#Society for the Study of Surrealism

[zoomdigitaltv]

Leonora Carrington deslumbra en París: mujer surrealista en su máxima expresión

“TALISMANES DE UN VIAJE SAGRADO”: 70 años de arte personal de Leonora Carrington celebrados en los festejos del Centenario del Surrealismo en París. Esta exposición, presentada por el Consejo Leonora Carrington, transformó la Galerie Sator en un santuario mágico del surrealismo. Creada por Fermín Llamazares, con la organización de Laurent Doucet, la Maison André Breton y el Centre International…

[trans-axolotl]

(Described in alt text)

okay I don’t always share photos of me on here but I graduated!!!! despite everything that happened in college (a year of online school, getting institutionalized for four months, almost getting kicked out of my university, becoming homeless, becoming a wheelchair user in the middle of writing my thesis, getting arrested halfway through my senior finals, etc etc etc) I still did it and I actually cannot fucking believe it. graduated magna cum laude with honors for my thesis, got inducted into two academic honor societies, and won the Dean’s award for commitment to social Justice.

I am so fucking grateful for everyone who helped this happen, especially to my comrades and fellow seniors who disrupted grad events with me.

when I was 18 one of the reasons I got diagnosed with psychosis was because I told the psychiatrist that I had just got accepted to university and he didn’t believe me. he told me I was severely mentally ill (true lmao) that I would never be able to live outside of an institution (less true) and that there was no way someone like me had been accepted to college, so the only explanation was that I was delusional. I wish I still had his contact info so that I could send him my diploma as a fuck you. a large part of why I graduated was BECAUSE of my schizoaffective and how that’s shaped me, the community I’ve found, the topics I chose to study, the way my mind works and builds connections. it feels deeply surreal to have actually graduated university as one of only two wheelchair users at my university and as part of the 1% of college students who have psychosis. most of the people in my family did not have the opportunity to attend college and it still does not feel real to me.

fuck my university and fuck admin for not divesting and fuck the discrimination I’ve experienced here over the years. I finished and I’m so fucking happy that I don’t have to come back!!!

[maxdibert]

Lately, I've been thinking about the possible descendants of Severus. In fanfics that talk about Severus being a father, they always show him raising a wizard boy or a witch girl, and that's great—it's entertaining to see him raising a magical child. But what if the child didn’t have magic?

Imagine Severus marrying a Muggle; there’s a high probability he could have a Squib child since Severus’s father was also a Muggle. The combination of his father's Muggle blood and his wife's might result in a Squib child.

If that were the case, I imagine the child would grow up as a Muggle, knowing about the magical world, of course, but still being just another Muggle in society. If the child were a wizard, I suppose their education—both academically and culturally—would be guided by Severus since he’s the only one in the family familiar with the magical world. However, if the child were a Squib, their upbringing would likely lean more toward the Muggle side, guided by their Muggle mother. Without magic, they’d need to integrate into Muggle society. So, I imagine their education, sense of humor, way of speaking, clothing, and everything else would be influenced by Muggle culture. Once they grew up, it would be evident that they were raised in the Muggle world, for example, the clothes young wizards and young Muggles wear are very different. (It’s highly unlikely that a 20-year-old Muggle would choose to wear robes to a party they were invited to.)

I really enjoy thinking about the cultural differences between wizards and Muggles. It’s so fascinating—the technology, the fashion, the humor, the way they speak and interact. It’s interesting to reflect on how wizards and Muggles can differ in ways that, at first glance, seem so simple.

(Severus might actually prefer having a Squib child raised in Muggle culture to spare them from carrying the burdens of his past. It’s just a thought I have.)

One of the most surreal things about the world created by Rowling is how she establishes that most of the population is made up of muggle-borns and half-bloods, yet wizards seem to have no idea how the muggle world works. Even those who are fascinated by muggles, like Arthur Weasley, get lost in absurd things like rubber ducks. Many don’t know what electricity is—like, what?? What sense does that make? There are so many muggle-borns, children of muggles, or half-bloods with a muggle parent, and you’re telling me they don’t know the most basic things? Even societies that are isolated or remote, like the Amish, know the bare minimum about the outside world. It’s absurd and unrealistic, honestly. And the way they treat muggles as if they are one or two steps below the evolutionary chain?? Come on, wizards don’t know democracy, they have archaic political systems, no sociological or philosophical studies, they’re totally illiterate on an intellectual and technological level. Sure, they have magic, but they’re completely unaware of fields like physics or chemistry, there’s no modern engineering for them, nothing. And as for weapons or war strategies... Yes, wizards are more resilient and have protection spells, but would they even have time to protect themselves if someone suddenly pulled out an automatic weapon and shot them in the head? Nuclear bombs? I mean, I’ve always thought that Voldemort’s idea of conquest was quite delusional, because a muggle with good aim could shoot him in the head and bye-bye, Tom. How can they genuinely see themselves above muggles, especially those who come from a muggle background, who know the muggle world and can compare?

I understand that Severus would want to distance himself from his muggle side because it represented poverty and violence from his father. The muggle world was never something good for him, but what about Hermione, for example? Her parents are dentists, she comes from a middle-class family, she’s an only child, and her parents seem like good people. Why do we never know anything about her life? We know everything about the Weasleys but nothing about her parents—not even their names. And she always makes excuses not to visit them, which is something that stands out to me because, in the end, she was raised among muggles. Is it really necessary to sever all ties with that world? It doesn’t make sense, I’ve always found it quite incoherent.

I really like the Severus x Muggle idea (which is why I decided to write a fanfic with that prompt) because I find the dynamic between wizards and muggles so interesting (as you rightly said) and also because it seems like the best way to explore the contradiction he must feel in having grown up between two worlds, and despite years of rejecting his non-magical side, trying to eliminate it entirely, and even hating it for being seen as a weakness or a source of shame, in the end, it is part of him. Not only that, but he grew up as a muggle. His cognitive development took place in a muggle environment, and his emotional and affective foundations were shaped in a muggle setting. His life before Hogwarts was entirely muggle because we know his father didn’t like magic. His inner child lived and was raised as a muggle, and the inner child in all of us is the cornerstone of our adult selves, and he has a huge dissonance with this. In an AU where he survives the war and has no purpose (because he has achieved his goals) and feels completely lost because, in both camps, many people despise him, because he has become a celebrity—and that’s something he detests—where half the community knows him for having been a professor, and one who was quite a jerk, and where he’s never going back to Hogwarts because by now it’s a place he detests for what it represents to him, I imagine him terribly depressed, locked in Spinner’s End, not wanting to see anyone or be found, in the house of his childhood that represents the duality between his magical self and his muggle self, not choosing either world because he feels like he doesn’t belong to either. In fact, I start my fanfic this way because it’s the vision I find most coherent.

That said, I think being with a muggle would make it easier for him because it’s someone who doesn’t know him and won’t judge him, and it’s probably someone who wouldn’t care about his past. “Oh, you were in a war? Just one? But there are like twelve happening around the world, lol.” A guy who wanted to dominate the world? Just another Tuesday in the muggle history office. I mean, the things that seem super dramatic to wizards are actually just everyday occurrences for muggles, especially in terms of political violence. In 1991, the Gulf War ended; from 1990 to 2000, there was the Balkan War; Pablo Escobar wasn’t assassinated until 1993, and the Cali Cartel remained active until 1996; the FARC, the National Liberation Army, the Bosnian War, the ETA terrorist group in Spain, child soldiers in Sierra Leone in the 1991–2002 war. Muggles aren’t scandalized by violence; it’s just part of their daily news. Severus having a muggle partner who finds out he was in a war would likely find it pretty normal, lol. He wouldn’t have that pressure of hearing, “Oh my god, you were a dark wizard,” in a world where murders and crimes are on the news every day. I think that would give him a lot of peace, not feeling constantly judged and pointed out, and having a partner who couldn’t care less about people like Harry Potter, Dumbledore, or all those famous figures in his world who’ve shaped his life—his partner wouldn’t care at all.

That said, let’s talk about the kids, hahaha, sorry for going on, but this topic really interests me for meta.

I think the idea of Severus having a Squib child is quite interesting, but in the end, it would be like you said—they’d end up having a muggle education and culture, belonging to that world. I don’t think it would be a huge drama. Squibs who have issues usually struggle because they are born into fully magical families, immersed in the wizarding world, while they have no powers. A kid with a wizard father and a muggle mother would have a reference point outside that world, so it wouldn’t be a problem.

That said, I like the idea even more that he might have a child with magical powers, but the kid couldn’t care less about the wizarding world. Like, his child would be a Gen Z kid born in the 2000s, probably raised among muggles because obviously, we believe in equality within the couple. If the kid is going to spend seven years in a wizarding school like their dad, it’s only fair that they learn how the muggle world works until they’re 11.

I imagine this 11-year-old with their laptop, mobile phone, Discord account, favorite streamers, TV series they haven’t finished, TikTok account full of random videos, all their pop culture references, music, etc., and suddenly being told, “Hey, you have to go to a boarding school for seven years where none of these things will work because magic interferes, and you’ll have to leave all your tech behind.” That might have worked in the 90s when there were no mobile phones, but in the 2010s???

But honestly, being Severus’ kid, raised in a healthy and loving environment, that child probably wouldn’t be brewing potions but might be creating muggle tech adapted to magic—just to be able to watch the last season of Cobra Kai on Netflix, lol.

Honestly, the idea of Gen Z kids with muggle heritage going to Hogwarts cracks me up.

[bear-boi-5]

14 Long Years

Well, I'm finished. After 14 years of my life, I'm finished. I've finally graduated. I'm free from school.

No more late night last minute studying, no more waking up early with only the weekend to sleep in, no more dealing with shitty teenagers.

It's a bittersweet feeling. But. I'm happy.

I'm scared of what's to come. I don't know what's next for me. All my life all I've known is school, the weekend, desperately wanting to sleep in everyday and uniforms. It feels so weird that I'm finished.

You go your whole life up to this point begging and wishing for the day you finally finish school. That once you're an adult in society's eyes, you can do whatever you want, you're free. But when the day comes. You get a sense of whiplash. Shocked that the day has come so fast. That today is the day that when you leave those gates, you're not coming back.

It's not a "Oh you'll be back in 2 weeks". No. You're just not coming back at all. It's all surreal. I'm sure anyone who's graduated has felt something like this too. It's weird. It's scary. You kinda don't want to let it go but you know that now you have everything at your fingertips, you just need to make it happen.

But, I'll learn to accept it.

I'll get used to it.

No matter how long it will take.

To anyone who has yet to graduate, cherish the moments you have with your friends and teachers. Because before you know it, it'll be all over.

[cyanidehog]

Hello! Could I request some yandere Silver the hedgehog headcanons? If not that’s okay, I totally understand. Have a good day!

BLOG'S 1ST request is for my favorite boy <333 thank you for kickstarting off my writing with this ! no spellchecking we die like (redacted)

⤷ “ i swear to you. as long as i’m by your side, you’ll never be harmed. ” [ ♡ 1.2k words -- SILVER + READER. ]

> first of all: worst hedgehog to have after you. he literally jumps through time. whether you are a civilian or an overpowered entity, you're screwed. not in a physical sense—he values your freedom and your dignity. it's just... you won't be able to avoid his advances. silver knows you better than you do yourself. after years of studying you, he'll have figured what makes you snap, what makes you melt, and the little intricacies that weave your past. then he'll drop himself back to a point in time where your relationship was still amicable and he'll sweep you up with a winner smile, using up every detail he soaked up in conversation about your person as a stepping stone.

> how you met is inconsequential. it could've been simple happenstance aided by your curiosity, or thanks to amy introducing you at an event. whatever the reason, you come to know of silver's plights and circumstances.

> silver latches onto you with a hunger because of your care and interest in his well-being. it's not that people aren't welcoming, or haven't been kind to him and blaze, of course not. there's been warmth aplenty in sonic's timeline. what sets you apart are the extra lengths you go to for his accommodation in a world alien to him and the love you display in different gestures: cooking him a sprawling dinner (a banquet of cultures, really!) or tidying up a place for him to crash at if need be; spending hours explaining history and the current state of affairs to a being completely removed from the context of modern society and common knowledge; finding time in your schedule to go places together and make albums of memories... the list could go on. you really tried your best for your friend - silver who'd never seen a tree or a valley or a flower... how could you not?

> you won't ever have fights with him. it's surreal and fantastical. he always, always has a hand in guiding you to a pleasant time. attentive and sweet and teasing, silver knows how to rile you up into feverish delight and how to soothe any nerves and doubts of yours. it's slightly unfair, actually, because at times you wish you could have the same tact and coolness he displays. whenever you express the want to make him happy he gets touchier and more joyful than usual, so you count that as a little win of yours. it is nice to brighten the day of someone who treats you fondly. and the tiny, furiously wagging tail is an endearing sight.

> your like or dislike for physical touch will define how he starts showing affection to you. if you're fine with it, silver won't hesitate to caress your back or shoulder, will lock arms with you on walks, and say goodbye with a peck to your temple. warm and strong hugs will be commonplace. you'll find yourself encased in embraces far too tender and embarrassing to remain cool-headed. and the average distance between you two will shrink every week. slowly but surely.

> if you are averse to it, he'll do his best to keep his hands to himself… though if you fall asleep in his vicinity, he'll slide a hand or two through your face and play a little with your features. it will be innocent enough to sate his need for your warmth. for a while. he'll get into the habit of playing with your fingers or tugging your clothes for attention. might develop a fondness for spaces full of people, if only to feel you leaning on him thanks to the moving multitudes. he'll also steal trinkets or inconspicuous articles of clothing that belong to you. he won't realize it, but not having your touch will starve him terribly, and he'll try to have his fill in other ways.

> you call him silvie and he's about to bust an aneurysm. his face catches on fire to the point he thinks it might be a heatstroke, and the real possibility of him fainting grows exponentially. he gives you a very personal nickname. some inside joke between the two of you. will whisper it only when you are both alone.

> he's devoted? dedicated? invested? in your friendships and emotional health. scratch that. like rotisserie chicken, his brain rotates worries about your daily life and physical and mental health to the point of burning itself to a crisp. he fears not having control over your joys. he gets literally sick ruminating on whether or not you are getting your due sleep, your due rewards, or your deserved love from those around you. he'll be a smidge too sharp on picking up changes in your mood and mentions of acquaintances and buddies and family. he probably has a journal with graphical maps on your relationships and other miscellanea. has filled up the margins with ideas on how to cheer you up and keep everything in check. whatever that means, or entails.

> HAHA if you get sick? if you get sick you'll sooner perish from silver's overwhelming presence by your side than from your illness. it's here that his obsession bleeds through enough to be alerted by. he gets super fussy over who's coming over and what you're eating. feels like it's his duty to schedule your time indoors and outdoors, and to make several lists of activities and meals and exercises for your speedy recovery. will have restocked your pantry and fridge with your favorite snacks and fruits before you know it (how did you know this is my fave, silvie? to which he replies: oh - isn't this what besties are for?) and areas such as the bathroom or your kitchen will be cleaned thrice as fervently. he's going to be around so often that you'll stumble across his toothbrush or his towel neatly organized along with your stuff. and yes he will give a subtle nudge towards the idea of being roomies, and having sleepovers, and movie nights, and so on. he won't be moving his stuff out even after you recover.

> anyway - silver is a protective, obsessive, manipulative and insidious yandere. your needs will most certainly be met when he's around and he'll try to elevate you into a lil pedestal while trying to improve your lifestyle in ways he thinks are the best. you won't have to worry about threats (eggman's or others') because he'll make sure you live in a peaceful and beautiful world. if he ever has to travel to accomplish this he'll make sure to return with a plethora of gifts and stories to share. but he'll worm and dig and root his way through your barriers and reservations until you rely on him, to some degree or other. he'll be... soft and good for you.

> and... you'll never have to know about all the screw ups in a different timeline. if silver has committed a chain of overlapping atrocities trying to monopolize your affection, how would you ever find out? you'll never know the depravities he has executed on others, nor the kind of abnormality he is a slave to. he'll always be just silver to you.

> so please, please, please. don't look at anybody else with tender love in your eyes. don't break his heart and make him crawl on his knees. don't make him screw the world over for a few crumbs of your time, and everything will be just perfect.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

I am by far your superior, but my notorious modesty prevents me from saying so.

- Erik Satie

To his contemporaries and peers Erik Satie was something of an enigma. Just a few of his quirks included claiming he only ate white foods, carrying a hammer wherever he went, founding his own religion, eating 150 oysters in one sitting, and writing a piece with the instruction to repeat 840 times! As a composer, Satie paved the way for the avant-garde in music and became a very influential figure in the classical music of the 20th century whose works still sound fresh today.

Born into a poor and difficult childhood in the Normandy harbour town of Honfleur on 17 May 1866, Satie would always be an outsider. The Paris Conservatoire to which he was enrolled by his stepmother, herself a pianist, became for him “a sort of local penitentiary” during his teens; he left with no qualifications and a reputation for being lazy. He signed up for military service in 1886 and dropped out within the same year. Immersing himself in the bohemian life of Montmartre, he became linked with the popular music scene and eked out a living as an accompanist, playing at the Chat Noir cabaret. Always on the periphery, and forever out of money, he later downgraded from the cramped room in which he lived to the less fashionable Parisian suburb of Arcueil, where he holed up in isolation and squalor – no visitors set foot in the room during the near-30 years he lived there.

Much has been made of the eccentricities of this flâneur, who was always seen in a grey velvet suit, and yet underlying Satie’s music is his serious desire to create something new. You can hear it in his popular piano pieces: the haunting scales and rhythms of the Trois Gnossiennes written under the spell of Romanian folk music, and the meditative world of Gymnopédies, where, as in a cubist painting, motifs are “seen” from all sides. At a time when French composers were looking to escape the shadows of Wagner’s epic Romanticism, the French composer’s stripped-back mechanical sound, inspired by the humble barrel organ, offered a radically simple approach.

Satie preferred originality to the mundane. The composer of the famous Gymnopedies, could never be accused of having an uninteresting personality. For one, his outgoing fashion statements always caused a stir. During his Montmartre years, he had 12 identical velvet corduroy suits hanging in his wardrobe, which earned him the nickname ‘The Velvet Gentleman’, and in his socialist years, he donned a bowler hat and carried an umbrella.

Debussy helped to draw public attention to Satie, orchestrating two of his Gymnopédies, yet Satie had to wait until much later in life to attain celebrity status. While still earning a living writing salon dances and popular cabaret songs, and after suffering a creative crisis, he enrolled himself at the Schola Cantorum in Paris at the age of 39. Rather than finding him validation, his studies seem to have fuelled his hatred of convention - it’s with more than a hint of bitterness that he claims to put “everything I know about Boredom” into the Bach chorale of his masterful Sports et Divertissements piano pieces. But notoriety led to a succès de scandale and when it came it came with a bang in Parade, his surreal, one-act circus ballet for Diaghilev. Into the orchestral score, which featured jazz and cabaret tunes, were thrown typewriters, sirens and a pistol - just the kind of noises a wartime audience would normally pay not to hear. With its rigid cubist costumes by Picasso - which restricted Massine’s choreography - and a promotional push from Cocteau, it was provocative enough to secure Satie’s position at the vanguard of modernism.

Yet Satie was continually frustrated in his attempts to be accepted as an artist in high society France - his failure to establish himself at the prestigious Académie des Beaux-Arts, to which Debussy had won a scholarship, only compounded his resentment. Was this treatment by the cultural elite fair? Certainly his determination to antagonise his audience in his late ballets did little to endear him to the critics, but the fierce criticism he received in Paris was also a sign of things to come. Pierre Boulez would later poke fun at Satie’s lack of craft, while composer Jean Barraqué - another proponent of 12-tone music - would deride Satie as “an accomplished musical illiterate … who found that his friendship with Debussy was an unhoped-for opportunity to loiter in the corridors of history”.

Satie is perhaps, to this day, the most audacious and original composer when it comes to naming his works e.g. Gnossiennes and Gymnopédies. With Satie you will not see symphonies, concertos or opus numbers. Satie possessed a wicked sense of humour and his mockery, both of himself and others, became an inspiration for many of his irony-tinged works. His Sonatine bureaucratique is a spoof of Muzio Clementi’s Sonatina Op. 36 and contained many witticisms in the score. For example, he writes Vivache (vache being French for cow) instead of the original Italian tempo marking Vivace.

Whether in the collage-like miniature piano parodies he wrote during the World War I, his creation of a theatre format that has endured over the years, or in his collaboration with Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso y Sergei Diaghilev, there is a liveliness of imagination and a hunger for innovation that made Erik Satie In the torch bearer of the vanguard in his work. Satie would influence so many so strongly that years later some of his closest friends became radical artists, for example. ManRay, the sculptor Constantin Brâncusi, and Marcel Duchamp, or a much younger group of Paris-based composers like Les Six.

Satie, a known drinker of absinthe, and apparently every other alcohol available, died of cirrhosis at the age of 59 in Arcueil, France in July 1925. But his compositions, especially those deceptively simple-sounding solo piano works, find life today through recitals, concerts, and great movie scores. Although he died in poverty with little success to his name, today Erik Satie is acknowledged as a founder of 20th-century modernism, who changed the face of music.

Personally I do find Satie's music enriching, But I also find that his calculated wackiness is culturally apt. Pieces like ‘3 Pieces in the Shape of a Pear’, ‘Flabby Preludes for a Dog’ and ‘Desiccated Embryos’ rewardingly deflate Wagnerism's excesses in a characteristically French way.

[kiki-de-la-petite-flaque]

If you’re looking to explore Russian literature, here are ten of the most influential and celebrated Russian authors whose works have shaped both Russian and world literature:

1. Fyodor Dostoevsky

Known for his psychological depth and exploration of existential themes, Dostoevsky’s masterpieces like Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, and Notes from Underground examine guilt, faith, morality, and the human psyche.

2. Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy’s epic novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina are known for their intricate character studies and sweeping portrayals of Russian society. His work addresses themes of family, love, faith, and the search for meaning.

3. Anton Chekhov

A master of the short story and a pioneer in modern drama, Chekhov wrote works like The Cherry Orchard and The Seagull, capturing the subtle complexities of everyday life with nuance and insight.

4. Alexander Pushkin

Often called the father of Russian literature, Pushkin’s works, including Eugene Onegin and his poetry, helped establish Russian as a literary language and influenced nearly every Russian author who followed.

5. Nikolai Gogol

Gogol’s satirical novels and stories, such as Dead Souls and The Overcoat, mix the surreal with social critique, providing sharp commentary on Russian bureaucracy and societal absurdities.

6. Ivan Turgenev

Known for his novel Fathers and Sons, Turgenev depicted the generational clash between conservatives and liberals in Russian society. His lyrical prose and realistic style have made him a key figure in Russian literature.

7. Mikhail Bulgakov

Best known for The Master and Margarita, Bulgakov’s works are full of satire, humor, and mysticism, exploring themes of faith, power, and the corrupting influence of bureaucracy.

8. Boris Pasternak

His novel Doctor Zhivago offers a poignant portrayal of the Russian Revolution and its impact on individuals. Pasternak’s work reflects the struggle between personal freedom and political oppression.

9. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

A Nobel laureate, Solzhenitsyn’s works like One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich expose the brutal realities of Soviet labor camps, exploring themes of survival, resilience, and morality under oppression.

10. Vladimir Nabokov

Although he later wrote primarily in English, Nabokov’s early Russian novels, like The Gift and Invitation to a Beheading, as well as his later Lolita, showcase his distinctive prose style, wordplay, and insight into human psychology.

These authors capture the vastness of Russian history, culture, and philosophy, offering readers profound and often challenging insights into the human experience. Each of their works invites readers to explore Russian literature’s rich traditions and lasting impact on world literature.

Source: English Literature Society  

[gravesung-moving]

DRAKARTH CONSERVATORY for Arcane Excellence and the Drakarth Archival Preservation Society (called the Archive for short) are technically one and the same. The Archive came first, with the Conservatory built next to it by arcane researchers who wanted to mold from each generation an upper echelon of societal perfection: soldiers, politicians, researchers to lead the charge into every new era. Drakarth, crowned by its star arete student and its globally-recognized faculty, stands as an institution to strength that, if you can survive it, guarantees a successful life.

Key phrase: if you can survive it. Not all is well here, and the people who uphold Drakarth's ideals would do just about anything to keep their secrets buried.

Be careful, now, and don't follow the moths.

STRUCTURE & EDUCATION.

Honor, virtue, reason and might are the four tenets of what Drakarth sees as excellence. Each class attends three years of school: the honing year, the building year, and the trial year. The honing year is spent on basic training, though its true purpose is weeding out those with outstanding potential from the crowd. During finals at the end of the year, all of the freshmen are pulled solo, in pairs, or in threes for individualized Surprise Tests made to test their weaknesses and push them to their limits. These can be anything: 1v1 tournaments, grueling survival challenges, written exams, dungeon delves... the list goes on.

By the end of year one, less than ten percent (80-100) of the students pass their trials and continue on. The rest are shunted into Drakarth's sister schools and outer universities for lower-intensity studies. The ones who pass are called CENTURIONS, and even if they don't graduate top of their class, the title in itself is incredibly prestigious.

Year two, the building year, is spent exploring what makes each student special. Their advisors craft and constantly adjust custom curriculums that balance the student's strengths and weaknesses within the four tenets.

It's supposed to be individualized, that is. The academic system fails so many young people, and Drakarth is not only no exception to this, but a stunningly cruel example of it. (hiii jupiter.) Some of the students who are rejected, or who drop out mid-year, are literally never seen again by their peers. No clue where they went, no contact, nothing. No one seems to think this is weird. They just couldn't cut it, you know.

Third year: tournament arc! Students spend their time fine-tuning the skills they have built over the last two years and training for a schoolwide capstone tournament after finals. These serve as a display of Drakarth's newest exceptional stock to interested parties: military, government, scientific agencies, like sports recruiters coming to games.

Being top of the class each year is a high enough honor in itself. At least, from an outside point of view. Those in the school, the faculty and staff, and the attached families know the truth: there is one particular honor that everyone is chasing.

There is an opportunity every year for someone to be awarded the title of ARETE. For the last two decades, that opportunity has come and gone: the Conservatory and Archive staff simply haven't seen a student who exemplifies the four tenets at an outstanding, better-than-perfect level.

That doesn't stop every student from shooting for it, though.

Drakarth's arete is treated somewhere between a political hero and a messiah. They become the face of the Conservatory and, to an extent, the country it resides in. They attend conferences and war meetings, make speeches to young hopefuls, fight in wars — essentially, they go where the society needs someone to look up to.

LAYOUT.

The Conservatory itself is built from a set of old stone buildings, their architecture Gothic with a twist of occasional surrealism and a focus on open space. At the entryway, flags bear the school crest: two eagles locked in combat in front of a crossed pen and sword, framed by the area's native wild roses. The eagles represent might, the pen represents reason, the sword represents honor, and the roses represent virtue. 

The ballroom, where public-facing functions and schoolwide formals take place, resembles a modified cathedral without pews. Along the back wall, where altars may sit, the leftmost refreshment table bears stacks of wine glasses filled with red, white and bubbly varieties. The center table is adorned with savory hors d'oeuvres, and the rightmost table shows off sweets and pastries of many types: tiny cakes, croissants and canele and cups of custard, spiced honey cake and filled buns, and more. The food and drink items seem to replenish themselves. 

The Archive, directly adjacent to the ballroom, is two floors high and three floors deep. The ground floor acts as a public library for basic arcane knowledge. The second floor acts as the Conservatory’s private library and study space. Underground levels are for artifact storage and Archive property that is only accessible with a research permit and an approved written request detailing what exactly will be used or studied. 

There is definitely not an ancienty secret society involved. There is no eldritch deity of forbidden knowledge sealed under the Archive. Don't follow the moths.

The school training grounds take up about a football field's worth of outdoor space, different sections of the field set up for different types of training. A large dirt square provides space for hand-to-hand combat; dummies of different materials provide resistance to elemental damage for spellthrowing; one entire half of the field is for sports rather than combat. Things do get mixed up sometimes. 

This field is also cleared out when it comes time for end-of-year trials, challenges that test the might, honor and knowledge of each year's students. Most don't make it out of them alive. That's just how things are. The trials with the most fanfare are Tournaments, which are the capstone of Drakarth's graduating class. The students are placed in small groups and pitted against what is essentially a public dungeon crawl. Those who succeed receive a magical artifact and graduate from the Conservatory, some with honors and some simply good at surviving. 

And, of course, there's the college town. Drakarth is out in the countryside, but establishments, homes and businesses have been built around it over the centuries as many alumni and their families end up teaching after they graduate. Favored by Conservatory students is CODA, a lounge that transitions from a cafe to a classy bar in the evenings.

Questions?

graphic template credit

[wiseoldmage]

@diamonddomain liked for a starter!

It had been a long couple of days in this strange new place! Elminster had met people and creatures of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, and personalities. He was no stranger to the surreal- after all, nothing widens one's perspectives more than stepping out of your own plane of existence and wandering others like one would travel to other countries- but this one had been exceptionally taxing! It was as if this was not just a place for different creatures to come together, but also people from different times, different realms of existence entirely... to say that it was bizarre would be putting things mildly. Yet as he walked the bustling streets en route back to the room that seemed to belong to him, he couldn't help but continue to study each person and thing that he walked past. He had taken for granted just how much he missed the hustle and bustle of crowded cities like Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate, the many performers looking to make a touch of gold, peddlers with their goods, children making merry with the most common household items. But things were different here! People were different. El couldn't help but stroke his long white beard in contemplation. In making a realm where all people are unique, he thought to himself, It is as if the mundanity of society is in its very lack of mundanity! Curiouser and curiouser...

His thoughts were temporarily paused as he came across someone else that caught his eye- someone that looked even more extraordinary than those he'd seen before! Resplendent gems and shards reflected on this creature like an approachable golem, yet it was a moving, living thing! El tried to approach, peering down with an inquisitive (if not slightly overbearing) look. "How peculiar..."

[abovexhorizons]

@venalos continued from here!

----

She'd been confused when the ship had taken a different course; the one that Isa had expected to been traveling on now disembarking in "Astera, the New World", wherever that was.

She'd not even heard of a New World before, let alone her own being referred to as the "Old" world. According to those aboard the ship - Hunters, they called themselves - it was a new breeding ground for Monsters, and they intended to study them.

She'd shrugged it off before, but now that her feet hit the dirt, it was surreal just how different this place was. It truly felt like a new world; a new adventure, waiting for her.

She was glad she'd left Rika in another's care back home; Isa would need to take the next ship out of here. Which, according to the Harbor-keep, wouldn't be for a while.

Might as well make herself at home, as they say.

"I, sorta... Boarded the wrong ship?"

A strange thing to say, truly, but it were the truth; she'd meant to set sail for a land of ice in the far north, but ended up here instead. What was supposed to be a round-trip turning into...

Well, whatever this was.

Giving the other a wry smile and a shrug, she'd bring her focus back to the people around her; it seemed as if Safine were popular; recognizable, even. Tons of people moved back and forth, the clanging of a distant hammer echoing like a belltower to them down below. Smoke, likely from a fireplace or stove, bellowed off into the heavens above them.

What was strangest of all, though, were the bones; from a creature Isa had never met, hopefully to never see either. They were huge, gargantuan in size. Probably from Ragna, if she had to guess.

"This place - Astera, right? - is wonderful and all, but I'm no hunter. I can barely lift my sword over my head, and I don't want to be a burden on your... Society."

A brief swirl of her tongue against her gums gave Isa pause, at least long enough to consider her next words.

"If I can help, I will, but I would much rather be on the next ship back, if it's all the same to you. I'm worried about my friend, and I... It'll be a worry, being away from them for so long."

[neil-neil-orange-peel]

TYO Essay

A while back, I mentioned I wrote an essay for my previous uni course where I used TYO as a source to look at the early 1980s. @a-a-a-anon expressed an interest in reading it, so here ya go! The quality of it is seriously iffy (I was 18/19 when I wrote it and had no idea how to actually write or reference academic essays yet, and just the quality of the writing makes me cringe a bit). There was also more I wanted to say but couldn't due to the word limit (don't remember what these other things were now). Despite all that, the lecturer liked it, and it was cool I got to write about TYO for uni.

The Young Ones as a Cultural Source for Early 1980s Britain

Although today in Britain the future often feels uncertain – the global pandemic notwithstanding, Brexit is still looming on the horizon – the Britons of 40 years ago doubtlessly felt similarly, albeit for different reasons. In the early 1980s, the threat of nuclear war was palpable, as the existence of Protect and Survive[1] attests to. Nuclear war paranoia influenced British culture in the 1980s, with bleak examples such as the BBC film Threads (1984) and Raymond Briggs’ When the Wind Blows (1986) still remembered keenly today. Both fictionalisations of nuclear war featured material from Protect and Survive and highlighted the message of contemporary nuclear disarmament protestors: no one can win a nuclear war. Of the less apocalyptic issues, unemployment hit 3 million (about 11.7%[2]) in 1983 – for comparison, in 2019 it was estimated to be at 1.281 million (about 3.6%[3]). The Thatcher administrations’ efforts to break from the post-war consensus and embrace neo-liberalism created divisions in society. Yet, amidst threats of nuclear war, mass unemployment, the decline of British industry and the growth of individualism, a cultural revolution in comedy dubbed “alternative comedy” was fast taking hold in Britain – and in much the same way Thatcherism’s impacts can still be felt on society today, so too can alternative comedy’s.

Running for 2 series (12 episodes in total) on BBC2 between 1982-84, anarchic and slightly surreal sitcom The Young Ones epitomised the break between older styles of comedy and the new wave. Although The Young Ones has been called ground-breaking and classic, it is also now regarded as somewhat dated for its jokes pertaining to current events. Therefore, its scripts are an interesting source for an insight into the time in which it was produced and based: early 1980s Britain.

Firstly, it is important to understand what The Young Ones actually was. Written by Ben Elton, Rik Mayall and Lise Mayer[4] and with additional material provided by Alexei Sayle, it followed the misadventures of four vastly different university students at the fictional Scumbag College in North London. Whilst the four were never seen doing anything remotely akin to studying, it aimed at being representative of university life, students and the squalor they lived in. The show was not a conventional sitcom in that it did not pertain to a family and it featured a musical act in every episode so that it could be classified as “light entertainment”, as the BBC had no further budget available for sitcoms at the time. Because many of its principal actors came from the stand-up comedy circuit, there was an emphasis on excitement and unpredictability over discernible plots and many memorable scenes featured characters injuring themselves and others, destroying bits of the set and crashing through walls, as well as randomly interspersed and unrelated cutaway gag segments. There was a cartoonish level of slapstick violence, swearing and toilet humour, which appear milder to today’s palate than 40 years ago.

British audiences were divided by The Young Ones mostly along age lines, with younger viewers engaging readily with this new style of comedy and older viewers seeing it as unnecessarily vulgar and silly. Indeed, the characters that had been transplanted from their actors’ stand-up routines were deliberately disgusting, exaggerated caricatures and horrible to one another. Mayall himself played wannabe lefty anarchist Rick, who frequently came to rather explosive blows with the violent punk medical student, Vyvyan (played by Mayall’s comedy partner, Adrian Edmondson). Also featured was badly done to, depressed hippie Neil (played by Nigel Planer) and the mysterious leader and straight man of the group, Mike The Cool Person (played by Christopher Ryan, the only one of the core cast without a comedy background). Sayle too appeared in every episode as either their hated landlord Balowski or a member of his family, where he would deliver a short stand-up monologue to the camera. The show’s title (and opening theme) was derived from the Cliff Richard song of the same name, as Mayall’s character was a huge fan.

The Young Ones took on the issues of its day, perhaps none more so than the episode “Bomb”. “Bomb” uses dark humour to address fears over nuclear war by having an atom bomb land in the characters’ kitchen at the start of the episode. Even before the characters deal with the unexploded bomb, the script is already hinting at the theme of nuclear war in this cutaway gag sequence, featuring a family on a packet of cereal:

FATHER: Would you two shut up and keep smiling? We’re supposed to be the ideal nuclear family!

GIRL: Post-nuclear, more like!

Not only was this segment ridiculing the “ideal nuclear family” that was promoted by the Thatcher governments – none of the characters posing as a family get along at all and the “father” reveals himself to be gay, thus exposing the lie that there is truly an “ideal” family – it also managed to slip in a quick gag about nuclear war. This reflected a genuine belief by many at the time that nuclear war was coming, especially amongst the young.[5]

When the main characters finally become aware of the bomb in their kitchen, the script offers this response:

NEIL: I’m going upstairs to get the incredibly helpful and informative “Protect and Survive” manual! Nobody better touch this while I’m gone!

This reference to the Protect and Survive manual, which at the time and retrospectively has been regarded as useless in the event of an actual nuclear attack, appears for the purpose of ridiculing it. Having the character of Neil act as though the manual could help deal with something as serious as an atom bomb in the kitchen employs sarcasm as a critical tool. Protect and Survive featured suggestions such as painting the windows of the house white in order to deflect the heat from a blast, which The Young Ones also satirised:

RICK: Neil, can you lend me five- What are you doing?

[NEIL is reading his survival manual while painting himself white with a paintbrush]

NEIL: Oh, painting myself white to deflect the blast.

RICK: That’s great, isn’t it? Racial discrimination, even in death! What are these? [indicates a few lunchbags on the table]

NEIL: Sandbags!

The misinterpretation of the manual’s instructions, as well as the substitution of items deemed vital for items found in the house, reflects the feeling that most British households were simply unprepared for a nuclear attack and stood very little chance of survival. This is compounded later in the episode, when the four main characters resort to hiding underneath the kitchen table as a means of escaping the blast of the bomb – something many had resorted to in air raids during WWII but which was drastically inadequate protection against an atom bomb. This episode also portrayed the nihilism in British culture over nuclear war – a nihilism that can be found in other cultural sources, such as The Smiths song “Ask”[6] – through the character of Vyvyan, who spends much of the episode attempting to set the bomb off.

This show being the work of alternative comedians, The Young Ones also utilised its anarchic tone to critique the Thatcher administration of the time. This was usually done through the character of Rick, who blamed Margaret Thatcher for most problems faced by the group. Though his character existed to satirise upper-class closet conservatives as well as overzealous student activists, he was something of a mouthpiece for the left-wing writers. Some of his more memorable outbursts include:

RICK: We haven’t got any money! Vyvyan’s baby will be a pauper! Oliver Twist! Jeffrey Dickens! Back to Victorian values! [directly to camera, angrily] I hope you’re satisfied, Thatcher!

RICK: Neil! The bathroom’s free! Unlike the country under the Thatcherite junta!

Other characters were used to critique the government too:

RICK: School’s out forever! Yeah, come on everyone! Let all your hairs hang out! Do whatever you want!

MIKE: What’s all the excitement, Rick? Has education finally been cut altogether? That’s the only reason I voted Tory.

The first of these is a reference to the 1983 interview in which Thatcher endorsed a return to “Victorian values”. That is, a rolling back of the state to unburden the individual and set them free to prosper, should they put the effort in. This New Right attitude, combined with the high unemployment figures from that year, created the view that Thatcherism was about looking out for “number one”. This wasn’t aided by Employment Secretary Norman Tebbit’s “Get On Your Bike” speech at the Conservative Party Conference in 1981. The Young Ones captured the mood of particularly the youth in such a climate – one in which many felt misunderstood and patronised – in a cutaway segment featuring the fictional TV programme Nozin’ Aroun’:

BAZ: Rol! A lot of my mates say to me, “Oh Baz, what is the point?” What would you say to them?

ROLAND: Well surely, Baz, your mates must realise that there definitely is a point!

BAZ: So a real message of hope and good cheer there – from Roland, a really ace guy!

To summarise; just as is the case today, early 1980s Britons were facing uncertainty. This was especially the case for anyone working in manufacturing industries, as the unsuccess of the Miners’ Strike of 1984 signified a wider trend in British industry. The government’s overarching aim of turning society away from one in which a “nanny state” risked making people idle to one where everyone was free to accumulate wealth that would trickle down to the less well off was never going to be a smooth period to live through. The last tremors of the Cold War didn’t help make the period more bearable. Yet, it is often harder or uncertain times where laughter becomes more valuable to people and The Young Ones – though not to everyone’s political or cultural tastes – undeniably provided some release for younger generations. To call it an entirely accurate depiction of early 1980s Britain would be to forget that its primary purpose was amusement. Nevertheless, it does provide a colourful insight and one that is remembered with fondness by those who grew up watching it, even today.

[1] Protect and Survive was a series of government issued pamphlets, public information films and radio broadcasts produced in the late 1970s/early 1980s, to be distributed 72 hours before a nuclear attack was expected. Public interest meant they were released in 1980.

[2] https://countryeconomy.com/unemployment/uk?dr=1983-12, December 1983

[3] Office for National Statistics, December 2019

[4] All of whom are alumni of the University of Manchester.

[5] After speaking to some adults who were young during this period, Mr Smith revealed how (aged 11 in 1983) he told his class: “I want to be there when the bomb drops. I want to be right next to it so I’m disintegrated and don’t know anything about it.” Additionally, he was under the impression that a bomb would likely be dropped on Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester.

[6] “If it’s not love / Then it’s the bomb / Then it’s the bomb that will bring us together” – S. Morrissey & J. Marr, “Ask”, The World Won’t Listen, 1987

Bibliography:

Sources:

B. Elton, R. Mayall & L. Mayer, “Demolition”, The Young Ones, BBC2, 1982

B. Elton, R. Mayall & L. Mayer, “Bomb”, The Young Ones, BBC2, 1982

B. Elton, R. Mayall & L. Mayer, “Cash”, The Young Ones, BBC2, 1984

B. Elton, R. Mayall & L. Mayer, “Nasty”, The Young Ones, BBC2, 1984

B. Elton, R. Mayall & L. Mayer, “Summer Holiday”, The Young Ones, BBC2, 1984

Central Office of Information, Protect and Survive, Her Majesty’s Stationary Office, 1980

Transcript of Brian Walden interview with Margaret Thatcher for BBC, 1983: https://www.margaretthatcher.org/document/105087

[hamliet]

I saw your post about Glass Onion, can you talk more about it? What do you think of the movie? Do you prefer it or Knives Out?

I love both movies and will not choose. They are both excellent, hilarious, and extremely well-written where almost every detail comes back to be relevant. Basically, peak writing.

Fun fact: the estate where Knives Out was filmed is actually 5 minutes from where I grew up. I went there all the time. Surreal. Also, I've often walked through the town area that was filmed too.

Glass Onion also does twins well; it's a twist, but it's very obvious Andi and Helen are different people with their own individual goals. So, I was pleased.

Glass Onion might be literally crafted around a metaphor for something appearing to have a lot of layers yet being very simple, but the movie itself has a lot of layers even if the metaphor is an apt description of the plot. Knives Out also has these layers of symbolism and foreshadowing. Essentially, each story can be interpreted as a social quasi-allegory in some ways (Knives Out for immigration and Glass Onion for oppressive structures and systems), as a thematic study on what ultimately matters to humans, as a commentary on money and power, and as a deconstruction (in the HxH or ASOIAF sense of deconstructing, which is to say taking a genre and breaking it apart to examine its tropes and see what works and what doesn't--out of love, not contempt--which generally means arriving at the beating heart at the core of the genre and ultimately affirming it) of cozy mysteries.

Why do humans like mysteries? Put aside puzzles and games and excitement thereof, and think about the core of murder mysteries. They have similar appeal to horror, but also appeal to people because they address several universal questions: how do we live knowing we are all going to die? what is the value of a life? doesn't everyone--which means we ourselves, too--matter? will there be justice?

The justice idea is why these movies are somewhat socio-political allegories, or at the very least address these issues. We're crying out for justice in this world in so many respects. It feels cathartic to see Marta get the house, and keep her kind heart. It feels satisfying to see Helen truly disrupt a vile idiot who doesn't deserve the prestige he gets just for having money.

As for the value of life: compassion is the primary motivation for Marta, and love for Helen. These are values that society in theory holds up as good, but doesn't actually practice even where they should be practiced--see, the Thrombey family, who can't stand each other, and the Disrupters, who have an extremely utilitarian idea of friendship. Society doesn't actually assign sociopolitical value to compassion or love, not even in societal structures like family or friends where you'd think it'd exist, because sociopolitical movements by their nature need power to accomplish anything. That's not inherently a bad thing either, but human nature tends to lose sight of compassion in favor of power.

So then, how do we live knowing there will be death, that justice won't always come in the real world, that not all lives are valued the same by power structures? Each movie offers a different answer for different situations, because there is nuance. Each movie does this, however, through the same metaphor: a game.

Marta wins because of playing the game her "way, not Harlan's way," to quote Benoit Blanc. Her way is the way she wins the game of Go with Harlan right before she's tricked into thinking she's hurt him. She's not focused on trying to beat Harlan. She's trying to make a beautiful pattern.

Helen wins not by playing Miles' game that no one person can solve on their own, but by refusing to play entirely and smashing it apart. Which is also how she wins against Miles in the end of the film, too: smashing the Glass Onion apart.

I genuinely think these are both absolutely brilliant films, and highly recommend the Youtube channel PillarofGarbage, who has created some truly amazing video essays on both movies.

[goodluckclove]

Book Recommendation!

I've recently remembered how much I love to talk about art that is meaningful to me, so I might start randomly offering impassioned suggestions for books and movies that mean a lot to me.

For some reason, the first that comes to mind is Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. It's a book that you might actually be assigned to read in high school. I was assigned to read it my senior year, but I actually fell in love with it when I stole my sister's copy as a freshman.

Invisible Man is about a nameless young black man trying to survive in a 20th century United States city. It's the only work I've been able to find so far of black existentialist fiction (not theory I think there's a lot of theory), as the overarching narrative is that our main character is forced to survive being seen through the veil of preconception and imagination, meaning that he is essentially invisible.

I did not get a lot of the symbolism and historical context of the book until it was explained to me by a teacher, and I'm very grateful for that. I feel there is opportunity for multiple interpretations of different key elements, but even a sequence as simple as the narrator watching the dancing Sambo doll really hit hard and opened up a lot of insightful conversations on what it meant in the context of his arc. It's the type of scene that reveals a lot when you hear a person describe what they think it means.

Ellison's strongest appeal to me is his prose. Ralph Ellison has the most beautiful writing I have ever come across in fiction, case closed. I would often have to stop reading just to let a description sink in. Let his words settle over me. He takes immense pain and despair and gives it a deep inner strength that I have not seen in any other story from that school of philosophy. I wish more of it existed.

It's a great character study. The writing is remarkable. The story is a fascinating mix of surreal, mundane, and horrific. The perspective of black existence in 50s-era Western Society is enlightening to witness and compare to what is experienced by many now. I think this is a book everyone should read. It is the only work of existentialism I've read that I would argue has universal importance regardless of background or philosophy.

Read it. Tell me if you read it. I want to talk about it with someone.

[zennybearr]

imagine druella and cygnus are married a week and in a carriage together to a ball but once they get to the event they sneak off together and go for a walk near a lake or somethinggg

the carriage rocked gently as it rattled down the cobbled road, its windows misted by the cool night air. druella sat next to cygnus, her gloved hands folded neatly in her lap, though her mind was far from the ballroom they were being whisked toward. their week-old marriage still felt like a blur, a whirlwind of family expectations, formal ceremonies, and polite conversations. yet here they were, sharing the same space — a husband and wife.

cygnus sat beside her, his posture straight and his expression unreadable, as always. druella found herself watching him, studying the sharp angle of his jaw, the way his dark eyes surveyed the countryside outside as if lost in thought. it was a strange intimacy, this closeness, one that had bloomed after years of being acquaintances. now they were bound together in ways far deeper than their surnames.

“rosier,” he murmured suddenly, glancing sideways at her, a faint smirk pulling at his lips.

druella raised an eyebrow, suppressing her smile. he still hadn’t tired of calling her that. “mrs. black, you mean.”

cygnus chuckled softly, and that sound made her heart flutter in a way she wasn’t entirely comfortable admitting. there was something about him, something beneath that composed exterior that made her feel a peculiar thrill. he seemed to sense it too, the electricity between them that neither dared to speak of just yet.

the carriage slowed to a stop, and druella looked out the window at the grand estate where the ball was being held. glittering lights filled the windows, the distant sound of music floating on the breeze as elegantly dressed witches and wizards made their way inside. but druella’s attention remained on cygnus, who was still watching her intently.

without warning, he leaned close, his voice a low whisper. “fancy sneaking off before we’re drowned in the dull pleasantries of the evening?”

she blinked, surprised by the mischief in his tone, but found herself nodding before she could even think of a proper response. “where to?”

“follow me.”

the footman opened the door for them, and the two stepped out into the crisp evening air. they mingled briefly with the arriving guests, nodding politely, before cygnus grasped her hand and led her away from the grand entrance. they slipped behind the estate, down a narrow garden path lined with tall hedges, the sounds of the ball growing fainter with each step. druella felt a rush of excitement, her pulse quickening as the two of them left the watchful eyes of society behind.

they reached a secluded area, a small path leading to a lake nestled among the trees. the moonlight glimmered on the water’s surface, casting silver ripples that danced with the night breeze. it was serene, almost surreal in its beauty. cygnus stopped at the water’s edge, glancing over at druella.

“a walk, you said?” she teased, stepping closer to the water.

cygnus smirked. “a bit more peaceful than a crowded ballroom, wouldn’t you agree?”

she nodded, her gaze lingering on the shimmering lake. she slipped off her gloves and dipped her fingertips into the cool water, smiling to herself. it felt like a moment suspended in time, far away from the expectations, the masks they wore in public.

just then, she heard a splash. her eyes widened as she turned to find cygnus grinning at her from the shallows of the lake, the bottom of his robes already soaked.

“you didn’t,” she gasped, laughter bubbling up inside her as she took in his completely unbothered expression.

“i did,” he said, wading deeper into the water with a look of pure defiance.

druella crossed her arms, feigning disapproval. “you’ll ruin your robes, and we’re supposed to be at a ball!”

“let them wonder where we are,” cygnus replied, his eyes glinting with mischief. “besides, i think you should join me.”

“oh, i don’t think so,” she said, stepping back slightly, her smile growing. “i’d rather stay dry.”

but cygnus had other plans. with a sudden movement, he lunged forward, grabbing her by the waist. druella shrieked with laughter as he lifted her off the ground, carrying her toward the lake despite her half-hearted protests.

“cygnus! put me down this instant!”

“as you wish, mrs. black,” he said with a wicked grin, and before she could protest further, he let go, sending her tumbling into the water with an unceremonious splash.

she resurfaced, gasping in shock, her hair drenched and her gown clinging to her. “you...!” she sputtered, wiping the water from her face, but she couldn’t stop laughing. the absurdity of it, the carefree joy, it was unlike anything she had ever experienced. cygnus, still grinning like a boy, splashed her lightly before she retaliated, sending a wave of water back at him.

before long, they were both drenched, standing waist-deep in the lake under the moonlit sky, laughing like children. druella couldn’t remember the last time she had felt so free, so completely alive.

they eventually waded back to the shore, breathless and soaked, collapsing onto the grass in a heap of laughter. druella looked over at cygnus, his hair wet and sticking to his forehead, and for the first time, she saw him not as the aloof, proper man she had married, but as someone who could surprise her, someone who made her feel exhilarated in ways she hadn’t expected.

as their laughter faded into the quiet of the night, cygnus turned to her, his expression softening.

“you’re something else, mrs black,” he said quietly.

she smiled, her heart fluttering again at the sound of his voice. “and you, mr. black, are trouble.”

he leaned closer, his hand finding hers in the dark. “trouble you don’t seem to mind.”

druella glanced down at their entwined fingers, feeling warmth bloom in her chest despite the cool night air. “perhaps not,” she whispered, a smile tugging at her lips.

and for the first time since their marriage, druella felt like they were no longer just two people bound by duty. they were something more — something that felt entirely their own.

[saint-starflicker]

5 Dark Academia Movies That I Don't Find Too Many Other People Posting Very Frequently About

Note my definition of Dark Academia: dark because somebody dies (at a stretch, the darkness can be oppression or abuse from which no one necessarily dies but it still gets pretty dark—or if someone attempts suicide or murder then I count it as dark); academia because they go to uniform school or prepster university (the academia part can be an intense study, discussion, or research of a subject even though they are not at a campus.)

1. The Moth Diaries 2011

The book was better, more detailed, but the movie is still pretty good. The campus is peak neoclassical splendor, the uniforms are on-point aesthetic, and the darkness is gruesomely bloody and also it's on fire. The book is set during the school year of 1970 to 1971, but the movie is set in 2010 thereabouts.

2. "O" 2001

A modern retelling of Othello by William Shakespeare set at a prestigious boarding school. Adapting classical literature in a high school was trendy at the time, trying to capture the magic of Clueless 1995, and in my opinion "O" was the most glammed-up production with the most dark academia atmosphere out of all of them.

3. Educating Rita 1983

A working-class British young woman takes a social enrichment outreach education opportunity to study literature, in hopes that a study in the humanities will give her a better sense of self. Her tutor is a "failed" poet who struggles with substance addiction. Unbeknownst to them, both their lives are at the crux of change. In their consistently non-romantic conversations together, they unpack class discrimination in academia and society, as well as argue about the meaningfulness versus empty pretensions of studying humanities.

Nobody dies, well all right somebody almost dies for pretentious academic reasons...but the conversations leave a lot between the lines.

4. Private Romeo 2011

A modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare set at an all-boys military school. Sure, it's not the Oxbridge-Camford or "Hollywood New England" collegiate aesthetic...but it is very gay, a feature that I hope lends the movie some compensatory merit in this context. Juliet's a boy. Romeo is still a boy. Nurse is a boy. Juliet's mom is a man. Paris is an abstract concept. They are studying Romeo and Juliet at the military school English class at the same time that they are living and speaking the lines in Romeo and Juliet, so it gets surreal and I recommend getting more into the emotion of it than get caught up in what the lines they're saying are supposed to mean.

This should be chaotic academia or frenzy academia, but there's homophobic hazing and bullying so I think that's pretty dark.

5. Bare: a Pop Opera ???? There was supposed to be a movie but I deduce that it's stalled in development purgatory. I have not liked a movie adaptation of a stage musical since Chicago 2002, so I guess I don't really like movie adaptations of stage musicals—but I definitely want my current hyperfixation to be more accessible than a Spotify album oh hey while waiting for this adaptation to happen you can listen to the Spotify album. It's an operetta, so it's sung-through and you won't miss out on any story dialogue unlike with other musicals. Here's my argument for B:APO being Dark Academia.

DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE #5 SPOT ON MY LIST DOES NOT EXIST...WHAT DARK ACADEMIA MOVIES DO YOU THINK SHOULD BE IN THIS SPOT IN THE MEANTIME?

I CAPSLOCK IN ANGUISH THAT THE B:APO MOVIE DOES NOT EXIST YET AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL.

YOUR RECOMMENDATIONS ARE CONSOLATION.

Honorable Mentions:

The History Boys 2006 had one subplot I was bothered by at first and then grew to despise which is really too bad because this movie had racial diversity, directly addressed misogyny in academia, and had canon gays in a love triangle — but it is dark and it doesn't really seem to know that it's dark.

The Children's Hour 1961 "dark academia is mlm while cottagecore is wlw" WRONG watching this movie to consider evidence of dark academia wlw is part of your yuri duty! remember our history!

Never Let Me Go 2010 I can't describe objectively because I read the book at a time in my life that I was having a time at that time. The movie is a faithful adaptation. I re-read it recently and I think it's more Dark Academia than I gave it credit for, but if you're not into Contemplative Dystopia then I completely understand it not being your thing.

Like Minds 2006 — Huh, so 2006 was a busy year for this genre that did not yet exist at the time. Witness the folie à deux of 21st century teenaged Templar Knight kinnies who are also homoerotic serial killers. (Waves to the people that introduced me to this movie, who—contrary to the header of this post—actually do post about it.)

Rope 1948 does have some activity that I've caught recently enough, but I thought maybe it wouldn't be considered Dark Academia right away because it doesn't take place at a school. It takes place at a dinner party where ex-schoolfriends talk to their philosophy professor who they remain well-acquainted with after graduation, an interrogation of putting this professor's morally heinous philosophy into practice. Also there is a corpse at this dinner party. There's your academics and your darkness, so there's your dark academia.

[utopiabytravisscottbreakdown]

Travis Scott's Utopia Blog

Travis Scott’s Evolution in Trap and Hip-Hop

Travis Scott's most recent album, Utopia, is a significant turning point in the evolving trap and hip-hop music scenes. Since his breakout album Rodeo, Travis Scott has been one of the most innovative and significant voices in the genre, always pushing the boundaries of production and performance. Scott displays his distinctive fusion of strange noises, surrealistic themes, and distorted vocals. 

Released in July 2023, his most recent album, Utopia, builds on this reputation even more by presenting a plethora of sounds that both defy conventional rap and capture the reality of the modern world.  Having witnessed the complete experience of Utopia during his live performance in the pit at the Prudential Center on December 26, I’ve come to both love and critique this album as well as his live performances.  Writing about Scott's work within the context of music journalism requires a technique that blends in-depth technical study of the music with subjective and cultural understanding, as discussed in Woodworth & Grossan's How to Write About Music.

Who is Travis Scott?

For those who don't know, Travis Scott is more than simply a rapper—he's a producer with a unique style and a curator of moods who creates sounds that are immersive. He has established himself as a master of captivating beats that entice listeners into his wild and chaotic universe thanks to his two previous albums, Astroworld and Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight. Scott is well-known for his wild mosh pits and explosive energy, which he frequently combines with intricate staging and pyrotechnics to give audiences an almost surreal experience.  Just as the title of his most recent album implies, an immersive listening experience is created by his ability to blend trap beats, synth-heavy soundscapes, and psychedelic vibes—a trip to an unattainable, occasionally utopian future.

#UtopiaAlbum #TravisScott #HipHopRevolution

Star-Studded Utopia Lineup

Utopia features an amazing lineup of features, including Beyoncé, Drake, and Kid Cudi, emphasizing Scott’s role as a musical director rather than just a rapper. Although others might say that this would be considered as a “heavy-reliance” on features, these artists are not just features for popularity, they expand the album’s audience, turning it into a genre-hopping experience from pop to rap. Travis Scott isn’t just making music for the charts; he’s shaping the future of sound, very similar to Kanye West’s approach on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.  

Fever Dream of Energy and Sound

When I attended the Travis Scott concert at the prudential center, standing in the pit, the energy was immense. I could barely breathe, I felt like sardine getting pressed amongst all the other people in the crowd.  I somehow made it to the front row right next to the stage, and seeing him come out to HYENA was like a fever dream. The roar of the crowd, the pulsating bass, and Scott’s unrelenting performance made it clear that this album is designed not just to be heard, but to be felt in person.  Every 808 felt like a thunder strike to the chest and I was being swept in a tidal wave of sound and energy.  Watching him perform songs like “FE!N” felt like stepping into his utopian dreamscape. From the euphoric highs to the melodic lows, Scott’s Utopia is an album that demands to be explored in its entirety.  It truly felt like I was in a utopian society for two hours and one of the best concerts I will ever get to experience.  The atmospheric production translated beautifully in a live setting, enveloping the audience in a wall of sound.

#UtopiaExperience #TravisScottConcert #MusicForTheFuture

Utopia’s Production: Heart of the Album, Lyrical Depth

One of the strongest aspects of Utopia is its production. Travis Scott is always known for his amazing and hallucinating beats and Utopia definitely consisted of that.  One of the main weak points that I see in this album are his lyrical choices.  They often fall short of a deeper meaning and lack storytelling.  That said, the experience of seeing Utopia live was truly unforgettable . Scott’s ability to create an immersive concert experience that makes you feel like you’re part of the music is unparalleled. As a fan, I’ll always be drawn to his innovative production.

#travis scott#utopia#concerts#live music#new music#trendingmusic