Dark Academia #2: The Dangers of Romanticising Upper-Class Education

harry potter and the curse of the aesthetic girlies

In my last newsletter, I compared two popular Dark Academia novels, The Secret History by Donna Tartt and If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio.

My major gripe with The Secret History was that it hilariously flaunts this faux self-awareness about rampant classism and nepotism in academia, while contradicting itself with inaccessible writing and looooong, decontextualised soliloquies on hyper-niche subjects that lay readers are expected to understand.

But ok, what exactly is Dark Academia (DA) in the first place, and why do I have beef with it?

Let me explain.

For the uninitiated, a cursory search of “dark academia” on Google or Pinterest will pull up sepia-toned mood boards of marble busts in old libraries, rain-slick Gothic buildings, and many, MANY disembodied hands.

Imagery includes perpetually empty museums, sweater vests, and studying Poe by candlelight at 3 AM (because your eyesight is a small price to pay for sublime aesthetics). Basically, it’s a subculture that involves recreating the life of an Oxbridge liberal arts student in the 1950s.

Because it’s so visually reliant, DA is most prominently featured in films and books set in a period when technology was not yet a thing, and characters had to rely on pure intellect to get by (think The Imitation Game, Kill Your Darlings, and Dead Poets Society). Because despite having its roots in social media, Dark Academia is, very ironically, all about the archaic and analogue.

Take Harry Potter, for example. Despite being set in the 90s, the wizarding folk still use owls as their primary form of communication. Hogwarts was also lit exclusively with torches, and modern Muggle inventions are mostly viewed as strange and foreign; undesirable. (Let’s not mention how they could’ve easily won both Wizarding wars with guns.

Btw I’m going to mention HP a fair bit in this, so I’ve decided to make it the overall theme. Bear with me.

Anyway, this departure from — or even distaste for — modern technology alludes to a time when social media did not exist, and ideal entertainment usually included going outside to play, explore, and connect with nature.

As such, one can say Dark Academia is quite ‘Romantic’ in essence (as in the literary and artistic movement). But therein lies its major flaws.

Putting the ‘dark’ in Dark Academia

Romanticism started in the late 18th century as an answer to industrialisation, and is by no means a transient phenomenon at all. Characterised by avoidance of science and rejection of the machine, the movement has produced some of the most breathtaking artistic works in history, and continues to inspire authors, poets, and artists to this day.

However, this glorification of the past can lead to resistance against progress. When taken at surface value, and applied haphazardly in the 21st century, what was once an innocent appreciation for aesthetics can take on a whole new (and rather ugly) face.

In the same vein, there are certain certain damaging notions in Dark Academia that masquerade behind a façade of pretty words and tortured intellectuals. Notions like… preserving certain schools’ commitment to traditional values and hierarchies, and bureaucratic education systems founded on elitism and a ton of other -isms.

I’m not going to lie, as someone obsessed with books and classic literature, I was drawn to Dark Academia more than Ezra Miller to crime. As a bookworm, why would I NOT want to romanticise old libraries??

Lemme get a quick disclaimer out of the way: It’s not wrong to like how something looks or identify with a specific outward appearance. But certain aesthetics have dodgy ideas behind them that need to be examined.

So, let’s try and peel back Dark Academia’s pretty wallpaper to see where the genre can go wrong.

Harry Potter & The Problem With Aesthetics — when appreciation of beauty is taken too far

Ok, for research purposes, tell me: Which of these two schools would you rather go to?

Option A is the University of Glasgow, and Option B is the University of Warwick. Proponents of Dark Academia will likely choose Option A. The reason for this, IMO, goes beyond a preference for architectural design.

In Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology: Studies in the Interaction of Expression and Culture, Walter J. Ong wrote:

A typical manifestation of romanticism on which we have focused is interest in the remote, the mysterious, the inaccessible, the ineffable, the unknown.

While some DA peeps do actually study and have a genuine interest in the humanities subjects that inspired the aesthetic, most are drawn in by its melancholy, otherworldly exteriors: sprawling Gothic compounds, vast museums, and unending bookshelves overflowing with ancient tomes for your perusing pleasure.

Often opulent and secluded, these locations are surrounded by an air of mystery and fantasy that engender a desire to escape this material world; to be transported to an alternate reality where freedom to indulge in passion for the arts is not just encouraged, but an expected way of life, and the lucrativeness and practicality of jobs are secondary.

There are two fundamental problems with this:

Firstly, unless you’re a trust fund baby, not everyone can afford NOT to care about where their next meal will come from.

Secondly…

Aesthetics are what they are: aesthetics

DA is all about serving your hottest tweed jacket lewks while quoting Shakespeare’s sickest lines. But this can also mean that people are falling in love with an affectation, which is not necessarily an accurate representation of reality.

Often, these exclusive institutions are positioned as the ONLY outlet to acquire otherwise unattainable knowledge. The arts are the ONLY medium through which the secrets of the human condition can be divined, and its students are the ONLY people who can divine them.

Here’s the ‘protagonist’ of The Secret History, Richard, worshipping his Greek professor (who does fuck all in the story btw):

For if the modern mind is whimsicle and discursive, the classical mind is narrow, unhesitating, relentless. It is not a quality of intelligence one encounters frequently these days. But though I can digress with the best of them, I am nothing in my soul if not obsessive.

Like, shut up lol.

The concept that schools are the sole locus of education may have been true half a century ago, but not in this glorious Age of Information (all hail the Holy Trinity: CrashCourse, OverSimplified, and Wikipedia /j). But seriously, why the hate for the Internet? It has transformed the education paradigm, and is one of the primary reasons people who had no prior access to education can now receive quality lessons!

On top of that, protagonists in DA film and media are often portrayed either as good-looking and rich, or as lonely outsiders with a subconscious desire to be accepted into these exclusive friend groups and societies — and when they finally do, achieve some kind of transcendence from their SAD BORING plebeianism.

These authors do everything they can to sell their shiny portraits of academia and mysticism through art. This can be a good thing, right? It would encourage people to pursue higher education, to search for knowledge, and we can all become smarter together! 😃👍🏻

Well, yes. But again, NOT an accurate portrayal of reality. One of these lies includes purposely not showing the academic rigour involved in university-level education, the sleepless nights, the “fuck I hate my life when will this nightmare end” moments.

Youtuber and philosophy student R.C. Waldun recounts a conversation with a first-year literature student who was ready to drop out because her university experience did not meet preconceived expectations.

To be fair, romanticising the superficial aspects of higher education goes way back. I mean, the architecture of some American colleges was intentionally modelled after the old European universities, ffs! This answers why schools are only seen as desirable when they look a certain way: aesthetics, aesthetics, AESTHETICS.

That said, it’s not entirely the fault of these authors. Some onus lies upon us readers to remind ourselves that the material we’re consuming is fictional, and to do proper research instead of basing life-changing decisions purely on ✨vibes and aesthetixx✨.

Speaking of studying, we need to talk about…

Harry Potter & The Chambers of BS — we’re gatekeeping education… why?

You’ve heard people boasting about being from Harvard or Oxford. At risk of invalidating their hard work and intellect, I have to ask: Why do we perceive these schools as being better than others?

Historically, elite private colleges such as Oxbridge and the Ivy Leagues have reserved places for rich white men or nepo babies who paid their way in. Until recently, entry into top universities like Oxbridge, the Ivy Leagues, and even high schools like Eton College was barred by exorbitant fees.

Opportunities were closed off from the middle and lower class, who may have the smarts but not the financial means, which widened the education gap. At the same time, the offending brand-name schools were catapulted to Olympian status. And because of this unspoken rule of “ONLY SPESHUL PEOPLE ALLOWED”, they become echo chambers for the same racist, elitist, homophobic values to bred and spread, like rot from within, and the vicious cycle continues (some scenes from The Riot Club still make me sick to this day).

These institutions have since done away with these requirements by providing financial support and bursaries. But in true Romanticism spirit, many DA books insist on preserving these elements by continuing to promote exclusivity, gatekeeping of education, and old-world grandeur, all to sell some warped, fabricated storybook experience.

And alas, Dark Academia ironically becomes the antithesis of its own message.

Harry Potter & The Whitie Tighties — sexism and white-washing is not it

Be it movies or books, DA is white-washed from mussed hair to Oxford-shoed toes, and even the subjects and materials they study, which are all historically European or Anglo-Saxon. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a Dark Academic reading Li Bai or Kalidasa, I can tell you that.

Most stories also centre around male characters (e.g. The Secret History; Kill Your Darlings). Female characters usually serve as the token ‘unattainable object of beauty and fascination (e.g. Sybil, Picture of Dorian Gray); or the overbearing girlfriend that everybody secretly dislikes (e.g. Marion, The Secret History; Edie Parker, Kill Your Darlings) — likely so they can be elegised and compared to beautiful but wrathful Greek goddesses. Even If We Were Villains, which I praised for tackling the genre better than most, is culpable for this with the character of Meredith.

Some might be accurate representations their time period and setting (e.g. Dead Poet’s Society’s male-dominant cast makes sense because it takes place in an all-boys prep school), but many modern entries still portray women having secondary roles in an academic setting — if at all.

In Harry Potter, Hermione is constantly mocked for being a ‘smart-arse’. Yet, she is always the one cleaning up the boys’ messes. Lauren from The Riot Club is looked down upon and treated horrendously because she comes from a working-class family despite earning her place at Oxford, and is even sexually assaulted by the boys.

Of course, I’m not saying all subcultures and genres have to cater to every single earth-dweller out there, and these may be ‘just films and books’, but I’ve always believed not to underestimate the influence of fiction in real life. DA books and films too often go beyond just visual aesthetics — elitism, intellectual snobbery, hedonism, racism, and Eurocentrism are the cruces of many narratives. This erasure of minorities’ perspectives in academic settings undermines the scholastic achievements of not just women, but also that of the LGBTQ community and people with disabilities, making it even harder for them to get past existing barriers to entry.

It’s all Oscar Wilde’s fault

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein are seen by some as the archetypal DA novels. They share many plot similarities and themes with their modern-day contemporaries, such as groupthink, handsome, greedy youth, and intellectual endeavours gone too far, which often culminate in unspeakable consequences or crimes.

The common consensus between them seems to be: An interminable pursuit of beauty, knowledge, and lordship over those perceived to be ‘beneath’ never ends well. This can be a positive message, if you can wade through all the affectatious bullshit. It is a reminder not to get ahead of oneself, to dampen the hubris of academic intellect and pursuits. Basically, calm tf down bro.

However, the fact remains that these books and films are sometimes not able to achieve that nuance necessary to distinguish between cautionary tale and lionising the perpetrators, which is unforch because I’m so here for the revival of prep ☹️

I’ve yet to come across an actual Dark Academia book that is free from the genre’s toxic conventions, since they are too integral and interwoven into its narrative fabric. BUT! I do admit some are better executed than others.

Dead Poets Society does a wonderful job at extolling the beauty of humanities and liberal arts, which are often seen as unlucrative career paths. Frankenstein more-than-adequately rolls out the consequences of playing god. Rope pokes holes in Nietzschean philosophy, demonstrating that intellect and privilege can only get you so far. It’s also a ton of fun due to its singular location and whip-smart dialogue.

If you’re still interested in checking out some Dark Academia books and films, here are some of my favourites, mostly for their pure entertainment value:

Books

Alone With You In The Ether by Olivie Blake
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio
The Harry Potter series by Dobby
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
The Sorrows of Young Werther by Wolfgang von Goethe

Films

Colette (2018)
Dead Poets Society (1989)
Kill Your Darlings (2013)
Mary Shelley (2017)
Rope (1948)
The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)
The Dreamers (2003)
The Imitation Game (2014)
The Riot Club (2014)
The Theory Of Everything (2015)
Tolkein (2019)

If you have any other recommendations, please tell me — I’d love to check them out!