i am pretentious
54 posts
LUCILLE CLIFTON
reinventing yourself as a violent act
destroyed by hippie powers, car seat headrest // @/angelcommunist // portrait of fryderyk in shifting light, richard siken
Wounds of the Earth
— by xis.lanyx
had a terrifying encounter yesterday when i offhandedly said "it's always hot to be covered in blood" and the person i was talking to was like "hm. fascinating that you believe that. let's dig into that." i'd forgotten there really are people who don't intuitively understand the eroticism of being blood-soaked. stay safe out there
Franny Choi, Soft Science
shoutout to hedonism. get naked and eat cheese
if cannibalism in media has a million fans, im one of them
if metaphors using cannibalism has 5 fans, im one of them
if art of cannibalism has 1 fan, that one is me
if descriptions of cannibalism has no fans, i am no longer alive
if the world is against cannibalism i am against the world
Ana Sanchez - Death and the Maiden
An active social life is the food of every day.
how can you even be a woman without going absolutely batshit insane
everyone from my high school is living their best lives. i, on the other hand, became an anarchist
one day some of you will actually go outside and go to pride and you’re going to meet old black queens who refers to themselves as femme, you’ll meet people from small towns who still use the word transsexual, you’ll see that your local activist organization set up a stall about your local LGBT history that includes leather bar’s history, you’ll see lesbians in groups refer to themselves as “guys” and “boys”, you’ll see someone with breasts and pasties and little else have “he / him” painted on his chest, and you’ll be so caught up with your terminally online attitude that instead of appreciating the wide diversity of people who exist in the LGBT community who are brave enough to share themselves you’ll just be formulating posts and tweets in your head for when get home about how “problematic” it all was and it’s honestly tragic
all i'm saying is that sexy people isolate themselves from everyone and listen to music, read books and sleep to avoid their problems because existing in general is unbearable.
sometimes making tea is less about drinking it and more ab it keeping you company
The cat is wearing flowery clothes and black sunglasses outside. It’s very domineering.
waking up and being genuinely thrilled to go to class because today is THAT CLASS you love so much you’d like it to never end
coffee breaks with friends, chatting and joking about this particularly hard essay and the prof’s mannerism
coffee breaks on your own, as you absent-mindedly watch the people around you, while thinking about what you’re working on
finding this book you’ve been dying to read for so long, and borrowing it from the library
the feeling of excitement that goes through you whenever you remember The Book is in your backpack
understanding everything during demanding classes and being genuinely interested in the subject
buying a New Special Pen and taking colorful notes that look super pretty
not being able to shut up about your school projects (no your friends dont really care about the intricate details of what you’re working on, they don’t even have the same major as you, but they’re happy to hear you rant with such a burning passion)
actually doing the extra reading and having your curiosity so piqued by what you’re reading that you go on and on and suddenly its 1am and what happened
printing the project you’ve spent so much time and energy on and feeling the paper’s warmth
actually submitting that project without feeling awful about it because you know you did your best and aren’t responsible for what happens next
when you finally finish this Super Hard And Important Essay at like 3am, open the window and feel the cold night air on your burning cheeks and everything is dark and quiet and you can see the moon and you’re at peace with everything for a few minutes
when this professor you admire says you did a great job and/or that you’re talented!!!!
realizing two concepts that seemed so far away from each other and that you discovered in wildly different contexts are actually interlinked, then Realizing™ things and linking concepts/works/articles to each other at the speed of light & being super excited about it
being so deeply immersed in your work that you didn’t realize two hours have passed
finding the Perfect Spot at the library
that Pure Joy moment when you FINALLY understand that super obscure sentence/text
when you feel anxious because you’re not done with your homework & the deadline is super tight & your friend tells you they aren’t done yet either
same but with an even more intense relief feeling when you realize you both haven’t even started yet
when the professor starts a new reasoning and you can predict what the next idea/the final conclusion will be
when the professor mention your favorite novel/author/fictional character in class and you feel like your internal screech of joy could shatter glass
the Academic Salt™ that has you like 👀👀
when the professor tears apart an author or scholar you hate and you’re like YES I WANT BLOOD GIVE ME BLOOD
when you learn that Cool New Fact that makes you reconsider your whole life
leaving the library after a long productive day and feeling like nothing is real but experiencing everything more intensely
leaving the library at night after a long study session and everybody has left already and its just you and the long neon-lit corridors then stepping outside and smelling the crisp night wind
Cultural Dark Academia
After my last post about the lack of representation in academia, I felt it neccessary to provide some examples of what I’m talking about. Obviously there are more countries in the world than I can list and provide books for, so for a quick list this is what I got. !! Keep researching !! If you have any more books by POC please reply them !! If a country isn’t listed, that doesn’t mean it’s not important, this is just what I could get together real quick. If I made any mistakes, please let me know, we’re all learning. We need to help each other end eurocentrism in academia, so value representation and educate yourselves 💓💓💓
Chinese:
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Dream of the Red Chamber
The Water Margin
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
The Journey to the West
The Scholars
The Peony Pavilion
Border Town by Congwen Shen
Half of Man is Woman by Zhang Xianliang
To Live by Yu Hua
Ten Years of Madness by agent Jicai
The Field of Life and Death & Tales of Hulan River by Xiao Hong
Japanese:
A Personal Matter by Kenzaburo Oë
Pakistani:
Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid
How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
Ghulam Bagh by Mirza Athar Baig
Masterpieces of Urdu Nazm by K. C. Kanda
Irani/Persian:
Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji
Savushun by Simin Daneshvar
Anything by Rumi
The Book of Kings by Ferdowsi
The Rubiyat by Omar Khayyam
Shahnameh (translation by Dick Davis)
Afghan:
Earth and Ashes by Atiq Rahimi
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Indian:
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Aithihyamala, Garland of Legends by Kottarathil Sankunni
The Gameworld Trilogy by Samir Basu
Filipino:
Twice Blessed by Ninotchka Rosca
The Last Time I Saw Mother by Arlene J. Chai
Brazilian:
Night at the Tavern by Álvares de Azevedo
The Seven by André Vianco
Don Casmurro by Machado de Assis
Portuguese:
The Lusiads by Camões
Columbian:
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Delirio by Laura Restrepo
¡Que viva la música! by Andrés Caicedo
The Sound of Things Falling by Jim Gabriel Vásquez
Mexican:
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolf Anaya
Adonis Garcia/El Vampiro de la Colonia Roma by Luis Zapata
El Complot Mongol by Rafael Bernal
Egyptian:
The Cairo Trilogy by Nahuib Mahfouz
The Book of the Dead
Nigerian:
Rosewater by Tade Thompson
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Malian:
The Epic of Sundiata
Senegalese:
Poetry of Senghor
Native American:
The Inconvenient Indian by Thomas King
Starlight by Richard Wagamese
Almanac of the Dead by L. Silko
Fools Crow by James Welch
Australian Aborigine:
Dark Emu by Bruce Pascoe
First Footprints by Scott Cane
My Place by Sally Morgan
American//Modern:
Real Life by Brandon Taylor
Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
Internment by Samir’s Ahmed
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurtson
Rivers of London Series by Ben Aaronovitch
How you, yes, YOU, can be both PUNK and A PRETENTIOUS BASTARD (dark academic) at the SAME TIME.
(yes, I do recognise that making a 'how-to' type list is basically the opposite of punk, leave me alone.)
Read poetry (I highly recommend John Cooper Clarke).
Be angry all the time, not at people around you, but at capitalism, social injustice, the government, and societal constructs.
Read Marx.
Doc Martens should be your best friend. Yes, they're expensive. But they're also high quality and will last you a lifetime (I've had a pair for about five years now, and they've literally grown with me).
Ratty blazers are cool.
Drink fruit juice, don't take drugs. In the beginning, the punk movement was very anti-drugs, so gangs of them would get together to drink fruit juice instead.
Only quote the insults from Shakespeare's works.
Wash your hair in beer. (Just trust me. My great grandmother washed her hair with beer, and she had great hair.)
Berets
Black velvet (whilst usually more goth) can definitely be adopted.
Know that 'modern' or 'new' doesn't necessarily mean 'better'.
Go to protests, talks, lectures, anywhere where you might be able to make a difference. Say something about anything you feel passionately about, don't stand for things you feel are wrong.
be up front and honest about the things you do not know
acknowledge the intrinsic value of others’ knowledge bases, even if they do not seem important to you from your institutional context
do not feign mastery where you have none
respect the gaps in others’ knowledge bases
be generous, not only with others
but also with yourself
you overwork yourself at the risk of legitimizing a culture of overwork
privilege voices and perspectives that have historically been left out of the academy
nothing is ever neutral or apolitical
support the progress of other scholars
collaboration over competition
Eau Claire Leader, Wisconsin, January 30, 1915
There are only two moods : hedonism and romantic longing.
you know what i want? a friend group in which everyone has read plato , aristotle and the secret history by donna tartt or has at least watched dead poets society and loves literature, poetry , philosophy , art and we can just talk about all these and our fear of academic failure . a friend group in which we can read classics together and talk about the deeper meaning of life and rant about how much of a failure this society is . i want to share my passion for life and writing and all the things i mentioned with someone that will be equally as excited as i am .
Take me to church talking about being disenchanted by organized religion and instead finding worship in the your lover and finding commune through esoteric rituals comprising of the very things considered unholy in the religion you were poisoned by on incident of birth…. hozier really did That
“And so being young and dipped in folly I fell in love with melancholy.” - Edgar Allen Poe
ben wyatt is the only man in my life that’s never disappointed me
i know this isn’t really original but im obsessed with how english words that refer to the bodily, the tangible, the elemental etc are so often of anglo-saxon/germanic origin e.g. (heart, blood, jaw, flesh) or observable phenomena, like adjectives describing light (glisten, gloaming, glitter, gleam, gloom, glow, dark, fire) or places (hearth, hall, hill), and the most stark, primal emotions or states (hate, love, life, lust, death) and of course fuck, shit, bitch, cunt etc– these often monosyllabic, consonant heavy words…and then you have the lilting, limpid romance/latinate, words like acquiesce and exacerbate and agrarian and pellucid and clemency and lucidity…and how maybe the secret of all great english language poetry is a textural balancing of the push-pull of the germanic and the romantic/latinate, a balancing of these two energies. like some of the most powerful moments in shakespeare are where the verbosity falls away and you have these plain utterances (“to be or not to be” or lear’s dying “look there look there”– all anglo saxon words) that are so powerful precisely because the language is so ornate elsewhere. i once came up with an elaborate wildly incoherent theory about this in the pub with some drunk american masters student who was dressed like harry styles