A Friend I Recently Made Sat Down With Me For Supper Today And Asked If I’ve Read The Secret History

Dead Poets Society and Mental Illness

I realise that this may come at a sensitive time due to the tragic and heartbreaking death of Robin Williams through depression and suicide, but I’ve had this on my mind for a long time, and I want to write it out to clear my head of it.

Todd and Social Anxiety. At the start of the film (and less so throughout) Todd is a very anxious, jittery fellow, who refuses to read poetry in front of other people, stammers a little and remains very quiet. These are all classic signs of Social Anxiety Disorder.

Neil and Bipolar Disorder. One minute, Neil is playing Puck and is so incredibly happy. The next, he is dead. Although Bipolar disorder generally takes longer than that to change between stages, some people do report that their Bipolar Disorder can se over a day or two. Just look at the rest of the film: Neil is either wildly passionate and reckless (eg. throwing the desk set over the bridge) or he is utterly blank and quiet (eg. when with his parents after the performance). I think he had, to some extent, Bipolar Disorder.

Charlie and Depression. Throughout the film, Charlie presents himself as a reckless, happy and funny character. However, I feel like he had depression. He was so reckless and unconsciously attention-seeking that he pulled that phone prank, consequences be damned, just for that tiny bit of attention. He cried when he told Todd of Neil’s death. He appears so internally broken in some scenes (“Damn it Neil, the name’s Nuwanda.” coming to mind) that I can’t help but think he was depressed. Due to his reckless and impulsive behaviours, I feel like Neil’s death would have shocked and damaged him as much as Todd, if not more. I mean, he punched a sneak knowing that he would be expelled. He had given up. Another sign of depression.

Access to safe abortion is a woman’s right.

And abortion is a decision to be made between a woman, her doctor, her family, and her god.

...Not a majority white male cohort of politicians with a false sense of morality.

And your judgement?

It matters not.

<end>

No words

Modern dead poets society except Meeks and Cameron compete every school year to see who can get the better grades

friend: you look stressed me: haha yeah it’s the stress

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tiktok comments i think school spirits characters would use

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fun words :

bastard

scoundrel

charlatan

harlot

rapscallion

hooligan

ruffian

swindler

plebeian

blasphemy

Sharpay diem, boys. Seize the day. Make your lives fabulous.

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This is a hot take but the first Narnia movie is better than the book. I would strongly suggest it!!

Its the way Ben barnes makes me feel like I am 6 and watching prince caspian for the first time and everything is right in the world. Also...we do love dark eyes in this household.

DARK EYES? yes. like Sean Baggerstaff’s and RSL’s just make me rtfghjkl

also I have never watched Narnia is it good

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Sophie’s Exhaustive Dark Academia List

For a while now, since my dark academia rec list was such an unexpected success, I’ve wanted to create a list of all the dark academia books I’m personally aware of, regardless of whether I have already read them, as sort of a resource for the community. I have now done just that!

The titles in bold are the ones I have read. The ones I would especially recommend (which, okay, yeah, are almost all of the ones I’ve read) are in bold and italics. Note that this doesn’t mean I loved absolutely everything about the recommended book, just that I think it was good or worth reading overall. 

If anybody is aware of a dark academia read that didn’t make the list, please leave a comment and I’ll update the list! Thank you! And thank you to everyone who has already recommended titles to me, helping me compile this list! :)

Also, just to be clear: My personal definition of dark academia would be a story that is set at a school or university or focuses heavily on academia otherwise (maybe the characters are in a secret book or debate club, discuss academic topics, something like that) and in which something bad or dark happens. This could be a crime (violent or non-violent), an accidental death, something supernatural going on… Note: Some of the books on the list (meaning of those I haven’t read) might only fit a looser definition of dark academia, e.g. maybe they have a dark subject matter and include some intellectual elements, even if the setting isn’t actually an academic institution. 

And now, without further ado, enjoy!! As I said, I hope this will be a good resource for the dark academia community! And I want to update this list regularly so that it’s as exhaustive as possible! :)

A Beautiful Doom (Laura Pohl)

Academy Gothic (James Tate Hill)

Ace of Spades (Faridah Abike-Ayimide)

A Fatal Inversion (Barbara Vine)

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (Holly Black)

A Great and Terrible Beauty (Libba Bray)

A Lesson in Vengeance (Victoria Lee)

An Education in Ruin (Alexis Bass)

A Question of Holmes (Brittany Cavallaro)

A Separate Peace (John Knowles)

As Good As Dead (Holly Black)

A Student of History (Nina Revoyr)

A Study in Charlotte (Brittany Cavallaro)

All Summer in a Day (Ray Bradbury)

As I Descended (Robin Talley)

Bad Habits (Amy Gentry)

Black Chalk (Christopher J. Yates)

Brideshead Revisited (Evelyn Waugh)

Bunny (Mona Awad)

Cat Among the Pigeons (Agatha Christie)

Catherine House (Elisabeth Thomas)

Different Class (Joanne Harris)

Dismantled (Jennifer McMahon)

D.O.G.S. (M. A. Bennett)

For Your Own Good (Samantha Downing)

F.O.X.E.S. (M. A. Bennett)

Gaudy Night (Dorothy L. Sayers)

Gentleman and Players (Joanna Harris)

Girlhood (Cat Clarke)

Give Me Your Hand (Megan Abbott)

Good Girl, Bad Blood (Holly Black)

Good Girls Lie (J. T. Ellison)

Hex (Rebecca Dinerstein Knight)

House of Leaves (Mark Z. Danielewski)

How We Fall Apart (Katie Zhao)

If We Were Villains (M. L. Rio)

In My Dreams I Hold A Knife (Ashley Winstead)

Kill All Your Darlings (David Bell)

Killing November (Adriana Mather)

Miss Pym Disposes (Josephine Tey)

Murder Scholastic (Janet Caird)

Ninth House (Leigh Bardugo)

Party Girls Die in Pearls (Plum Sykes)

Peace Breaks Out (John Knowles)

People Like Us (Dana Mele)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (Joan Lindsay)

Private (Kate Brian)

Shadow of the Lions (Christopher Swann)

Sleepwalking (Meg Wolitzer)

Special Topics in Calamity Physics (Marisha Pessl)

S.T.A.G.S. (M.A. Bennett)

Summer Sons (Lee Mandelo)

The Basic Eight (Daniel Handler)

The Bellweather Revival (Benjamin Wood)

The Book and the Brotherhood (Iris Murdoch)

The Case for Jamie (Brittany Cavallaro)

The Club (Takis Würger)

The Deceivers (Kristen Simmons)

The Devil Makes Three (Tori Bovalino)

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks (E. Lockhart)

The End of Mr. Y (Scarlett Thomas)

The Furies (Katie Lowe)

The Furies (Natalie Haynes)

The Girls Are All So Nice Here (Laurie Elizabeth Flynn)

The Hand on the Wall (Maureen Johnson)

The Ivies (Alexa Donne)

The Lake of Dead Languages (Carol Goodman)

The Last of August (Brittany Cavallaro)

The Lessons (Naomi Alderman)

The Likeness (Tana French)

The Lying Game (Ruth Ware)

The Maidens (Alex Michaelides)

The Mary Shelley Club (Goldy Moldavsky)

The Night Climbers (Ivo Stourton)

The Orchard (David Hopen)

The Secret History (Donna Tartt)

The Secret Place (Tana French)

The Shadow Year (Hannah Richell)

The Swallows (Lisa Lutz)

The Truants (Kate Weinberg)

The Vanishing Stairs (Maureen Johnson)

The Wave (Morton Rhue)

The Wishing Game (Patrick Redmond)

The Wyndham Case (Imogen Quy)

The Year of the Gadfly (Jennifer Miller)

These Violent Delights (Micah Nemerever)

They Never Learn (Layne Fargo)

They Wish They Were Us (Jessica Goodman)

T.I.G.E.R.S. (M. A. Bennett)

Truly Devious (Maureen Johnson)

Trust Exercise (Susan Choi)

White Ivy (Susie Yang)

Without Anette (Jane B. Mason)

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