You Always Believed In Me, Man. Even, Even When I Didn’t Believe In Myself.

do i need to explain?

by ploypailin

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The Ultimate Dark Academia Book Recommendation Guide Ever

The title of this post is clickbait. I, unfortunately, have not read every book ever. Not all of these books are particularly “dark” either. However, these are my recommendations for your dark academia fix. The quality of each of these books varies. I have limited this list to books that are directly linked to the world of academia and/or which have a vaguely academic setting.

Dark Academia staples:

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Dead Poets Society by Nancy H. Kleinbaum

Vita Nostra by Maryna Dyachenko

Dark academia litfic or contemporary:

Bunny by Mona Awad

The Idiot by Elif Batuman

These Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever

White Ivy by Susie Yang

The Cloisters by Katy Hays

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman

A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Black Chalk by Christopher J. Yates

Attribution by Linda Moore

Dark academia thrillers or horror:

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides

Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella

Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

The It Girl by Ruth Ware

Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

Dark academia fantasy/sci-fi:

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Vicious by V.E. Schwab

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness

The Betrayals by Bridget Collins

Dark academia romance:

Gothikana by RuNyx

Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake

Dark academia YA or MG:

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

Crave by Tracy Wolff

Wilder Girls by Rory Power

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

Dark academia miscellaneous:

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou

Alphabet of Thorn by Patricia A. McKillip

I find it funny how people (antis usually) think that discourse regarding fiction and reality is a recent internet phenomenon. The terms "proshipper" and "antishipper" are relatively new, but the basis of it all has been going on for way longer than that.

In the novel "Madame Bovary" (1856) by Flaubert, the anxiety that readers, specifically women, would be brainwashed by fiction is channeled by Bovary herself, who "made her hands dirty with books from old lending libraries". With the "books" in question being romance novels, Flaubert not so subtly implies that works of fiction are the reason why Bovary ends up idealising her idea of love to the point that she commits acts of adultery in attempt to escape a reality that had become monotonous as a result of her novel reading.

Even in "Northanger Abbey" (1817) by Jane Austen, the protagonist, Catherine Morland, has a warped sense of reality, and it is said that it's because of her love for Gothic novels. Different from Flaubert though, who seemed to discourage women from reading romance novels altogether, a major plot point of Austen's novel is how Catherine needs to learn how to separate fiction from reality, meaning that a good relationship with novels can be achieved if only they aren't seen as a blueprint for living life. She also mocks her fellow authors who belittle their own readers while still publishing the books they strive to censor, and blames the reader's ability to differentiate fiction from reality, rather than the novel genre itself.

While terminology might have changed, the topic has remained about the same at the bare essentials, which are perfectly reflected in what both antishippers and proshippers argue about on the regular. The former believing that fiction affects reality on a 1:1 basis and that problematic elements must be identified as such so not to brainwash the reader into romanticising them, while the latter sees a distinction between fantasy and action, thinking that it's not the piece of fiction that perpetuates misconduct, but that the responsibility lies within the reader and their discretion.

The fact that this discourse now happens online rather than in the novels you study in class, does not take away any validity from it. Fandom spaces and ships are treated no differently than how novels were in the 19th century, with antis doing anything they can to censor whatever they deem to be problematic, as they fear that readers may glorify the (fictional) abuse irl, similarly to how Victorians censored works in order to "shelter" women.

At the end of the day, it's not only about being an antishipper or a proshipper, it's whether you consider yourself to be pro censorship or pro artistic freedom, and there's simply no other way to put it.

How to Stop Procrastinating: ENTP Style

THIS CAN APPLY TO EVERYONE NOT JUST ENTPS. SO READ IF YOU WANT THESE GOOD BUT KIND OF LENGTHY TIPS ON BEATING PROCRASTINATION.

1. Balance your work and fun time PROPERLY

It’s funny because in a schedule of work and fun time, it’s always the fun time bit people mess up. You see, when people actually sit down and work, it’s very high intensity work in which they get a lot done. But then they feel mentally exhausted and need a rest, and that is where they mess up.

What they indulge in is something called low density fun, in order to give their minds a break. These are things like surfing the net, randomly scrolling through Tumblr, watching pointless videos on Youtube, etc. Basically something that isn’t much fun at all. And because it only gives their brains a small amount of fun, they’ll continue doing it for the rest of the day to rewind from the hard work they were doing before. And bam, the entire day wasted with only a tiny bit of work completed.

So the way to stop this is simple, replace the low density fun with high density fun. High density fun includes going to the mall, hanging out with friends, reading a book, playing a video game you really like, going to the gym, park, movies, etc. You get the picture? High density fun is what you find REAL fun, not mindlessly passing hours on the internet.

So in order to stay productive throughout the day, after finishing a portion of your work for that day, do NOT log onto Tumblr and start scrolling aimlessly. Because you won’t get enough fun from just that and will have to continue for hours in order to feel somewhat fulfilled from such low density fun. Instead meet up with your friends, go out or read/watch something that you’ll really enjoy. You’ll find that after resting properly with something you really enjoy, you’ll feel way more recharged to tackle the other work you have to do.

But by all means, if you’ve finished your work for the day, low density fun is a great way to unravel. Just keep in mind that that once you start scrolling aimlessly or clicking random youtube videos, you’re probably not going to stop. However, if you’ve gotten all your work done for the day, that doesn’t matter!

Hopefully that made a little sense. If you want to learn more though, I recommend checking out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efr9II6mS3I

2. Work in a public environment e.g. a library, coffee shop, park, etc

Basically, just try to avoid isolating yourself in your room the entire day studying. If you’re an extrovert, seriously, go to a library or coffee shop with other people in it and study. Trust me, even if you’re not talking to anybody, you’ll feel so much more energised just being around other people.

And if you’re an introvert, that’s no excuse for you not to get out of your bedroom. Isolation is great but hauling up in your bedroom cramming for hours is not. Go outside and get some fresh air for a change. Your garden or even a park has such a peaceful and relaxing environment to get work done.

Even study sessions with friends are great since it makes studying fun and interesting which is the aim here. You have a desk in your bedroom for a reason but it is okay to leave it when desired and study in more cheerful places.

3. Competition

For the first few weeks of this term, I barely did any studying. My tests are still quite a while away and so normally I would have procrastinated and started studying closer to the time. Yet since last week, I’ve managed about 1-4 hours of studying everyday.

Last week was also when I downloaded this app called Forest: https://itunes.apple.com/au/app/forest-stay-focused-be-present/id866450515?mt=8

Now although Forest costs money to download, it was 100% worth it since it’s EXTREMELY helpful. 3 dollars is about the price of a hot chocolate, so don’t just disregard it because it costs a little money. I’m not saying this app will work for everyone but I’m saying there’s a chance it might work for you. Yet you’ll never know if you won’t try it.

So anyway, after downloading the app I did some studying but not much. What really motivated me was when my highly competitive friend downloaded the app too. Suddenly I was up until 12am, studying and studying. I would think I had beaten her before checking my phone to see that in reality she beaten me. The competition made us extremely motivated to work longer but also made things entertaining as well.

This made me realise how competition really does work miracles depending on the person and if the competition is done with the right people. Even if Forest doesn’t work well for you, that shouldn’t stop you from making studying competitive. Challenge the smartest person you know to get higher marks then you on a test. Challenge your friends to see who does the most hours of studying when they get home. Once again, it depends on your nature and the natures of the people you challenge but if done correctly, competition can make even studying tons of fun.

now that it’s the first month of Christmas, i will be referring to todoroki as The Peppermint Prince indefinitely and no one can stop me

moodboard: nb lithromantic laurel lance

Trans 1-A Boys for #TransDayofVisibility

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