mean, and it's, it's that more than the book, so you get people talking about books, like The Secret History', but you don't get a depth.
I think that's the difference. You've got the on the one side, you've got people who are enamoured with the aesthetic, and then you've got people who are enamoured with the books. And you can be both, of course, but I think there's an preconception that you can't be one without the other. So you, if you're interested in dark academia, then you obviously must dress in a muted color palette that, you know, you'd rather be living in a musty library and curled up in a old leather chair in a corner somewhere, being a bit morose, and having an existential crisis.
Yeah, I think it kind of it plays into that aspirational personality rather than something that I read in dark academia is the power of education and learning and the joy and the freedom and the possibilities in that promise of change and of new futures and ideas and experiences. And I think that sometimes gets lost in translation in the new media approach to it. Yeah, I think because that that's where it sits for me and it is also a kind of a development from the campus novel, which was popular in the 50s. And, and since then, as well with 'Stoner' by John Williams, 'Prep' by Curtis Sittenfeld, which is one of my favourite novels, and some people even class 'Normal People' by Sally Rooney as a campus novel, which I think is really interesting, because it doesn't fit my idea of a campus novel, but I can also see it.
Yeah, there is something really alluring about that, about the campus novel, but also about just generally being at university or being at college. Because it is that pivotal moment, as you as an adult, coming into your own and discovering on your own, what you like, and your people. I think, I think what's what I like about dark academia is it feels like it regardless of how horrible the characters might turn out to be, it still feels like you've kind of found your people, these are people that, that champion learning and liking these things that aren't encouraged.
Yeah, but there's also an elitism in that.
Yeah, for sure. That's definitely it's very good criticism.
Yeah. It's, it's very, I mean, even in in the media aspect, it's very white, thin, middle-class, cis women, usually girls, that's the kind of, that's what you'd get from the genre, if you only knew it from the media side. And if you knew it from the literary side, it would be all of those things, but men, and rich.
Yeah.
So it's very kind of this real lack of racial diversity and homosexuality, and gender diversity is suppressed, and it's never celebrated and often fetishised actually, yeah. And that's something we're definitely going to end up talking about a lot with 'The Secret History' and some of the other titles we've got coming up, is this traditional set of privileged attributes in an elitist and expensive situation. And it kind of says that, actually, if this if you like literature and classics, this is the only option for you. If you don't go to Oxbridge or an Ivy League school, are you really interested in, in classics? Do you really like Shakespeare that much? Because that's what's expected of that type of interest. That's where that's supposed to go.
Yeah. And I think as well, like in, in the novels like, students that have scholarships, or are working alongside their education to pay for this, to be part of this club. There, it's almost scorned because they're working for this opportunity that's been handed to these other characters, because they feel they are entitled to it, and it's often pushed to the side and, or they actively try and hide, like Richard Papen in 'The Secret History'. Yeah, he doesn't tell anyone, everyone assumes he's rich. Doesn't he say he's like, from oil money or something?
Yeah.
And it's that kind of assumed prejudice almost against someone without money, because lots of these very conservative ideas of people at these elite universities like, well, if you don't have the money to be here, should you be here. And usually, and there's this, there's a quote from 'The Secret History', which for me, I think, encapsulates dark academia and the valid criticisms of it as well. It's, "it's better to know one book intimately than one hundred superficially"* and that kind of encapsulates the elitism and the pursuit of intense knowledge of one subject is, is a narrow, a narrow world and a hyper focus on one area of study, or an author or novel, that all of the characters in the story revolve around to the exclusion of everything and everyone else. And that also projects onto the type of characters and people that are allowed that hyper-focus because they don't have to worry about being employable. They don't have to worry about having something concrete to fall back on after they leave this bubble. And it's that putting something on a pedestal and revere revering it, to beyond its worth and to the detriment of everything else. So I think that that very short sentence in 'The Secret History' kind of covers everything about dark academia. And all of those criticisms are what make it interesting and worth talking about.
Yeah, I agree. There are some elements that I think you can pick out of a dark academia title that makes, makes kind of it more easy to spot one, like, I know usually when you pick up a dark academia title, you just know. But then when you're trying to explain to someone what it is about that book that makes it dark academia, I think I've got a few bullet points of like elements that I think are important. And they don't have, you don't have all of these elements, but I think that they need at least maybe three or four, for it to kind of ring true as dark academia.
It's a literary signpost kind of thing. Yeah.
I think the first one is definitely a higher education setting. I think the setting on campus is usually very elite or exclusive in some way. I don't know, can you have dark academia without it being set, at least partly on campus?
To me that wouldn't be dark academia I don't think and those settings are often quite isolated as well. Yeah, I think compounds the, the atmosphere, doesn't it?
I think also, I put old Gothic architecture, not necessarily, doesn't have to be old and Gothic, but there again, I think that adds to the mood of the book and it kind of imposes on the characters to the, I really enjoy it when it, when a setting kind of becomes a character in itself.
It almost hasn't weight in on the character, doesn't it? Like the history and the, the kind of level of acclaim of this institution that kind of, it physically hangs over the characters, doesn't it?
Yeah. Also a preoccupation with classical studies. So Latin and Greek, classical literature, philosophy. I think you probably can have a dark academia book without the characters, but usually they've got one kind of obsession, whether it even be for music or for art, there is some kind of creative or classic subject, or author, or individual obsession, I think.
Yeah, there's that focus that is like the heart of their academic life, isn't there?
Yeah, this one's really simple. Murder. There's always a murder. There's always, there's almost always there's been a murder. That was my terrible Taggert impression. But, yeah, I think, again, you can have dark academia without there being a murder or death or some kind of tragedy. But I think that kind of event happening can either compound or create this existential crisis that they then have to pick through in their current selves, like about their present life? Through the deaths usually of someone else?
Yeah. Usually being the cause of said death. Yeah. I know, they're not great people.
I put a dark, moody and/or haunting vibe, but I think a lot of that is created by the other elements. But I think there's usually something in the writing isn't there that it's quite, not necessarily solemn or morose or I don't know. There's a, there's a vibe.
Yeah. It's almost like a lyricism to it in that, in that way of old Gothic texts, isn't there?
Yeah. Definitely.
When you read a classic Gothic novel, you only need to read a few paragraphs to know that you are reading a Gothic novel.
That's true.
And I think it's the same with dark academia for me.
I put hero worship of a particular figure author, like I mentioned, with the preoccupation with classical studies, but I think this is more specific in the, it could be, I mean, for in 'The Secret History', they're obsessed with like this bacchanal, this Dionysian...
Rite.
Rite, ritual, but it's usually someone like Shakespeare, or Plato or someone like that, but they've kind of got this particular figure that they're almost obsessed with in a scary way. And then I've put old money, which will collide with new money or no money and whether it's blatant in your face, or it's just the fact that you've got someone who, usually it's someone who has come from not a lot coming up against people that have kind of had everything handed to them on a silver platter. To the juxtaposition of that, and one of my favourite things is weather as a literary device. Like, I love it when there's weather.
You just like the weather.
I love the weather.
It could be a, I think it immediately changes a scene or a mood, or it can change like a character's direction or what happens. And I, I just enjoy the weather.
Yeah, pathetic fallacy. Anyone who's done GCSE English in the UK, that is embedded in your brain.
Yeah. And then underdeveloped social skills, or the protagonist is portrayed as an outsider. So usually our protagonist is a little bit awkward. They don't quite fit in for one reason or another. Usually, that's because they don't have any money. And they're just they are that, I mean, they could be you. I mean, that I think that's what I always think when I'm reading it, the protagonist could be you. Like, it could be me. I'm not saying I'd want it to be, but it could be.
I think that kind of allows for you to project yourself onto that character, doesn't it? And I wonder if that's why these novels are so all encompassing. Yeah. Because there is room for you to put yourself into this story, isn't there? Yeah. Well, these stories,
I think, as someone that really, I mean, by the time I got to university, I was glad that the decisions that I made, but there is always a part of me that kind of wishes, that I could have gone to Oxford and studied something really pretentious. You know, like, there is that little part of me that wishes that that could have been me. And I suppose I can relive that through dork academia.
It's because it's sold to you as the ultimate, isn't it? Yeah. There's no bigger or finer achievement than that, even if actually, that environment sounds horrifically toxic. Yeah, I probably would have hated it, whereas I loved university.
Same.
But if I was somewhere else can't say I would have done because you never know do you?
No, that's true.
I think that leads us on nicely to discussing a few of the seminal texts of dark academia. And these are going to be featured throughout the podcast. So we're just touching on them for now. First, in all discussions of dark academia, is 'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt. It is the OG dark academia novel. And it was published in 1992. So it's 30 years old this year, like me, wow. Scary, scary stuff.
It's just it's the one, like it's everything, it, if I ever, it's the benchmark, isn't it of dark academia.
And I think that's what dark academia novels are always compared to. That's what they're set against. And your kind of like your signposts of dark academia, they're all in there. Yep. I mean, there's a long book so there's room, but they're all in there.
It's even got my weather.
It has also got the weather. And the weather is actually a powerful part of that story. And it drives it along quite a lot, which is something we may talk about in the coming weeks. So 'The Secret History' is set in the 1980s, and Richard Papen from California, he weasels himself into Hampden College, a very elite university in New England, where he kind of falls in with a very exclusive group of students, who are all under the influence of a very strange but charismatic classics professor, as they kind of, kind of go on to push the boundaries of morality really, and it kind of changes all of their lives forever, this one class at university. That is going to be our first book, which we will be discussing in two weeks. And we've both read it before and we're both very excited to revisit these, these psychos.
I mean that classics professor needs to be put in prison for one.
It's a miracle how he remained teaching, to be honest. But more on that in a couple of weeks.
I think. Then there's the other book that I think people always point to is 'If We Were Villains' by ML Rio.
Yes. Yeah, definitely. That was published in 2017. So that is a huge gap between those two novels and yet they are both seen as the benchmark. This one is again set at an elite college but focusing on a Shakespeare drama program and you find out at the very beginning that Oliver Marks who is our main character has just served 10 years in prison for the murder of one of his closest friends, a murder that he may or may not have committed. And the book is going back, yep, all very dramatic, goes back to this young actor studying Shakespeare, who gets very caught up in a interesting set of circumstances. And we find out what really happened, and it's fantastic. And it is eerily similar to 'The Secret History' in a lot of ways, but it's also very different. So it's a really interesting comparison to 'The Secret History'. And again, that will be I think, our second or third? Yeah, for the podcast.
Well, I'm probably gonna butcher his name, because so my English lecturer at university swore down that this was how you pronounced Aeschylus. However, I have since looked it up on the internet. And we all know how reliable the internet is. But the internet tells me that it's Aeschylus. Not not Aeschylus. So either way. He was a Greek dude. And he is known as the father of Greek tragedy. So I think it's one of the he's got some of the oldest surviving, like Greek tragedy plays, figuring features such as Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and all those kind of good Greek myths. And then there's also Sophocles who could have been Aeschylus' is contemporary, they're not entirely sure, but it was either written during the like, at the same time or slightly after. So we so there's big as, like Agamemnon and Ajax and Achilles and I think those figures probably resonate quite well, even today, especially with blokes for obvious reasons. Like there is a toxic masculinity element to a lot of Greek mythology. And I'm not entirely sure why people still want to pursue that as something for their own personality. You know, I think, yeah, there are like a lot of plays, you can interpret them in different ways, but I think what happens in, within dark academia especially, is that the characters seem to interpret things in ways that are quite destructive. So, you know, they take on like the more negative aspects of a character rather than exploring it with an open mind.
They also take permission from those texts. Like, well, if they did it 2000 years ago, it's totally fine. You're like, even if it's a myth, nope, it's totally fine. S'all good.
And then of course, we've got Mr. William Shakespeare.
Billy Shakes.
Oh, Billy Shakes, and I think, particularly plays like Hamlet or Othello , Titus Andronicus I think those are the ones that would resonate more strongly in a dark academia setting and some others, although what's that book that's coming out? There is a title that's coming out. I'm sure it's this year, isn't it? Where she is? A teacher doing something? 'All's Well', is that what it's called?
Yeah, Mona Awad?
Yeah.
That's based on 'All's Well That Ends Well', yes, college theatre director called Miranda Fitch. She is determined to put on Shakespeare's 'All's Well That Ends Well' and she faces a mutinous cast hell bent on staging 'Macbeth' instead and then three strange benefactors who have a strange knowledge of Miranda's past, their tantalising promise for her future, help her to put the play on to the detriment to everyone who is involved in the production. I doubt there'll be murder. Doesn't sound like it. Well, you never know. You never know. 'Bunny' was pretty weird. So who knows?
But yeah, William Shakespeare, obviously, turns up time and time again, more often than like the ancient Greek tragedians, and for good reason, because those plays you could read them every which way and upside down and you would still find a different meaning with them within them.
Yeah, there's a lot to draw from and a lot to interpret. And I think part of that is the language as well as, yeah, which helps and lots of kind of dark academia characters take on that language as almost a personality trait. Yeah, that comes up a lot in ‘If We Were Villains’.
Titles like 'All's Well' that are not necessarily dark academia, but what we might consider dark academia adjacent. Which maybe we should try and explain what we mean by dark academia adjacent.
Yeah, definitely, because that is gonna be a part of the podcast in the future.
Yeah. So I think there are some books that are, they have either informed dark academia in some way or had an influence on it. And you or I don't know, I find it. It's almost like a feeling. For me, personally, you just a book feels like it should be dark academia. However, it's not.
It's almost like they have another genre classification that's stronger. Yeah. So it falls under that instead. But it definitely has dark academia elements like 'Piranesi' by Suzanna Clark. Yes, that is a magical realism novel, but it is also very much dark academia. And that is going to be one of the books that we explore as a dark academia adjacent novel. We're also going to look at light academia.
With novels like 'The Great Gatsby', which I suppose on paper doesn't make sense as a dark academia novel. But if you ever read 'The Great Gatsby', it's got the right mood. It's got the right tone. There are a lot of similar concerns and issues, like with the protagonist and how he's portrayed.
Yeah, definitely in the same way as 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'. Yeah. And 'Brideshead Revisited' by Evelyn Waugh, and 'Maurice' by EM Forster. So, these are all texts that we are going to examine under the dark academia lens, and see how they fit and how they don't fit into the genre and how they kind of, I guess, accompany traditional dark academia texts, just to try and expand dark academia as a literary genre, rather than just leaving it in its pigeonhole of an aesthetic.
I think that leads us nicely on to talking more about the criticisms of dark academia. So what are some of the main criticisms of dark academia? I think the biggest clanger is the lack of racial diversity.
Absolutely. Yeah. It, I mean, when we were doing our research and the planning for the podcast, we obviously wanted to make sure that our reading list was as diverse as possible. I mean, obviously, because reading should be diverse, but also we so we were representing the genre as a whole. But we struggled to find any non-white written or led dark academia. The only one that I personally came across in my research was 'Ace of Spades', which is actually going to be a book in the first season of 'The Dark Academicals' so keep an eye out for that one. But beyond that, I struggled to find anything. I do wonder if that's because of the way that the social media aesthetic and the history of dark academia is so exclusionary in that way.
Yeah, it's a very white space. And it's still, I mean, it's set in very kind of elitist and expensive educational settings, which are still, I mean, it's still, it's something that really winds me up, that it's still something that is just mainly only accessible if you're white.
Yeah. And that's kind of has rundown of institutional racism in the UK, doesn't it really? It's, yeah, that's a difficult one to grapple with, but one that we are gonna kind of talk through and tackle with the books as we go through because it's, it's a big and an important topic, that we will and we will definitely continue to keep looking.
Yeah. And if anybody has any suggestions or recommendations that we can check out then they will be gladly received.
And I think that kind of leads on nicely to the exclusion, exclusionary nature of dark academia when it comes to sexuality. Yeah. Because there is a, there is definitely a bias towards straight cis men and women as the main characters and the main focus of these novels.
Gender diversity is like non-existent.
Yeah, absolutely. Which, although it's not acceptable or right, you would expect from the older texts, but continually surprises me with the more modern, modern texts. Yeah, same. And again, I think that has the same, a similar connotations in that it's actually instability. Yeah. And that kind of exclusionary space.
I think homosexuality or questions about sexuality are featured usually as, that, it's not featured in a way that's particularly celebrated, or that would normalise just the way that someone presents themselves. It's,
It's a mystery. Yeah. It's a plot twist.
It's used as a plot twist. And that's not right.
No. And even when it is present, it's not an obvious open sense of sexuality. It's all they could be, are they or not? Yeah, it's very fetishised in that way. That's definitely the case in 'The Secret History'. Yeah. And we will definitely be looking into that, because that is a whole minefield in that book. But even in 'If We Were Villains' too, and that's a modern novel. It was written in 2017 so that has a heavier weight to carry with that, because of the time that that was written in. And that that kind of theme runs through a lot of the, the modern dark academia novels. There is also a gender issue in terms of the people that are at the forefront of these novels are usually men.
Yes, it is a male dominated perspective.
But interestingly, most dark academia novels are written by women. And yes, still the character focus is on men.
Is that a reflection of, again, it's a poor reflection on these institutions that still, it's almost acceptable if you're male to go and study Latin but if you're female, what are you doing?
Yeah, I guess it's the legacy of those, those people in those areas of study that are idolised? Yeah, because as we've said, all of the Greeks we only have surviving stuff from men, presumably because the women weren't allowed to write. Yeah, essentially. Or weren't allowed to share, to share their creativity in that way. And Shakespeare, very male dominated. Yeah. And he was a man, you know, so I do wonder if it's, is that reflection of the source material? Any examples of non kind of straight sis characters in Shakespeare at all?
Unless you're well, if you're watching Romeo and Juliet by Baz Luhrmann.
Yeah, that's, oh, God, I love that movie.
I feel like I can trace my queer awakening to that to that. I think that's probably the case of a lot of people. Like 'ohh, this is how it is, okay'.
Seminal movie, that one. But yeah, I thought I find that kind of, that refusal to branch into those more open liberal spaces with the exploration of sex and sexuality and gender and race, like, in an environment where these characters are pursuing knowledge and learning and growth. They don't want to be pushed outside of their, their little zone of learning. You know, there's no, there's no space.
I mean, it's very Tory.
It is, it 100% is, yeah, and that kind of, once you say that you like, well, what else do you have to say? This is conservative ideals, while preaching liberalism, because they are in their little bubble, where the people around them are the exact same as them and are compounding those views. Basically, in those, in these dark academia worlds and settings, anything goes as long as you're all rich and straight and privileged and white, and you will agree to cover for each other. Because someone's got money to throw at it. Yeah. There's, there's no room for mistakes outside of those remits. There's no, there's a status quo; in the words of 'High School Musical', must stick to the status quo or you will be punished and ostracised by your peers.
And hopefully, as we dig further into dark academia, we will hopefully see that being broken down a little bit. With the more modern texts, I have tried to kind of balance it, we've got the classics, we've got classic classics, and the newer novels that were very much hoping I'm gonna push those boundaries of what a dark academia novel is.
So I suppose we should probably actually tell you a little bit about, about 'The Dark Academicals' and how this whole show is gonna go. We are going to be releasing a podcast episode, every two weeks, and there will be six titles in each season, we will have a short little break to recover, then we will be back with another six titles every one title every other week and that is how we will continue. And we can reveal our first six titles, if Sarah would like to do the honors.
So we have of course, 'The Secret History'. And then we have 'If We Were Villains', 'Ace of Spades', 'Madam', 'The Great Gatsby', and 'Catherine House'.
So six novels where you've got the obvious dark academia, you've got the less obvious dark academia, and then you've got 'The Great Gatsby' where I can feel you all going 'heh?'. And that fits into our dark academia adjacent and I think we're going to, we're going to have one one of those books, in each kind of season of the podcast
Books that make you go 'heh?'.
Yeah, exactly. So that is how it's going to run. In each episode, what we're going to try and achieve is to explore how the text matches up with our definition of dark academia, and how it also matches external ideas of what dark academia is, how it differs from both of those things. Obviously, our general thoughts, observations, likes, dislikes, all of those fun bits that bookworms like to talk about. We'll have a little bit of an academic section where we'll analyse elements, whether that's themes, literary devices, settings, quotes, really dig into the text as far as we can, use our university brains that have been put away for a while. And then we're also going to do a character close up, where we pick on a character not necessarily the protagonist, but a character among the ensemble, and kind of explore them more thoroughly as a character and their relation to dark academia. We will be doing that for every text in the podcast episodes.
Yes, we will.
So that's what you can expect from us in the upcoming episodes. Our first episode, based on a novel, will be 'The Secret History' by Donna Tartt, which will be on your listening devices in two weeks' time, and we hope you'll come back for more. Thanks for listening.
Bye!
