“It's a very Greek idea, and a very profound one. Beauty is terror.
Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it.”
What follows is a review of ‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt that I posted on my Instagram page in January 2022. If you can get past the shoddy phrasing, you may find yourself iNfLueNCed (in the mid-21st century sense of the word) into reading what is actually a pretty cool book, all things considered.
Once more, Pinterest convinced me that I *needed* to get this book and read it immediately or my life would suck forever. So I go on Amazon and find no peace until “The Bible of Dark Academia” is in my hands. No other book could be read until I'd read this one, you might know the feeling. And my verdict? Not as life-changing as people claim but definitely stays in your consciousness for a good while. The aesthetic? Immaculate. The story? Extremely engrossing. The writing? Pretty fricking good. And the characters? Depends on whether you're willing to compromise your morals for pure swag and pretentiousness (looking at you, Henry Winter). From an unreliable, delusional, trainwreck of a narrator to a psychopathic, dark-mysterious coolboi whom the inhabitants of Pinterest seem to idolize for some unknown reason, every single character in the novel is instantly recognizable in real life, carved of flesh and blood. It is written in such a way that I just know that if I were to go to Vermont, I'd
meet this extreme Percy Jackson fanclub hiding in the woods plotting god-knows-whose murder (which is just genius of Donna Tartt, honestly). Speaking of murder, killing is a theme that surfaces often in TSH (as we call 'The Secret History' in Pinterest-lingo. Pint-lish?). And hedonism. Loads and loads of hedonism. So if you feel like escaping from this double pandemic-ridden (both my final sem project AND COVID) reality of ours into a morally degenerate Greek mythology-obsessed academic fantasy (fantasy because these people seem to somehow find time to submit assignments AND kill people?! Eyy eppudraaa!) then hop on, cause it is a wild ride from depressing start to depressing epilogue. I could probably go on but I have a feeling Instagram captions aren't supposed to be this long. For more information, you’re just gonna have to read it yourself. As Ms. Tartt herself said,
“It is better to know one book intimately than a hundred superficially”
(TSH aesthetics by yours truly)
No comments:
Post a Comment