What's the deal with these "Dark academia" types? Are people like this actually capable of viewing literature as a serious art form or is it just another means for them to support the aesthetic they are trying to create for themselves?
You don't coordinate your outfits to the vibe of the book you're reading? Eurgh, uggo. When me and the besties read, it's always in designer.
>>23617583If I’m being charitable, I’m sure that some of these losers actually do care about books and edification and shit. That said, the vast majority are just obsessed with the trappings of knowledge in the same way that certifiably middle class people have become obsessed with the “old money” “”aesthetic.””It’s a fantasy, it’s fashion, it’s something people are selling. Even smart people are susceptible to such things.
I’m sure some of them are genuine, but the vast majority of them are Harry Potter-brained millenials and late-stage zoomers who got sorted into Ravenclaw by an online quiz and never recovered.
Think about this: you are a middle class teenager raised in post-recession end of history neoliberal USA. You hear stories of child prodigy coders and entrepeneurs (Gates, Zuckerberg) making the world their oyster as soon as they drop out of college. There is much opportunity but much potential alienation and instability in this post-industrial economy. High schools are shoving you down the college pipeline and your sales department parents who did well for themselves in the internet boom white collar age are going to frown upon you if you choose any alternative. What have you been for most of your life? A student. What is the short term path ahead of you looking like? Being a college student. What has been the one constant since you were born? Being a student. You have no choice but to feel an incredible sense of security and comfort from the routines of academic living. The only missing equation is the mystery, adventure, and escape from authority that academic environments so often suppress yet encourage. This is where the cocktail of dark academia burgeons. A chance to wallow in your slightly above average intellect and work ethic (study ethic more like) while also expressing your need for rampant individuality and mystery in the form of the murder, treasure, secret societies, etc. And since this is the 21st century and the age of interpolating old art and media, all of this is going to take a gothic form.
>>23617657This is the best answer in this thread, thank you
>>23617657Your description of the lifelong student is spot-on for my own experience, and I graduated college a decade ago. This "dark academia" fad didn't exist when I was in school but I more than likely would've adopted it, if it had. I was a literature major and liked to style myself as a "scholar". The sort of person who liked to be seen reading weighty books in public. I did own a tweed jacket, leather messenger bag, and brown leather shoes, so I may have been ahead of the times despite thinking myself behind them.
>>23617583It's not just an aesthetic, it's a lifestyle.
>>23617583White boy thing. I don't give a fuck.
>>23617718The "lifestyle" is being a pretentious poofter in public.
>>23617583The women look cute on this shit. The men like wimpy faggots fr
>>23617583>Dude what's with all these "skinhead" types? Are these people even capable of viewing white supremacy as a serious ideology or is it just another means for them to support the aesthetic they are trying to create for themselves?
>>23617718I got this joke and laughed.
>>23617734lol
>>23617657Not even into the dark academia thing and I feel called out.
>>23617657btfo
>>23617583>"Dark academia" typesWomen and homosexuals. /Thread
>>23617718Heh.
>im somewhat of a marxist myself
>>23617657Dark academia sisters... Is it over?
>>23617583Larp for adult children who want to live in a world of intellectual Harry Potter
>>23617583It's just prep in dark, natural hues, anon. That's all there is to it. They're just clothes.
>>23617583How is this any different from standard dress or office clothes? Regular people are all so obsessed with aesthetics, much more morbidly than any artist could ever hope to be. The aesthetics of being a man, stronk cars sportsball beer dude stronk. The aesthetics of war, tango delta mango chungus operation copperhead I habe a BIG ol gun I tell ya boy that smell of napalm I tell ya stand attention and salute in your pretty uniform boy. The aesthetics of this or that culture very important legacy thousand years of pretty dresses we wear very specific yes how we love the mood and the feel of them. Enough to kill? The aesthetics of all the subcultures how seductive they are, life wasted for rocking slacking but at least I'm looking cool. How obsessed with image and mood can you be? The entire planet like this.
>>23617583It thought this was the same thing as the Dark Enlightenment. Moldbug wouldn't be seen dead in that.
>>23617583It's literally just a plot to bang art hoes. Kinda like dandies in the 19th century but far less based. And dandies were actually good writers (Barbey d'Aurevilly, Baudelaire, Wilde etc.)
