#and considering how pretentious donna tartt is i think she did too

[glowpop]

I actually asked why you specifically despise donna tartt so much, like other than the reasons I mentioned (and the heavy substance abuse that's supposed to pass off as cool) I think the hate towards the secret history is unwarranted. needless to mention that I don't think there's a certain rule book on not making your characters well read and that if you did then you must, at all costs, be pretentious. even so, donna tartt employed a 'show not tell' style of writing wherein we can actually imagine why the characters being interested in the classics impacts their daily line of thinking, unlike someone like murakami or sally rooney or even fucking john green who make their characters smart just for the sake of it. i read somewhere that the study of the classics was brought up so often in the novel to convey that it was academia that brought the students to their ruin. if it weren't the greeks and poetry and languages that interested the students and computer science for all I care, I don't think anyone would consider the novel this pretentious.

that being said, she wrote the novel very young and i think she wrote it in her best efforts in the 90s as a white woman. I read it at 13 and it was one of the first that I read that fleshed out characters this much and I don't think it's so vile if a 15 year old has it on their fav Goodreads lists lol maybe her other books suck idk

I have no idea how you got the impression that I despise Donna tartt since my blog has only ever vocally hated one author and one author only (hanya yanagihara I hope she sneezes or something whenever I think of her) if this is about me giving tsh 2 stars, it was because I thought it was fine but it wasn’t really for me. I’m trying to recall any context within which you inferred that I despised Donna tartt but apart from some tongue in cheek hyperbolic jokes I’ve made years ago I can’t think of one…I don’t hate tsh it just isn’t for me anymore, despite all the prose

I’m not sure what you’re asking of me? I agree with you? I don’t really care if 15 year olds love the book, because I thought it was the bees knees when I was 15 too, and honestly good for 15 year olds if they love a book which is clearly above their supposed reading level!

[glenrocklibraryteens]

The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Book Review: The Secret History

The Secret History by Donna Tartt Genres: fiction, psychological fiction Page number: 576 pages Rating: 5 Stars

The story follows Richard Papen, a young man from California as he admires and eventually meets an elitist group of college students attending Hampden College in Vermont, his new school. It’s with these students who, through the encouragement of their eccentric classics professor, escape the bounds of morality and end up murdering one of their own. (This isn’t a spoiler, as the book even opens by talking vaguely about the murder of Bunny [Edmund Corcoran]) All in all, the story is less about who killed who, but rather about how the murder came to be.

Considering this isn’t your typical murder mystery, most wouldn’t care to read on. Not to mention, The Secret History is particularly a very controversially reviewed novel. Some praise its intellect and skilled writing, while others bash it for its extreme romanticism or absurdity. Personally, I completely disagree with the latter. It is its drastic and grotesque events, as well as the details of the inner workings of the characters Richard admires so much (Henry, Charles, Camilla, Francis, and Bunny), that give the novel its signature touch. Through their “rose” colored glasses, we are shown the classical world our protagonists live in in all its splendor and academia. However, as the reader, we are also taken on a twisted trip of what happens when one becomes much too obsessed and intertwined with their study material and muse. All in all, the thing I love most about this book is that Donna Tartt shows us the world of the elite of New England with the addition of unique, pretentious, and most likely disturbed characters, who inevitably plunge themselves deeper and deeper into their downfall. And most importantly, we’re entertained every step of the way as we watch the chaos ensue.

The Secret History playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4xRacqrklArqDIsNDOxUMb?si=xfMCilYSRNCwdc5MKIXXwQ&pi=u-zdig7-3PRpCc

Wicked Game by Chris Isaak

The title and mood of the song perfectly embodies The Secret History and its characters.  

Who is she? By I Monster

I feel like this song not only reminds me of the story because of how it sounds but its lyrics are symbolic of how Richard admired and wondered about the others, specifically Camilla.

Gnoissene: No. 1 by Erik Satie

With this song, I can imagine a group of classical students studying in a dusty library. Or a song that they’d listen to in their free time.

Reflections by Toshifumi Hinata

This song as some know is widely considered the classic dark academia song, so I consider it to be perfect for this novel.

Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey

I think the obsession with the aesthetic, as well as the romanticism of it and the academia that the protagonists have is embodied in this song.  

Paris, Texas by Lana Del Rey

The song describes someone packing up their things and moving somewhere completely different because they wanted to be in the moment without the genuine approval of the people around them, which is exactly what Richard did. Not only that but the entire song is very serene and whimsical sounding which reminds me of the beginning of the book.

La Solitude by Joshua Kyan Aalampour

This dark-sounding classical-like song embodies the book very well, by the feeling alone.

Old Money by Lana Del Rey

With the title alone, the group of “friends” Richard has, are accurately represented. Especially Bunny is the picture of old money and the lavish life that comes with it.

The World We Knew (Over and Over) by Frank Sinatra

The lyrics, passion, and mood of the song all depict the middle to end of the story, and I imagine Richard singing to it.

[guiltyonsundays]

you know in The Secret History when Donna Tartt said "a morbid longing for the picturesque"? i think she meant the sublime. the SUBLIME not the picturesque. i think she got it wrong and nobody is roasting her for that and i'm here to rectify that.