Hobbs And Shaw(s)

dark academia literary works: a masterlist

Hello! I replied to this post on Reddit today, trying to compile all the dark academia books I could think of, and then thought that maybe all of you here might find it useful too, so here you go. It is a very, very broad list, a mix of classic and contemporary literature, and there is no set criteria besides having a dark vibe (this includes murder and crime but could just be the way it’s written as well) and portraying an academic setting, most of the time from the student’s point of view. I haven’t read all of these myself and so I can’t judge on quality, but hopefully this will inspire people to add on to it in the comments.

Here you go!

The Lessons by Naomi Alderman Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson The Secret History, Donna Tartt If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio Maurice by E. M. Forster The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde Possession by A.S. Byatt The Truants by Kate Weinberg The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark Vicious by V. E. Schwab The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater (tangentially related) A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro The Likeness by Tana French The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (coming out tomorrow!) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman Oleanna by David Mamet Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides

Other classics that are not Dark Academia in content, but which I would include in a list of the DA canon: The Iliad and The Odyssey by Homer Shakespeare’s plays (Macbeth, Hamlet are good ones to start with) A Separate Peace, John Knowles The Bacchae, Euripides Greek tragedies (a good one to start with is Antigone, very popular and staged many a time) Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman Beat generation literature Jane Austen’s books (light academia, anyone?)

“And it is up to you to decide if you want to be remembered, or disappear without a trace, like a pitiful grain of sand into a dessert of insignificance. To put it plainly. Get your shit together and sort out your priorities.”

JOJO RABBIT (2019) dir. Taika Waititi

So, I have another theory.

What's Asagiri's name? Kafka. Who else is Kafka? Franz Kafka. And who's this Franz? A writer. He's mostly known for the book "The Metamorphosis". Metamorphosis means change, right? And what can THE BOOK do? Change the reality.

So, in the Metamorphosis is told the story if a young man who suddenly transformed into a bug. His family tries to help him come back to normal and even give him food he would like in the new body, like rotten cheese. But after around a year the bug/guy overheard a conversation between his parents and sister. They all said they hated him and that they didn't need him anymore, so the guy/bug died from depression in a day. (This is a very short summary, I skipped over a lot of details)

The idea of the story is that one's change will change the whole world. And that's exactly what the book does. Changes the world.

So, according to my theory, the book is the ability Metamorphosis.

Now, about the author/character. He meets the criteria to be a BSD character. Dead, depressed, daddy issues (this is only half joke), religion trauma (kinda) and so on. He was a fan of Dostoievsky's and Gogol's work. So he could easily be a BSD character.

But this book doesn't exactly seem the kind of ability the good guys have, does it? So I think Kafka is a villain. If you may, the last antagonist they will fight. So I made some research to find ties between him and Atsushi Nakajima, because as mentioned in the Guild arc, Atsushi is the only one who could find the book. Turns out that Nakajima was a fan of Kafka and translated his works in Japanese. And not only that. The story Atsushi's ability is based on is about a guy who transformed into a tiger because he's very frustrated because of his poems that don't seem to work. I haven't read this one, but from what I've seen online it's very similar to the Metamorphosis. And this is why he'll be the only one able to find the book.

As we all noticed, usually the relationship between two characters is the opposite of the author's relationship (e.g: irl Ranpo was a huge fan of irl Poe, BSD Poe is a huge fan of BSD Ranpo, irl Yosano loved irl Mori, BSD Yosano hates BSD Mori). So, based on this, I would say that Kafka will most definitely be a villain.

The thing is, why would Asagiri choose to have the pen name of the ultimate villain?

Because the BSD story is supposed to be a world made by the book and Franz Kafka is Asagiri Kafka.

In conclusion: Franz/Asagiri Kafka will be the last antagonist of the series. His ability, the book, is Metamorphosis. And I'm delusional.

This could be wrong. After all, it's a theory. But let me know what you think, because I'm really curious.

Yeah I think you’re in the right place, Al.

Hello again Omni! Can we see a bit of Owen experiences in the army please? He must've not liked being bossed around very much.

Oh hell yeah, Owen HATED having to take orders! Sure, he'll let Deckard boss him around, but nobody else!

~~~

When Owen joined the military, he had honestly never expected to have to start at the bottom. He had just assumed they would see his intellect and genius and allow him to move up the ranks with ease

That wasn't quite the case

Now, standing alongside two dozen other recruits in boot camp, Owen tried to keep the sneer off his face as their drill sergeant yelled at them

Apparently, not all of them could keep up with the vigorous training and now all of them were being chewed out

"- when I tell you to run ten kilometers, you run those ten kilometers! Not walk or or prance, or whatever you want!"

Owen couldn't help his eye roll

"Got something to say, Shaw?!" The sergeant screamed in his face

"No, sir." Owen said smoothly

"For that lip, you'll be cleaning out the latrines!"

Owen didn't bother stopping the sneer that crossed over his face

---

"In line soldiers!"

Owen easily stood with the rest of his squad, waiting for his leader's orders. Even though they were extremely stupid and Owen knew they were going to be ambushed

But no matter how many times Owen tried to butt in, the leaders of his squad and others refused to listen to him. They were convinced they wouldn't get ambushed

Straightening his back, Owen glanced over at his fellow squad mates. He could see that they were all nervous, having listened to his angry words against the leaders

They were all now convinced they were about to be ambushed

But even if that was the case, Owen would do all he could to make sure they all came out of it alive

---

"Well done, captain Shaw."

With a polite smile, Owen shook the hands of several high ranking officers. He had just been promoted, even though he wished it had been sooner

After all, it had taken Deckard a lot less time to reach captain

But, Deckard also didn't have the pension for mischief that Owen did. And Deckard could actually follow orders

"Thank you, sir. I look forward to leading my soldiers into battle."

And not get them killed like you have, was unspoken. Even if Owen made sure to say the sentiment with the grip he had on the other man's hand

~~~

I hope you enjoyed friend!

Luke, to Deckard: Tell her.

Deckard, to Sam: I apologize for saying “fuck” earlier.

Sam: You just said it again.

Deckard: I am not a role model.

Sam: Obviously.

"Hey so would you mind telling me about Puppet Hist-"

Okay maybe I'm grasping at nothing, but hear me out:

We all know Peter has spidey senses. He used them to defeat Mysterio in Far From Home.

But we see Peter struggling with them all throughout the movie:

(Peter not sensing the banana)

(Peter not sensing Nick Fury in the room)

(Peter not sensing everything around him in the pub was an illusion)

(Finally, Peter not being able to decide whether Happy is real or fake)

Now here we wonder, why is that happening?

Take into account the events of Infinity War. When Thanos snapped his fingers, unlike others, Peter could sense his death coming, that's why he fell into Tony's arms saying, “Mr Stark I don't feel so good”. Imagine such a terrible thing happening to you, feeling the pain everywhere yet not being able to fix it. This could and HAS led to post traumatic stress in Peter. PTSD leads to changes in the body and impotence is one of them. Also the added trauma of his mentor dying? Anyone's mind could've become fucked up after that.

“Okay, so where are you going with this?” you must be thinking.

Well, what if Peter sensed something was unnatural about the water monster (other than the fact it was a monster made up of water, of course) so he shot something at it, just because? But he turned out to be “wrong” because it went right through the drones. He was right about it, but he didn't know then.

Wrongly sensing something so big like that would have created some serious self doubt in Peter.

That's why he must have discarded every tingle in his skin that sensed the illusions around Mysterio in the pub. That's why he must have ignored the possibility of someone being in his and Ned's room. That's why he asked Happy if he was real when he got off the plane.

It's because he was doubting himself and the very abilities that made him Spiderman.

Peter wasn't dumb. He was right about shooting a web at the water monster.

Popular YA books and are they worth reading: my opinion

yea im just going to get into it

Harry Potter: Overall good books. They do have plotholes and lack representation, but have a great fandom that makes up for it. A great intro to magic and fantasy for the younger end of the YA spectrum. 

Overall verdict: ignore the cursed child and you’ll be fine

The Hunger Games: I thought these were really interesting books. They deal with political themes that are really important to be aware of. After reading these books I would sit in class and figure out how I would kill all of my classmates in our own hunger games. 

Overall verdict: heck yeck

The Fault in Our Stars: Pretentious and kind of hard to read, but not that bad. Pretty basic and predictable but still entertaining. The Anne Frank kiss was yikes.

Overall verdict: each to their own. read some reviews before picking it up

Twilight: Not as bad as everyone says it is, but still pretty bad. Really creepy and also pretty damn racist. Has some interesting side characters. I never read past the first book so I don’t know that much. 

Overall verdict: there are better books to spend your time on

The Mortal Instruments: Not outrageously bad, but not Oscar worthy. It’s kind of just there. Characters are pretty cliché, and some very unnerving themes are included, the YA Game of Thrones when it comes to incest. 

Overall verdict: Read her other series; they’re much better.

Divergent: fun enough. the first book is the best. very confusing and full of plot holes. not that memorable tbh. 

Overall verdict: just read the hunger games

13 Reasons Why:

Overall verdict: don’t

The Maze Runner: the first book is decent. it’s an interesting concept and an entertaining read. beware of an overabundance of boys. 

Overall verdict: go ahead, just don’t touch the sequels

Six of Crows: world can be a bit confusing at first if you haven’t read the grisha trilogy, but you pick it up pretty quickly. well developed characters, world, and plot. 

Overall verdict: hell yeah

Throne of Glass: starts off pretty basic, but decent. gets less decent as it progresses. beware barfing, toxic masculinity, graphic sex, and killing of minorities. 

Overall verdict: i genuinely have no idea what demographic this series is for

Red Queen: more into the political aspect, not that much action. glass sword is the low point. improves a lot in the last two books. iffy lgbt rep. Maven Calore carries the entire series on his back. 

Overall verdict: it’s not for everyone, but give it a fair try

The Lunar Chronicles: pretty enjoyable. i like the twists on the fairytales. the characters work well together and carry the *pretty simple* plot well. beware possible racism? idk i don’t really remember i was like eleven. 

Overall verdict: yeah sure why not.

Anything by Rick Riordan: i haven’t read his more recent stuff (think past heroes of Olympus), but i’ve heard good things. the books are fun, and overall really good. i think they’re meant for a younger demographic but i’m not entirely sure. 

Overall verdict: please at least read percy’s retellings of greek mythology

A Court of Thorns and Roses: T H I S I S N O T Y A

I’ve seen a lot of posts on my dash tonight about users who are threatening suicide, with other Tumblr members posting in effort to try to get ahold of them. I think you all should see this:

IF THERE IS EVER A TUMBLR USER WHO HAS POSTED A GOOD-BYE MESSAGE, SUICIDE NOTE, VIDEO, OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT, PLEASE FOLLOW THIS POST.

1. Scroll to the top of your dashboard.

2. See the circular question mark icon at the top? It’s the third one over from your home symbol. Click on that, and a screen similar to the one in the picture will come up.

3. Where you can type in questions, the box with the magnifying glass at the top, type in the word “suicide.”

4. Click on the first link that shows up. It should say, “Pass the URL of the blog on to us.”

5. Type in the user’s URL and tell Tumblr admin that the user is contemplating suicide and has posted a message indicating that they are going through with it or will be attempting. Hit send! Tumblr administration will perform a number of actions to contact the user and take the necessary steps to prevent the suicide.

TUMBLR: THIS COULD SAVE A USER’S LIFE. PLEASE DO NOT IGNORE SUICIDE THREATS.

Reblog this to keep other users aware. Suicide isn’t a joke, and neither is someone’s life. If you didn’t know this, someone else may not, either. Pass it on.